Monday, July 07, 2008

No one asked me, but . . .

. . . I think the Polaris shortlist is bunk. Holy Fuck instead of Woodhands? Weakerthans instead of the Rural Alberta Advantage? No Amos the Transparent? Bah.

Ok, fine, not bunk. But I do think Woodhands is better electronica (broadly understood) than Holy Fuck, and the RAA album is a better folk-tinged indie pop-rock outing than the Weatherthans' release. But everything on the list is good---as far as I know---and if the Polaris Prize gets more people excited about home-grown musical talent, gets them out to shows and buying records and t-shirts, well, so much the better.

Good. I'm glad this exists.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

But come on. The weakerthans are pretty rutting awesome. Though I haven't heard all of Holy Fuck's songs, I agree with you about Woodhands > Holy Fuck.

Kathleen Edwards has yet to impress me. She could still, but I don't think she should be on the shortlist.

I think Justin Rutledge needs to be on there.

-shandy

historyjen said...

Weakerthans are just fine... Wintersleep's album is better, I think.

Holy Fuck is really good, but not as good as Woodhands!

Anonymous said...

The RAA's problem is that they didn't have anyone behind their album, getting it out to the jury...obviously that's another problem entirely, that a band as good as they are can be unsigned, but to get nominated, you need to get your music heard by the right people.

And I'd disagree with you about everything being good...Kathleen Edwards and Stars most definitely aren't!

historyjen said...

Haha, yeah, Stars and KE... not that good at all. Sigh.