We at FFS are not impressed with the Mercury Prize nominations this year. Not one bit. So we’ve decided to create our own: The FFS Schmercury Prize. And cos we’re not jingoistic types we’re allowing artists from the WHOLE world.
Thanks very much to The Leftover Sessions, Wears the Trousers and Anika in London for help with suggestions.
So without further ado here’s our longlist. We’ll cut it down to the required 12 next week, then we’ll poll you, our beloved readers with some online trickery and clicking, to find the winner by the time the Mercury is announced.
(NB See below for today’s additions – 22/06)
Alessi’s Ark – Notes From A Treehouse myspace spotify
Andrew Bird – Noble Beast myspace spotify
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion myspace spotify
Anni Rossi – Rockwell myspace spotify
Au Revoir Simone – Still Night, Still Night myspace spotify
Bat For Lashes – Two Suns myspace spotify
Bishop Allen – Grrr… myspace spotify
Blue Roses – Blue Roses myspace spotify
Broken Records – Until The Earth Begins To Part myspace spotify
Butcher Boy – React or Die myspace
Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career myspace spotify
Cryptacize – Mythomania myspace
Darren Hayman – Pram Town myspace spotify
Dear Reader – Replace Why With Funny myspace
Dent May – The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele myspace
Drever, Mccusker and Woomble – Before the Ruin website spotify
Emmy The Great – First Love myspace spotify
Fanfarlo – Reservoir myspace
Fever Ray – Fever Ray myspace spotify
Grant Campbell – Expecting Great Things myspace
Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest myspace
Handsome Furs – Face Control myspace spotify
Hanne Hukkelberg – Blood from a Stone myspace spotify
Heartless Bastards – The Mountain myspace
Jeffrey Lewis – ‘Em Are I myspace spotify
Laura Gibson – Beasts of Seasons myspace
Marissa Nadler – Little Hells myspace
Neko Case – Middle Cyclone myspace spotify
Pagan Wanderer Lu – Fight My Battles For Me myspace spotify
Regina Spektor – Far myspace spotify
Sharon Van Etten – Because I Was in Love myspace
She & Him – Volume One myspace spotify
She Keeps Bees – Nests myspace
Slow Club – Yeah So myspace
Soap & Skin – Lovetune for Vacuum myspace spotify
St Vincent – Actor myspace spotify
The Antlers – Hospice myspace spotify
The Leisure Society – The Sleeper myspace spotify
Wildbirds & Peacedrums – The Snake myspace spotify
Zoey Van Goey – The Cage Was Unlocked All Along myspace
If there’s anything you feel we’ve left out please email us at schmercury [at] forfolkssake [dot] com.
*UPDATE 22/06*
Antony and the Johnsons – The Crying Light
Bill Callahan – Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
Bowerbirds – Upper Air
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Up From Below
Felice Brothers – Yonder Is The Clock
Golden Ghost – The Unimaginative Body
Great Lake Swimmers – Lost Channels
Jenny Lewis – Acid Tongue
JJ – No 2
Joe Gideon and the Shark – Harum Scarum
Julie Doiron – I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day
Let’s Wrestle – In the Court of the Wrestling Let’s
Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson – Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson
My Latest Novel – Deaths and Entrances
Orphans & Vandals – I’m Alive & You are Dead
Phosphorescent – To Willie
Slow Runner – Mermaids
Sons of Noel and Adrian – Sons of Noel and Adrian
The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love
The Duke and the King – Nothing Gold Can Stay
The Low Anthem – Oh My God, Charlie Darwin
The Phantom Band- Checkmate Savage
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
thenewno2 – You Are Here
tUnE-yArDs – BiRd-BrAiNs
Thanks to Scott Pashby, Rob Ball, Stu Burns, Bovine Mammal, iparky, Ant Chalmers and Joe Innes for suggestions.
Keep ’em coming. We’ll whittle it down to a shortlist over the weekend.
Words: Lynn Roberts