Canadians: Want a quick 20 grand? Make an amazing album.
The Polaris Prize awards $20,000 to the Canadian artist or group that creates the best album of the year, based solely on artistic merit. Sales don’t count, marketing doesn’t count. The ten nominees – Elliot Brood, Fucked Up, Great Lake Swimmers, Hey Rosetta!, K’Naan, Metric, Joel Plaskett, Malajube, Patrick Watson, and Chad Vangaalen – all attended and performed at the Polaris Prize Gala, so I made sure to snag a few interviews before the award was given out.
The winner of the $20,000 prize? Well, check out the video and I’ll tell you.
Move aside indie-rock. This year’s Polaris Music Prize winners are a little different from the average Canadian alternative style. Toronto hardcore band Fucked Up took this year’s $20,000 award for the best Canadian album of the year on Monday, according to The Globe and Mail.
The band’s album, “The Chemistry of Common Life,” beat out nine other finalists including Metric, K’Naan, Joel Plaskett, and Great Lake Swimmers.
The Polaris Prize is an award decided by a jury made up of Canadian journalists, bloggers, broadcasters and programmers. The jury is determined by the Polaris Board of Directors and is made up of 185 members from both the local and national media.
How many people does it take to shut down a New York City block and cause a riot? Two, provided they are armed with a synthesizer, drum machine and a discography under the guise of Mstrkrft.
It’s true, Toronto’s electro-house darlings were slated to play a club in NYC two weeks ago and oversold the venue so much that more than 2,000 hipsters were stuck in line outside. But the hype surrounding the DJ duo drove the mob into frenzy, inciting a riot that was eventually quelled by the NYPD itself.
“It was a pretty proud moment that we double-sold the club and had a street in New York City closed down, even if just for a few hours,” Jesse Keeler, one half of Mstrkrft, tells andPOP. “The fact that that’s happening … that takes a long time to build.”
Mstrkrft was born in Toronto in 2005, storming clubs and parties with their take on the burgeoning electro-house trend. After dominating the GTA scene, the duo made up of Keeler and Alex Puodziukas (otherwise known as Al-P) stepped up their game.
First came the singles “Easy Love” and “Work on You” before an official LP, “The Looks,” debuted in July 2006. Then came the tours: Canada, North America, the world.
They are Canadian rock veterans who have been playing and touring for 10 years and they have put in their dues. Their recent album Fantasies is climbing the charts and has been getting rave reviews. andPOP intern Jeremy Singer sat down with Emily and James from Metric to get all the details about their rise to the top.
Metric have announced plans to swing through western Canada later this month for a series of private acoustic shows – but fans won’t be able to buy tickets to see them.
Instead, there are three other ways for you to gain entry to the shows in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria, where the band will support their newly released album, “Fantasies.”
Several of Canada’s top indie acts are joining forces this holiday season for a six-city tour of the country.
Metric, Tokyo Police Club, Sebastien Granger & The Mountains, The Dears and San Francisco’s DJ Mike Relm will hit the road in mid-December for the Jingle Bell Rock Tour.
Each show venue will feature an indoor retail village to create the feeling of an outdoor festival.
True to the holiday spirit, the tour has a charitable purpose: to raise awareness about disadvantaged youth and to benefit organizations that help get young people off the streets, including Covenant House and MacDonald Youth Services.
Tickets for the tour go on sale this Saturday (Nov. 1) through Ticketmaster.
Here are the dates for the Jingle Bell Rock Tour:
Dec. 13 – Toronto, ON @ Sound Academy
Dec. 15 – Winnipeg, MB @ Burton Cummings Theatre
Dec. 16 – Saskatoon, SK @ Prairieland Park
Dec. 17 – Edmonton, AB @ Shaw Conference Centre
Dec. 19 – Calgary, AB @ MacEwan Hall
Dec. 21 – Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre
Metric and N.E.R.D. are among the new additions to this year’s Osheaga Music and Arts Festival.
