The Polaris Music Prize unveiled its 2014 long list today.
As expected, the city is well represented in this year’s list; 14 of the 40 finalists call Toronto their home. A couple of notable Toronto long list finalists include Basia Bulat, whom we interviewed earlier this week; The Darcys, a personal favourite of mine; and Owen Pallet, who won the inaugural Polaris Prize in 2006 when he was still playing under the moniker of Final Fantasy. The full list can be seen below.
Arcade Fire — Reflektor
AroarA — In the Pines
Austra — Olympia
Philippe B — Ornithologie, la nuit
BADBADNOTGOOD — III
Basia Bulat — Tall Tall Shadow
Chromeo — White Women
Cousins — The Halls of Wickwire
Cowboy Junkies — The Kennedy Suite
The Darcys — Warring
Dead Obies — Montréal $ud
Mac DeMarco — Salad Days
DIANA — Perpetual Surrender
Drake — Nothing Was the Same
Freedom Writers — NOW
Fresh Snow — I
Frog Eyes — Carey’s Cold Spring
Gorguts — Colored Sands
Tim Hecker — Virgins
Jimmy Hunt — Maladie d’amour
Jessy Lanza — Pull My Hair Back
Kalle Mattson — Someday, the Moon Will Be Gold
Moonface — Julia with Blue Jeans On
Mounties — Thrash Rock Legacy
Odonis Odonis — Hard Boiled Soft Boiled
Owen Pallett — In Conflict
Pink Mountaintops — Get Back
PUP — PUP
The Sadies — Internal Sounds
Shad — Flying Colours
Shooting Guns — Brotherhood of the Ram
Solids — Blame Confusion
Rae Spoon — My Prairie Home
The Strumbellas — We Still Move on Dance Floors
Tanya Tagaq — Animism
Thus Owls — Turning Rocks
Timber Timbre — Hot Dreams
Chad VanGaalen — Shrink Dust
Bry Webb — Free Will
Yamantaka // Sonic Titan — UZU
On July 15, the Polaris jury will reduce the long list to a short list of 10, and, on September 22, the prize’s grand jury will pick an ultimate winner from that list of 10. The winner of the prize will receive $30,000. Last year’s winner was Godspeed You! Black Emperor, which famously did not attend in protest of the event’s sponsor Honda.
Toronto Standard will have ongoing coverage of the prize in the coming weeks and months.
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Igor Bonifacic is the managing editor of Toronto Standard. Follow him on Twitter.
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