Author: Taylor

Montréal alt-rock band Karkwa’s fourth album, Les Chemins de Verre, won the fifth annual Polaris Prize Monday night in Toronto – and their success is only the beginning of what could be an entirely new chapter both for them and for popular Canadian music. The Francophone quintet beat out an impressive list of nominees, among them Caribou (who won the prize in 2008), Broken Social Scene, Owen Pallett (who won in 2006 as Final Fantasy), Radio Radio, and Tegan and Sara.

The Polaris Prize celebrates the best Canadian album released in the previous year. Judging is based not on sales or genre, but solely on artistic merit. While the shortlist was selected by a 200-person jury of industry professionals, music bloggers, broadcasters, and journalists from coast to coast, the Karkwa was voted to the top by a grand jury of 11.  Their name comes from the phonetic representation of “carquois” – French for “a quiver of arrows” and Karkwa is the first francophone band to win the Polaris Prize.

Despite extensive touring and an enthusiastic following in France and Quebec, Karkwa has remained relatively unknown in the rest of Canada – until now. The band hopes that the Polaris Prize will prove to be the tool that helps them to bridge the dichotomy between anglophone and francophone Canadian music and achieve success on a wider scale.

Louis-Jean Cormier (guitar), François Lafontaine (keyboard), Julien Sagot (percussion), Stéphane Bergeron (drums), and Martin Lamontagne (bass) have been working together since Karkwa’s inception in 1998. The band quickly gained such appreciation that they were invited to perform in Paris for the Printemps du Québec cultural expo the following year. In 2001, after a brief hiatus, Karkwa was back on their feet and released their first album, Le Pensionnat des Établis. Les Tremblements S’immobilisent (2005) won them three Felix Awards, and Le Volume de Vent (2008) featured musicians Patrick Watson and Elizabeth Powell. Les Chemins de Verre was recorded overseas just outside of Paris at Studio la Frette, the same place where Feist and Plants and Animals put together their best-selling albums. Self-described as “organic and impressionistic,” the album’s lack of pre-planning was a way for the band to play with their music and work off each other in a truly creative, cathartic process.

They’re frequently compared to Sigur Rós, Radiohead, and Coldplay, but their ability to go from low-key, reflective, and experimental to fast-paced, heavy, rollicking, and impassioned is distinctly their own. Les Chemins de Verre is undoubtedly their most experimental and most powerful to date. The Polaris Prize has given Karkwa the exposure they’ve needed to get the rest of Canada to look at them. What the jury, and thousands of Canadians saw on Monday night, is that Les Chemins de Verre gives Karkwa new depth, interest, and power, while still retaining that universality that makes their songs work their way into your dreams.

Adrienne Yeung

There are three avenues with which one could think about Say It. The first are the vocals, which often come off as constricted, high-pitched and unappealing, most evident on “What You Say.” This is the simplest criticism of the album. Musically, the instruments seem disconnected—most often, for some reason, the bass. When they do form any cohesion, it lacks any particular hook for the listener. It just is. Lyrically the songs are curious; most of the album sports songs that are four and a half minutes long, while the lyrics are only a few dozen words each. A good writer knows to pick their words carefully—Born Ruffians do so here; it is just simply a shame that they had not chosen better ones. The best thing one could say of this album is that at times it sounds like Vampire Weekend. At the same time, probably the worst thing you could say about this album is that it sounds too much like Vampire Weekend. The sound of Vampire Weekend demonstrates a keen ear for genre and how it can be properly integrated into pop music—skills which are not shown by Born Ruffians on Say It. (Paper Bag Records) Devin King

Much love for Broken Pencil, a magazine that revolves around Canadian zines, writing, poetry and the arts. I gotta say, we go back a little while–I was digging around in our old filing cabinets and found an snarky review of an early Stylus mag in Broken Pencil. Heart!

But by far, Broken Pencil‘s biggest draw is now their annual Deathmatch–a country-wide literary gorefest where the winner is decided upon by readers online. And now the mag’s looking for submissions for their fourth year. They want your stories (between 1500 and 3000 words long) by December 31, 2010. Prizes include $300, publication in their Spring 2011 issue, and, the best perk of any battle royal, bragging rights. Check out their website for details.

