Today's RAD Song: Robots Need Love Too

The 2010 Polaris Music Prize long list was released this past week - and a very impressive list it is. What's The Polaris Prize you might ask? Good question...

From Wikipedia: "The Polaris Music Prize is a music award annually given to the best full-length Canadian album based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label. The award was established in 2006 and includes a C$20,000 cash prize. The Polaris Music Prize is modeled after the Mercury Music Prize, which is handed to the best British or Irish album over the past year."

Last year's winner was an act from Toronto called Fucked Up... good band, not my favourite but worth checking out here. Other winners since the award's inception include Caribou, Patrick Watson and Final Fantasy - all incredibly good acts.

Who do you like from this year's list (feel free to comment below)? As I said, there are lots of good albums on the list: The New Pornographers, Greg MacPherson, Ghostkeeper, Hannah Georgas, Crystal Castles and Broken Social Scene all released exceptionally solid albums this year. In fact, I expect one of those artists to take the prize when it's awarded on September 20 in Toronto.

However, my longshot pick this year is Vancouver's own deep-voiced troubadour Dan Mangan. I've had the chance to work with Dan a couple time over the years, and this guy is the real deal - a bankable talent. Catchy songs, well crafted folk-rock, and one of the nicest guys you'll meet - a rarity in this business.

Dan will be on tour all summer including stops at the Glastonbury Festival (no shit!), Ottawa Bluesfest, the Dawson City Music Festival and the Calgary Folk Music Festival - make sure you go check him out if you can. And in the meantime his quirky but beautiful song 'Robots', off of his latest album Nice, Nice, Very Nice, wins the prize for today's RAD Song.

Robots by Dan Mangan


My gut tells me this could be Broken Social Scene's year though; their latest Forgiveness Rock Record is a pretty impressive collection of work. Here's the first single off that album as performed live on Letterman:

Forced To Love by Broken Social Scene