Final Fantasy VS Cadence Weapon - 2007 Tour Dates, an MP3 & an unpublished interview

August 2, 2007

DOWNLOAD: Cadence Weapon vs Final Fantasy (vs Andrew Bird) live @ CBC (MP3) (info)

You might remember the above magazine cover from a post I did last year – at the time Cadence Weapon (Rollie Pemberton) & Final Fantasy (Owen Pallett) were up against each other for the 2006 Polaris Music Prize which Final Fantasy ended up winning. A few months later Cadence Weapon came to NYC for CMJ and played a BrooklynVegan party. Between Polaris & CMJ, BrooklynVegan Mike sat down with Rollie Pemberton for an interview which – for whatever reason – I never ended up publishing. In it, they discussed the Polaris Prize, Canadian hip hop, and why Rollie thought Owen won and he didn’t.

Tickets are on sale for Cadnece Weapon & Final Fantasy @ Bowery Ballroom on November 11th. All tour dates, and the beginning of that never-before-seen interview, below…..

THE INTERVIEW

BrooklynVegan Mike in bold….

Congratulations on your Polaris nomination. Did they announce what place people finished in, or was there just a winner announced?

They only announced one winner.

Okay. I know that a few hours before the announcement, the buzz was it was down to you or Final Fantasy, and then Final Fantasy won.

That was kind of the rumor, and they reinforced that rumor by putting both of us on that cover of Eye Weekly, and they placed both of our tables right next to the stage. A guy came up to me and said, “hey, you got a pretty good chance of winning.” It was one of the guys from the jury. I kind of felt like that’s what they were going for. In fact, I was right next to the walkway so I felt they were making it easy for me to get up there.

Do you have any opinion on the fact that two of the bigger longshots to win were rumored to be the two finalists for the prize?

The way I thought about it was I didn’t think someone like Metric or Broken Social Scene would win because they win everything, and they win everything…in life. Some of those dudes own houses and shit. So I thought the award would be counterproductive to go to someone like them. But in a roundabout way, they still did it by giving it to a member of the Arcade Fire. I never thought of it at the time but someone mentioned it to me. The Arcade Fire album was out of range for them to vote in. They wanted to give it to them. So at least, hey, they gave it to one of them.

Now about the Canadian hip-hop scene, I think you are only one of like 3-4 hip-hop acts to be playing this festival. Is it stretching to say there is a Canadian hip-hop scene?

Oh, there is a Canadian hip-hop scene, it just doesn’t go out that far. It’s real underground. It’s not like the American underground, which is healthy and sells a lot of records. Even our highest selling Canadian rappers aren’t that big. There are some great rappers up here. There are a lot of bright spots. It’s like anything else.

Do you feel like you are forced to go through indie music circles to get your music heard? Or do you think your music would go over with the mainstream hip-hop crowd in America?

The thing is I don’t think my music is inherently accessible. I have never gone through a traditional channel. By the grace of god and my label putting in the work for me that I am at a place I am at now in Canada. I am getting ready to go to the states. I am doing CMJ. In fact, I am doing a party for you guys. I’ve toured the states before, with Islands. I don’t want to sound like an asshole but I don’t think I will have a problem crossing over into America like other Canadian rappers have had. Because of my writing and such, I feel I know what it will take to get over in America.

Final Fantasy – 2007 Tour Dates
Sep 28 – River Run Centre Guelph
Oct 4 – Ukraine Federation Montreal
Oct 11 – The Firehouse North Manchester, Indiana (cancelled)
Oct 12 – Schuba's Chicago #
Oct 13 – First Avenue Minneapolis #
Oct 15 – West End Cultural Centre Winnipeg, Manitoba #
Oct 16 – The Exchange Regina, Saskatchewan #
Oct 17 – Myer Horowitz Theatre Edmonton #
Oct 18 – The Warehouse Calgary, Alberta #
Oct 20 – Richard's on Richards Vancouver, British Columbia #
Oct 21 – Alix Goolden Hall Victoria, British Columbia #
Oct 22 – Nectar Seattle, Washington *
Oct 23 – Someday Lounge Portland, Oregon *
Oct 25 – The Independent San Francisco, California *
Oct 25 – The Independent San Francisco, California *
Oct 26 – Glass House Concert Hall Pomona, California *
Oct 26 – Glass House Concert Hall Pomona, California *
Oct 28 – Troubadour West Hollywood, California *
Oct 29 – Beauty Bar San Diego, California *
Oct 30 – Modified Arts Phoenix, Arizona *
Nov 1 – Monks (school show) Abilene, Texas *
Nov 2 – Hailey's Denton, Texas *
Nov 3 – Fun Fun Fun Fest Austin, Texas *
Nov 5 – Bottle Tree Café Birmingham, Alabama *
Nov 7 – Map Room Charleston *
Nov 9 – First Unitarian Church Philadelphia *
Nov 10 – Maxwells New Jersey *
Nov 11 – Bowery Ballroom New York, New York *
Nov 12 – Middle East Boston, Massachusetts
Nov 14 – Brunton Auditorium Sackville
Nov 16 – St. Matthew's United Church Halifax, Nova Scotia
Nov 17 – St. Matthew's United Church St. Matthew's United Church, Nova Scotia
Nov 19 – TBD Quebec City, Quebec
Nov 20 – Bronson Centre Ottowa