Mike's Bloggity Blog

Tonight, in a star studded gala, The sixth annual Polaris Prize was handed out.  The night featured performances from some of the ten bands that made the Polaris Short List including Austra, Braids, Galaxie, Hey Rosetta!, Ron Sexsmith and Timber Timbre.

When the big moment came, Arcade Fire were announced as the winners of the Polaris Prize.

I can already feel it, you don’t know what The Polaris Prize is do you?

The Polaris Music Prize is a not-for-profit organization that annually honours, celebrates and rewards creativity and diversity in Canadian recorded music…and they throw one hell of a party. Past winners include Montreal’s Karkwa (2010) for Les Chemins De Verre, Toronto’s Fucked Up (2009) for The Chemistry Of CommonLife, Dundas’ Caribou (2008), for Andorra, Montreal’s Patrick Watson (2007) for Close To Paradise and Toronto’s Final Fantasy (2006) for He Poos Clouds.

I didn’t really talk about the awards as much as I had in the past few years because it always seemed like Arcade Fire was a sure thing.  I mean they won the Grammy, Brit Award and Juno for The Suburbs for god-sakes, how can they not also win the Polaris prize?  The album is plain and simply perfection, I’m glad it’s gotten the international recognition that it so rightly deserved.

But there’s a problem….

The Polaris Prize came with a cash prize of $30,000.  I don’t know if you’ve ever been a struggling artist in Canada, but I’m guessing that money could have gone a long way for the artists that will never win Grammys or even being invited to Junos…oh who am I kidding, EVERYONE is invited to the Junos.   Obviously Arcade Fire has had an amazing year and while awards like Grammys and Junos don’t come with cash prizes, I’m guessing the residuals of winning big awards like bigger tours, album sales and huge contracts is enough to help the band stay in the black, which maybe can’t be said for the other nine Polaris Short list nominees. I guess I’m sorta stuck on the thought that it would have been nice to see an artist win the $30,000 that would use every penny to put a dent into making their next album.  Given Arcade Fire’s year, that money will likely be gobbled up by agents, managers and lawyers.

So my question is this: Should Arcade Fire have won The Polaris Prize?

I think there’s enough that I could argue both sides until I turned blue, so I’d love to know what you think!

Click here for more information about The Polaris Music prize!

If you want to see the awards yourself, they’ll air on Much on September 24th at 1pm and Midnight.

The Polaris Music prize is by far one of my favourite competitions in Canada.  Not only does it highlight a wide variety of this country’s musicians, I also selfishly use it stock up my IPod with fantastic music, which leads people who hear my music selections, to think that I’m cooler than I actually am. Seems crazy, but trust me, it works.

You know I’ve been writing this blog a long time, when I’m starting to actually recognize names, for a guy that grew up listening to Rick Dees and The Weekly Top 40, this is a big step.

This is the sixth year of the prize, which awards $30,000 (up from $20,000 last year) to the best Canadian album, judged solely on artistic merit, without regard to genre or record sales. Past winners include Patrick Watson, Caribou, Karkwa and Fucked Up. This is a huge prize, especially to some of these artists who may still be unsigned and struggling to maintain a living as a Canadian artist. Which is kinda why I think bands like Arcade Fire and Neil Young should be taken out of the mix, but that’s another blog post for another day.

The Polaris Jury will now vote to reduce the Long List to the 10 title Short List which will be revealed July 6 at the Drake Hotel in Toronto on a live broadcast on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Canada’s channel 152 and CBC Radio 3.

Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
Austra – Feel It Break
Black Mountain – Wilderness Heart
Braids – Native Speaker
Buck 65 – 20 Odd Years
Louise Burns – Mellow Drama
D-Sisive – Jonestown 2: Jimmy Go Bye Bye
The Dears – Degeneration Street
Destroyer – Kaputt
Diamond Rings – Special Affections
Dirty Beaches – Badlands
Luke Doucet and The White Falcon – Steel City Trawler
Eternia & MoSS – At Last
Galaxie – Tigre et Diesel
Jenn Grant – Honeymoon Punch
Tim Hecker – Ravedeath, 1972
Hey Rosetta! – Seeds
Hooded Fang – Album
Imaginary Cities – Temporary Resident
Land Of Talk – Cloak and Cipher (pictured above)
Little Scream – The Golden Record
The Luyas – Too Beautiful To Work
Malajube – La Caverne
Miracle Fortress – Was I The Wave?
One Hundred Dollars – Songs Of Man
Doug Paisley – Constant Companion
PS I Love You – Meet Me At The Muster Station
Daniel Romano – Sleep Beneath the Willow
The Rural Alberta Advantage – Departing
Ron Sexsmith – Long Player Late Bloomer
Shotgun Jimmie – Transistor Sister
Sloan – The Double Cross
Frederick Squire – March 12
Stars – The Five Ghosts
Colin Stetson – New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges
Timber Timbre – Creep On Creepin’ On
The Weeknd – House Of Balloons
Women – Public Strain
Neil Young – Le Noise
Young Galaxy – Shapeshifting

