Photo of The Breeders by Chris Glass To all the slackers who swore they'd go to something CMW this week; to those who aspire to hear some maple-leaf music; and to the die-hard, loyal attendees; we have an announcement—tonight is last call. While a couple shows are saved for Sunday, this is the last full night to take in a few of the 500 artists in town, and what better way to finish it......

Photo of Cadence Weapon by David Topping. Earlier this afternoon in the Drake Sky Yard, the shortlist for this year's Polaris Prize was announced. Established by Steve Jordan last year, the $20,000 prize "annually honours, celebrates and rewards creativity and diversity in Canadian recorded music by recognizing, then marketing the albums of the highest artistic integrity, without regard to musical genre, professional affiliation, or sales history, as judged by a panel of selected critics......

For the time, it seems, side-projects are here to stay. If you take a look at any of the large indie bands from Canada (Broken Social Scene, Stars, New Pornographers, The Arcade Fire and Wolf Parade, off the top of our head), they've got at least one offshoot, whether active or not. The surprising thing is that, for the most part, these side-projects have done a decent job of living up to the hype brought......

Whoever booked the bands for the Wintercity Festival this year definitely earned their paycheque. Typically these free shows consist of bands that are either Canadian Idol runners-up or musicians you've never heard of. While there are still some bands listed that'll make you say "who??!" there are a number of great acts that will make it worth the trek to Nathan Phillips Square and freeze your ass off for. Just remember to wear your longjohns......

Hoooo boy! Looks like somebody fed us way too much turkey this weekend. We've just come out of our tryptophan-induced comas and realized we lost an entire day. Not only do we have to deal with our tardiness, but also figure out what to do with that permanent dent in the couch. If you can manage to roll out of the house after stuffing your face all weekend, you can burn off some of......

Tsk, tsk. Late two weeks in a row. Someone needs a good spanking. Next week we'll get our act together and put Torontoist before busy schedules and get this puppy out on time. Pinky swear. As always, let us know in the comments section if you're heading to any good shows that we missed. Particularly for this Thursday...we need some hot action that night. Recently Announced Sept. 11 - M Ward @ Mod Club, $16.50......

More evidence that we're the centre of the universe (kidding), the nominees for the inaugural Polaris Prize is out and four five out of the ten nominees are bonafide Toronto artists. Broken Social Scene, The Deadly Snakes, Final Fantasy, Sarah Harmer and K'Naan make up the Toronto contingent. If we add Metric (which live in a whole bunch of places) and Sarah Harmer (who lives near Kingston) then over half the list calls Toronto home.......

Torontoist enjoyed Stuart Berman's interview in this week's eye, pitting Max McCabe-Lokos (the Deadly Snakes) and Bry Webb (the Constantines).We're not taking sides in this little "tiff" but we'll gladly go and watch either band this weekend at the Horseshoe. But enough of the friendliness of Canada's indie scene, we think that underneath all this collegiality and 'pat-on-the back' we're all in this together joviality there's some real rage. 1) Sarah Slean vs. Sarah......

Funny how quickly a show can go from pariah to the hot ticket in town. Sunday's New Pornographers show created a dilemma for fans who didn't want to miss seeing the full-roster band including Destroyer's Dan Bejar (also opening the show) and Neko Case (whose own skyrocketing fame all but ensures this is the last time she'll be able to tour with the band), but on the other hand, didn't want to make the trek......

This Le Mercredi Mixtape starts off with promising New Yorkers and ends with promising Brits and in between is a warm salty ocean to dive into. But 'mixtape'? Mixtape seems like an anachronism already, who makes them anymore? And this isn't a 'tape' now is it? But, what the hell, I used to make mixtapes all the time and actually enjoyed giving new music to friends. This was the idea behind my mp3 blog,......

This past week, The Mountain Goats latest release The Sunset Tree has been running through our heads, both conceptually and sonically. This album, for those who haven't heard or heard about, is from principal songwriter John Darnielle. This is a man who's been recording for over a decade, and has released something like 400 songs to date (Torontoist admittedly has only heard a fraction of these). His modus operandi has been low fidelity, endlessly imaginative......