Feist Wins Shortlist Prize!

Here's the official word: *Canadian singer Leslie Feist is the winner of the Seventh Annual Shortlist Music Prize for her album The Reminder. Feist is the second female artist to win the prize, following Cat Power who won the award last year. In a statement, Listmaker Gary Lightbody called The Reminder “the album of the year for 2007 or any year I can think of: it’s modern and classic all at once.”*

A wise choice? Discuss.

MP3: Feist - I Feel It All

2008 Shortlist Finalists Revealed

Who are you pulling for?

Feist - The Reminder
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Stars - In Our Bedroom After The War
Justice - †
M.I.A. - Kala
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver
Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
Burial - Untrue
Working For A Nuclear Free City - Working...

Learn more about The Shortlist here.

MP3: Arcade Fire - I'm Sleeping In A Submarine

The Shortlist Of Music's Longlist Revealed!

Here are all fifty-four artists & albums nominated for this year's top honor:

A Fine Frenzy - One Cell In The Sea
Against Me! - New Wave
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Bad Religion - New Maps Of Hell
Biffy Clyro - Puzzle
Bjork - Volta
Blonde Redhead - 23
Brakes - The Beatific Visions
Burial - Untrue
Calvin Harris - I Created Disco
Dead Heart Bloom - Chelsea Diaries
Digitalism - Idealism
Dollyrots - Because I'm Awesome
Eddie Vedder - 'Into The Wild' Soundtrack
Feist - The Reminder
Fionn Regan - The End Of History
Future Of The Left - Curses
Gogol Bordello - Super Taranta
Grinderman - Grinderman
Gui Boratto - Chromaphobia
Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog
Jesca Hoop - Kismet
Josh Ritter - The Historical Conquests
Juliette & The Licks - Four On The Floor
Justice - Cross
Keren Ann - Keren Ann
Kings Of Leon - Because Of The Times
Klaxons - Myths Of The Near Future
LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver
Le Loup - The Throne Of The Third Heaven
Les Savy Fav - Let's Stay Friends
M.I.A. - Kala
Maps - We Can Create
O'Death - Head Home
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
Parts & Labor - Mapmaker
Peter Bjorn & John - Writer's Block
PJ Harvey - White Chalk
Puscifer - V Is For Vagina
Robert Francis - One By One
Robert Pollard - Standard Gargoyle Decisions
Scout Niblett - This Fool Can Die Now
Serj Tankian - Elect The Dead
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Stars - In Our Bedroom After The War
Swizz Beatz - One Man Band Man
The Bird & The Bee - The Bird & The Bee
The Hives - Black & White Album
The Thrills - Teenager
Underworld - Oblivion With Bells
Wheat - Everyday I Said A Prayer
Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
Working For A Nuclear Free City - Businessmen & Ghosts

More info, including this year's listmakers, can be found here.

The prize will be given out in spring of 2008.

MP3: Feist - My Moon My Man

Cat Power Wins Shortlist Prize 2007!

Congrats, Chan.

This morning iTunes announced the winner of this year's Shortlist Prize and it is: Cat Power's The Greatest.

In case you missed it the first time around, here were the Top 10 finalists:

Band of Horses - Everything All the Time
Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - The Letting Go
Cat Power - The Greatest
Girl Talk - Night Ripper
Hot Chip - The Warning
Joanna Newsom - Ys
Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope
Spank Rock - YoYoYoYoYo
Tom Waits - Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards

More info on the Shortlist can be found here on its official site.

MP3: Cat Power - The Greatest

Shortlist Finalists Announced

And here they are!

Band Of Horses – Everything All the Time
Beirut – Gulag Orskestar
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - The Letting Go
Cat Power – The Greatest
Girl Talk - Night Ripper
Hot Chip - The Warning
Joanna Newsom - Ys
Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope
Spank Rock - YoYoYoYoYo
Tom Waits - Orphans

Who will take home the top honors this year? We'll find out next month when the winner is chosen.

More on the initial longlist HERE!

