Leah's take on the Short List nominees of the 2009 Polaris Prize

K’naan – This is the nominee I am least familiar with as I am not a hip-hop fan but I know He got some airplay in the states. He has the reggae thing backing his rhymes. Canada is not known for it’s Hip-Hop. Maybe they aren’t angry enough or have enough attitudes. This is the first hip-hop nominee I recall. It is well done from what I have heard but I highly doubt this will surpass the CanCon Indie superstars nominated.

Malajube – You know, I think Malajube has some pretty good odds. They make French speaking music that is fun to listen to whether you understand the language or not. They have poppy songs, very cool piano use in their arrangements. Sometimes they even add hip-hop flare. They have a decent shot at winning, but they probably won’t. Maybe-because it is in French? (I can say that, I don’t write for anyone!)

Elliott Brood – Hearing strains of this record again recently reminded me how original this band is. You may want to lump them in the Americana category but they are more then that. Yes they, Elliott Brood is a band, not a guy. I think this is a fantastic record, different than anything else that has ever been nominated. There is a dark horse shot here…

Metric – It seems like each year, there is one band nominated that is commercially more successful than the rest. (Ex – The New Pornographers, Stars, or Arcade Fire) It almost feels like it gives some mainstream attention to the rest of the more unknown, indie bands. Metric has a fine record nominated “Fantasies” that is quite varied in styles and instrumentation. Emily Haines has proven she can change up her singing style. It is a fantastic danceable record with 80’s undertones. It is also the most commercial sounding of the nominees. If the Polaris prize is political, Metric will not win. This award appears to be about rewarded the more independent band. Metric is not that band. If Arcade Fire didn’t win for Neon Bible, Metric will not win.

Patrick Watson – Patrick Watson is a band of super young guys who make music that sounds much older than they are. Patrick has an operatic-style voice (think Jeff Buckley only higher) The songs are deep lyrically but quite frankly put me to sleep. Patrick Watson will not win the Polaris prize again. Yes, what they do is unique but this new LP is not that much different than the one they won with 2 years ago.
Hey Rosetta! – There are bands that are good but even better live. I believe this is the case for NFLD’s Hey Rosetta! I was a casual fan of theirs but once I saw them live, I understood all the fuss. Tim Baker is a fantastic song writer; he commanded an audience like Dave Matthews does. The young girls love him; the guys dig the whole band thing with string instruments. I watched a college age crowd bounce with complete adoration for them. I listened to “Into your lungs” on the drive back from seeing Hey Rosetta! Live and it wasn’t quite the same. Oh I would love for them to sneak in and win, I will be rooting for them but I don’t think they have enough clout yet…

Joel Plaskett – There is absolutely no question Joel Plaskett can write a memorable, catchy song full of his self-deprecation, down-home honesty and love for his home Province of Nova Scotia. He went for a concept record once again, this time all about Three. It includes Three records, songs with three word titles and in some cases, three singers-himself with Ana Egge and Rose Cousins. The three CDS each have their own theme. It all works, it shows a different side of Plaskett and should win. But “Ashtray Rock” didn’t win and it should have. I fear Three is too long for the judges to vote for it. Plaskett is certainly the king of Canadian Indie rock but this may not be the record he will win with. I will still be cheering this sweetheart of a fella on!


Fucked Up – Believe it or not, I actually saw this band live, for a Christmas show no less! They do punk rock like all the great ones did. It is not that far from any other pure punk rock record. It was wise on the Polaris Prize nominating committee to recognize this band’s talent. They will not win however.

Great Lake Swimmers – Most everyone who follows this prize thought GLS had it in the bag for their debut record 2 years ago. Patrick Watson later even came out and said GLS should have won! I think there is a soft spot still in the judges for this folky band to win. Do not rule them out Monday night. Their most recent “Lost Channels” is a very, very quiet effort. Too quiet?

Chad Van Gaalen – If you listen to Canadian Independent radio and writers, He should have won two years ago and will win Monday night. His music is unique, I understand that but in the Indie media, he is the second coming of Neil Young. They will award him the Polaris Prize. He will mumble some bizarre thanks and the Indie CanCon world will all be happy he finally got what they all believe he deserved. If he doesn’t, my jaw drops and he becomes the Susan Lucci of the Polaris Prize.

