Toronto hardcore combo Fucked Up have been announced as winners of the 2009 Polaris Music Prize. The annual award for the Canadian album of the year --as doled out by a panel of industry tastemakers, and based on artistic merit only-- comes not just with some statuette and the honor of winning, but a wad of cold, hard scrilla: $20,000 worth.
No news on what Fucked Up will do with their cash, but the bar was set pretty high back in the inaugural year of the Polaris, 2006. Winner Owen 'Final Fantasy' Pallett gave the money away --in part because he was uncomfortable receiving all that dough from a mobile telecommunications conglomerate-- to struggling bands he felt could put it to good use.
Fucked Up's Matador-issued second LP, The Chemistry of Common Life, got the Polaris gong ahead of also-nominated records by Metric, Chad VanGaalen, Great Lake Swimmers, and Patrick Watson. Which is to say nothing of all the albums eligible for nomination --Japandroids, Land of Talk, Women, Handsome Furs, Wolf Parade-- that didn't make the final Short List.
As always, the real winner was Canadian music. We stand on guard for thee!
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