There are a few playlists for you to listen to this week. Polaris and music festivals are the topics of the day.
The first playlist has a couple tracks from each album that made it on the to short list. I was sad that The Barr Brothers and YAMANTAKA//SONIC TITAN didn’t make it to the Short List but there is a lot of great albums on there with a variety of genres. The short list albums are:
Alvvays – Antisocialites
This album was not on my list. I did enjoy this one more than their last album but it still doesn’t hit the mark for me.
Daniel Caesar – Freudian
Also not on my list. There was a buzz about this album early on. It’s in that R&B pop area that seems popular in Toronto. The album is well done but not one of my favourites.
Hubert Lenoir – Darléne
With an album name like that, what’s not to like?. 😉 Seriously, this guy is a delight and his debut pop album was one of my favourite discoveries. We will be hearing more from this young man.
Jean-Michel Blais – dans ma main
What a beautiful haunting album this one is. It landed in my heart and on to my ballot.
Jeremy Dutcher – Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa
This album was on both my ballots. It is the perfect example of artistic merit in my mind. He had the opportunity to work at the Canadian Museum of History, where he found and transcribed Wolastoq songs on wax cylinders from 1907. He made new compositions from those recordings and sometimes sang with them. It is amazing and is helping to save a lost language and culture.
Partner – In Search of Lost Time
This album was a lot of fun and I love it. It wasn’t on my list because of those artistic merit guidelines that exist in my head.
Pierre Kwenders – MAKANDA at the End of Space, the Beginning of Time
His last album was a favourite discovery of mine previously and this album is even better. He tells his stories in multiple languages using Congolese rumba, Afro-pop and some of that Montreal sound in the music. Fantastic!
Snotty Nose Rez Kids – Average Savage
This group was another one of my favourite discoveries this year. This hip hop album is full of truths for all of us to listen to and sounds great while they are doing it.
U.S. Girls – In a Poem Unlimited
This album was on both my ballots as well. Quirky, disco, hip hop, alt pop socio-political album that it is. I love powerful women empowering other women and layering that with creative sounding music. Very interesting!
Weaves – Wide Open
Speaking of powerful women, this band is led by one powerful sounding one. I am a big fan of Weaves. This album almost made my ballot but not quite.
My mind is now moving towards festivals. Festival season has been in full swing for awhile but my first summer festival of the year is coming up July 27-29 out in Bengough, Saskatchewan. The Gateway Music Festival is a great little festival in the badlands of the prairies. There is a lot of Saskatchewan artists along with a few big names. The line up includes BIG SUGAR / THE KENTUCKY HEADHUNTERS / STEVEN PAGE / KATHLEEN EDWARDS / YUKON BLONDE / ELLIOTT BROOD / JOHN K SAMSON / TERRA LIGHTFOOT / WILLIAM PRINCE / MEGAN NASH / BELLE PLAINE / CHIXDIGGIT / ELLEN FROESE / POOR NAMELESS BOY and many more. It is a pretty cool set up with 2 stages with alternating times. While they are setting up on one stage you enjoy the artists on the other stage, then turn your chair or mosey over to the other stage while the other one is being changed over and repeat. It works pretty well. Michael Dawson (Library Voices) is the Artistic Director and does a pretty great job of finding something to keep everyone happy. I highly recommend you come check it out. In the meantime, listen to some of the great music I will be hearing out there next weekend.
Blog member, morgana, is gearing up to head to a favourite festival of hers. Kaslo Jazz Etc Festival in Kaslo Bay Park, BC looks like a fantastic festival and I am hoping to make it there one of these years. The stage is out on the water and the audience is on the beach or out on the water themselves. Fantastic location and great music seems like a good thing to me. Below is a playlist of what morgana will be hearing this year.
What festivals are you excited about or have been to already? Any thoughts on the Polaris Short List? Let us know below.
Good morning!
Good day! (Break out the poppy *Good Day Sunshine* by the Beatless.)
(Heh)
Here’s a story pertaining to Polaris. Older rock band guy gets a little pissed and…
…it doesn’t go well. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-music-exec-apologizes-for-tweet-criticizing-diversity-at-juno-awards-1.4754078?cmp=rss
Oh, Garfield, would you edit Jean-Michel Blaise to …Blais, in the text? thx
Oops. Sometimes the fingers keep typing when they aren’t supposed to. Fixed, thanks Benoit.
