PenguinThe 2012 Polaris Music Prize gets awarded tonight, so in honour of the occasion, here’s a bunch of maple-flavoured content led off by a Canadian icon who hasn’t lived in Canada in some 40-plus years. Yeah!

If you have some time to kill and an interest in who Neil Young is circa 2012, you could do worse than to spend it with this feature piece at The New York Times. It covers his current relationship with alcohol and drugs – there is none – as well as his new record with Crazy Horse, Psychedelic Pill, his new digital audio format Pono, and why he decided to write an autobiography after insisting that he never would. Those memoirs, Waging Heavy Peace, comes out tomorrow – September 25 – and Psychedelic Pill is due out a month later on October 30. Neil leads the band into the Air Canada Centre on November 19.

Following up with news blips from some shortlisters, both this year and past… Feist may be ramping down the touring in support of last year’s Metals, but she’s ramping up the session videos – there’s a Les soiree de poches set at Le Blogotheque and From The Basement

CBC Music talks to Yamantaka//Sonic Titan, who also have some new music to hear in the form of their soundtrack contributions to the Mark Of The Ninja video game. They play The Great Hall this Friday night for PBR10.

Stream: Yamantaka//Sonic Titan / Mark & Blade

Spinner talks to Kathleen Edwards about her Polaris odds.

NPR has a w World Cafe session and BlogTO an interview with Cold Specks.

Fucked Up tells Spinner they’d like to have Drake up there with them for tonight’s Polaris performance. They won’t, but they’d like it.

Metro talks to Tony Dekker of Great Lake Swimmers.

The Boston Globe profiles Metric.

Julie Doiron has announced a new studio album in So Many Days, due out October 23. She’s released a first MP3 from the record and will be playing live on October 14, opening for Ben Gibbard at the Danforth Music Hall, and then October 30 at The Mod club supporting Grapes Of Wrath.

MP3: Julie Doiron – “By The Lake”

Spinner talks to The Sadies about backing Neil Young on their contribution to 2010’s Garth Hudson Presents: A Canadian Celebration of The Band. Yeah, two years ago. Whatevs.

You Say Party! talk to Exclaim and The Vancouver Sun about their return to active duty, starting this Saturday night at The Great Hall for PBR10.

Olenka & The Autumn Lovers have readied a new mini-album entitled Hard Times, and given it an October 2 release date. You can stream one of the new songs now.

Stream: Olenka & The Autumn Lovers – “Don’t Make Sense”

The Bomber Jacket talks to Kat Burns of Kashka, playing a record release show for her debut Vichada at The Drake on October 5.

BrooklynVegan has an interview with METZ, who’ve released a second MP3 from their self-titled debut. It’s out October 9 and they’re at The Horseshoe to mark its release on October 12.

MP3: METZ – “Wet Blanket”

A second MP3 from A.C. Newman’s forthcoming Shut Down The Streets is available to download. It’s out October 9 and he kicks off the tour in support of it October 21 at Lee’s Palace.

MP3: A.C. Newman – “Encyclopedia Of Classic Takedowns”

Toronto’s July Talk – whom you may recall impressing me at at CMF earlier this year – have put out a video from their self-titled debut album, due October 16.

Video: July Talk – “Paper Girl”

Both Spinner and A Heart Is A Spade have feature interviews with Diamond Rings, who’s just announced a cross-Canada tour in support of Free Dimensional, out October 22. The Toronto date comes November 29 at The Mod Club, tickets $18.50.

MP3: Diamond Rings – “I’m Just Me”

The Wooden Sky offers a feature piece on The Wooden Sky, who will be at The Phoenix on December 1.

Rich Aucoin has a fancy new Beach Boys-saluting video from his album We’re All Dying To Live. Toro and The Halifax Chronicle-Herald also have interviews.

Video: Rich Aucoin – “Brian Wilson is A.L.i.V.E.”

Loud & Quiet, The Calgary Herald, and aux.tv have interviews with Purity Ring.

aux.tv investigates the new “weird Canada” music scene bubbling up around the country.