Other acts joining the lineup for the annual Montreal event are Luke Doucet and the White Falcon, Sebastian Grainger & the Mountains, Payz Play, Shawn Hewitt and the National Strike, Robertson and Chris Velan.
Previously announced Osheaga performers include The Killers, Iggy & The Stooges, Jack Johnson (who is making his Montreal debut) and Broken Social Scene.
The festival, now in its third year, takes place Aug. 3 and 4 at Parc Jean-Drapeau on Île Sainte-Hélène.
It will mark Metric’s return to the festival after their set there in 2006, as well as the latest in a string of North American and European festival appearances for N.E.R.D., who are touring in support of their new album “Seeing Sounds.”
The New Pornographers and Metric are among the Canadians who will be taking the stage at this summer’s All Points West Music & Arts Festival in New Jersey.
Chromeo and K’Naan will be the other artists representing the red-and-white during the three-day event (Aug. 8 to 10) at Liberty State Park.
The new All Points West festival is staged by the same people responsible for the famed Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, California.
Radiohead and Jack Johnson will headline, with the Brit veterans closing the show on Friday and Saturday nights and the singer-songwriter playing on Sunday.
The full schedule has yet to be released, but here is the list of performers who will play on the festival’s three stages:
• Radiohead
• Jack Johnson
• Underworld
• Kings Of Leon
• Rodrigo Y Gabriela
• Cat Power
• The Roots
• The New Pornographers
• Youssou N’Dour
• Animal Collective
• Andrew Bird
• Michael Franti & Spearhead
• Metric
• CSS
• Girl Talk
• Chromeo
• The Go! Team
• Amadou & Mariam
• The Black Angels
• Sia
• The Felice Brothers
• K’Naan
• Jason Isbell
• Grace Potter And The Nocturnals
• Alberta Cross
• The Virgins
• Black Kids
• Mates Of State
• Duffy
• Forro In The Dark
• Nicole Atkins
• Juana Molina
• Little Brother
• Rogue Wave
• Neil Halstead
• Your Vegas
Metric is ready to go larger-than-life — literally.
Starting next week, you can catch the Toronto-based band on the big screen as their “Live At Metropolis” DVD is shown at select movie theatres across the country.
The DVD was recorded during the band’s show at the Metropolis club in Montreal in support of their 2005 album “Live It Out.”
A three-track audio EP was released on iTunes in December that features live performances from the DVD as well as the DVD trailer.
The DVD itself hits stores on Feb. 12.
“Live at Metropolis” will play at the following venues:
- Jan. 17 Calgary, AB @ Plaza Theatre @ 9:30 p.m.
- Jan. 17-18 Toronto, ON @ Royal Cinema @ 9 p.m.
- Jan. 24 Montreal, QC @ Cinema Du Parc @ 9 p.m.
- Jan. 31 Vancouver, BC @ Pacific Cinematheque @ 7:30 and 9 p.m.
- Feb. 4 Edmonton, AB @ Metro Cinema @ 9 p.m.
- Feb. 4-7 Winnipeg, MB @ Winnipeg Cinemateque @ 9:45 p.m.
Canadians: Want a quick 20 grand? Make an amazing album. 
Move aside indie-rock. This year’s Polaris Music Prize winners are a little different from the average Canadian alternative style. Toronto hardcore band Fucked Up took this year’s $20,000 award for the best Canadian album of the year on Monday, according to The Globe and Mail.
How many people does it take to shut down a New York City block and cause a riot? Two, provided they are armed with a synthesizer, drum machine and a discography under the guise of Mstrkrft.
They are Canadian rock veterans who have been playing and touring for 10 years and they have put in their dues. Their recent album Fantasies is climbing the charts and has been getting rave reviews. andPOP intern Jeremy Singer sat down with Emily and James from Metric to get all the details about their rise to the top.
Metric have announced plans to swing through western Canada later this month for a series of private acoustic shows – but fans won’t be able to buy tickets to see them.
