"The Devil's Shelter" (ft. Alex Maas)

--taken from: Exclaim!

by Sarah Murphy

We last heard from Montreal psych-rock crew Elephant Stone when Sloan's Jay Ferguson delivered a remixed rendition of their track "Motherless Child (Love's Not War)." Now they're back with a new jam called "The Devil's Shelter," and it has  another high-profile name attached to the project.

The tune features a guest appearance from Alex Maas from psychedelic Austin-based garage rockers the Black Angels. Blending worldly sounds of sitars, swirling guitars and hazy vocal harmonies, "The Devil's Shelter" is an eclectic amalgamation of influences that gives listeners a hint of what's to come from Elephant Stone.

The band are currently working on a new LP that's due out in 2016, and you can find their upcoming tour dates listed below. Scroll past those and hit play to fall under the spell of "The Devil's Shelter" at the bottom of the page.

--taken from: Exclaim!

Peaches wins Polaris Heritage Prize

--taken from: NOW Toronto

Other winners include Joni Mitchell, the Cowboy Junkies and Sloan

It’s a good time to be Peaches. The Toronto-raised musician – who plays the Phoenix next week in support of her Rub album (NNNN) – is among the inaugural four winners of the Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize.

Announced earlier this year, the annual award is essentially the Polaris Prize’s version of a hall of fame. It honours classic Canadian albums from the past five decades.

This year’s winners are Joni Mitchell’s Blue (60s and 70s), the Cowboy Junkies' The Trinity Session (80s), Sloan’s Twice Removed (90s) and Peaches’s The Teaches Of Peaches (00s).

The nominated albums were chosen by a panel of Polaris Prize jurists, music historians and members of the media, and the winners were determined by public online voting.

The programming team at Roy Thomson and Massey Hall will produce a tribute concert to the four winning albums, and commemorative prints of each album will be created and made available to purchase.

--taken from: NOW Toronto

Joni Mitchell And Sloan Albums Among First-ever Polaris Heritage Prize Winners

--taken from: Contactmusic.com

by World Entertainment News Network (WENN)

Albums By Joni Mitchell, Sloan, Cowboy Junkies And Peaches Have Been Selected As The Winners Of Canada's Inaugural Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize.

The releases, one from each time period over the last six decades, will go down in history as the albums which would have likely won the Polaris Music Prize had it been established at the time. The accolade, which names Canada's Album of the Year, was only created in 2005.

Polaris founder and executive director Steve Jordan says, "This is the Polaris version of a hall of fame. As with the main Prize, we hope this award will lead to more discussion and discovery of timeless recorded art from our history."

The first albums were nominated to a shortlist by a 25-strong jury of industry experts, before allowing the public to vote for their favourites. The initial crop of Heritage winners are: Mitchell's Blue for the 1960s and 1970s, The Trinity Session by Cowboy Junkies for the 1980s, Sloan's Twice Removed for the 1990s, and Peaches' The Teaches of Peaches for the first five years of the 2000s.

The winning albums will be celebrated at a special 2016 tribute concert being organised by officials at Massey Hall and Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto, reports Billboard.com.

Buffy Sainte-Marie's Power in the Blood was awarded this year's (15) Polaris Music Prize.

--taken from: Contactmusic.com

2015 Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize Winners Announced

--taken from: Polaris Music Prize

by Aaron Brophy

The people have spoken.

The Polaris Music Prize today announced the winners of the 2015 Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize. The winners, by designated time periods, are:

Blue by Joni Mitchell (60s & 70s)
The Trinity Session by the Cowboy Junkies (80s)
Twice Removed by Sloan (90s)
The Teaches of Peaches by Peaches (00s: 2000-2005)

The jury for the Heritage Prize consisted of 25 people from current and past Polaris juries as well as former members of the Canadian music media and Canadian music historians. This jury selected five title short lists for each of the four Heritage Prize time periods. Then a public vote took place between September 18 and October 5 to determine the winners.