MP3: Cat Power - The Greatest

The Shortlist's Longlist Announced!

Yay! One of my favorite annual competitions (of sorts) is back. Sufjan Stevens, members of Franz Ferdinand, members of Panic! At The Disco and KT Tunstall, amongst others, have compiled their longlist of the best albums of '06 (that haven't gone gold), to be narrowed down to an elite TEN within the next 2 months. The winner will be chosen this spring.

Some of this year's longlist highlights include The Knife's Silent Shout, Beirut's Gulag Orkestrar, Editors' The Back Room, Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Show Your Bones and Art Brut's Bang Bang Rock N Roll. Check out the full list, via Bitchfork, HERE!

Previous shortlist winners include N*E*R*D, Sufjan Stevens, Sigur Ros, TV On The Radio and Damien Rice. Who are you pulling for?

MP3: The Knife - We Share Our Mothers' Health (Ratatat remix) (via Boy From School)

Don't Forget About The Shortlist!

Yes, it's back. Somehow it's already in its SIXTH YEAR (whoa!). Nominations and the celeb listmakers/voters should be announced very shortly (within the next 2 weeks). We will keep you updated, of course.

Also, last year's re-naming of the prize to 'New Pantheon' is gone. The award will once again be titled The Shortlist Prize.

Past years' winners:
2001: Sigur Ros
2002: N*E*R*D
2003: Damien Rice
2004: TV on the Radio
2005: Sufjan Stevens

I'm gonna go ahead and guess that the voters put The Decemberists, Joanna Newsom, TV On The Radio, The Knife and Thom Yorke in the top 5. Anybody wanna challenge me? And I think Joanna will take the top prize.

Sufjan is NEW PANTHEON WINNER!

Fresh off the press:

NEW YORK, March 31st, 2006 – Sufjan Stevens' breakthrough album "ILLINOIS" has been named winner of the inaugural New Pantheon Music Prize. Sufjan Stevens' "ILLINOIS" emerged victorious from a field of formidable New Pantheon finalists, including albums by Arcade Fire, Fiona Apple, M.I.A., Antony and the Johnsons, and others. In recognition for winning the first New Pantheon Music Prize, Sufjan Stevens will be awarded a cash prize of $5000 and the New Pantheon Music Prize trophy.

Ninety-one initial nominations for the New Pantheon Music Prize were announced in December, and then ten Finalists were announced in January, as selected by a special Panel that included important recording artists, actors, and music journalists. Among those who served on this year's inaugural nominating Panel were Beck, Keith Urban, Margaret Cho, Dave Matthews, ?uestlove, Ric Ocasek, and Shirley Manson. Most of the Nominators selected Sufjan Stevens as one of their Top 3 favorite records from amongst the ten Finalists.

Sufjan is exactly the sort of artist that the New Pantheon Music Prize was meant to honor. "ILLINOIS" is an incredibly ambitious and complex work, sophisticated in terms of melody and arrangement, and consistently surprising. Without a doubt, Sufjan is one of the most significant voices in music today.

new pantheon

you guys and gals in the UK get the mercury prize.

up till last year here in the US, we got the SHORTLIST prize.

now, it's going to be known as the NEW PANTHEON prize.

basically it's all the same thing, the best album of the year (err, that did not go gold)

this year.. the inaugural year for NEW PANTHEON has the following nominees. who will/should win??


Animal Collective's "Feels" (Fatcat)
Antony and the Johnsons' "I Am a Bird Now" (Secretly Canadian)
Fiona Apple's "Extraordinary Machine" (Epic)
Arcade Fire's "Funeral" (Merge)
Bloc Party's "Silent Alarm" (Vice/Atlantic)
Death Cab For Cutie's "Plans" (Atlantic)
The Decemberists' "Picaresque" (Kill Rock Stars)
Kings Of Leon's "Aha Shake Heartbreak" (RCA)
M.I.A.'s "Arular" (XL/Beggars Banquet)
Sufjan Stevens' "Illinois" (Asthmatic Kitty)