The Globe & Mail examines how far the Polaris Prize has come in the past seven years, and what it now means for Canadian music

And a moment of silence for Sam “The Record Man” Sniderman, who passed away yesterday at 92. I spent much of my youth and my youthful allowance in his stores. Wait, did I say silence? I mean LOUDNESS.

Michael HalsbandTwenty is a nice round number for an anniversary, and Sloan marked their two decades as a band in fine style last year, releasing the milestone-referencing Double Cross and touring a career-spanning set more extensively than they have in some time. Fifteen is also a pretty solid number, so when they busted out a One Chord To Another recital for last year’s Fucked Up-sponsored fundraiser, it could also be seen as marking an occasion.

Twice Removed, however, only turns 18 this year (“only”… everyone who remembers buying a copy new put up your hand – congratulations, you’re old) so unless they’re celebrating the record’s ability to vote or fight in a war, it’s curious timing for a deluxe reissue and commemorative tour, though it’s worth noting they already did this at least once back in 2010 for Halifax Pop Explosion – celebrating the album’s legality to drive a car? But one of the perks of having been around as long as they have is they don’t have to justify themselves to anyone, so if Sloan wants to put together a super-fancy deluxe box set and tour across the country playing the album in full – plus other hits, don’t worry – who’s anyone to question it? Certainly not me.

This is a record, remember, that was twice voted the best Canadian album of all-time by Chart readers (in 1996 and 2005) but as adored as it became, when it was first released it confounded pretty much everyone (and eventually got them dropped from their major label deal), so definitively did it ditch the shoegrunge of their debut Smeared for much cleaner, classic pop styles. I personally remember listening to the radio at a Summer job in 1994 (painting a warehouse – fun!) and hearing the DJ declare they were about to play the new Sloan single; that was “Coax Me” and I swear another two or three more songs played before I realized that that moody, chiming, Byrds-y/Beatles-y throwback number from about 15 minutes ago was the song I’d been waiting for. And, eighteen years later, I’ve finally gotten around to learning to play it on guitar. Not nearly as difficult as I thought it was.

The first batch of Twice Removed dates started out west but only took them as far as Chicago; the second leg has now been announced and in addition to covering a lot more of the northeastern United States in October, a string of November dates covers southern Ontario and wraps up November 22 at The Phoenix in Toronto. Tickets for that are $26.50 in advance and go on sale this Saturday.

The Nelson Star has an interview with Jay Ferguson about the process of digging through the Sloan archives for the Twice Removed reissue set. They’ve also been posting video footage from the era at their YouTube channel.

Video: Sloan – “People Of The Sky”
Video: Sloan – “Coax Me”

The Darcys are also revisiting a classic album live, but it’s not one of theirs. Having released their interpretation of Steely Dan’s Aja at the start of the year, they’re now going to take it on tour. Exclaim has their Autumn itinerary, which wraps on November 10 at Lee’s Palace, tickets $10.

MP3: The Darcys – “Josie”
MP3: The Darcys – “Josie (Vol 2)”
Video: The Darcys – “Josie”

The Luyas are part of the PBR10 celebrations at the Great Hall in a couple weeks – they’re playing the Saturday night, September 29 – but with a new album in Animator due out shortly after on October 16, a tour of their own is in order – Exclaim has the dates, including a November 7 date at 918 Bathurst.

MP3: The Luyas – “Fifty Fifty”
Video: The Luyas – “Fifty Fifty”

Another recent Paper Bag Records signing also playing the PBR10 shows – they’re up Friday night – are Yamantaka/Sonic Titan. They’re this week’s NOW cover story, and are also going to be at Wrongbar November 12 supporting Lydia Lunch; tickets $25. And oh, they also need your help in creating a Yamantaka/Sonic Titan video game – of course you should support this.

Tokyo Police Club have announced a holiday season show at The Sound Academy on December 15, tickets $22.50 general admission and $35 VIP.

