i(heart)music Festival... Aug. 21 - 24

Matthew (Ottawa, On) at i(heart)music has put together a pretty stellar line-up for a four days toward the end of August. If I wasn't working/getting ready to move/working/playing in a tennis tournament/working I'd be there - particularly for the Saturday: Handsome Furs, D'Urbervilles, The Black Hat Brigade - in a ... pardon the pun... heart beat.

My comments on Handsome Furs, D'Urbervilles, and the Black Hat Brigade. I still stand by my comments that I think the Black Hat Brigade is better than Wolf Parade.

Tickets can be purchased through i(heart)music, or at the door (Mavericks in Ottawa)... just don't ask me for directions.

Continued commentary on the Polaris Process...

The actual short list:

Black Mountain – In The Future (Vancouver, BC) official site | MySpace	Plants and Animals – Parc Avenue (Montréal, QC) official site | MySpace
Basia Bulat – Oh, My Darling (London, ON) official site | MySpace	Stars – In Our Bedroom After The War (Montréal, QC) official site | MySpace
Caribou – Andorra (Dundas, ON) official site | MySpace	Shad – The Old Prince (London, ON) MySpace
Kathleen Edwards – Asking For Flowers (Ottawa, ON) official site | MySpace	Two Hours Traffic – Little Jabs (Charlottetown, PE) official site | MySpace
Holy Fuck – LP (Toronto, ON) official site | MySpace	The Weakerthans – Reunion Tour (Winnipeg, MB) official site | MySpace

Kudos for including:

• Shad - one of my favourite rap albums in the last year - would've been a top album of last year if I didn't think he was a Shawn Desman clone until I actually heard his music.
• Basia Bulat - another London native who is a terrific performer with an outstanding voice. Probably my most written about performer of 2007 - some videos I took at Aoelian Hall here.
• Two Hours Traffic - who I've heard very little of, but are poppy and fun.

Wag of the finger for including:

• Black Mountain - my thoughts here (hint: its not a pretty comparison to Gilbert Arenas).
• Stars - which, I assume, must be an homage to how good Set Yourself on Fire was and not on the merits of this CD.
• The Weakerthans - see above comment and replace Set Yourself on Fire with either Reconstruction Site, or, alternatively, Left and Leaving.

I'm absolutely shocked that:

The Acorn's Hope Glory Mountain missed the cut.

The Emergence of Bjorn Borg 2.0...

.... let me just take the time to point out how Bill Simmons looks like an even bigger ass after what was greatest Wimbledon in my life time, and maybe ever.

If anyone is interested in chatting about the final, if you watched - the comments might be a fun place to do that.

The short list...

The 10 album short list for the polaris prize is supposed to be announced on July 7th... here are my predictions for who will be on that list...

The Acorn - Glory Hope Mountain
Attack In Black - Marriage
Black Mountain - In The Future
Born Ruffians - Red, Yellow and Blue
Buck 65 - Situation
Basia Bulat - Oh, My Darling
Cadence Weapon - Afterparty Babies
Cancer Bats - Hail Destroyer
Caribou - Andorra
City And Colour - Bring Me Your Love
Constantines - Kensington Heights
Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
Destroyer - Trouble In Dreams
Fred Eaglesmith - Tinderbox
Kathleen Edwards - Asking For Flowers
Christine Fellows - Nevertheless
Gatineau - Gatineau
Hayden - In Field And Town
Veda Hille - This Riot Life
HILOTRONS - Happymatic
Holy Fuck - LP
Islands - Arm's Way
Karkwa - Le volume du vent
Corb Lund - Horse Solider! Horse Soldier!
The New Pornographers - Challengers
Pas Chic Chic - Au Contraire
Sandro Perri - Tiny Mirrors
Plants And Animals - Parc Avenue
Ghislain Poirier - No Ground Under
Protest The Hero - Fortress
Justin Rutledge - Man Descending
Sadies - New Seasons
Shad - The Old Prince
Socalled - Ghetto Blaster
Stars - In Our Bedroom After The War
Tegan And Sara - The Con
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band – 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons
Two Hours Traffic - Little Jabs
The Weakerthans - Reunion Tour
Wintersleep - Welcome To The Night Sky


... granted I haven't heard a good number of these albums, but I have a feeling that the jury tends to skew more towards albums that people like me (who like poppier stuff) aren't really into...

