The 2013 Polaris Prize Long List

And the lone Manitoba entry left vying for this year’s Polaris Prize is…KEN Mode.

This year’s Polaris Prize long list was revealed yesterday and, like years previous, a lone Manitoba entry made the cut: the Juno-statue-earning heavy metal sound of KEN Mode's Entrench.

The full long list is below.

A Tribe Called Red - Nation II Nation
Alaclair Ensemble - Les maigres blancs d'Amérique du Noir
ANCIIENTS - Heart of Oak
The Besnard Lakes - Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO
Louis-Jean Cormier - Le Treizième Étage
Daphni - JIAOLONG
Mac DeMarco - 2
Evening Hymns - Spectral Dusk
Hannah Georgas - Hannah Georgas
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
Chilly Gonzales - Solo Piano II
Jim Guthrie - Takes Time
Hayden - Us Alone
Zaki Ibrahim - Every Opposite
KEN mode - Entrench
Kid Koala - 12 bit Blues
Kobo Town - Jumbie in the Jukebox
Pierre Lapointe - Punkt
Lee Harvey Osmond - The Folk Sinner
Les soeurs Boulay - Le poids des confettis
Corb Lund - Cabin Fever
The Luyas - Animator
Majical Cloudz - Impersonator
Metric - Synthetica
METZ - METZ
Danny Michel with the Garifuna Collective - Black Birds Are Dancing Over Me
AC Newman - Shut Down The Streets
Old Man Luedecke - Tender is The Night
Lindi Ortega - Cigarettes & Truckstops
Peter Peter - Une version améliorée de la tristesse
Purity Ring - Shrines
Rah Rah - The Poet's Dead
Rhye - Woman
Daniel Romano - Come Cry With Me
Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light
Suuns - Images du futur
Tegan and Sara - Heartthrob
Al Tuck - Stranger at the Wake
Whitehorse - The Fate of the World Depends On This Kiss
Young Galaxy - Ultramarine


For the record, I went 3 for 5 or 0.60 or 60% on my Polaris ballot. On it were:

1. Hannah Georgas – Hannah Georgas
2. Mise en Scene – Desire’s Despair
3. Purity Ring – Shrines
4. Young Galaxy – Ultramarine
5. New Country Rehab – Ghost of Your Charms

I’m curious…which artists would’ve been on your ballot? Can KEN Mode make the short list and inch closer toward its dream of buying a boat?