Pitchfork: New Pantheon Award Shortlist Revealed

Ten bands enter, one band leaves! The organization behind the prestigious New Pantheon Music Prize, which honors the best in under-the-radar music, has unveiled its list of finalists exclusively to Pitchfork, and man, is this going to be a close one. Check out the albums in the running:

Animal Collective - Feels (Fat Cat)
Antony and the Johnsons - I am a Bird Now (Secretly Canadian)
Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine (Sony)
Arcade Fire - Funeral (Merge)
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm (Vice)
Death Cab for Cutie - Plans (Atlantic)
The Decemberists - Picaresque (Kill Rock Stars)
Kings of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak (RCA)
M.I.A. - Arular (XL/Beggars)
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois (Asthmatic Kitty)

Looks a lot like Pitchfork's year-end list, doesn't it? Picking just one must be like Sophie's Choice for the panel of 27 entertainers, journalists, and industry types charged with determining the winner, which will be announced at a celebratory concert in Los Angeles on February 6. Several finalists are scheduled to perform at the f�te; which ones, we don't know yet.

As previously reported, the New Pantheon Music Prize honors an album released in the United States between July 1, 2004 and October 30, 2005 that has yet to sell 500,000 copies at the time of nomination. The star-studded list of nominators includes Ric Ocasek of the Cars, Elton John, Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson of the Roots, Elijah Wood, Margaret Cho, Shirley Manson of Garbage, Beck, John Legend, Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, country superstar Keith Urban, Adam Brody and Josh Schwartz from "The O.C.", and Pitchfork's own Ryan Schreiber.

Each panelist began the process by nominating up to seven albums, and then the longlist of nominated records was whittled down to those final 10. Check out the highly entertaining New Pantheon website to see which panelists nominated which records-- who knew ?uestlove dug Bright Eyes and Suzanne Vega is a Jamiroquai fan?!

* Pitchfork News: New Pantheon Award Nominees Revealed