Music Notes: Radiohead Plays Roseland, Arcade Fire Wins Polaris, $5 MP3 Albums

Radiohead video for "Lotus Flower" from their most recent album, "The King of Limbs."

Radiohead playing two shows at Roseland next week and Arcade Fire taking home the Polaris Prize headline this latest edition of Music Notes. Also in this edition: last call for Amazon.com's $5 MP3 album salefor September.  

* Radiohead is returning to New York for two shows at Roseland Ballroom on Sept. 28th and 29th. Roseland isn't exactly an intimate setting, but it's much smaller than the arenas the band is capable of selling out. There have been a couple of presales for the shows, but if you misssed out on those you can get Radiohead at Roseland tickets here at 10 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 26th.

All tickets are priced at $79.75 ($65 base price plus $14.75 in fees).

Note: an announcement on Radiohead's website says: "There is a 2 ticket limit per household. All tickets will be available for pick up at will call the evening of the event beginning at 6:30 PM and entry into the venue is required immediately upon receipt. No tickets shall be distributed prior to the event."

You can also get a shot at winning tickets to the concerts by contributing to L.A. radio station KCRW (a very worthy cause). Enter for a chance to win Radiohead at Roseland tickets here (enter by 3 p.m. Eastern time on Monday).

Also on the bill with Radiohead are Four Tet and rocketnumbernine.

* Arcade Fire took home the 2011 Polaris Music Prize for best Canadian album, which could be considered something of an upset since the award prides itself on going to the most deserving candidate based only on artistic merit, regardless of commercial success. (In the past more well-known acts have lost out to relatively obscure artists; last year's winner, the francophone group Karkwa, beat out albums by Broken Social Scene, Tegan and Sara, and The Sadies.)

Big congrats to Arcade Fire on taking home the Polaris (and the $30,000 prize).

* Amazon.com's $5 MP3 album salefor September is in its final week. If you're looking to expand your music collection on the cheap, you'll find albums there by artists including Mumford & Sons, The Decemberists, Feist, Fitz & the Tantrums, Regina Spektor, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Blind Pilot, Surfer Blood, Richard Buckner, and TV on the Radio.

Are you going to try to get tickets to see Radiohead at Roseland next week? What shows are folks exciting to see this weekend?

Notable Music Podcasts: Polaris Prize Show, Fall Music Preview, Jimi Hendrix Covers

Above: Montreal's The Besnard Lakes are one of the performers in the Polaris Music Prize podcast from CBC Radio 3. Photo: Nick Davis

Here are some of the more interesting or timely music podcasts that have come out in the last week:

* Canada's Polaris Music Prize was awarded Monday night, and Karkwa took home the top prize. All 10 short list nominees performed at the gala awards ceremony, and CBC Radio 3's latest podcast has live songs from all of them. This two-hour podcast has introductions to each of the performers, but other than that the focus is on the music, as it should be.

If you prefer, you can also stream the Polaris Prize performances and see photo highlights on the CBC's website.

* NPR Music is out its annual Fall Music Preview show. It looks at and samples of new tunes form upcoming albums from artists including Deerhunter, Sufjan Stevens, Brian Eno, Tricky, Sharon Van Etten, Belle and Sebastian, and Mark Ronson and the Business.

* The Coverville podcast presents a show of covers of songs written or performed by Jimi Hendrix in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the death of the 1960s Seattle guitar hero.

2010 Polaris Prize to be Announced Tonight

The winner of the 2010 Polaris Prize, recognizing the best album of the year by a Canadian musician, will be announced at the gala ceremony in Toronto tonight. The nominees and winners are "selected solely on artistic merit without regard to genre, sales history or label affiliation."

The awards ceremony will be shown live online at Much Music at 8 p.m. Eastern time, and televised on the network on Saturday, Sept. 25th at 9 p.m. Eastern. You can also listen to the proceedings on the CBC Radio website, CBC.ca and on Sirius satellite radio channel 86.

Here are the nominees on the final "short list" (you can find profiles of the Polaris finalists at Much Music). The short list was winnowed down from a "long list" of 40 albums.

