nr Fucked Up takes home the Polaris Music Prize By Kristina Mameli ‘Teme Fucked Up have certainly come a long way from their days opening for local bands in the small room of the Croatian Cultural Centre, bleeding for the assorted 30 hardcore kids (half of which were in the other bands). Indeed, having successfully avoided the splatter on multiple occasions, I would never have dreamed that Fucked Up would take home what is rapidly becoming one of Canada’s most prestigious music prizes. But take it home they did. The 2009 Polaris Music Prize Gala was presented by Sirius Satellite Radio and hosted by Much Music’s Sarah Taylor and CBC Radio 3 Vancouver’s very own * Grant Lawrence, while it streamed live at muchmusic.com and cbcradio3.com (as well as on Radio 3’s Sirius channel 86). This event marked the first ever pairing of the two media outlets. This was a year of firsts for the Polaris Prize. Patrick Watson, who won for his 2007 album Close To Paradise, was again nominated for his latest Wooden Arms along with Joel Plaskett and Chad Vangaalen. K’ Naan, Malajube and Metric were also nominated in 2006. And for the first time in Polaris history, no debut albums made the cut. Each year, a jury of 182 music journalists, broadcasters and bloggers from across Canada submit their top five Canadian albums released between June 1, 2008 and May 31, 2009. These picks are then condensed into a top 40 long list. From there, it gets whittled down to a short list of 10. 12 of those Jurors are sequestered when the Gala begins, deliberating on who will win the $20,000 prize. The prize is then awarded based solely on artistic merit, and not record sales or marketing. All 10 short list nominees performed at the star-studded gala. Toronto radio station 102.1 the Edge’s Alan Cross (host of the Ongoing History Of New Music and Explore Music) introduced Toronto’s Metric, who were nominated for their album Fantazies and kicked off the evening with a rousing acoustic rendition of their hit single “Gimme Sympathy.” Next was Toronto’s Great Lake Swimmers, nominated for their album Lost Channels. Montreal’s Malajube played from their latest Labrinthes, before Montreal’s Patrick Watson performed in the middle of the crowd, CBC’s Jian Ghomeshi providing auxiliary percussion reminiscent of his MoFru days before introducing Toronto’s K’ Naan, whose album Troubadour was recorded in Bob Marley’s original home studio. Halifax’s most famous son, Joel Plaskett performed songs with triads being the theme from his triple CD Three, which he recorded with his father. Chad Vangaalen, nominated for Soft Airplane (b-sides now available for free download at softairplane.com), was introduced by legendary author of the Canadian Music Bible, Michael Barclay. Elliott Brood nominated for their rootsy album Mountain Meadows were next in the stunning showcase of Canadian talent, introduced by the CBC’s Amanda Putz. St. John’s Hey Rosetta!, nominated for their album /nto Your Lungs, which was produced by Hawksley Workman, performed just before Fucked Up closed the night with a spirited set. Fucked Up’s enigmatic front man, Damian “Pink Eyes” Abraham, stripped on stage, his gruff vocals providing an interesting contrast to the more pleasant music atypical of the hardcore punk genre. If the Chemistry Of Common Life proves anything, it proves that it is definitely not what you’d expect from a hardcore punk album. Following a food fight started by Malajube and Patrick Watson and ended by Chad Vangaalen, last year’s Polaris winner, Caribou announced the final results to torrents of applause. Pink Eyes and co. graciously accepted the award after first kissing Grant Lawrence on the lips and thanking him for being such an influence with his band the Smugglers. The win marks an interesting turning point in the Canadian music industry, and truly shows why the Polaris Prize is so different from any other as well as why it is so vital. Expect a compilation of Fucked Up’s singles early next year entitles Couple Tracks: Singles 2001-2009 on Matador Records. You can find the full gala at muchmusic. com or cbcradio3.com in both audio and video podcast form. NHL 10, help my addiction, please! EA’s latest adds major improvements By Jay Schreiber, Arts Editor r any gamer who loves hockey, this is the ultimate battle. 31 of the most athletic teams in the world duking it out with you at the controls. Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about video game heaven. Since we all know that pre-season hockey is bullshit, Electronic Arts’ NHL 10 couldn’t have come soon enough to ease that squirrelly feeling that come in the last few weeks before the real games begin. Every year, the virtual game gets better, more intense and even more interactive. Improvements come by the truck load with more control over players on the ice and a better feel for what the actual game is supposed to be like. Plays against the board add to reality and keeps the game on edge with more battles for the puck. Fighting is improved drastically by adding first person vision to the game and more accuracy in throwing shots. So long to the days when button bashing could ' knock out a player in seconds flat. Goalies no longer look at the puck while it floats in front of them and in NHL 10, the goal defenders have the capability to poke check and interrupt play when the black dot is in reach. Glitches are at a minimum and new game play modes make the game more interesting. In “Battle for the Cup” mode, two teams are put in the Stanley Cup Finals and expected to play up to seven games in order to win the coveted award. One thing that I found disturbing is that Roberto Luongo is still not recognized as the captain of the Vancouver Canucks. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, after beating the pitiful Ottawa Senators in a five-game series, it was Willie Mitchel who was the first to hoist the glorious cup for the obviously more deserving team. Oh, well, it just goes to show how first person fighting and enhanced board play are easy feats for EA Sports but making a goalie the captain is just too damned difficult. By Jay Schreiber, Arts Editor ritish Rock band Muse has hit a B familiar brick wall. This brick wall is not a physical member of the world around us but a metaphor that represents every rock band that has ever ripped off someone else’s music. group use a similar disco style in minor mode that was once used in several ‘70s pop hits. YouTubers with no life have Muse’s new song. of one-hit-wonder Gary Glitter’s “Rock and roll Part 2” while the chord changes and melodic line are surprisingly parallel to that of Billy Idol’s “White Wedding.” The high-pitched guitar squeals mimic Blondie’s vocals on 1980s mega hit “Call Me” as well as keeping the same feel of that song. In all fairness, people on YouTube need to get a life and stop digging for similarities between different artists. Honestly, you 40-year-old virgins need to objects that don’t involve circuit boards. In the bands recent hit “Uprising” the gone so far as to analyze every element of The drum beat is eerily familiar to that get off your ass and begin socializing with Truth be known, hundreds of popular Wait, | ripped you off first! What’s the big deal about Muse’s so-called plagiarism? artists rip each other off relentlessly and even rely on suing each other as a way to make a living. Recently disbanded Oasis has been caught in the middle of such debaucheries many times. Oasis released several tracks that directly rip off melodies and chord structures that were written by the Beatles. Furthermore, Oasis became disgruntled when Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” identically mimics the Brit-pop band’s biggest hit, “Wonderwall.” Hello, my name is pot, and the kettle is black. Music rips itself off relentlessly. It’s like blaming someone for buying the same car that you have, when in actuality there are hundreds of similar models on the road in any given city. In Beethoven’s 6" Symphony, he quotes his musical icon Mozart’s melodic lines that were composed 30 some odd years before. Is this bad? Does this discredit the piece of work itself? Scientific studies have been conducted to see what the human reaction to organized tonal series and how it effects their emotions. They have concluded that the majority of people enjoy formulaic song structure with usually three verses and a catchy chorus. The length should be between three and five minutes depending on tempo. Further studies have gone so far as to discover which pitches affect humans and has found that people enjoy hearing notes between D2 and F5 on a piano keyboard. Research into what types of pitch (i.e. electric guitar, piano, synth) resulted inconclusively as it is too closely related to a person’s personal preference. Bands that release music similar to pieces composed by other artists have only found a similar way to make a radio hit. Congratulations Muse, you discovered what people like to hear and recorded it!