Owen Pallett (aka. Final Fantasy) has taken the inaugural Polaris Music Prize and $20,000 for his sophomore album He Poos Clouds. Pallett beat out nine other worthy artists including Cadence Weapon, the Deadly Snakes, Malajube and more. The award was started by music industry veteran Steve Jordan who based the award on Britain's Mercury Prize. For Owen's sake we just hope that there's no Polaris Music Prize curse. Update: Check out Radio 3's commentary......

Dear Editors, This letter concerns your August 2nd performance at the Opera House. Let me just start by congratulating you - you really pulled it off. I wasn't sure that you'd be able to. I mean, you made us wait through two opening bands (first one good, second one bad) and three hours before you finally came on, which meant that everyone was kinda pissed off by the time you started. Three hours is......

Looking to check out some live music this week? Here's your listing of what's happening around the city between July 31 and August 6. In addition, we are now including recently announced shows, so you have no excuse about missing out on ticket opportunities. If you know of any good shows this week that we missed below, let us know in the comments. Feel free to also let us know about upcoming shows that......

Things are going great for previous Torontoist interview subject Howard Akler. His debut novel the City Man has been getting rave reviews and was recently nominated in the first-time authors category for the Commonwealth Writer's Prize (Caribbean and Canada Region). Akler joins a list which includes long-time poet and writer, but first-time novelist George Elliot Clarke and Calgary author Jacqueline Honnet. The winner of the regional prize goes on to compete against other fine books......