Canada, our neighbor to the north, has a much higher musician-to-population rate than we do, and what's more, the government rewards musicians.
Following that idea is the Polaris Music Prize which "honours, celebrates and rewards creativity and diversity in Canadian recorded music. Polaris recognizes and markets albums of the highest artistic integrity, without regard to musical genre, professional affiliation, or sales history. it is adjudicated by selected music journalists, broadcasters and bloggers."
This year's gala is tonight, beginning at 4pm Pacific time. All of the short list (save the Handsome Furs) will be performing at the Gala. You can listen live at http://music.cbc.ca/#/radio3/ - click on the CBC Radio 3 button.
Here is this year's short list (and more than half of them are in our music library). Click on the artist name to hear them:
- Hope in Dirt City by Cadence Weapon - new, Contemporary Soul (blue-black) - check out Conditioning or '88
- I Predict a Graceful Expulsion by Cold Specks - new alt-rawk (green-yellow) - check out When the City Lights Dim, Holland or Heavy Hands
- Take Care by Drake
- Voyageur by Kathleen Edwards
- Metals by Feist - rawk (red-yellow) - check out How Come You Never Go There or The Bad in Each Other
- David Comes to Life by Fucked Up - alt-rawk (green-yellow) - check out The Other Shoe or The Queen of Hearts
- Visions by Grimes - new alt-rawk (green-yellow) - check out Oblivion or Genesis
- Sound Kapital by Handsome Furs
- Celebration Rock by Japandroids - new alt-rawk (green-yellow) - check out The House that Heaven Built
- YT // ST by Yamantaka // Sonic Titan - alt-rawk - check out Queens or Hoshi Neko