Congrats to the Montreal band Karkwa for winning the Polaris Music Prize on Monday night!  It was a star-studded and amazing night for Canadian music and it was a fantastic moment to watch the band’s shocked faces as they were announced at the winners of the $20,000.

They were up against some pretty big names, so I bet Karkwa weren’t the ones that were surprised!

Haven’t heard of Karkwa before?  That’s totally fine.  That’s why the Polaris Music Prize exists,  so YOU can discover great Canadian music.

Click here to listen to them on Myspace.

Better yet, click here to download their album on Itunes.

It is only $9.99.  You know you’ve bought crap on Itunes before so why not support local, home-grown talent?

Congrats Karkwa!!!

If you missed the live stream, you can catch it on MuchMusic this Saturday!

We are only 32 days away from finding which extremely talent Canadian musician will win the 2010 Polar Music Prize!!!!

Out of all the awards in Canada, this is my absolute favourite because it allows Canadians the chance to discover so much great Canadian music that you’ll never find on Top 40 radio!

If you need a refresher on the Top 10, click here.

If you have never heard of any of the bands, do.not.worry.  That is exactly what these awards are for!  Don’t be shy, discover music that goes beyond auto-tune and mass-produced singles.

The Polaris website has a great media player that will play you songs from all the aritsts nominated.  Consider it a sampler plate of amazing music.  Turn it on while you are at work or cleaning up around the house, I guarentee by the end of the week, you’ll download at least one of the musicians!

Only 31 more sleeps!!!

Another great day for Canadian Music!

After weeks of waiting, The Polaris Music Prize short list was announced today. And while it is not surprsing that many of the bands are from Ontario, it is great to see some musicians from BC, QC, AB and New Brunswick get some recognition too!

There is already a little bit of controversy with this year’s short list. Some music fans are crying fowl over some of the nominations, saying that Owen Pallett and Caribou don’t deserve to be on the list because they’ve already won the $25,000 prize before.  And since the award is only four years old, I guess that makes sense.

If you are sick of listening to Katy Perry’s Summer Gurls on every.single.radio.station, then might I suggest you checking out the 10 best canadian albums as voted by the Polaris Jury!

The grand prize winner will be announced in September.

THE BESNARD LAKES,
The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night
(Montréal, QC)
listen now!

OWEN PALLETT,
Heartland
(Toronto, ON)
listen now!

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE,
Forgiveness Rock Record
(Toronto, ON)
listen now!

RADIO RADIO,
Belmundo Regal
(Grosse Coque, NS, Moncton, NB, Pointe-à-l’église, NS)
Listen now!

CARIBOU,
Swim
(Dundas, ON)
Listen now!

THE SADIES,
Darker Circles
(Toronto, ON)
Listen now!

KARKWA,
Les Chemins De Verre
(Montréal, QC)
listen now!

SHAD,
TSOL
(London, ON)
listen now!

DAN MANGAN,
Nice, Nice, Very Nice
(Vancouver, BC)
listen now!

TEGAN AND SARA,
Sainthood
(Vancouver, BC & Montréal, QC)
listen now!

The Polaris Music Prize Long List was announced on Thursday.  The prize recognizes the best in Canadian music and this year, surprisingly, I’ve heard of most of the nominees! This is a huge improvement that over the last few years, I obviously owe a huge debt of gratitude to CBC Radio 3 for introducing me to so many of these acts!

If you are looking to listen, love and support Canadian music, these are the forty best.  It doesn’t get any easier than this folks.  Click on their names to listen to the best that our country has to offer!

Congrats to all the nominees, the list will be shortened to 10 in just a few weeks, so show them your support now!