MP3: Tokyo Police Club – “Party In The USA”

Beatroute interviews Fucked Up, who’ve got something cool planned in the way of shows come November. Mike Haliechuk gives Exclaim a tease about their Long Winter concert series which kicks off November 9.

CBC Music is streaming the whole of The Wilderness Of Manitoba’s new album Island Of Echoes before its release this coming Tuesday; they play a record release show for it at Trinity-St. Paul’s on October 26.

MP3: The Wilderness Of Manitoba – “Morning Sun”
Stream: The Wilderness Of Manitoba / Island Of Echoes

Neil Young & Crazy Horse have given Psychedelic Pill, their second album of 2012, a released date of October 30 – Rolling Stone has details. Neil and the boys are at the Air Canada Centre on November 19.

Snowblink have premiered a new video from Inner Classics over at The Guardian. And if you’ve ever wanted a Snowblink-powered musical therapy session… well you can. Yeah. They’re at the Bicycle Music Festival at Christie Pits tomorrow evening at 6:30PM and play their official record release show at The Music Gallery on September 27.

Video: Snowblink – “Black & White Mountains”

JAM talks to Torq Campbell of Stars while The Olathe News, The Herald Sun, and Toledo Free Press have features on Metric. They both play the Air Canada Centre on November 24.

CBC Music asks Japandroids to list his five favourite records of the past 20 years. They play The Phoenix on December 12.

Norman WongOkay, since I am posting this from the north of Quebec – okay, not really that north, but considerably further north than Bloor St. in Rouyn-Noranda for this year’s Festival de musique émergente – I figure this is as good a time as any to run a pretty sweet giveaway for – wait for it – The North. As in the new record from Stars, out this coming Tuesday.

Thanks to the folks at Universal Music Canada, I have numerous copies of The North to give away in both analog and digital formats – the the former, a pair of LPs on blue vinyl, and to the latter, five silver CDs. To enter, leave a comment below with your email (it will be hidden from prying eyes), album format in order of preference, and tell me the furthest north point in Canada you’ve ever been. If you want to be precise, Google will tell you the latitude of anywhere if you ask nicely. Interestingly, Rouyn-Noranda is one degree further south than Vancouver, making that my northernmost sojourn in our fine country. Anyways, the contest is open to residents of Canada only and winners will be chosen on September 15.

The North was made available to preview via NPR stream at the start of this week, but The National Post has made their hosted stream worth checking out by adding track-by-track commentary from Torq Campbell. Consequence Of Sound also talks to Campbell about the new record.

Stars open up for Metric at The Air Canada Centre on November 24.

MP3: Stars – “Hold On When You Get Love And Let Go When You Give It”
MP3: Stars – “The Theory Of Relativity”
Stream: Stars / The North

The Wilderness Of Manitoba’s second album Island Of Echoes will be coming out on September 18 and they’ve booked a hometown record release show at Trinity-St. Paul’s for October 26. Fancy!

MP3: The Wilderness Of Manitoba – “Morning Sun”

The Wooden Sky have been touring their latest Every Child A Daughter, Every Moon A Sun over hill and through the dale since its release back in February, and they’re bringing it back home for a show at The Phoenix on December 1, tickets $17.50.

MP3: The Wooden Sky – “Child Of The Valley”

Andrew Scott of Sloan lists his five favourite records of the past two decades for CBC Music. Their super-deluxe Twice Removed reissue arrives September 4.

Exclaim has some details on the next album/project/thing from Yamantaka/Sonic Titan. The 33 // 渦 rock opera will debut at Pop Montreal on September 21; no details on encore performances more local to here or a recording release, but we can hope. Their YT//ST gets a re-release on September 11.

Pitchfork talks to Grimes about the making of her latest video for “Genesis”. She plays two nights at Lee’s Palace, September 21 and 22.

