Original Pirate Material, the debut album by British garage rapper Mike Skinner's alter-ego the Streets, is one of the nine finalists for the Shortlist Music Prize. Debut albums by Damien Rice (O), Interpol (Turn on the Bright Lights), Cody Chesnutt (The Headphone Masterpiece), Floetry (Floetric) and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (Fever to Tell) also made the cut from more than seventy nominees. Bright Eyes' Lifted or the Story Is in the Soil Keep Your Ear to the Ground, the Black Keys' Thickfreakness, Cat Power's You Are Free, and Sigur Ros' () round out the list. Sigur Ros won the inaugural Shortlist Prize in 2001.

The albums were selected by a jury that included Dave Matthews, Erykah Badu and Coldplay's Chris Martin. The Shortlist award ceremony will be held October 5th at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles. Bright Eyes, the Black Keys, Cat Power, Rice and Interpol will perform.

Contrary to a previous report, the Bright Eyes' Lifted was not disqualified for the Shortlist Prize.

ANDREW DANSBY
(September 3, 2003)