Don't Change - INXS

Last night Karen read me a letter I wrote her in May of 1989. Want to know what the scariest part of it was? 20 years later and I sound the same! I was chattering about bands, life in AZ and our friends. It was insane how little I have changed yet some much transpired in between. My favorite line from it was: “I don’t mind rock radio playing alternative stuff.” OMG, hilarious! I was going on about KUPD playing The Cure. Hahaha!
What I also find interesting about this letter is that when my mom passed away, Dan insisted I changed. What I think may be more true is that I changed (conformed) when I got married and that the real Leah came back. Because I no longer had my mom, I reached back inside and found me. I went back to what I truly enjoyed from crafting to travelling to see bands. What a revelation! Dan had me convinced I changed. Of course, without my mom I was altered but I don’t believe I truly “changed” even though he had me believing I did. I rediscovered ME! In fact, I am a bit disappointed with myself if I compromised who I was for marriage. I have watched so many girlfriends do that for their husbands, I swore I never would but maybe I did. Our demise had more to do with finding our true selves. He did too and then he realized that our true-selves had completely different directions in which we were heading. I think that is why we were both so ok with our divorce. We both knew we only needed each other for that period of time. I sense that is why I am so at peace right now, I finally have returned to 1989 Leah… It explains my desire to move too. The very first thing I realized when I swallowed that the divorce was happening was that I didn’t have to stay in Arizona anymore. Complete peace will come when that job slips into my pocket along with my own place; And when I am entertaining friends again at my own place. That is me.

Randomness:

It dawned on me that I should do a search for diners in Washington! I bet there are some cool ones here!

One thing I don’t necessarily like still from 1989 is my constant need to have a crush. It is lame at 42 because you have too much sensibility to let it just be fun. But trust me, I always have a crush and most of the time, it is not a healthy one.

So remember how I was saying they have these bikini espresso places here in Washington. Well now I drove by a place that proclaimed- No Bikinis! See, I knew some women would object! They have ones labeled Bikini bottoms too- oh brother.. Plus they have city meetings to ban them. Hilarious.

I noticed that out in the country, the convenience stores have fryers so the food in the case is fresher than a place like 7-11 with hot dogs rolling. I am guessing this is because you have longer drives so you eat more “real” food from the gas station? On a drive to Port Angeles I stopped at the absolute nicest convenience store ever. I can’t even describe it but it was nicer than most AJ’s plus it was huge! It was on a reservation near a casino, not sure if that had anything to do with it.

I took the dogs to a “forest” today. It was part of Spanaway city parks. It was very nice but it was the first time I realized I should be more concerned with my safety. I saw an unsavory character heading into this forest then as it wound around a lot of woods, I realized I shouldn’t do everything by myself. I am awkward enough trying to walk three dogs. If someone would have robbed me I would be so easy with the clumsiness of the dogs. I will not be returning there. I need to stick to open dog parks with lots of people. Maybe I am too independent sometimes..

The Polaris Prize is only 2 nights away. I wonder if anyone else gets as excited for this as I do. Next year I will host a party for it! Hahahah! I need to listen to Jian on Monday! Wish he was hosting it again but he is not, Grant Lawrence is again.

I miss being social. This should not be a big surprise. My life was always so packed with activities. It is good to reflect but I need to just hang out with my pals-just laugh and have fun…Thank goodness for the phone. I have gotten some great laughs on the phone since in Washington-you know who you all are! ;)

You know who I have been listening to lately..The Posies.. Must be something about the location?? ;)

I heard the K-os take over show on Iceberg this week. I really like how much of a music fan he is. He is very humble to be around other musicians. He told stories of meeting Moe Berg from TPOH plus his appearance in the Death from Above video. I knew he would play Sloan because I knew he was a fan. He went on about how he thinks Chris Murphy is talented at everything he does. He also played "The Other Man" and hinted to it being about Feist but would not break musician code. Sorry, K-Os, most fans know Chris was the other man who stole her away from which ever BSS guy she was with at the time. The most entertaining story he told was about Sam Roberts. He said he was watching Live 8 and saw Sam sing a new song at the time "Brigde to nowhere" K-OS thought it was a song about him and was bummed out. Then he said he talked to both Peter Elkas (:HEARTBEATS:) and Murray Lightburn of The Dears. They both thought Sam wrote the song about them. As K-OS concluded- we were all so vain, we thought the song was about us. That was funny! Maybe other musicians confide their deep dark secrets to Sam Roberts. Who wouldn't? If it meant a longer chance to stare at that gorgeous man, well? He must have more bromance than Plaskett!

