3am Mixtapes: Episode Ninety Two: Windstorm Blackouts

Each week on the 3am Mixtapes podcast, I will share with you the Top Six Songs of a certain subject. The topics can be as general as best Arts & Crafts bands. Some might be a little more... specific. Top Six Song About Food. 

I was inspired by the BC Storm this past weekend, so this week you get the Top Six Songs For A Power Outage Caused by a Wind Storm!

Get blown away by:

"Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out)" by Arcade Fire
"Powerless" by The Flaming Lips
"Blackout" by Sloan
"City of Electric Light" by Chad VanGaalen
"Where The Wind Blows" by The Februarys
"Black Day In December" by Said the Whale

Any questions or comments or waffles or criticisms or suggestions for future themes are welcome!

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3am Mixtapes: Episode Sixty Nine: Siblings

Each week on the 3am Mixtapes podcast, I will share with you the Top Six Songs of a certain subject. The topics can be as general as best drummers, but some might be a little more... specific. Top Six Songs Written About Fictional Characters from a SciFi Television Show. 

From The Jackson 5 to the Rankins, family bands have been a long tradition, but this week I'm gonna focus even further and take a look at the Top Six Sibling Bands!

Put these in your earholes:

"I Go Hungry" by Mother Mother
"Firefly" by Hollerado
"Congo" by Bear Mountain
"Toughest Man in Prison Camp" by The Sumner Brothers
"My Silver Lining" by First Aid Kit
"No Cars Go" by Arcade Fire

Any questions or comments or waffles or criticisms or suggestions for future themes are welcome!

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3am Mixtapes: Episode Twenty One: Alarm Clocks

Each week on the 3am Mixtapes podcast, I will share with you the Top Six Songs of a certain subject. The topics can be as general like most anticipated new releases of 2014. Or some might be a little more... esoteric. Top Six Songs By Bands Featuring Vancouver Trumpet Player Andrew Lee.

And this week, it’s the Top Six Songs To Wake Up To! Sure, you could wake up the the screeching WAH WAH WAH or BRRRRRRRING of an alarm clock, OR you could set one of your favourtie songs into your phone to wake up to every morning. Or I suppose you could put one of your least favourite to force you to get up and shut it off, but I’m gonna focus on the good songs.

Here to get you awake are:

"Letter From an Occupant" by The New Pornographers
"Romantic Rights" by Death From Above 1979
"Typical" by Mutemath
"Creatures Great & Small" by Aidan Knight
"Know Til Now" by Jim James
"Wake Up" by Arcade Fire

Any questions or comments or waffles or criticisms or suggestions for future themes are welcome!



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The 2011 Polaris Short List

It's that time again; the people at the Polaris Music Prize have announced the short list of the ten albums in contention for the "best full-length Canadian album based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label". This year the prize money has been bumped up to $30,000, and for the first time each of the other nine albums on the short list will receive $2,000. Any album (more than 30 minutes/8 tracks long) out from June 1st 2010 to May 31 2011 is eligible. 

Past winners have been Final Fantasy, He Poos Clouds (2006) Patrick Watson, Close to Paradise (2007) Caribou, Andorra (2008) Fucked Up, The Chemistry of Common Life (2009) and Karkwa, Les Chemins De Verre (2010) and the big gala announcing the winners goes down on September 19th.

So let's see how this year stacks up, shall we? Here they are, in a vague order of the ones I personally want to win least to most.

House of Balloons
The Weeknd

New History Warfare Vol 2: Judges
Colin Stetson

Tigre Et Diesel
Galaxie

Long Player Late Bloomer
Ron Sexsmith

Creep On Creepin On
Timber Timbre

Feel It Break
Austra

Native Speaker

Braids

The Suburbs

Arcade Fire

Seeds
Hey Rosetta!

Kaputt
Destroyer




I think this year I have only listened to half the albums in full, so I can't really give too many opinions so far. The Weeknd is the only one on the list that I have just not liked; "not my thing", maybe. Colin Stetson, I just don't get. I mean, I understand the musicianship behind it, and if there is indeed no looping, it is impressive, but I just can't get into it. Maybe if I listen to the full album I will appreciate it more. Both Timber Timbre and Austra I like okay, but need to listen to more. Braids I want to like a lot more than I actually do. Arcade Fire seems to be the "lock" to win, which is exactly why I think it won't. Polaris has never been predictable in the past, why start now. Hey Rosetta! and Destroyer have both been among my favourite albums this year, so those are my top two picks. It would be great if Hey Rosetta! won, but I would love to see Dan Bejar take it.
If nothing else, it is going to be an interesting couple of months, for debate and music listening. I may revisit this post closer to the date when I have more time to digest the list and listen more to the albums in question.