Jeremy Dutcher has won the 2018 Polaris Music Prize with his album Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa on Monday night. The album is so deserving of the award. In my mind when I heard the album and read about how it came to be, it felt like the perfect example of artistic merit. Elder Maggie Paul told him about some recordings that were at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, QC and that he should go and listen to them. He listened to the Wolastoq songs that had been recorded by an anthropologist in the early 1900s and preserved on wax cylinders during a time when the Canadian government was actively suppressing expressions of Indigenous culture and the Wolastoq language was thought to be dying. He used those recordings to make new compositions and sometimes duetting with them. His operatic tenor voice is so powerful with in those compositions. It is an amazing album and his performance at the gala was fabulous. In his acceptance speech at the end of the night he said “Canada, you are in the midst of an Indigenous renaissance. Are you ready to hear the truths that need to be told? Are you ready to see the things that need to be seen?” My answer is yes, I am listening.
There were many other fantastic performances of the night. Weaves started it off on a great note. Jasmyn Burke has such a unique style and voice and the band is creative and interesting. Jean-Michel Blais’s performance hit me much like his album did. It is beautiful and creative and new and reaches me on an emotional level. Talk about interesting, Hubert Lenoir is one of those interesting humans. Not everyone likes his style but I have fun watching his antics. He doesn’t want to play by the rules and that’s fine by me. What an exciting opportunity for The Girl’s Rock Toronto band! I hope it inspires them to keep at it. Snotty Nose Rez Kids brought another powerful performance. Making sure we wake up and listen. I look forward to hearing more from these guys. Also with lots to say is U.S. Girls and the acapella version of their music was riveting and amazing. Pierre Kwenders is super cool and I love his mix of beats and languages and styles. Partner were adorable and rockin at the same time. What a great night of entertainment! I enjoyed Rich Terfry’s interviews with them as well in the Round Room. They were informative and showed the personality of the artists. Look through this gallery of photos from our friend Lenny Wu who was there with a media pass taking photos. Thanks for bringing us along to the gala with your images Lenny!
If you missed the live feed you can watch it in full on YouTube (it has some annoying ads).
You can take your turn voting now. The Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Music Prize honours albums in 4 different time frames that came out before the Polaris Music Prize started in 2006. Take a look and vote on the Polaris page. I put a playlist together to help decide.
Hello
Thanks to Lenny for the images and DBS for the words
Good morning. With regards to the Slaight prize, geez! There are probably (IMO) at least 6-7 cuts that are OBVIOUSLY worthy, let alone others. I mean, the Sarah Harmer tune? Weakerthans? Bran Van? Lanois’s The Maker? Coburn’s Rocket Launcher?
Good thing I don’t *have* to vote.
What would a “locket rauncher” be?
Good morning!
You can pick 4, 1 in each time frame. Still some tough choices to make for the Slaight Heritage Prize. I am not sure what a locket rauncher would be. A person that walks around swinging a locket around in a raunchy way?
Stealing Fire would be my pick in that column. The next one over is really tough (86-95)
I would lean toward Acadie, but that Dream Warriors album was pretty leading edge back then
although, Fogarty’s Cove…
if you take the whole hoity-toity approach that Polaris takes on things, though, Fogarty’s cove is just a folk album
Hey-o Basement dwellers. That “heritage” prize is weird … I think it’s interesting but I don’t understand it. So I voted anyway! haha.
60-75 = Everybody knows This is Nowhere. One of my all time faves. Easy choice.
76-85 = Fogerty’s Cove. I was gonna vote for 2112 but then realized I don’t really even like Rush all that much, I just recognize 2112 as a classic. I do actually like Stan. Although his son “shushed” me once. That’s another story.
86-95 = Jagged Little Pill. No reason. Not much for choice there. Alannis was pretty hot for a while and I don’t hate that album.
96-05 = No vote. Who the heck chose these to say that those were the best Canadian albums of that decade? Ridiculous. Well, maybe I should have voted for You Forgot It In People. I do like that one.
As for the actual Polaris, I learned about it through Donna’s facebook essentially. So some people are excited but I think the days of debating the winner (as we used to back on the R3 blog days) are gone. I personally didn’t have much interest in the gala/award but that’s not to say it doesn’t have it’s place. I think I find the whole things become a little pretentious from what it was (not that it wasn’t before, but it’s even more so now!) To the point where I just don’t care.
