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Monday, November 9, 2009

Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus

He Just Likes to Sing in His underwear


All things considered, the $20 000 prize money that comes with the Polaris Prize might be considered a paltry sum. But can it make a difference? If you’re Patrick Watson you pay for that tour van you demolished on that winter trek through the American Midwest... If you’re Damian Abraham from 2009 Polaris Prize winners Fucked Up you produce a charity cover of ”Do They Know It’s Christmas?” with some of your favourite people. Calling in favours from David Cross, members of Vampire Weekend, TV on the Radio, Broken Social Scene, the GZA, Bob Mould, No Age, and Yo La Tengo this might just be a musical hit for the ages. (Feist, Jarvis Cocker, and M.I.A. have yet to confirm their appearance.)

Where it gets really great though is just where the money will be going from this worthy seasonal enterprise.

Front man Damian Abraham explains in New York Magazine:

We’re doing it for a few different organizations, like Justice for the Missing, that are affiliated with the 500 missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada. That number is an old official statistic that the government uses, but the number is probably closer to 3,000. It’s not like cancer or AIDS. Those are worthy causes but they have big fund-raising machines. This is an undocumented, underreported crime that’s been going on for years. And while this is for Canadian organizations, the same sort of thing is going on at the U.S.-Mexico border, with Mexican women going missing, and in Australia, with aboriginal women there.
Take that Bono! Imagine what they could have done with a $100 000 prize.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That might just be the worst mic stand I have ever seen.

Abraham is a saint!

Barbara Bruederlin said...

He sure is well-spoken and thoughtful for a Fucked Up guy! He is absolutely right that the big medical causes have the backing of well-established funding systems, but that the disappearance of first nations women has been largely overlooked, if not actually silenced, over decades.

Worth buying the recording for that reason alone.