Yes that was a stupid tweet.
We had a visitor on Tuesday that touched on a similar subject but they worded it much better
I was quite pleased with how mature the conversation was
Oh and, hello
Given that on Facebook, exchanges often devolve into name-calling;
given that tweets seem even more prone to the same (at least going by the OOO’s — a.k.a. the Twit-in-Chief’s tweets);
be it resolved that on/in a media that only allowed you perhaps 26 letters, things would be even worse (blunt statements and insults).
And hello back!
Yes I read those comments Tuesday.
It’s a sure thing that for many years now, “indie” music and “progressive attitudes” have shared sort of a code; it has to do with words that are used often, and which denote stuff. Certainly hard rock, death metal, etc., are hardly ever heard of in Polaris talk.
The inevitable club-iness, or tribalism, of cultures…
Out for a bit.
Well it was certainly discussed among the jurors. There have been heavy metal and other harder rock recommendations that made it to the long list. Anciients last year comes to mind. Many people were hoping Propagandhi would make it to the short list this year.
Also note: There is a poll that Garf put on the right about your Polaris Music Prize opinions. I encourage you to answer it. 😀
Poll or Pole?
Let me reword that…there is a survey for you to answer. :p
More Polaris talk with a couple familiar people.
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/q/polaris-music-prize-2018-who-made-the-shortlist-and-who-might-win-1.4753465
Except it won’t play for me on this computer. How about yours?
Oh now it works!
You post one stupid word play pun and they won’t let you forget about it
That audio doesn’t work on the ps4 either
It is a good listen and I love hearing Talia and Lisa. I hope you get a chance to listen to this episode of q.
I should buy Lisa a coffee in person next time I am in Vancouver
Playlist Friday!!
Hey folks, I’m late again. My kid has been using the computer to work on her on line English 12 course. I have been out visiting the vampires; that is my code for at the hospital having blood work done.
@darbar I enjoyed reading your take on the albums on the short list. I’ll have to wait until later in the day to listen to your playlist but that will be a good reward for getting through summertime school work:) This online course stuff is not for me but the kid seems to be progressing well with it. September seems so soon but the exciting adventure of college is keeping her on task with getting the course done.
Good for her morgana! My 25 yr old is still figuring out his path.
As usual, I planned to write more and better thoughts in the blog post but I ran out of time again. Thanks for reading and listening! 😀
Damn vampires!
I’m 47 and wrote to apodcast a couple of years ago to ask what I should do when I grow. They read it out but never gave me an answer 🙁
Truth…I am still trying to figure it out myself.
I would suggest that a 17 year olds education and career path choice is one of many that will be taken in her lifetime. I am thrilled that she has found something that excites her and gives her reason to work and learn; that is all I believe can be expected of someone of her age and maturity level. I don’t sound excited for some reason … I am thrilled for her!
I had a vampire in training. He was shocked by my skinny little veins but I talked him through it. He did a pretty good job in the end.
I have trained many a medical staff person myself. I wish they would have paid me for all the extra work and training I did. Ha!
I had no doubt you were thrilled for her but yes it is at the beginning of her career journey. I wish I had changed my path more often than I did but you know life happens…
I hate needles (and cotton wool) and every time I mention that to a member of staff they tell me it won’t hurt. My problem is not pain, it’s that of I was meant to have a hole there I would have been born with one or it would have developed over time.
@garfielduk I am quite comfortable with needles after a great deal of practice. I much prefer it when it is not me having to jab myself. I can’t imagine being a diabetic!
@darbar yes, life is a journey and we don’t always get to pick exactly the path but we do our best.
I just finished unpacking, cleaning and culling three boxes of artwork that have been in my basement for 15 years. The picture rails are installed and now I am just waiting for the hooks and rope to arrive in the post then I can get this job done!
I’ve always wanted to make my way to Bengough for Gateway fest since it started a few years ago. I’ve been negligent at making it happen.
I heard recently that the bass player for Big Sugar passed away – he seemed like a very cool guy and was a great player, I’m glad I got to see him do his thing a few times. I wonder about their set at Gateway.
I enjoy Gateway. It’s very much a mixed crowd there. Big Sugar played at Midwinters Blues Fest in Regina this February. The bass player wasn’t there because of his health. The guy on bass was from Gordie’s group Grady. They put on a good show. He is missed though.