• The Besnard Lakes, "The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night"
  
  
• Broken Social Scene, "Forgiveness Rock Record"
  
  
• Caribou, "Swim"
  
  
• Karkwa, "Les Chemins De Verre"
  
  
• Dan Mangan, "Nice, Nice, Very Nice"
  
  
• Owen Pallett, "Heartland"
  
  
• Radio Radio, "Belmundo Regal"
  
  
• The Sadies, "Darker Circles"
  
  
• Shad, "TSOL"
  
  
• Tegan And Sara, "Sainthood"
  

F*cked Up Wins 2009 Polaris Prize

Toronto punk band F*cked Up won the Polaris Music Prize last night in a ceremony held in its hometown. Each of the 10 nominees performed live and then the winner was announced late in the evening, with the critically acclaimed rockers with the radio-unfriendly name chosen to receive the $20,000 prize for its album "The Chemistry of Common Life."

As has become a Polaris tradition, the winner of the prize was less known than some other nominees on the short list. The Polaris Prize was modeled after England's Mercury Prize, with the intention of honoring the album with the best artistic merit regardless of sales or other commercial factors.

You can hear music from F*cked Up and the other nominees at the CBC Radio 3 Web site, www.cbcradio3.com. Their podcast with highlights from last night's award ceremony is now available; you can listen to it on the Web site or download it there or from iTunes and other podcast programs. Besides the awards ceremony, CBC Radio 3 has also done podcasts dedicated to the short list artists and those on the original, longer list.

Congrats to F*cked Up!

Canada's 2009 Polaris Prize to Be Awarded Monday

The Polaris Prize to honor the best in Canadian music will be awarded Monday night, Sept. 21st in a live ceremony. The Polaris was created a few years ago to recognize the album with the highest level of artistic merit regardless of commercial success, and gives a $20,000 cash prize. Who will win? You can find out by watching the Polaris Prize ceremony live at the CBC Web site, www.radio3.cbc.ca, starting at 8 p.m. Eastern.

Here is the shortlist of Polaris nominees, one of whom will walk away with the big prize:

* Artist: Elliott BROOD - Album: Mountain Meadows

* Artist: Fucked Up - Album: The Chemistry Of Common Life

* Artist: Great Lake Swimmers - Album: Lost Channels

* Artist: Hey Rosetta! - Album: Into Your Lungs (and around your heart and on through your blood)

* Artist: K'NAAN - Album: Troubadour

* Artist: Malajube - Album: Labyrinthes

* Artist: Metric - Album: Fantasies

* Artist: Joel Plaskett - Album: Three

* Artist: Chad VanGaalen - Album: Soft Airplane

* Artist: Patrick Watson - Album: Wooden Arms

You can also see the long list of Polaris Prize nominees to see who didn't make the final cut. Some pretty good albums were left out, including Leonard Cohen's live album and releases by Land of Talk, Japandroids, The Stills, and Martha Wainwright.

And the Polaris Prize Goes to...

Patrick Watson! For the second year in a row, the Polaris panel Monday night passed over a number of high-profile, commercially successful critical darlings in favor of a lesser-known figure. Last year's inaugural prize went to young singer and violinist Final Fantasy.

I have to admit, of all of this year's nominees Patrick Watson is the least well-known to me. In fact, I can't recall that I've heard any of his music, though if it's been featured on the CBC Radio 3 podcast, then it probably has crossed my ears, even if it hasn't registered in my brain.

The Polaris Prize was established to recognize what the judges felt was the most talented Canadian independent artists, regardless of commercial success or record sales, so in a way choices like Final Fantasy and Patrick Watson aren't totally unexpected.

Now I'll have to make sure I hear some Patrick Watson and see what the hubbub is all about.

Polaris Music Prize to be Awarded Tonight

The best in Canadian indie music will be recognized tonight when the Polaris Music Prize is awarded tonight in Toronto. CBC Radio host Grant Lawrence, who also hosts the CBC Radio 3 podcast, will be host (wonder if the wacky emcee will play it straight, or if he will have any humorous tricks up his sleeve?)

The Polaris Music Prize is a pretty simple, straightforward affair; there's just one prize, for best album. And the 2007 nominees are:

• Neon Bible, Arcade Fire
  
• The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse, The Besnard Lakes
  
• Gang of Losers, The Dears
  
• Woke Myself Up, Julie Doiron
  
• So This Is Goodbye, Junior Boys
  
• The Reminder, Feist
  
• Five Roses, Miracle Fortress
  
• Ashtray Rock, the Joel Plaskett Emergency
  
• Skelliconnection, Chad Vangaalen
  
• Close to Paradise, Patrick Watson

Lots of good CDs in the list, and I'm a fan of a number of these artists. But having seen Feist live in person and listening to her new CD over and over this year, I'm pulling for The Reminder. (I wrote about Feist in a previous post.)