And as a twist, Broken Pencil is looking for bands and new media artists to contribute to Deathmatch too. The spirit is the same but the deadline is November 15, 2010, and you can email Nathaniel G. Moore at [email protected] for more details.

By Taylor Burgess

As Stylus found out in this interview, William Schaff is a musician too, but he’s most well-known for his album art. He has done the entire discography for Okkervil River, but most of us Brave New Waves-listening –and The Wedge-watching– punks were first thrown into his world after cracking open Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven! and witnessing the disturbing drawing of skull-masked presidents wagging their fingers and chopping off hands. Freud’s Bathhouse and Diner is getting more than 100 original zines of Schaff’s as the key attraction of their zine art exhibit and expo, I Know What My Weaknesses Are, Probably Better than You Do. Schaff took enough time to talk to Stylus over the phone from his Rhode Island studio where he works and sleeps.

Stylus: I read all about how you met up with Okkervil River, how you and William Sheff met because you almost have the same name, but how did you meet up with other bands, like Godspeed You! Black Emperor or the What Cheer? Brigade?
WS: Meeting with Godspeed was coincidental. I was in a band ages ago and we toured through Montreal, and we played at Hotel2Tango. We slept there, and in the morning this guy [Godspeed’s Efrim Menuck] popped out, we started talking. And I gave him one of those little books [that’ll be in the exhibition] because back then I always carried them around with me. Time passed on, and he asked me in an email if it was alright that used images from that book for his band’s album cover. I said yeah, go ahead, that means I don’t have to draw anything new for it, you’ve already got the images. Then I was sitting in New York, reading my Rolling Stone and I realized, “Wow these guys are huge.” I just finished another job for them this week. They’re curating a show for All Tomorrow’s Parties. I did the poster for them. It’s nice that they’re keeping in contact about stuff like that.
As for the What Cheer? Brigade: I’m a member of that band. There are so many people in that band and there’s no band leader, so everyone brings something different to the table. I hate booking shows, but I am able to create images for the band.
Stylus: What do you play?
WS: I’m one of the six drummers, I play the quad drums. It’s a standard marching band instrument.
Stylus: On your Flickr page, you post playlists that you had listened to when you were making a piece. Do you feel it’s necessary to do that?
WS: I have to listen to music when I’m working, it’s seldom there isn’t some sort of sound going on in the background. Like right now—well, I paused the DVD when you called—but I’m watching this documentary that I can’t figure out whether it is fake or not. It’s called Brothers of the Head; have you heard of this?
Stylus: No, not at all.
WS: It’s about two conjoined twins, about their life, and they start a rock band together. It’s really something. Anyways, getting back to the question, I’m always listening to music when I’m working because it has the biggest influence on me. And as for posting my playlists, I do that because someone who likes a piece of mine might be interested in the music that I’m listening to and then maybe they could see how that music goes with the piece.
Stylus: What’s your opinion on street art?
WS: I love good street art. I have absolutely no problem with graffiti, but I just hate bombing crews who are just putting their name everywhere. When I was in Berlin not too long ago, there was beautiful street art everywhere—but here in the U.S., it’s illegal, so nicer street art is harder to find. I do make some stencils once in a while, but by no means do I consider myself a street artist.
Stylus: I also noticed that you do a lot of mail art. Why did that interest you?
WS: I originally started doing that because I got the internet way back when the internet wasn’t like it is now. I started drawing on envelopes because it took a good chunk of time while a page was loading up. Over time, I’ve gotten a lot of beautiful mail. I get a lot of bills, most of which I never open. But to see a wonderful package, amidst all those things that bring you down, it really brightens your day.
Stylus: Is there anything else you’d like to talk about?
[After a bit of small talk]
WS: Yeah, actually I’d like to talk about the gallery [Freud’s Bathhouse and Diner]. They’re reaching out to artists, and they’re taking all the steps to make it happen. They’re saying, “Yes we’ll ship it here, yes we’ll ship it back, yes we’ll insure it.” It’s really admirable because not many people would do that, and it’s amazing that they have the wherewithal to carry through with it all. So if I had something to add, it’s how thankful I am for people like Kristel and Mark, because I couldn’t do it without them.

You can see I Know What My Weaknesses Are, Probably Better than You Do opening tonight and showing until August 29 at Freud’s Bathhouse and Diner at 42 Albert Street.