Pitchfork

The Fourth Annual Shortlist Prize's initial list of 73 nominees was revealed yesterday; The Longlist, as it's known, sports albums from such familiar names as TV on the Radio, Wilco, The Magnetic Fields and The Wrens. The Shortlist Prize is the indie rock equivalent of the Album of the Year at the Grammys-- nominated albums must have sold fewer than 500,000 copies and must have been released in America between July 1st, 2003 and June 30th, 2004. The 73 contestants will be trimmed down in September to represent the Shortlist-- a group of 10 finalists, from which the winner will be picked. It's kind of like American Idol, only no one's screaming bloody Whitney.

To create the list, each of the 20 listmakers, a group of artists represented by such musicians as The Cure's Robert Smith, System of a Down's Serj, Jack Black and Norah Jones, nominated a number of albums. For example, Norah Jones picked Devendra Banhart and Loretta Lynn; ?uestlove picked Wilco and TV on the Radio. Which I guess proves that liking good music is a whole lot easier than making it. ZOING. The resulting list of nominees, not to be self-aggrandizing, reads a bit like a who's who of Pitchfork Best New Music selections, as it includes albums by Franz Ferdinand, Air, A.C. Newman, Dizzee Rascal, Fiery Furnaces, and Iron & Wine. On the other hand, Peaches' Fatherfucker is in there, too, so who the hell knows what's going on?

After the nominee list is pruned down to 10 in late September, a final winner will be selected at a concert in Los Angeles on November 10th. The lucky shmuck(s) who win(s) will get a cash prize of $10,000, provided by one of the Prize's sponsors, XM Radio (MTV2 being, apparently, the less generous sponsor). Last year, the shortlist included Interpol's Turn on the Bright Lights and Sigur Rós' ( ); in a head-scratching decision, Damien Rice's O won out. So, while we'd like to think that Boy in Da Corner or The Meadowlands ends up victorious, we're offering 5:3 odds that Ryan Adams' Love Is Hell will reign supreme. Place your bets with the intern today.

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