Polaris People July 27: Short List Fantasy Drafts, Pallett Comics, Drake News
The Summer Olympics may be about to kick off in London, England, but the real competition is over here in Polarisland.
After all, the Olympics has things like the One Person Dinghy race and we've got the potential for a cosmic showdown between Fucked Up and Drake. So unless there are random shark attacks in the dinghy races, we know which one's more interesting.
Don't believe me? How about the Grammys? They think we're important. Or the guys that have done, to the best of our knowledge, the first ever Polaris Music Prize fantasy draft (Feist was selected first overall).
And then there are the actual special people, the Polaris People. Let's see what they were up to this week.
This year's Short List nominees continue to get lots of attention:
Fucked Up have been finding themselves drawn towards food.
Kathleen Edwards has been talking about booze.
Cold Specks explained who some of influential artists in her life were. Spoiler alert: Swans, Smog, Nick Cave, Tom Waits, The Strokes.
Cadence Weapon is being “less tricky†and considering working with Shad in the future.
And Drake? He's been performing at barmitzvahs, having to deal with suspicious boxing promoters and generally being the most listened to artist in the world.
Some past Polaris People have been active as well.
New Pornographers leader A.C. Newman has a new solo album coming out, Dan Snaith of former champs Caribou is putting out a side-project as Daphni, 2007 Short Listers The Dears are prepping a live album and two-time Short Lister Shad has just released the “Melancholy And The Infinite Shadness†EP and you really should get it (it's a free download).
Polaris jurors Anupa Mistry and Alan Ranta have laid down who they think might win the big prize in September.
Two time Short Lister K'naan had a song on True Blood recently and some folks thought that was a pretty big deal.
Former Polaris champ Owen Pallett now exists in comic book form.
And finally, promoters continue to see $$ when they look at the Polaris People. Both Pop Montreal and Festival de Musique Emergente have released their lineups and they'll be loaded with familiar names to Polaris fans.
