Pitchfork: Sigur Rós, Interpol, Bright Eyes, Cat Power Among Shortlist Music Prize Finalists

Sigur Rós, Interpol, Bright Eyes, Cat Power Among Shortlist Music Prize Finalists
Vegas offering attractive odds on Chan Marshall, the Susan Lucci of indie rock

[Posted Tuesday, September 30th, 2003 01:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

Ryan Goldman, Josh Bauchner and Will Bryant report:
While you were off being mesmerized by shiny Latin Grammys, the overwrought production numbers and girl-on-girl action of the MTV Video Music Awards, the Shortlist Music Prize committee was quietly announcing its list of finalists for Album of the Year, as selected by some of the most innovative and respected artists in popular music today. The 2003 Shortlist nominees include past winners Sigur Rós, past nominees Yeah Yeah Yeahs and newcomers Bright Eyes, Cody Chestnut, Cat Power, Damien Rice, Floetry, Interpol, The Black Keys and The Streets.

The Shortlist Music Prize was founded by music-biz insiders Tom Sarig and Greg Spotts in 2001 to promote lesser-known artists and expose new acts to the mainstream. Each year, a panel of musicians, record executives, and journalists nominate up to ten albums each, none of which have sold more than 500,000 copies in the United States, which are then reduced to a list of ten finalists before the Shortlist Music Prize is awarded to the year's best album. According to the organizers' website, the Shortlist prize is intended to allow "members of the creative community to share their cultural discoveries directly with the consumer, without an intermediary or filter."

Well, that is, unless the intermediary or filter happens to be themselves: see, you can purchase $45 tickets for the Shortlist concert-slash-awards ceremony, which will be televised on MTV2 as part of a week-long barrage of Shortlist-related programming. Then there's the Shortlist tour, which will take several nominees on the road on a self-congratulatory victory lap around the country, with all proceeds going towards...well, the artists and themselves. How is this different from a regularly packaged festival tour again?

Oh, that's right...it's all about the award, which this year will take the form of "Shorty," sort of an enlarged Oscar head listening to headphones. It kind of looks like a cross between the aliens in Close Encounters and a bald Marilyn Manson. The statuette was designed by artist Danny Harmon, whose previous endeavors have included Air Force recruitment materials and the cover of Train's latest trainwreck. This year's 'prize' will be awarded at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles on October 5th, with a $5,000 grant from Sirius Satellite Radio going to the winner. Five freakin' grand? My god, I just saw some schlub on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? win more than that by answering a trivia question about Right Said Fred!

Several of the 2003 listmakers-- which include drummer ?uestlove of The Roots, filmmaker Cameron Crowe, the Chemical Brothers, vocalist Chris Martin of Coldplay, Dave Matthews, Erykah Badu, Flea, Josh Homme, journalist Josh Tyrangiel, journalist Kim Osorio, Mos Def, Musiq, KCRW know-it-all Nic Harcourt, Perry Farrell, Pete Yorn, Spike Jonze, The Neptunes, Tom Waits, and Tori Amos-- are also expected to make surprise appearances. Or did we just ruin that for you?