How excited is Woodpigeon to be opening for Patrick Wolf on his upcoming North American tour, including September 25 at the Music Gallery? So excited that there’ll be a new, tour-only album entitled Diamonds for sale throughout the journey and they’re giving away a cover of Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney’s “Say Say Say”. That’s pretty excited.

MP3: Woodpigeon – “Say Say Say”

Talk Rock To Me chats with Paul Saulnier of PS I Love You. They play the Friday night of the Paper Bag Records 10th anniversary shows at The Great Hall, September 28.

Toronto Life has an extensive feature piece on Diamond Rings, and Macleans solicits some scholastic advice from John O for those just starting school. The new album Free Dimensional will be out on October 23 and to support that release, he will be on Letterman on October 26. That is bananas. B-a-n-a-n-a-s.

Modern Superstitions’ self-titled debut album finally has a release date – it’ll be out and about on October 23.

Shad has released a video from his recent Melancholy & The Infinite Shadness mixtape.

Video: Shad – “A Milli Vanilli”

MTV lists off some things you may not have known about Coeur de Pirate.

Moonface have a new video from With Siinai: Heartbreaking Bravery.

Video: Moonface – “I’m Not The Phoenix Yet”

They Shoot Music has a video session with Memoryhouse.

Zuzana HudackovaIt’s shaping up to be an Autumn of Can-rock double bills high on value. Folks thought that it was a pretty impressive pairing of talent when it was announced last month that Dan Mangan and The Rural Alberta Advantage were teaming up to cross the country in October, or the June announcement that Metric and Stars were hitting the country’s arenas together, but that were just the first of a number of impressive double-bills looking to share driving duties across Canada this Fall.

First, you’ve got Toronto’s Cuff The Duke teaming up with Halifax’s Jenn Grant teaming up for a tour that stretches from BC out to Montreal, and while the Toronto venue isn’t officially announced, the date is confirmed as November 24 and the rumoured venue is the fancy-pants Winter Garden Theatre. Both artists have new records coming out, hence the road trip. Cuff The Duke will release Union October 2 and from the first taste of the new material via a live Paper Bag Session, it sounds like it’ll be more tuneful country-rock of the sort that they’ve built their following on. Grant, on the other hand, looks to be shifting gears again with The Beautiful Wild, out September 25. Following the effervescent pop of Honeymoon Punch, Exclaim reports that Wild will pursue a more mature and musically adventurous direction. The first single from said record is streamable below. Update: Winter Garden Theatre is confirmed, tickets on sale August 20.

Cuff The Duke have a couple of local shows before the Grant tour – there’s a free show at Yonge-Dundas Square the evening of August 31 and they’re part of the Paper Bag Records 10th anniversary show at The Great Hall on September 27.

Stream: Jenn Grant – “In The Belly Of A Dragon”
Video: Cuff The Duke – “Side By Side” (Paper Bag Sessions)

Elliott Brood are also playing that PBR10 show on September 27, but will be back on a Toronto stage on October 21 at The Danforth Music Hall as part of their Marvel Team-Up almost cross-Canada tour – no BC dates at the moment – with Halifax’s Wintersleep; tickets for that one are $25.50. Both released new records earlier this year – Days Into Years for the Brood, Hello Hum for the ‘Sleep. Chronicle Herald and The Montreal Gazette have Wintersleep features.

MP3: Elliott Brood – “Norther Air”
MP3: Wintersleep – “Resuscitate”

METZ will celebrate the release of the debut self-titled album with a hometown show at The Horseshoe on October 12, ticket $12 in advance.

MP3: METZ – “Headache”

After a couple visits in a supporting role, Cadence Weapon has scheduled a headlining gig of his own in support of the Polaris shortlisted Hope In Dirt City at Wrongbar for October 12, tickets $12.

MP3: Cadence Weapon – “Conditioning”

CBC Music talked to The Magic ahead of their Summerworks record release show for Ragged Gold this past weekend. Counteract also has a short feature piece.

