I Heart the Music: Your Online Source for Live Music Reviews and Interviews in Toronto!

We have ALL waited a long while for this to come out- 365 days to be exact! It has finally arrived: the Polaris Music Prize short list announcement! It seems that the jurors have followed the lead from last year and provided us with a healthy list that covers all genres and styles of music. We covered this last year and found that everyone was shocked by Fucked Up! taking home the cash prize. While we don’t know who will take home the grand prize of $20,000 this year, we do know that there is some amazing talent to choose from.

Without fruther ado, iheartthemusic brings to you the 2010 Polaris Music Prize shortlist:

The Besnard Lakes – The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night

Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record

Caribou – Swim

Karkwa - Les Chemins De Verre

Dan Mangan – Nice, Nice, Very Nice

Owen Pallett – Heartland

Radio Radio – Belmundo Regal

The Sadies – Darker Circles

Shad – TSOL

Tegan and Sara – Sainthood

What are your thoughts on this year’s list?

The Weakerthans need no introduction- they have become a staple in any true Canadian music lovers repertoire. Hailing from Winnipeg, iheartthemusic were able to grab a few minutes with Stephen Carroll to talk about the importance of those Canadian roots in their music.

iheartthemusic: You won artist of the year at the XM Verge Awards in 2008. What did winning that mean to you?

I think it was the extra financials that made a big difference, but also the exposure is so useful and helpful. It’s generally a lot of work to get people’s attention, so anything we can do to do that is really useful for us and makes our lives easier is great. Establishing that relationship with XM was also key because they are the ones that play our music all the time.

iheartthemusic: And I am sure the fact that fans voted for you was great to hear too!

Yeah, and the fans!

iheartthemusic: Who would you have liked to see win artist of the year last year (2009)?

My money was on Joel Plaskett.

iheartthemusic: Album of the year?

Arkells.

iheartthemusic: You guys recorded 2007’s Reunion Tour in a factory I believe. What was that like?

Yeah it’s part of the factory lunchroom. We did it all at night and it was really crazy. We were totally isolated on the outskirts of Winnipeg in February. Living without sunlight for most of the time, because we would be sleeping in the day and going into the studio at 3:30am or 4am, it was a really interesting experience.

iheartthemusic: Would you do it again?

It felt like we had put ourselves in this secluded environment and the last couple of records we have done, we have worked regular hours and been in the city, like really in the city. So this was neat.

iheartthemusic: Where you are from, Winnipeg, seems to be heavily prevalent in all aspects of your music. Is this done on purpose?

Two reasons why that’s happened or two things that are playing into that: one, is probably trying to explain the city to ourselves, understanding it, thinking about it, singing about it and maybe trying to explain it to other people at the same time. And then, there is just the city itself. Winnipeg’s favourite thing about itself is mythologizing itself. That’s a main part of the process in mining all these little pieces of history that only we would have picked up on.

iheartthemusic: Tell me your thoughts on the state of Canadian musicians transcending into other markets. You guys have been able to do that quite successfully and I wanted to know your thoughts on why or how?

It’s not quite the same in the States. Maybe once the awards have more of a national recognition it will help, but I don’t really know. It’s kind of hard to tell. I don’t see it reflected in the US media.

The Weakerthans have just released a live album Live at the Burton Cummings Theatre and concert DVD. All the Canadian content was shot on tour. The Weakerthans play the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on May 26th with Bahamas.

photography provided by Sara Collaton

Canadian Music Week is probably one of my favourite times of the year and as such, I wanted to make sure that those of you that were not able to see everything could digest some of the shots we took while there. So here are some AMAZING shots from CMW 2010:

Ah, the Constantines. This was one of those performances that was incredible to see so close. I was stuck right in the photography pit for their entire set and got to just sit back and enjoy while my photographer, Mike Palmer, took the creative reigns. We caught bassist Dallas Wehrle do this and then play behind his back. UNREAL!

Great Lake Swimmers are SO talented however, their sound just didn’t fit the upbeat nature of the event.

Plants and Animals: stole the night!

The first time I saw The Rural Alberta Advantage play live was in the basement of a trashy film store. My, my how times have changed! This group even picked up an award that night. They rocked it!

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