Sonia Mansillo / E!It's kind of like Christmas for Canadian musicians. The Polaris Music Prize Long List was announced this morning, and includes such ace contenders as the legendary Leonard Cohen, singer-songwriter Martha Wainwright (sister to Rufus) and socially conscious purveyor-of-hip-hop K'NAAN.
Modeled after the UK's Mercury Music Prize, the Polaris Music Prize was established in 2006 and awards $20,000 (that's twenty freakin' grand, people!) to the album judged by a jury of music journalists and broadcasters to be the best Canadian release of the year.
This ain't the Junos, kids. The Polaris Music Prize cares not for album sales or mainstream success. It only aspires to award bona-fide artistic brilliance. We can totally get behind that!
Previous winners have included Final Fantasy and Caribou.
Keep reading for the complete Polaris Music Prize 2009 Long List:
- Arkells - Jackson Square
- Jill Barber - Chances
- Beast - Beast
- Bell Orchestre - As Seen Through Windows
- Bison B.C. - Quiet Earth
- Bruce Peninsula - A Mountain Is A Mouth
- Cœur De Pirate - Cœur De Pirate
- Leonard Cohen - Live In London
- D-Sisive - Let The Children Die
- Elephant Stone - The Seven Seas
- Elliott Brood - Mountain Meadows
- Fucked Up - The Chemistry Of Common Life
- Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels
- Handsome Furs - Face Control
- Tim Hecker - An Imaginary Country
- Hey Rosetta! - Into Your Lungs
- Japandroids - Post-Nothing
- Junior Boys - Begone Dull Care
- K-OS - YES!
- K'NAAN - Troubadour
- La patère rose - La patère rose
- Land Of Talk - Some Are Lakes
- Lhasa - Lhasa
- Malajube - Labyrinthes
- Metric - Fantasies
- One Hundred Dollars - Forest Of Tears
- Pink Mountaintops - Outside Love
- Joel Plaskett - Three
- Snailhouse - Lies On The Prize
- Charles Spearin - The Happiness Project
- Rae Spoon - superioryouareinferior
- The Stills - Oceans Will Rise
- Think About Life - Family
- Timber Timbre - Timber Tiimbre
- Chad VanGaalen - Soft Airplane
- Martha Wainwright - I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too
- Patrick Watson - Wooden Arms
- Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer
- Women - Women
- Woodpigeon - Treasury Library Canada C/W Houndstooth Europa