A Look at the Polaris Long List: 36. Patrick Watson – Adventures In Your Own Backyard

Guess I was saving the best ’til last? This was another really good record. I shouldn’t have been too surprised really though given that Patrick Watson was a prior Polaris Music Prize winner in 2007. However, I’ve never actually heard that album and was only vaguely aware of his past success which frankly didn’t really factor into my appraisal of his current album.

All I do know is that this was another crackin’ good listen. Great songs, and vocals of such delicate, fragile beauty they feel this.close to collapsing. But they don’t and this wonderful album is what we get instead, thankfully.

If I was going to use a crude benchmark (and it’s mostly crude because my frames of reference are somewhat limited in this area of music), think the best, most affecting ballads Chris Martin and Coldplay ever did and you get a sense of what you’re in store for here. Opening track, “Lighthouse”, “The Things You Do”, “Strange Crooked Road”, “Noisy Sunday” and “Swimming Pools” are just a few of the songs that blew my mind.

Dig the two track sampler above or intrigued by my rave review? Then hit the jump to listen to the whole album via Rdio (non-subscribers will hears snippets only. Sick of that being the case, then ak right and subscribe)

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A Look at the Polaris Long List: 37. Bry Webb – Provider

This is it, the HOLY GRAIL! After repeatedly saying throughout this journey through the Polaris Prize Long List nominated albums for this year how I would only be moved by one of the many, many (many) folk/country, indie/singer-songwriter-y albums on the list, if it was exceptional sounding. And just when I thought that might not happen this year or that just maybe my ears were just not attuned enough to this stuff to recognize the exceptional when I hear it, it finally reveals itself with only three albums left for me to review. Now others may disagree but Bry Webb‘s Provider is a really good listen to my ears. Quiet songs that still speak volumes. Simple but memorable. Heartfelt vocals. And with the kind of quality and personality in the songs that you can actually listen to them over and over again. “Get You Up In Peace” to cite just one standout song on a very good album is a really beautiful piece of music. I might not have voted for this but it was a contender and this is one album that, if it gets shortlisted, I will not have a quibble with over that fact. A pleasant, pleasant surprise.

Dig what you hear in the two track sampler from his label, Idée Fixe Records above or by my endorsement? Then hit the jump to hear the whole album via the Rdio streaming player (preview snippets only for non-Rdio subscribers but c’mon, stop playing and subscribe already)

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[Video] VH1 rockDocs pres. Planet Rock: The Story Of Hip Hop And The Crack Generation (FULL Film)

This came out last Fall but I just spotted it on producer, Easy Mo Bee‘s Facebook page this morning. Narrated by Ice-T and featuring RZA, Raekwon the Chef, Snoop Dogg, Questlove, B-Real, Chuck D, Too $hort and Freeway Ricky Ross, the Johnny Appleseed of the crack era, this documentary is amazing. The story about George H.W. Bush’s crack cocaine television address (starts at 47:24) is (sadly) hilarious. Mo Bee breaks it down as a whole:

It’s been established that music is almost always indicative of the impact that it’s social surrounding provides. So when you fast forward from 1977 to almost 10 years ahead in a slightly more mature period of ’86 in Hip Hop music, we get a firsthand lyrical account (and even glorification at times) of all the damage and destruction that crack’s toll took on the surface of an average family or individual and their choice to get “paid in full” or not. On the even more losing end of this product is the customer or “victim”, so to speak. Also at this point (circa1986), Hip Hop is mightily influenced by the flash of materialism, better living and even powerful drug films like Scarface, New Jack City & Menace ll Society, etc. Could the plague of crack have all been a setup or did a lot of us just make some bad choices in our lives? Was Hip Hop ever used a pawn in the game to help spread the epidemic. So many questions, so many different answers. From the drug riddled hot summers of the mid-Eighties to present day, have we learned anything from the entire period of the past? Or is it just the case of one generations imitating another? The music has always said it all. “And you don’t stop” is right. “It goes on and on and on and on, the beat don’t stop til the break o’ dawn”. Some things never change. They remain the same. True dat. Just look around.

CLICK HERE to learn more.

Related:

How Hip-Hop Lost the War on Drugs by Touré [note: this is the original title of the article as seen on the mobile version, it has subsequently been retitled, ‘How America and hip-hop failed each other’]

[Music Video] Watch The Duck – Poppin’ Off In Atlanta

This is a good one, ‘SoulDubstep’ as they term it by new crew from the A, Watch The Duck. Think Zeds Dead meets Chicago juke music proponents, BBU with Mystikal (or is that a Pharrell/N*E*R*D influence??) hollerin’ over top. Video features the DragonHouse dancers. I digs. What y’all think though??

[Audio] Listen to the Polaris Long List Salon, Toronto Panel Discussion

Missed me at the Polaris Long List Salon from a couple weeks ago? It’s now available for download via AUX-TV’s podcast channel or just click play below (note: audio is little shaky in parts and also, if you are reading this and the streaming player is looking crazy, just mouse over it to highlight the play button). Other salon panelists were Liisa Ladouceur, James Keast (moderator), Aaron Levin and Michael Joffe.

BTW: damn, I look terrible in this picture. Seriously, I look like I’m balding! And on a re-listen to this audio, I am amazed at how many times I used the term, ‘quote-unquote hip-hop‘ – smdh. Also I know, I gotta finish my reviews of all the 2012 long list nominees. Only three to go….

[via AUX-TV]