Gigs Of The Week: May 05 - 11, 2017

Every Friday 3am Revelations give you our picks for some of the fantastic live shows happening in and around our city of Vancouver.
There's much more going on all the time, which you can check out in our concert calendar.
What are you seeing this week? Let us know in the comments below.

Kirk's Pick

Who? Ponderosa Fest Line-Up Announcement Party
Where? Wise Hall
When? Saturday, May 6
Why? Find out the lineup for this year's Pondorosa Fest, along with music from Andrew Judah, Art D'Ecco, and H.O.T. 
 

Christine's Pick

Who? Timber Timbre
Where? Vogue Theatre
When? Friday May 5th (Tonight!)
Why? Timber Timbre returns to town and have a brand new album (Sincerely, Future Pollution) full of songs for you to here. Soft seats and dreamy music? Yes please!
 

Jessica's Pick

Who? Stephanie Ratcliff "Things Above Ground" EP Release & Listening Party
Where? 2468 Scotia Street
When? TONIGHT! (Doors close at 8pm for listening party to begin!)
Why? Stephanie Ratcliff is emerging out of Vancouver as a must-hear indie-folk pop voice. For a dose of uplifting, inspirational music for your mind and soul, don't miss this EP listening party tonight, you might even get a chance to ask questions and banter about the music with Stephanie herself!

New Music...In Video Form - January 27, 2017

So many new videos have been released recently, and since most of the songs have already made it into our Song Of The Day column I figured I'd put them here for you to check out all at once!

Below you will find music videos, live performance videos, new singles, and music from across Canada (including many from here in Vancouver) and abroad. Check them out and let us know which one is your favourite!

Rose Cousins - "Chains"

Father John Mistry - Pure Comedy short film

Folk Road Show - "Willy Wayes" SoFar Sounds video

Timber Timbre - "Sewer Blues"

The Rural Alberta Advantage - "Beacon Hill" lyric video

The 2011 Polaris Short List

It's that time again; the people at the Polaris Music Prize have announced the short list of the ten albums in contention for the "best full-length Canadian album based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label". This year the prize money has been bumped up to $30,000, and for the first time each of the other nine albums on the short list will receive $2,000. Any album (more than 30 minutes/8 tracks long) out from June 1st 2010 to May 31 2011 is eligible. 

Past winners have been Final Fantasy, He Poos Clouds (2006) Patrick Watson, Close to Paradise (2007) Caribou, Andorra (2008) Fucked Up, The Chemistry of Common Life (2009) and Karkwa, Les Chemins De Verre (2010) and the big gala announcing the winners goes down on September 19th.

So let's see how this year stacks up, shall we? Here they are, in a vague order of the ones I personally want to win least to most.

House of Balloons
The Weeknd

New History Warfare Vol 2: Judges
Colin Stetson

Tigre Et Diesel
Galaxie

Long Player Late Bloomer
Ron Sexsmith

Creep On Creepin On
Timber Timbre

Feel It Break
Austra

Native Speaker

Braids

The Suburbs

Arcade Fire

Seeds
Hey Rosetta!

Kaputt
Destroyer




I think this year I have only listened to half the albums in full, so I can't really give too many opinions so far. The Weeknd is the only one on the list that I have just not liked; "not my thing", maybe. Colin Stetson, I just don't get. I mean, I understand the musicianship behind it, and if there is indeed no looping, it is impressive, but I just can't get into it. Maybe if I listen to the full album I will appreciate it more. Both Timber Timbre and Austra I like okay, but need to listen to more. Braids I want to like a lot more than I actually do. Arcade Fire seems to be the "lock" to win, which is exactly why I think it won't. Polaris has never been predictable in the past, why start now. Hey Rosetta! and Destroyer have both been among my favourite albums this year, so those are my top two picks. It would be great if Hey Rosetta! won, but I would love to see Dan Bejar take it.
If nothing else, it is going to be an interesting couple of months, for debate and music listening. I may revisit this post closer to the date when I have more time to digest the list and listen more to the albums in question.