“These first recipients are such an incredible mosaic of artists and recordings. My father Allan and the Slaight Family are very proud to be supporting this recognition and we look forward to honouring more inspirational recordings in the coming years,” said Gary Slaight, Slaight Communications President and CEO.

The Heritage Prize and its short lists will be an ongoing annual honour similar in manner to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

“This is the Polaris version of a hall of fame. As with the main Prize, we hope this award will lead to more discussion and discovery of timeless recorded art from our history,” said Steve Jordan, Polaris Founder and Executive Director.

When determining what made the Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize the jury selected records in accordance with current Polaris criteria; records of the highest artistic quality without regards to sales or affiliations. The programming team at Roy Thomson / Massey Hall will produce a tribute concert to the four winning albums of the Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize winners in early 2016. Commemorative prints of each winning album will be made specially for the winners and will also be available to the public for purchase.

--taken from: Polaris Music Prize

Joni Mitchell, Peaches, Cowboy Junkies and Sloan Awarded Canadian Heritage Priz

--taken from: Billboard

by Karen Bliss

Albums by Joni Mitchell, Cowboy Junkies, Sloan and Peaches have been chosen by the public as the inaugural winners of Canada’s Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize.

A five-titled short list per time period was initially selected by a jury of 25 people from the music media and industry before the lists were released to the public for them to vote online.

They chose: Blue by Joni Mitchell ('60s & '70s), The Trinity Session by Cowboy Junkies ('80s), Twice Removed by Sloan (90s) and The Teaches of Peaches by Peaches ('00s, 2000-2005).

"This is the Polaris version of a hall of fame. As with the main Prize, we hope this award will lead to more discussion and discovery of timeless recorded art from our history," said Polaris founder and executive director Steve Jordan.

The press release does not mention how many votes came in for this first Heritage prize, but each year a new list for each time period will be generated. The award was designed to essentially answer the question, "Which album would’ve won if the Polaris Music Prize had existed back then?" The Polaris Music Prize is an annual prize started 10 years ago to honor the best Canadian album of the year with no consideration given to sales, genre or affiliation. That prize, however, is selected by a carefully curated juror of music media. Heritage takes the vote to the public in the final phase.

The original jury consisted of 25 people from current and past Polaris juries as well as former members of the Canadian music media and Canadian music historians. The public then voted between Sept. 18 and Oct. 5 to determine the winners.

"These first recipients are such an incredible mosaic of artists and recordings. My father Allan and the Slaight Family are very proud to be supporting this recognition and we look forward to honouring more inspirational recordings in the coming years," Slaight Communications president and CEO Gary Slaight said in a statement.

The programming team at Toronto’s Roy Thomson / Massey Hall will produce a tribute concert to the four winning albums in early 2016. Commemorative prints of each winning album will be made for the winners and available for sale to the public.

--taken from: Billboard

Joni Mitchell, Cowboy Junkies, Sloan and Peaches Take Home Polaris Heritage Prizes

--taken from: Exclaim!

by Sarah Murphy

Earlier this year, the Polaris Music Prize announced a new honour to bestow upon music that was released prior to the current award's launch in 2006. Now, the winners of the Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize have been revealed.

Taking top honours in the 1960s and '70s category was Joni Mitchell for Blue, while the Cowboy Junkies won the '80s round with The Trinity Session. Sloan's Twice Removed triumphed in the '90s category, and Peaches' The Teaches of Peaches took home the prize for albums released between 2000 and 2005.

The winners were selected by jurors from across four categories, representing five decades of Canadian music, and voting was then opened to the public.

As previously reported, the four winning albums will be celebrated with a tribute concert in early 2016 with the folks from Toronto's Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall. The winners will be given a trophy at the show, and commemorative prints of the winning albums will be sold to the public.

"This is the Polaris version of a hall of fame. As with the main prize, we hope this award will lead to more discussion and discovery of timeless recorded art from our history," said Polaris founder and executive director Steve Jordan in a statement.

Earlier this year, Buffy Sainte-Marie was awarded the 2015 Polaris Music Prize for her album Power in the Blood.

--taken from: Exclaim!