And that’s me! What about you guys? Happy with the winner? Any hot dirt from the gala? (Remember super drunk CVG? Creepy intro by Vish? etc.)
When is the Slaight family going to have Sweet Exhaust by Sara Craig on their list? It was quite the album. Wide variety of sounds: weird artsy, metal-ish, and things like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoiTc56KVSA
you are a depth of musical knowledge mr. krib.
I haven’t investigated how they come up with the albums for the Slaight Heritage prize but I am curious.
I very much disagree with you on the 95-05 category Tom. There are some great albums in there! Weakerthans, Constantines, Destroyer, etc…what’s not to love?
DarDar, that was my “coming of age era” more or less. What about Age of Electric/Limblifter? Sloan? The Odds? Rusty? IME? Treble Charger? The Hip? Matt Good Band? Big Sugar? Big Wreck? 13 Engines? Etc. Etc. I’m not saying any or all of those could be up there (some of them released really, really good albums in those years) but in my opinion, that’s the worst Weakerthans album and I don’t care much for the Constantines or Destroyer …
I watched A LOT of much music in the mid to late 90s, which is what got me into Canadian indie music in the early aughts. The picks for that heritage era seem … cliche? I don’t know.
note: maybe some of the ones I listed are dated but this was just quickly off the top of my head.
so I just listened to Tinfoil by Limblifter. Still gold… and now I’m reminded of The Killjoys! I really dug them. And the Gandharvas …. also, great 90s Canadian band.
Now I’m just babbling.
We might have to look back to previous years to see if they were nominees ever. One of the things I want to find out is if they are nominated one year but don’t win, can they be nominated again. Like surely a Hip album would be in one of those time periods. Must have been at some point.
80s was my coming of age time. I loved Rough Trade. I would like Rush if Geddy didn’t sing. I can’t stand his voice.
Day For Night came out in ’95? Surely that should/would have been a contender. They were the Arcade Fire of the 90’s.
A quick look says yes they do appear again. I just went to the 2015 page. https://polarismusicprize.ca/heritage-prize/2015-nominees/
And some winners here https://polarismusicprize.ca/heritage-prize/
So Sloan, The Hip and Arcade Fire have won previously but I am not seeing much of your personal favs.
“How it works is an 11 person group of Canadian music media and historians gather together each year to create a vote-curated list of 10 Short List-nominated albums per era. Two albums per era, one chosen by public vote and one chosen by the jury of critics, will be designated as Heritage Prize winners each year.”
well, which ever way you slice it, it’s a weird thing.
Somehow I made my comment disappear?
Putting it back:
A quick look says yes they do appear again. I just went to the 2015 page. https://polarismusicprize.ca/heritage-prize/2015-nominees/
And some winners here https://polarismusicprize.ca/heritage-prize/
So Sloan, The Hip and Arcade Fire have won previously but I am not seeing much of your personal favs.
yeah. Perpetual Motion Machine by 13 Engines was pretty great, and even better (IMO) was Bedbugs by Odds.
well, that was more just thinking aloud.
yeah, I could see why Fully Completely would win.
Day for Night was ’94 actually but Trouble at The Henhouse was ’96.
Totally would have won both years. If you add in Fully Completely in ’92 as a winner …
they were the Arcade Fire of the 90’s for sure.
Pat would have hated them!
My first “rock concert” at a stadium was on the Day for Night tour. It smelled like Otto’s school bus in there!
they appear to have shifted to mid-decade since it started, too
Maybe Arcade Fire are the Tragically Hip of the ’00s …
whoa
OK bye! Keep on keepin’ on! Thanks for letting me ramble.
Sweet Exhaust is on Spotify if you want to listen to the whole thing
https://open.spotify.com/album/12ODQwJ8pbAw3rQ6wlyjG0
Wow! It was like stepping back in time to hear Flannel Tom go off like in our R3 days! I really appreciate his opinions and his passions! Ha!
Hello Darb, Garry, Kirby and Benoit, dwellers of the Basement.
Thanks for stopping by you guys!
Polka Dogs is another serious contender that will probably not get any recognition in this Slaight thing, because I think the level of obscurity makes it much more difficult to pull up these memories
https://open.spotify.com/album/2C2cRVanHJXAsC2UvWw2Kp
think that was 1990
Geez! FT! (under another name smells just as sweet)