My favourites (meaning the albums I most enjoyed, not who I think will be selected by the jury) from the list are two posts down...

Some Fun Videos from the Last Week

"Baron Davis, It's Time to Come Home"



"The Artistic Integrity" by Wale



"Can I Kick It? (Tribe Called Quest cover)" by Lykke Li



"Old Old Fashioned (acoustic)" by Frightened Rabbit

The Mixtape About Nothing by Wale

Apparently I'm, like, the last person in the world to hear about Wale (pronounced Wa-Lay) and his Seinfeld inspired mixtape about nothing. And, since this is a complete regurgitation of a post earlier this week at Herohill I'll make this quick. Some stuff I find really cool/interesting about Wale and the mixtape about nothing:

• Wale is the cousin of Chris Partlow - Chris from the Wire - and Chris appears in the video for 'Artistic Integrity'.
  

• Julia Louis-Dreyfus makes an appearance on the mixtape, and drops the M-F bomb.

• Wale is about to open for Jay-z on a few dates in the UK, which basically means that as soon as he gets around to releasing a full length he'll be pretty huge.

• Oh, and the mixtape is free to download. Here.
  

[mp3] Wale - The Artistic Integrity

The Polaris Music Prize 2008 - My Top 5

From www.polarismusicprize.ca:

The Long List consists of the top 40 full-length Canadian records released from June 1, 2007 to May 31, 2008, selected by the 185 members of the Polaris Music Prize jury:

The Acorn - Glory Hope Mountain
Attack In Black - Marriage
Black Mountain - In The Future
Born Ruffians - Red, Yellow and Blue
Buck 65 - Situation
Basia Bulat - Oh, My Darling
Cadence Weapon - Afterparty Babies
Cancer Bats - Hail Destroyer
Caribou - Andorra
City And Colour - Bring Me Your Love
Constantines - Kensington Heights
Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
Destroyer - Trouble In Dreams
Fred Eaglesmith - Tinderbox
Kathleen Edwards - Asking For Flowers
Christine Fellows - Nevertheless
Gatineau - Gatineau
Hayden - In Field And Town
Veda Hille - This Riot Life
HILOTRONS - Happymatic
Holy Fuck - LP
Islands - Arm's Way
Karkwa - Le volume du vent
Corb Lund - Horse Solider! Horse Soldier!
The New Pornographers - Challengers
Pas Chic Chic - Au Contraire
Sandro Perri - Tiny Mirrors
Plants And Animals - Parc Avenue
Ghislain Poirier - No Ground Under
Protest The Hero - Fortress
Justin Rutledge - Man Descending
Sadies - New Seasons
Shad - The Old Prince
Socalled - Ghetto Blaster
Stars - In Our Bedroom After The War
Tegan And Sara - The Con
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band – 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons
Two Hours Traffic - Little Jabs
The Weakerthans - Reunion Tour
Wintersleep - Welcome To The Night Sky

Now, I haven't heard everything on the list, but my top 5 is:

Shad The Old Prince
[mp3] I don't really like to

Plants and Animals Parc Avenue
[mp3] Good Friend

Hayden In Field & Town
[mp3] In Field & Town

The Acorn Hope Glory Mountain
[mp3] The Flood pt.1

Sunparlour Players Hymns for the Happy *not sure how come this isn't on the list.
[mp3] Point Pelee is the Place to Be

There really isn't an album on that list that really stands out as a heads and shoulders favourite to me, but, as I've said before, with Secret City's track record its hard to believe that Plants and Animals won't be sitting in the winners circle...