Apollo Ghosts - Mount Benson (Vancouver)

Bahamas - Pink Strat (Toronto)

The Besnard Lakes – The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night (Montréal)

Blue Rodeo – The Things We Left Behind (Toronto)

Brasstronaut - Mt. Chimaera (Vancouver)

Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record (Toronto)

Basia Bulat – Heart Of My Own (London)

By Divine Right - Mutant Message (Toronto)

Caribou – Swim (Dundas)

Jason Collett - Rat A Tat Tat (Toronto)

Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles (II) (Toronto)

Amelia Curran – Hunter Hunter (Halifax)

Fred Fortin - Plastrer La Lune (Montréal)

Frog Eyes - Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph (Victoria)

Hannah Georgas – This Is Good (Vancouver)

Ghostkeeper - Ghostkeeper (Calgary)

Holy Fuck – Latin (Toronto)

Karkwa – Les Chemins De Verre (Montréal)

LeE HARVeY OsMOND – A Quiet Evil (Hamilton)

Greg MacPherson - Mr. Invitation (Winnipeg)

Dan Mangan – Nice, Nice, Very Nice (Vancouver)

Misteur Valaire - Golden Bombay (Montréal)

The New Pornographers – Together (Vancouver)

Owen Pallett - Heartland (Toronto)

Plants And Animals – La La Land (Montréal)

Radio Radio - Belmundo Regal (Montréal)

Justin Rutledge – The Early Widows (Toronto)

The Sadies - Darker Circles (Toronto)

Shad - TSOL (London)

Elizabeth Shepherd - Heavy Falls The Night (Toronto)

The Slew – 100% (Montréal)

Meaghan Smith - The Cricket’s Orchestra (London)

South Rakkas Crew - The Stimulus Package (Toronto)

Tegan And Sara – Sainthood (Vancouver)

The Wooden Sky – If I Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’m Gone (Toronto)

Hawksely Workman – Meat (Huntsville)

You Say Party! We Say Die! – XXXX (Vancouver)

Young Galaxy – Invisible Republic (Montréal)

Yukon Blonde - Yukon Blonde (Vancouver)

Zeus – Say Us (Toronto)

Today is like Christmas day for Canadian music lovers because today is the day that the long list for the Polaris Music Prize is announced!

Don’t know what the Polaris Music Prize is?

Then educate yourself.

Since only  launching in 2006, the contest has become the biggest and best spotlight for Canadian music.

The prize’s past winners include:  Fucked Up, Caribou, Patrick Watson and Final Fantasy.

Along with having the honor of being named the Best Album of 2010, this year’s winner will also take home $20,000.

The Long List will be announced today, then the 40 artists will be cut down to 10 on July 6th.  Then the jury has over two months to make their final decision when the results are announced on September 20th.

Click to here to find out all about the Polaris Music Prize. I promise you’ll feel like a better canadian!

>On a surprisingly snowy night, Calgarians were treated to a rare-concert experience. In an attempt to regain their momentum after losing their lead singer, The Barenaked Ladies have just embarked on a North American tour. As an opening act, they’ve brought along Joel Plaskett. He himself is coming off a ton of East Coast Must Awards and being robbed of the much deserving Polaris Music Prize.

For Canadian music fans, it didn’t get better.

Since both acts were so impressive, I’ve decided to break out the rare double 99 Word Review.99 Word Review: Joel Plaskett

Bucket List #45: Joel Plaskett concert. Luckily, I was able to cross him off the list by simply attending a BNL concert. As an opener, Plaskett’s popularity could have threatened to overshadow the main act, and yes, he came dangerously close. It was truly a double-header of epic proportions. In his tragically short set, Plaskett continued to establish himself as one of Canada’s biggest rising stars. Song by song, the massive auditorium began to sit up and pay attention. By the end of his set, Plaskett had done the impossible: gotten a standing ovation as opening act. Game, set….

99 Word Review: Barenaked Ladies

Before tonight’s concert, everyone had the same thought: “The Barenaked Ladies without Steven Page? Explain.” After enjoying the two and half-hour show, I’m happy to report that BNL are doing just fine. Actually, they are doing great. Having never seen the Canadian icons before, I honestly felt no noticeable absence. Their show was fun, energetic and unforgettable. Twenty years later, this is a tight band that is still built on friendships with immense respect for each other (and it shows.) John Mayer would benefit with a lesson from BNL about the importance of creating a real concert experience.
It will be hard to forget either Plaskett or BNL. Better yet, it will be even harder to wipe the smile off of my face.

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Still can’t get enough of the Polaris Music Prize?!

Now you can support Canadian Music and decorate your living or bathroom at the same time.