Rah Rah makes Polaris Prize 2013 Long List

The 2013 Polaris Prize short list to be announced on July 16

The Polaris Prize unveiled their 2013 Long List, and among the 40 artists was Regina’s Rah Rah for their album The Poet’s Dead.

rah rah poet's dead

Kudos, congrats and lets all have a drink and celebrate!

Here’s hoping that we can finally get a Saskatchewan artist into the Short List and beyond.

Anyone remember when Shooting Guns were nominated for the Polaris Long List in 2012?

Otherwise, the Long List is comprised of many bands that you would expect to be nominated for the Polaris.

For example, it is absolutely no shock that mainstays Metric, Besnard Lakes and Corb Lund were nominated.

There seems to be a trend of sorts for releasing indie rock records in Canada. Example: if you are Tegan and Sara and you put out an album then it seems as though you are ushered into every national award that there is to win.

Therefore if you are amongst the top echelon of bands in this country and you release an album and you don’t get nominated by a panel of music critics then it may be safe to say that you really fucked up somewhere.

On the other hand, there are some really notable artists who do amazing things that aren’t named Arcade Fire that are always missing on these lists. Tellingly, those tend to be my favourite artists.

Genre-wise, however, the list is absolutely all over the place. It’s always interesting to see electro-pop bands like Purity Rings stacked up against the muscular riff mongering of metal bands like KEN Mode.

This should all make for a good wrasslin’ match.

The 2013 Polaris Prize shortlist will be announced on July 16, with the prize itself to be awarded at the Polaris gala on Sept. 23 in Toronto.

Here are the artists nominated for the 2013 Polaris Prize Long List:

A Tribe Called Red, Nation II Nation
Alaclair Ensemble, Les maigres blancs d’Amérique du Noir
ANCIIENTS, Heart of Oak
The Besnard Lakes, Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO
Louis-Jean Cormier, Le Treizième Étage
Daphni, JIAOLONG
Mac DeMarco, 2
Evening Hymns, Spectral Dusk
Hannah Georgas, Hannah Georgas
Godspeed You! Black Emperor, ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!
Chilly Gonzales, Solo Piano II
Jim Guthrie, Takes Time
Hayden, Us Alone
Zaki Ibrahim, Every Opposite
KEN mode, Entrench
Kid Koala, 12 bit Blues
Kobo Town, Jumbie in the Jukebox
Pierre Lapointe, Punkt
Lee Harvey Osmond, The Folk Sinner
Les soeurs Boulay, Le poids des confettis
Corb Lund, Cabin Fever
The Luyas, Animator
Majical Cloudz, Impersonator
Metric, Synthetica
METZ, METZ
Danny Michel with the Garifuna Collective, Black Birds Are Dancing Over Me
AC Newman, Shut Down The Streets
Old Man Luedecke, Tender is The Night
Lindi Ortega, Cigarettes & Truckstops
Peter Peter, Une version améliorée de la tristesse
Purity Ring, Shrines
Rah Rah, The Poet’s Dead
Rhye, Woman
Daniel Romano, Come Cry With Me
Colin Stetson, New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light
Suuns, Images du futur
Tegan and Sara, Heartthrob
Al Tuck, Stranger at the Wake
Whitehorse, The Fate of the World Depends On This Kiss
Young Galaxy, Ultramarine