Polara is an American alternative rock band formed in 1994 by Ed Ackerson , a musician and producer from Minneapolis , Minnesota . The band was considered one of the most prominent and creative groups to emerge from Minneapolis in the 1990s. Billboard writer Deborah Russell called Ackerson and Polara the front of "the emergence of a new local (Twin Cities) scene" more interested in pop music and postpunk than the punk rock of bands like Hüsker Dü and The Replacements .
19-440: Polara may refer to Polara (band) , an American rock band Polara (album) , a 1995 album by the band Polara Golf , an American golf ball manufacturer Dodge Polara , an automobile model See also [ edit ] Polari Polaris (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
38-552: A 2002 instrumental album, Oblivion And Points Beyond , under the name Sideways. Ackerson died on October 4, 2019, of pancreatic cancer . On October 5, 2020, the first anniversary of Ackerson's death, the Susstones label released a 30-song tribute album via Bandcamp, Closer To Heaven: A Tribute To Ed Ackerson , featuring 30 bands reinterpreting Ackerson songs. Artists included The Jayhawks , Motion City Soundtrack , Tanya Donelly , Dandy Warhols , and The Ocean Blue . The title
57-630: A generally warm reception by critics ( Trouser Press Ira Robbins called it "stylish and sophisticated" ), the album received little support from its record label. Corporate mergers involving Interscope soon led the label to drop many bands, including Polara. Ackerson put Polara on hold in favor of other projects, but Jurgens and new bassist Dan Boen rejoined Ackerson for 2002's Jetpack Blues , released on Susstones. Greg Winter of CMJ called Jetpack Blues "exquisite," with "short but sweet guitar solos and beautiful vocal harmonies." A final album, Beekeeping , came out in 2008. Polara has been honored with
76-447: A heavy element of Krautrock -inspired electronics and keyboards. Polara was Ackerson's first band to gain significant national attention. The group released a self-titled debut in 1995, which Allmusic writer Rick Anderson called "weird but lovable" and "as fresh and bracing as a bucket of ice water in the face." Billboard writer Chris Morris called it "the first truly great album (I have) heard in 1995." Strohm also contributed to
95-504: A holistic approach to making music, viewing composition, performance, recording and post-production all as steps in a single process of creating a song. He told an interviewer in Guitar Player magazine, "It's all part of the same thing—amps, guitars, effects. You're playing it all." Ackerson believed that constant experimentation with new sounds was at the heart of his songwriting approach with Polara, which he stated "would never make
114-620: A local act called Three Colors , which featured saxophonist Dana Colley , later of Morphine . As Sex Execs became more successful, they started recording in professional studios such as Syncro Sound , which was owned by The Cars . As Kolderie recalled, they learned a lot from the engineers there. In 1985, Slade and Kolderie co-founded Boston 's Fort Apache Studios , along with Jim Fitting (another friend from Yale and Sex Execs) and Joe Harvard . The studio originated in Roxbury , but later relocated to Cambridge, Massachusetts . "We were all
133-587: A part of that DIY kind of culture," said Slade. "The whole idea of getting someone in to design [the studio] wasn’t part of the plan. The plan was, 'Get a control room, get a playing room, get the wiring right, get a console, and then just start recording'." Slade remained active as a musician in the 1980s. He played rhythm guitar and occasionally sang and wrote songs for the Boston indie band Men & Volts , which also included Kolderie. Slade and Kolderie co-produced Radiohead 's debut album, Pablo Honey , which
152-579: A star on the outside mural of famed Twin Cities club First Avenue . Ackerson himself was a sound engineer at the club in the 1990s. The stars recognize performers that have played sold-out shows or have otherwise demonstrated a major contribution to the culture at the iconic venue. Receiving a star "might be the most prestigious public honor an artist can receive in Minneapolis," according to journalist Steve Marsh. Polara composed an original score for
171-478: Is an American record producer , engineer , and mixer . On many of his productions he worked in partnership with Paul Q. Kolderie . Slade was born in Lansing, Michigan , United States. He graduated from Yale University in 1978. Slade and Kolderie became friends at Yale, where they played in bands together. They both later relocated to Boston , where they became members of Sex Execs , a new wave music band of
