Better late than never eh? Wow, that was Canadian but so is this award! We’ve talked about this a bunch, but if you need a reminder the Polaris Music Prize is Canada’s Mercury Prize. It goes to the band who had the best album of the year regardless of genre, label, or sales. Music know it all’s were expecting the 20 grand (that’s the prize) to go to rapper Shad who was born in Kenya and raised in London, Ontario, but it didn’t it went to Karkwa.
So, who is Karkwa? I had to do quite a bit of research myself, since I had never heard of these guys. It could have been Tegan And Sara, or Broken Social Scene, but no it was Karkwa. So here we go…
Karkwa formed in ‘98 in Montreal, the band’s name is a phonetic rendering of carquois, which is French for a quiver of arrows. The group consists of vocalist and guitarist Louis-Jean Cormier, keyboardist François Lafontaine, bass guitarist Martin Lamontagne, percussionist Julien Sagot and drummer Stéphane Bergeron. They released their debut album back in 2003, it was called Le Pensionnat des établis. It scored some pretty good reviews. The album’s single “Poisson cru” reached the top of Quebec’s campus radio charts, and was named the best album of the year by two critics for Montreal’s alternative weekly Voir. Karkwa’s second album Les Tremblements s’immobilisent, won three Félix Awards in 2006. At this point Karkwa was gaining exposure while performing with bands such as The Stills, and one of my favs (another one of this year’s Polaris Nominees) The Besnard Lakes.
They released their third album, Le volume du vent, in 2008, and it was their forth album which was recorded in Paris, Les chemins de verre, that took home the coveted Polaris Prize.
Hosted once again by CBC Radio 3’s Grant Lawrence and MuchMusic’s Sarah Taylor,the Polaris Gala was held Monday at the Concert Hall in Toronto’s Masonic Temple. Karkwa were on hand to receive the $20,000 prize, which was handed out by Fucked Up, who won last year’s Polaris Music Prize for their album The Chemistry Of Common Life.
What did Karkwa have to say about the big win? ”Music is a universal language,” they thought there was no “language barrier” among the jurors, and the award was about the music, not the language of their lyrics. Karkwa are the first francophone act to win the award.
What will they do with all that cash? They say they plan to hire a tour manager with the $20,000, since keyboardist Francois Lafontagne currently handles all their booking.
09/24/10 >> 
