Mind expanding hardcore group Fucked Up have claimed this year’s Polaris Prize – the Canadian equivalent of the Mercury.
Canadian music was for years the poor relation in North America. The few notable talents to emerge from the country tended to make their careers in the United States, which Leonard Cohen and Neil Young can attest to.
However recently the nation has transformed itself into a hub for forward thinking new music. Canada has given us Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Stars, Metric, Fucked Up and countless more over the past decade.
The biggest prize in Canadian music is arguably the Polaris Prize, given out annually to the year’s finest album. Voted for by a wide cast of industry professionals the award showcases the best in Canadian music.
This year Fucked Up have fought off competition from Metric and Patrick Watson to bag the prize, which comes with $20,000. ‘The Chemistry Of Common Life’ was given the award at a ceremony last night (September 22nd).
“Until this year, we in Fucked Up have never felt part of the Canadian ‘music community’; we’ve never really toured Canada, never received any sort of grant money,” said Damian ‘Pink Eyes’ Abraham to Torontoist.
Abraham spoke to press before the awards, saying: “Being nominated for the Polaris Prize is one of the most exciting things to have happened to our band, not only because of the prestige of the award but because it was something that until this year would have felt so far out of the realm of possibility.”
Fucked Up are set to play ‘The Chemistry Of Common Life’ in a special show in Brooklyn later this year. The band have also confirmed details of a new singles compilation, titled ‘Couple Tracks: Singles 2001 – 2009’.
