Caribou Wins Polaris Prize

09/29/08 11:17pm

by Steve McLean (CHARTattack)

Caribou's Andorra won the 2008 Polaris Music Prize at a gala event held at Toronto's Phoenix Concert Theatre on Monday night.

Dan Snaith, who records albums on his own but performs with a band, was on hand to receive the giant $20,000 cheque that goes with the honour. The rest of his group wasn't around, so a taped performance was played on the video screens located around the club.

Last year's winner, Patrick Watson, announced the winner via video. Since the victor was only decided by an 11-member jury during the event, Watson recorded a spot for all 10 of the albums that made the short list. Luckily, there were no video problems like there was with a taped Weakerthans performance. Snaith said he "felt lucky and proud" to make the short list and congratulated all the finalists.

Stars also taped a performance, but the seven other contenders all played two-song sets: Basia Bulat, Two Hours Traffic, Kathleen Edwards, Plants And Animals, Black Mountain, Shad and Holy Fuck.

A six-piece band backed Bulat and allowed her to introduce orchestral arrangements to her pop songs. Black Mountain gets my unofficial Polaris Volume Prize for loudest band of the night. Shad gave an energetic performance, rapping along to rhythms created by a turntablist, bassist and drummer. And Holy Fuck capped off a diverse night of music with their instrumental sound manipulations created by synthesizers, keyboards, effects, bass and drums.