July 10, 2007
Un! Deux! Trois! Dis: Prize Polaris!
Photo of Cadence Weapon by David Topping.
Earlier this afternoon in the Drake Sky Yard, the shortlist for this year's Polaris Prize was announced. Established by Steve Jordan last year, the $20,000 prize "annually honours, celebrates and rewards creativity and diversity in Canadian recorded music by recognizing, then marketing the albums of the highest artistic integrity, without regard to musical genre, professional affiliation, or sales history, as judged by a panel of selected critics and experts." Albums released between June 1, 2006 to May 31, 2007 are eligible.
Last year, the nominees were Toronto-heavy: Broken Social Scene, The Deadly Snakes, Final Fantasy, Sarah Harmer, K'naan, Metric, Sarah Harmer, The New Pornographers, Wolf Parade, Malajube, and Cadence Weapon all snagged nods. In the end, some dude we've definitely never heard of named Owen Pallett walked away with the victory, his prize—and the $20,000 he gave (in part) to his boyfriend to help pay off his student loans—solidifying his place in all of our hearts. Cadence Weapon (who did a CBC radio session with Pallett earlier this year) holds no grudges, however, and served as DJ and nominee-unveiler at today's ceremony.
If last year's Polaris Prize was Toronto's, this year's is most definitely Montreal's, with no less than half of the bands nominated calling that place somewhere east of us home. And while one insider described the list to us beforehand as "very Pitchfork-y," there are still a few surprises amidst the more obvious nominees: this year's shortlist consists of The Arcade Fire for Neon Bible, The Besnard Lakes for The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse, The Dears for Gang Of Losers, Julie Doiron for Woke Myself Up, Feist for The Reminder, Junior Boys for So This Is Goodbye, Miracle Fortress for Five Roses, Joel Plaskett Emergency for Ashtray Rock, Chad VanGaalen for Skelliconnection, and Patrick Watson for Close To Paradise. All in all, a safe list, but a worthy one.
The winner will be announced at the awards gala on Monday, September 24 at an as-of-yet-undisclosed location here in Toronto. We have our money on the nominees whose names rhyme with "Marcade Flyer" and "Heist."
UPDATE (9:45 p.m.): More photos from the day (Joel Plaskett! Besnard Lakes! Lots more Cadence!!) are after the fold.
Steve Jordan, Polaris's Founder and Executive Director, gets set to unveil the nominees.
Cadence Weapon reveals the shortlist, one by one by one.
The media—from MuchMusic to Bravo to CBC to ET Canada—was there.
Joel Plaskett hanging out.
Olga Goreas of the Besnard Lakes double-fists her drinks for us.
Cadence DJs (quite well, by the way).
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Montreal is somewhere west of us?
Well, if you keep going, then technically yeah.
(My mistake -- fixed.)
Owen Pallet is a pretentious boob, or certainly came off that way in the interview he did with that other pretentious boob Jian Gomeshi on CBC yesterday. In any case he detailed who he "gave" the money too. I woundn't call it so much giving it away as paying back debts to the people who worked on his record as the majority of the money went to Leon Tahney and Rozasia who played, unpayed but with a promise of future payment on the record. I don't know if I won some money and gave it to my spouse would you call that "gave away".
He told Eye that he was gonna give it to his boyfriend and to Blocks Recording Club. If I remember correctly, a lot of places reported after he won that he was going to give the money to his "friend."
And I think any kind of "pretentious boob" assessment of Pallett seems to be a case of shy/asshole confusion.
I'm going to go with Patrick Watson to win it. He's come pretty far in a short period of time. If not him, then I hope the Besnard Lakes get it.
Well yesterday he layed out who got what, I actually think it was kind of crass, some went to his BF's student loans, some went to Blocks, some went to Leon and some when to Rozasia, there was one more lump to someone I don't remember.
I stand by pretentious boob assessment. True some of that comes from his attempts to be self deprecating but some of it is genuine arrogant shit.
Chester, if you were totally average and everyone had their nose up your ass, you'd be arrogant too!
Who cares?
(re: the private lives of celebrities, even the minor ones)
totally pitchfork-heavy, we need some michael buble! oh yeah!
This is Owen. Apologies for my on-air stumble through of my Polaris prize-sharing. I was surprised that I was breaking down my bank account on national radio.
I don't feel comfortable entering into a dialogue with anonymous posters. If anybody wishes to learn more about my re-distribution of the Polaris Prize money--which I would encourage you to do before drawing your own conclusions--I would ask all concerned to e-mail me at opallett@yahoo.com. Thanks.
Owen again: Disappointed that Frog Eyes weren't nominated, but I'm rooting for Miracle Fortress and Junior Boys.
Thanks for commenting, Owen -- hopefully people will take you up on the offer.
Way to proofread your signage, Polaris.
Junior Boys' album is called SO THIS IS GOODBYE - not SO THIS IS FOREVER.
Dinks.
Having said that, Junior Boys better win!!!
Kat
Whatever, it was a minor mistake, and everything else Junior Boys-related (from the press kit to Jordan's announcement of the nominees) called the album by its correct name.