The short list for the Polaris Music Prize, Canada’s No. 1, most awesome, supreme, totally tops music prize, has been announced. And the nominees are: Arcade Fire, The Suburbs; Austra, Feel It Break; Braids, Native Speaker; Colin Stetson, New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges; Destroyer, Kaputt; Galaxie, Tigre et diesel; Hey Rosetta, Seeds; Ron Sexsmith, Long Player Late Bloomer; Timber Timbre, Creep On Creepin’ On; The Weeknd, House Of Balloons. (For the record, Fucked Up’s David Comes to Life didn’t make the eligibility window.) That last entrant is notable because House of Balloons exists solely as a free mixtape that was released via blog post, and the dude from the Weeknd still insists on being all mysterious and not doing interviews, and it sure feels like those crazy Canadians would be game to have it upset Arcade Fire and Destroyer for the prize. So, preemptively: Good job, Canadians! [Consequence of Sound]