Karen swore I would love the new Mountain Dew Ultra Violet but nope. I had another self discovery! I do not like fruity flavors carbonated. They have to be like kool-aid. Carbonation for me needs to stay in the cola family. Who am I kidding, carbonation needs to stay in the Dr. Pepper family for me-period. Did you know I never drank carbonated drinks until my late 20's. Now there was a habit I should have kept! I had an ex-boyfriend who loved Dr. Pepper. I would sip his everyday and boom- I was hooked! Damn him! LOL!

Did I mention I am seeing Matthew Good in November? I suspect so for the next 2 months until the show!

Dizzy - The Wonder Stuff featuring Vic Reeves

Just random notes today:

This is so simple for some people but I have got to learn to take better care of myself. I was dizzy all day from not taking meds for a while. (It is called broke with no insurance..) I am waiting on a package with my cobra information mailed from the Ex… I almost passed out the night we got into Seattle for the same thing. Today I was just plain annoyed because if I am dizzy, I can’t focus on a computer screen. Mary picked up my meds for now, bless her heart of gold. Hopefully by tomorrow I will be back on track!

* Andrew and I are really into following the Polaris Prize. It is a Canadian music prize of $20,000 to the artist whose record is the best of the year, according to an industry panel of judges. They select a long list of potential records then eliminate it down to the short list of 10 records. We like to try to predict the winner. They air the awards show on CBC3 this Sept 21. I am going to attempt to listen to each record fully before. Of course we have our favorites. Andrew is all for Metric- “Fantasies” to win this year. I believe Plaskett deserves it for “Three.” I even wrote out little odds this year. I will share them soon. My guess to win this year is Chad Van Gaalen for his CD “Soft Airplane.” He lost to Patrick Watson two years ago and I think they will give it to him now.

* It is a well known fact about me; ridiculous things make me burst out in tears. Now I really don’t mean to. It is involuntary most of the time. So please laugh that I burst into tears twice yesterday. First for hearing In-Flight Safety’s “The Coast is Clear” on Iceberg. Then I got sniffles for seeing a young gal driving a gorgeous Chevelle as her daily driver. (In-Flight because it reminds me of my first trip to Halifax and the Chevelle because I used to drive one daily also.)

* Andrew was in Seattle but we didn’t see each other-LOL! He was too busy spending 3 hours at one record store here called EM. I think I better stay away from there for a good long time. Same with the rubber stamp convention here this weekend.

*Unbelievable! John is back in Phoenix as of yesterday. That my friend is a heck of a job that you can manage that amount of time off! I don’t even remember what day we left for Alaska anymore. His fb status was something about the joy of sleeping in your own bed, I bet!! I can’t wait until I can own my own bed again!

*In the Tacoma paper yesterday was an article about what Jim Zorn did for the summer! HEEHEE. It was mainly about training camp starting but it detailed his vacation stops and the books he read. I am just guessing that article did not run in the Arizona Republic.

*I turned the TV on today to find a music trivia game show hosted by Meatloaf. The competition was between Leif Garrett and the Bay City Rollers. One of my favorite singers, Kyle Vincent (In photo above) has been touring with this version of the Rollers. There he was, Kyle on TV. It was fun to watch! Kyle does these Living Room performances where he will come to your house and do a show for you. I had him do one at our home in 2004. I also had him speak to my class about the music industry while he was in town plus play live on The Blaze. Another Phx resident also had him do a show a few years later. He is a wonderful guy with an absolute angelic voice. He was once the vocalist for 80’s band Candy with Gilby Clarke, later of G n R fame.

*On the same channel, The 101, they are showing a concert of Tinted Windows. They are the power pop super group with Bun E Carlos from Cheap Trick, James Iha from the Smashing Pumpkins, Adam Schlessinger of Fountains of Wayne (and wrote “That thing you do”) and vocalist Taylor Hanson. (Yes that Hanson!) I missed it today but it is showing again tomorrow! Can’t wait! Their record is in the running for my favorite of the year!

*I saw a gorgeous shooting star above me tonight reminding me it is all going to work out. I may have gotten my first rejection letter today and been sick but I have the highest of hopes and peace around me!