unknown pleasures 4.3: Polaris Surprise

Here he is in all his pseudo-glory. Yeah, whatever. Congrats. (photo by David Topping at www.torontoist.com)


And here's the woman who should have won-- Julie Doiron. (photo by David Topping at www.torontoist.com)

Unfortunately the folks from Burnt Oak records couldn't make it to the station in time for the show, which worked out fine 'cause there was a Canadian music award given out the night before. Maybe you've heard of the Polaris Music Prize? It's just this annual award that (suppposedly) recognizes the best of Canadian musical talent in the form of a $20,000 cash prize. Steve Jordan started it back in 2006 to support this thing some people refer to as the "renaissance" of Canadian music. You know, Constantines, Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire, EXPLOSION OF GREAT MUSIC IN CANADA, yada yada yada...

Is anyone else as surprised as I am that Patrick Watson won? Did anyone see this coming or even know who Watson was before he got the nod back in July? I heard rumblings about him prior to the award, but only because he was touring and, ya know, I've got this radio show. Had anyone outside of the tight-knit community of music savants heard of this guy prior to the award ceremony? Well, now he represents the best of the best of what this country has to offer musically. Awesome.

I suppose that's just the nature of such a new music prize-- there's no precident for them to fall back on. It's not as if they've consistently given the award to the most popular, well-known artist, or the one we're all expecting to win. This is only its second year, and they've got no precident at all. They could just give the award to the worst album for the next ten years.

Although, last year Final Fantasy won for He Poos Clouds, and no one was surprised about that. Sure, it would have been nice to see Cadence Weapon or The New Pornographers win, but Final Fantasy was an all around good pick.

But Patrick Watson? Seriously?

Oh well, at least he can pay off his Budget rent-a-car bill for $16,000. Now he'll have $4,000 to make another mediocre, good-for-its-genre-but-doesn't-stand-out record.

Unknown Pleasures - Tues. Sept. 25, 2007
1. Patrick Watson - Close to Paradise

2. Julie Doiron - I Left Home
3. Chad VanGaalen - Gubbbish
4. Besnard Lakes - Disaster
5. Feist - I Feel it All

6. The Dears - Hate Then Love
7. Junior Boys - Birthday

8. dd/mm/yyyy - Batman Guitar Clock
9. Timber Timbre - Like a Mountain
10. Chris Yang - Concrete Conducting Cacophony
11. Jenny Omnichord - Ghost Flyers in the Sky
12. Wintersleep - Danse Macabre

13. B.A. Johnston - Deep Fryer in My Bedroom
14. The Klaxons - Teo Receivers
15. Animal Collective - Fireworks

16. Animal Collective - Banshee Beat