Polaris nominates Arcade Fire, Sloan, Dears

July 17, 2011

Polaris Nominates Arcade Fire, Sloan, Dears
This year’s Polaris Music Prize nominees have been announced, with the qualifying albums being released from June 1, 2010 to May 31, 2011. The albums will be judged solely on artistic merit (not sales or other numbers), with the long list of artists being narrowed to a shorter list, and then eventually to the main winner, who will be announced September 19 at the Sixth Annual Polaris Music Prize Gala in Toronto. Already on the long list are modern rockers Ron Sexsmith, Arcade Fire, The Dears, and Sloan…
His Gorillaz Plastic Beach tour is over, and Blur is in a transitional phase (or something), so what’s a supremely talented overachiever to do? Well, if you’re Damon Albarn, you simply embark on yet another project - in this case, Albarn’s writing a rock opera, with the subject matter being Queen Elizabeth I’s scientist/adviser, John Dee. Albarn recently debuted one of the opera’s musical numbers, titled “Apple Carts,” on the BBC - take a listen to the beautiful, pensive song via this Spin link: http://www.spin.com/articles/damon-albarn-debuts-pretty-tune-new-opera. The opera itself, which Albarn has titled Dr. Dee, debuted July 1 at the International Festival in Manchester, England…
Fleet Foxes have added another leg of shows in the U.S. to support their latest album, Helplessness Blues, and they’re bringing fellow indie-rockers The Walkmen along on the tour bus. They’ve got some UK and other European shows to wrap up first, but by July 17, they’ll be back in the U.S., starting at the State Theater in Minneapolis, and continuing on with shows in Denver (7/21), Salt Lake City (7/22), Austin, TX (9/18 at Austin City Limits), Brooklyn NY (9/24), and Ann Arbor, MI on 9/29 in the Hill Auditorium…
A fresh festival is being put on by WRXP 101.9 Radio in New York, and they’ve already snagged Coldplay as their headliner. Slated for Sunday, September 18, the event, which will be held at the half-indoor/half-outdoor PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey, the roster of performers will also include Two Door Cinema Club, Richard Ashcroft, The Kooks, and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, among others. It’s titled the RXP Takeliberty Festival, and you can snag tix and more info at www.1019rxp.com/takliberty/…

MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK:
Sir Paul McCartney is keeping busy adding shows to his new On The Run Tour, which he kicked off with his first-ever show in Peru and a set of shows in South America; now, you’ll be able to see Macca at the Comerica Park in Detroit (7/24), and Chicago’s Wrigley Field (7/31.) Get all the dates and ticket details at http://www.paulmccartney.com/concerts.php…

MINI MODERN BUZZ:
In other McCartney news, Macca has called upon the talents of surf filmmaker Jack McCoy to craft a music video for McCartney’s previously-unreleased song “Blue Sway,” which is available (as audio) on the special edition re-release of McCartney’s McCartney II album and as video as a bonus DVD included on that same special edition...
Sloan are celebrating their 20th anniversary as a band with the release of their new Double Cross album and a series of Canadian tour dates…
Sloan will also be one of the headliners at the upcoming Hillside Festival in Guelph, Ontario, which will take place July 22-24 and will also include performances from LIGHTS, One Hundred Dollars, Chris Murphy, and The Rural Alberta Advantage…
Once, the Best Song Academy-Award-winning movie that starred The Frames’ Glen Hansard and singer Marketa Irglova, is currently being cast and developed into a stage musical…
Elbow have announced that they’ll play a short series of North American tour dates in September, including an appearance at the Austin City Limits Festival in Texas on September 18 and a performance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon; other stops will include Washington DC (9/22), NYC (9/25), and Toronto (9/28)…
Speaking of Austin City Limits, tix for that festival area already on sale, and going fast, with single-day and VIP tickets both available, and performers slated to include Coldplay, Kanye West, Stevie Wonder, TV on the Radio, Bright Eyes, and of course the abovementioned Fleet Foxes…
And with the hopes that they’ll go fast, these artists are offering up their latest albums as this week’s new releases… Alkaline Trio’s Damnesia… Incubus’ If Not Now, When?… The Cool Kids’ When Fish Ride Bicycles… and William Elliot Whitmore’s Field Songs… and that’s the buzz for this week’s Modern Rock…

Questions, comments, rants, raves, suggestions on this column? Send ‘em to Kristi at modernrocker@gmail.com