Godspeed You Black Emperor not thrilled to win Polaris Prize

Godspeed You Black Emperor won the Polaris Music Prize. Hold on before you nip down to Smiths to pick out a Congratulations card, though... they're not happy:

A FEW WORDS REGARDING THIS POLARIS PRIZE THING

hello kanada.
hello kanadian music-writers.

thanks for the nomination thanks for the prize- it feels nice to be acknowledged by the Troubled Motherland when we so often feel orphaned here. and much respect for all y’all who write about local bands, who blow that horn loudly- because that trumpeting is crucial and necessary and important.

and much respect to the freelancers especially, because freelancing is a hard fucking gig, and almost all of us are freelancers now, right? falling and scrambling and hustling through these difficult times?

so yes, we are grateful, and yes we are humble and we are shy to complain when we’ve been acknowledged thusly- BUT HOLY SHIT AND HOLY COW- we’ve been plowing our field on the margins of weird culture for almost 20 years now, and “this scene is pretty cool but what it really fucking needs is an awards show” is not a thought that’s ever crossed our minds.

3 quick bullet-points that almost anybody could agree on maybe=

-holding a gala during a time of austerity and normalized decline is a weird thing to do.

-organizing a gala just so musicians can compete against each other for a novelty-sized cheque doesn’t serve the cause of righteous music at all.

-asking the toyota motor company to help cover the tab for that gala, during a summer where the melting northern ice caps are live-streaming on the internet, IS FUCKING INSANE, and comes across as tone-deaf to the current horrifying malaise.

these are hard times for everybody. and musicians’ blues are pretty low on the list of things in need of urgent correction BUT AND BUT if the point of this prize and party is acknowledging music-labor performed in the name of something other than quick money, well then maybe the next celebration should happen in a cruddier hall, without the corporate banners and culture overlords. and maybe a party thusly is long overdue- it would be truly nice to enjoy that hang, somewhere sometime where the point wasn’t just lazy money patting itself on the back.

give the money to the kids let ‘em put on their own goddamn parties, give the money to the olds and let them try to write opuses in spite of, but let the muchmusic videostars fight it out in the inconsequential middle, without gov’t. culture-money in their pockets.

us we’re gonna use the money to try to set up a program so that prisoners in quebec have musical instruments if they need them…

amen and amen.

apologies for being such bores,
we love you so much / our country is fucked,
xoxoxox
godspeed you! black emperor

But other than that... it's quite the honour.

I really think we should try to get them to win something at the Brits, so they can say this into James Corden's face.

Polaris Music Prize: The Shortlist

CBC has got the shortlist for Canada's Polaris Music Prize:

Arcade Fire | The Suburbs
Austra | Feel It Break
Braids | Native Speaker
Destroyer | Kaputt
Galaxie | Tigre et diesel
Hey Rosetta! | Seeds
Ron Sexsmith | Long Player Late Bloomer
Colin Stetson | New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges
Timber Timbre | Creep On Creepin' On
The Weeknd | House Of Balloons

You'd normally say the Arcade Fire would be the one to beat, but given they've been given mainstream prizes south of the border, they might pay the price.

Polaris Music Prize: Jealous glances at Canada

The longlist for the Polaris Music Prize has been released:

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Austra - Feel It Break
Braids - Native Speaker
Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart
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
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

I suspect that the Mercury longlist will look a little pasty in comparison.

Plucking one from a lovely list, here's The Rural Alberta Advantage doing Stamp, from Departing:

The Rural Alberta Advantage - Stamp from Saddle Creek on Vimeo.

Caribou carry Polaris

When we first heard someone saying something about Caribou getting a polaris, we'd assumed that Sarah Palin had merely upgraded her war on the natural world and was now using missiles rather than her bare hands to bring down creatures.

But, no, the reference was to the Canadian version of the Mercury Music Prize, which was picked up by the rather lovely Ontario outfit. Congratulations all round. And to see why they won, here's a clip of them doing Melody Day on The Pink Room: