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Polaris People For The Week Of December 7: Weakerthans Canadiana, Drake Gets Cooking

· by Aaron Brophy

It’s around this time that we here in Polarisland are mighty glad that our award cycle for 2012 finished in September (with Feist winning for Metals). Because of this most of our jurors have already sorted out their mind grapes when it comes to which Canadian albums they’re going to put on their year-end Top 10 album lists.

Now all they have to do is plug in a couple internationals (Frank Ocean, Tame Impala, Kendrick Lamar, Beach House, Divine Fits, etc), add one or two random local indie records only they’ve heard, throw in Taylor Swift’s Red to be contrary, and voila… list done. We’re taking credit for making it easy.

Now that we’ve built a formula for everyone’s year-end, let’s take a look at what some of our favourite people, the Polaris People, have been up to recently.

We begin by contemplating Polaris OG Owen Pallett in a sharp frock coat. Of related interest, the 2006 Polaris champ thinks Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry is the big new thing in composers.

Pallett’s declaration of Parry’s brilliance is intriguingly timed. Especially considering Arcade Fire recently debuted a pile of new songs during a secret show at Montreal’s Breakglass Studio. (Guys, you must still be using my old email address. I didn’t get the invite…)

Junior Boys, the 2007 Short Listers who also represent our worst unfiltered weekly band name news search, recently performed on CBC’s Q. Check out that performance by going here.

Drake’s been busy. Let us recap the 2012 Short Lister’s recent adventures:

1) He made a cameo on stage during Justin Bieber’s recent Toronto show.

2) Warner Bros. gave him a bunch of money.

3) He scored some Grammy nominations.

And most importantly, 4) he did some cooking with Guy Fieri. I wonder what they made. Was it Hot Weiners Rhode Island Style? Mac-Daddi-Roni Salad? Jambalaya Sandwich? We need to know this stuff.

Keeping with 2012 nominees, Spin Magazine just declared Japandroids its 2012 artist of the year. Not that we’re trying to influence folks’ editorial visions by suggesting trend pieces, but that’s two years in a row that Spin has selected ranking Polaris People as artists of the year (Fucked Up got the nod in 2011). Also, the band’s going to play Hong Kong.

In further 2012 Short Lister news, have you heard about GangnamGrimes yet? Well now you do. And you can start kicking yourself for not thinking of the idea sooner. So yeah, on top of getting mashed up with the biggest song in the world, Claire Boucher also got interviewed by ABC News. Then there’s THIS, which is tagged as “A Christmas Story” but looks like it’s Grimes-as-Jennifer-Lawrence in Winter’s Bone. Then there’s this eternal question.

If you’re two-time Short Listers like Broken Social Scene, this is what your legacy gets you: appearances on Johnny Depp-curated pirate-themed compilations, and the opportunity to be part of a Smiths/Dinosaur Jr. sandwich.

The fellas in 2010 Short List act Radio Radio are having a live sex party. No jokes. That’s apparently what one of their new songs is about. Or at least that’s what the conversation devolved into in an interview with Cult MTL that was supposed to be about Christmas. Perverts.

Behold, the Weakerthans cover the Rheostatics. The only way this could be more Canadian is if the Samson and company played on an outdoor ice rink with three inches of maple syrup across its surface while the northern lights shone overhead. And then a snowstorm.

Finally, since Best Of season is officially here, we’ve got five of ’em for you to get started on:

NME

Pop Matters

VICE

Spinner

CBC Music’s Bucky Awards

Socials

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