Two local acts make Polaris Prize long list

Advertisement

Advertise with us

Two local acts have made it on the Polaris Music Prize long list.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/06/2012 (5209 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two local acts have made it on the Polaris Music Prize long list.

Albums by indie-rock group the Cannon Bros. and Weakerthans frontman John K. Samson are in the running for the $30,000 prize awarded to the best Canadian album of the year as determined by a jury of more than 200 music journalists, broadcasters and bloggers. The award is based solely on artistic merit without regard to sales, label affiliation or genre. All albums must have been released between June 1, 2011, and May 31, 2012, to be considered for the list.

A total of 40 albums are part of the long list, which will be whittled down to a final short list of 10 by July 17. The winner will be announced in Toronto on Sept. 24.

WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES
John K. Samson: Manitoba musings
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES John K. Samson: Manitoba musings

The Cannon Bros.’ debut Firecracker/Cloudglow and the debut solo album, Provincial, by Samson are in the running against albums by rapper Drake, veteran poet Leonard Cohen, indie songstress Feist, roots rockers Black and the Rodeo Kings, singer-songwriter Dan Mangan and female metal duo Mares of Thrace.

Arcade Fire won last year’s prize for its Grammy Award-winning third album The Suburbs, while other past winners include Final Fantasy, Karkwa, Caribou, Patrick Watson and F—ed Up. Both Watson and F—ed Up are on this year’s long list.

Here’s the complete list in alphabetical order:

A Tribe Called Red – A Tribe Called Red

Marie-Pierre Arthur – Aux alentours

Rich Aucoin – We’re All Dying to Live

Avec pas d’casque – Astronomie

Azari & III – Azari & III

Bahamas – Barchords

The Barr Brothers – The Barr Brothers

Blackie and the Rodeo Kings – Kings and Queens

Cadence Weapon – Hope in Dirt City

Kathryn Calder – Bright and Vivid

Cannon Bros. – Firecracker/Cloudglow

Coeur de pirate – Blonde

Leonard Cohen – Old Ideas

Cold Specks – I Predict a Graceful Expulsion

Rose Cousins – We Have Made a Spark

Mark Davis – Eliminate the Toxins

Drake – Take Care

Kathleen Edwards – Voyageur

Feist – Metals

F—ed Up – David Comes To Life

Great Lake Swimmers – New Wild Everywhere

Grimes – Visions

Handsome Furs – Sound Kapital

Japandroids – Celebration Rock

Dan Mangan – Oh Fortune

Mares of Thrace – The Pilgrimage

Ariane Moffatt – MA

Lindi Ortega – Little Red Boots

Parlovr – Kook Soul

Sandro Perri – Impossible Spaces

Joel Plaskett Emergency – Scrappy Happiness

PS I Love You – Death Dreams

John K. Samson – Provincial

Shooting Guns – Born to Deal in Magic: 1952-1976

The Slakadeliqs – The Other Side of Tomorrow

Patrick Watson – Adventures in Your Own Backyard

Bry Webb – Provider

The Weeknd – Echoes of Silence

Yamantaka//Sonic Titan – YT//ST

Yukon Blonde – Tiger Talk

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Steinbach Credit Union member warns others after scammer steals $10K

Scott Billeck 5 minute read Preview

Steinbach Credit Union member warns others after scammer steals $10K

Scott Billeck 5 minute read Yesterday at 5:19 PM CDT

A Winnipeg single mother whose bank account was drained of nearly $10,000 says Steinbach Credit Union needs to warn its members about what she believes is a broader security problem.

The woman, who is not being named to protect her identity, said a scammer gained access to her account earlier this week after calling SCU’s contact centre, claiming to be her and successfully completing the credit union’s authentication process.

She said she knows of at least six others who have experienced similar incidents in which callers impersonate SCU account holders and pass the authentication checks.

The woman discovered something was wrong when her minor son asked why money had been transferred out of an account they jointly hold.

Read
Yesterday at 5:19 PM CDT

Siloam Mission, WFPS discussing on-site paramedic to reduce staggering number of emergency calls

Scott Billeck 4 minute read Preview

Siloam Mission, WFPS discussing on-site paramedic to reduce staggering number of emergency calls

Scott Billeck 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

Winnipeg’s fire-paramedic service and its largest homeless-serving organization are discussing what it would look like to station at least one paramedic at Siloam Mission, as emergency calls to the downtown facility surge.

The ongoing discussions come as Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service crews were dispatched 1,771 times during the first eight months of the year to the two adjacent Siloam properties at 303 Stanley St. and 300 Princess St.