190-470: The 27 Various, blended 1960s mod-rock influences with Syd Barrett -style psychedelia , and released five albums between 1987 and 1992—the first two limited releases on Ackerson's own Susstones label, and the others on the larger label Clean ( Twin/Tone ). Despite an increasingly visible profile and critical praise over the course of its career, the band's prospects suffered when Twin/Tone's distributor, Rough Trade , went out of business. Nevertheless, Ackerson
209-543: The Mighty Mighty Bosstones , Suddenly, Tammy! , Lou Reed , The Boo Radleys , New Collisions , Sebadoh , Lush , the Go-Go's , The Dictators , Beth Sorrentino , Weezer , Kim Boekbinder , The Dresden Dolls , Echobelly , Buffalo Tom , and Papas Fritas . He co-produced (with Kolderie) Hole's Live Through This , which went platinum within a year of its release and spawned four singles . Slade
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#1732773275023228-442: The debut album. Critical acclaim for Polara led to a bidding war by several major labels; Polara eventually signed to Interscope for its second album, C'est La Vie , in 1997, with Peter Anderson replacing Wilson on drums. Though Ackerson produced most of C'est La Vie himself, the band also worked with prominent producers Alan Moulder ( Smashing Pumpkins ), Sean Slade , and Paul Q. Kolderie on several tracks. Ackerson took
247-586: The early 1980s. The duo had their formative experience as producers while they were in Sex Execs. Most of the group lived in a house in Dorchester, Boston that was wired up as a primitive studio. In a 2018 interview, Slade discussed how their career as producers got started at that house with a four-track reel-to-reel recorder they had bought in New York. Other bands came over to record as well, including
266-445: The same record twice." In contrast to Polara , his intention on C'est la Vie was to play more straightforward rock. "The first album had no lead (guitar parts), and that was very deliberate. I was kind of politicized about it. But when we started to get this record together I realized that I am a rock guitar player, and we felt like making a record more related to rock." A third album, Formless/Functional , followed in 1998. Despite
285-652: The silent film The Fall of the House of Usher , which they performed live at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre as part of the 2002 Los Angeles Film Festival . Polara's song "Scorched Youth Policy" appears on the soundtrack to the 1996 Jackie Chan film Supercop . After Polara, Ackerson started a new group, BNLX (named after the abbreviation for Belgium-Netherlands-Luxembourg) with his wife Ashley Ackerson. He also released two solo albums, Ed Ackerson and Ackerson2 , in 2007 and 2008, as well as
304-470: The title Polara . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Polara&oldid=1149822916 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Polara (band) Ackerson's previous band,
323-531: Was released 1993. They were pivotal in convincing EMI Records to release " Creep " as the band's debut single prior to the album's release. The song initially failed to achieve commercial success, but after the album release in early 1993, "Creep" was re-released and became a worldwide hit. Slade has produced and/or mixed recordings by such artists as Hole , Warren Zevon , Pixies , The Lemonheads , Juliana Hatfield , Morphine , Big Dipper , Dinosaur Jr. , HumanKind , Uncle Tupelo , Tracy Bonham , Spacehog ,
342-849: Was seen as a rising star. Trouser Press writer Ira Robbins, in an overview of Ackerson's career, called the Various' album Approximately a turning point "for Ackerson, who was on his way to becoming an assured and able multi-faceted rocker," and noted that the heavier sound Ackerson would pursue in Polara was starting to be apparent on the 27 Various' final album, 1992's Fine . After a short stint as second guitarist in Blake Babies singer John Strohm 's band Antenna , Ackerson formed Polara in 1994 with guitarist Jennifer Jurgens, bassist Jason Orris, and Trip Shakespeare 's Matt Wilson on drums, continuing his interest in 1960s psychedelic pop but adding
361-406: Was taken from Polara's last single, which had been released as a digital-only track in 2009 and was nearly forgotten until its rediscovery during work on the tribute album; Susstones re-released it also on the same day as the tribute album's release. Profits from Closer To Heaven went to an education fund for Ackerson's daughter. Sean Slade Sean Slade (born 14 November 1957)
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