This Monday, September 24, the winner of the second-annual Polaris Prize will be announced at a gala event at the Phoenix. There will be stars, musical performances, free food and drink, and, unfortunately, you are probably not invited. Given to the best Canadian album of the past year, and awarded solely on artistic merit, the $20,000 prize is getting handed to someone (probably Feist) at a media and invite-only event. (Torontoist was graciously invited, but......

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......

"Do you trust your friends? Would you let them redecorate your apartment, or do your homework for you? Would you let them buy your groceries? Would you leave them in charge of your kids? And if you did, what would they change?" So reads the beginning of the liner notes from Do You Trust Your Friends?, the album of remixes and reimaginings of songs from Stars' Set Yourself On Fire, now out on Arts &......

French rap group TTC makes one thing clear on their MySpace page: "We don't make rap for people who don't like rap. We make rap for people who love rap more than anything else in the world, and who fucking love many other things too." They're a passionate bunch. The problem with these irony-obsessed goofballs is that based on appearances, they're easy to dismiss as fashionable in an American Apparel, Euro-Trash, gold chains 'n' grills......

i (heart) music has just released their list of the 33 hottest bands in Canada for 2006, as selected by a more than forty Canadian music bloggers (including yours truly, current Torontoist contributor Carrie Musgrave, Said the Gramophone, former Torontoist contributor Frank Yang from Chromewaves, and lots of others). We don't mean to gloat, but it looks like we're still the best city for music in the country. A whole bunch of Toronto-based bands made......

Tsk, tsk. Late two weeks in a row. Someone needs a good spanking. Next week we'll get our act together and put Torontoist before busy schedules and get this puppy out on time. Pinky swear. As always, let us know in the comments section if you're heading to any good shows that we missed. Particularly for this Thursday...we need some hot action that night. Recently Announced Sept. 11 - M Ward @ Mod Club, $16.50......

It's a bitter-sweet day in the hip hop neighborhood as Best Kept Secret, one of CHRY 105.5's longest-running shows, and a true staple of the Toronto hip hop scene, airs for the last time this evening from 6-8pm. Best Kept Secret began 12 years ago, when a post-velvet-catsuit era DJ Dalia was introduced to high school student DJ Venus, who would skip class and sprint to the studio to thug it out on air......