WFPS said most of the calls were related to overdoses or other consequences of substance use, with the total nearly double the 854 calls recorded over the same period last year. By comparison, there were 831 calls during the same span in 2024, and 591 in 2023.

“The number of emergency calls isn’t sustainable for us as a service, but it’s certainly not sustainable for them as an agency trying to provide services,” WFPS chief Ryan Sneath told the Free Press. “And they recognize that they’re impacting emergency services, not them specifically, but the site in a significant way.”

Read
Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

United Way, other charities fight for dollars as donor base shrinks

Scott Billeck 7 minute read Preview

United Way, other charities fight for dollars as donor base shrinks

Scott Billeck 7 minute read Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

Winnipeg’s charitable sector is being squeezed from both sides: demand for help is growing while the pool of donors to meet that need is shrinking.

The imbalance is increasingly being carried by a relatively small group of deep-pocketed donors. Last year, 600 people — about three per cent of United Way Winnipeg’s individual donors — accounted for roughly $8 million, or 55 per cent of individual donations.

The fundraising pitch isn’t getting any easier.

Homelessness and public drug use have become increasingly visible, household budgets remain strained and the problems charities are trying to address can seem so entrenched that donors may reasonably wonder what difference another contribution can make.

Read
Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

Family account spiced with magic realism, geopolitical intrigue and a ghost story

Reviewed by Zilla Jones 4 minute read Preview

Family account spiced with magic realism, geopolitical intrigue and a ghost story

Reviewed by Zilla Jones 4 minute read 2:01 AM CDT

Tom Lin’s second novel Babylon, South Dakota moves beyond a historical account of an immigrant family’s struggle, delightfully blending and bending genres.

Lin is a Chinese-born novelist whose family emigrated to the U.S. when he was four years old. His debut novel, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu, won the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, making him the youngest ever recipient of that award. He earned a PhD in English from the University of California Davis and is currently an assistant professor of English and creative writing at the University of Iowa.

Babylon, South Dakota takes place in an unspecified time period that can be understood to be during the Mao era — likely the 1950s or ’60s. A young Chinese couple, the Hsuis, immigrate to the rural community that gives the book its title. They take the names Saul and Mei and settle on a 160-acre homestead left to them by a distant relative.

Saul’s dream is to breed and sell chrysanthemums from seeds he brought from China, while Mei wants to raise livestock. They speak no English, know nothing of life in the United States, are unprepared for the harshness of winter and the isolation of the farm and bring nothing with them except some gold, which Mei hides around the house for emergencies. Their only link to the outside world is a discarded and marginally functioning TV set, which Saul rescues and rigs up.

Read
2:01 AM CDT

Canada must not accept another Iranian autocracy

David Matas 5 minute read 2:01 AM CDT

Iran is a state run by a radical government victimizing its citizens and its neighbours. How do we change that? Any regime change that repeats the mistakes of the past is not a solution.

What went wrong in the past which led to the current regime? One answer is the U.K. and American aided coup which led to the ouster in 1953 of a democratically elected government headed at the time by Mohammad Mossadegh and its replacement with an American friendly autocrat, the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

The Shah imposed his rule through the Iranian National Intelligence and Security Organization — SAVAK, the acronym of its Persian name. SAVAK systematically inflicted torture, arbitrary killings and extra-judicial killings on perceived opponents of the regime. It was only a matter of time before repression of a regime directed to serving foreign interests would be overthrown.

What replaced the regime of the Shah, in 1979, the current regime of the mullahs, is a regime as intolerant and violent as the regime of the Shah and then some. That was not inevitable. But neither was it surprising. The vicious nature of the current regime, following the example set by the Shah, and its hatred for the United States, reacting to the U.S. aided imposition of the Shah, both echoes and reacts to the past. In 1979, the U.S. reaped what it sowed in 1953.

Manitoba abandoning spring, fall clock changes

Carol Sanders 8 minute read Preview

Manitoba abandoning spring, fall clock changes

Carol Sanders 8 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 8:48 AM CDT

Time’s up for the time change in Manitoba.

Manitobans won’t be setting their clocks back an hour in November. The province has decided to permanently stay on daylight time after surveying residents on the twice annual clock adjustment.

“We heard from Manitobans loud and clear — no more changing the clocks in Manitoba,” Premier Wab Kinew said in a news release Thursday.

Most of the 72,000 votes submitted in an online EngageMB survey — 92 per cent — said they would like to see the practice end. The survey asked if they preferred earlier sunrises in winter with standard time or the later sunsets in summer with daylight time. More than half of survey participants (58 per cent) indicated a preference to stay on permanent daylight time; 34 per cent voted to eliminate the time change but stay on standard time.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 8:48 AM CDT