Evening Hymns have released the first official video from Spectral Dusk, which is out next Tuesday but gets its live public unveiling this Friday night at Summerworks. The album, however, is unveiled as of right now courtesy of the stream at The Line Of Best Fit, which also comes with song-by-song annotations from Jonas Bonnetta.

Video: Evening Hymns – “Family Tree”
Stream: Evening Hymns / Spectral Dusk

Bry Webb talks to NOW about his plans for his own Summerworks show on August 18.

Exclaim and Stereogum talk to Dan Boeckner about his new outfit Divine Fits, while Britt Daniel does the same for Mountain X-Press. A Thing Called Divine Fits is out August 28 – though it’s available to stream now – and they play Lee’s Palace on September 5.

Stream: Divine Fits / A Thing Called Divine Fits

And Boeckner’s former bandmate Spencer Krug talks to The Quietus about his current project, Moonface.

Two Hours Traffic have announced a new EP Siren Spell, due out September 11, which not only offers a sneak preview of what their new lineup sounds like, but also gives the band a chance to indulge in their favourite pastime – touring across the country. Dates are coming this week but in the meantime, check out a track from the new EP.

MP3: Two Hours Traffic – “Amour Than Amis”

After a couple of non-album teases, The Wilderness Of Manitoba have finally offered an official first taste of their second album Island Of Echoes. It’s out September 18.

MP3: The Wilderness Of Manitoba – “Morning Sun”

NPR is streaming a new song from the forthcoming Stars album The North. It’s out September 4 and they support Metric at The Air Canada Centre on November 24. But I think I already said that.

Stream: Stars – “Backlines”

Hot on the heels of her Feistodon interactive clip, Feist has released a more conventional, less metal video from Metals.

Video: Feist – “Anti-Pioneer”

The Luyas have released a preview track from their new record Animator, out October 18. They’re at The Great Hall on September 29 for the PBR10 show.

MP3: The Luyas – “Fifty Fifty”

The AV Club welcomes Destroyer to AV Undercover and they choose to cover Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci. Of course.

DIY interviews Purity Ring.

NOW and The Montreal Gazette talk to Al Spx of Cold Specks.

John O’Regan talks to Spin about the new Diamond Rings record Free Dimensional, due out October 23.

Sloan have announced their super-fancy Twice Removed 20th anniversary package will be out on September 4; Exclaim has rounded up exactly what your $90 plus shipping gets you besides a public declaration that you really like “Pen Pals”.

Yamantaka // Sonic Titan drummer Alaska B lists her favourite albums of the last 20 years for CBC Music.

Beatroute checks in with Black Mountain.

Ben and Jonah of Fucked Up give Exclaim a progress report on their next album. They play Fort York on September 9 as part of Riot Fest.

Derek MaWhat: The fourth annual ALL CAPS! Island Festival – if this is a new thing to you, read this and come back after.
Who: Day one features Yamantaka//Sonic Titan, Maylee Todd, Choir! Choir! Choir!, Tyvek, Wet Hair, Esther Grey, and Triple Gangers. Day two welcomes A Place To Bury Strangers, Lioness, Absolutely Free, OG Melody, Young Mother, Canadian Winter, and Ivy Mairi. Plus artists. Plus workshops.
When: August 11 and 12, 2012
Where: Gibraltar Point on the Toronto Islands (all ages)
How: Two-day non-camping passes for the festival are $30 in advance but courtesy of Webster Media Consulting, I’ve got one pair of festival passes (good for both days but no camping) to give away for the event. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I WANT ALL CAPS” in the subject line and your full name in the body, and have that in to me by midnight, August 6.
What else: Yes, even festivals have trailers now.

Trailer: ALL CAPS!
MP3: A Place To Bury Strangers – “You Are The One”
MP3: Lioness – “The Night”
MP3: Choir! Choir! Choir! – “I Want It That Way”
MP3: Ivy Mairi – “I Can See You”
Video: Yamanta//Sonic Titan – “Hoshi Neko”
Video: Maylee Todd – “Heart Throb”
Video: OG Melody – “Change Gon Come”