Godspeed You! Black Emperor To Give Canadian Music Prize Winnings To Prisoners

Canadian post-rock outfit Godspeed You! Black Emperor have won their country's coveted Polaris Music Prize for their 2012 album Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend but have decided to do something very different with their $30,000 prize money.

The cult band will donate their winnings to charity, more specifically organisations that help provide music instruments and lessons to Quebec prisoners, according to SPIN.

In a statement released by the band, they said, "we're gonna use the money to try to set up a program so that prisoners in quebec have musical instruments if they need them." Don Wilkie, head of GYBE's record label Constellation also confirmed the Montreal natives would "use the prize money to purchase musical instruments for, and support organizations providing music lessons to, people incarcerated within the Quebec prison system."

Godspeed have also taken aim at the awards, which are similar to the UK's Mercury Prize, and their country in the statement, saying "holding a gala during a time of austerity and normalized decline is a weird thing to do" and finishing off with "we love you so much / our country is fucked." Ouch.