Pitchfork

Sure, we'd call "Holy Fuck" a pretty poor band name, but that doesn't mean we'd call the Polaris nominees poor representatives of their Canadian homeland. The Canadian government, however, disagrees.

According to a CBC News online report (via The Daily Swarm), the Canadian government will cut the touring subsidization program PromArt entirely by the end of March 2009. PromArt costs Canada "about $4.7 million a year and supports hundreds of different arts groups, from ballet and theatre companies performing overseas to author readings out of country," reports CBC News.

CBC News quotes the Canadian prime minister's press secretary Kory Teneycke as saying, "The [funding] choices made were inappropriate...because they were ideological in some cases, or the money was going to fringe arts groups that, in many cases, would be at best, unrepresentative, and at worst, offensive." Anne Howland, a spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson, cited Holy Fuck as an example of such a group.

Holy Fuck bassist Matt McQuaid called the accusation "silly" and told CBC cultural affairs radio show "Q", "I guess more than anything it's a little bit annoying that we've been made the scapegoat when you consider how much money we receive relative to the budget for the entire program. I think our funding comes in at something less than 0.1 per cent of the whole program. So all of these other larger groups who need money more than we do to travel abroad-- like ballet and symphonies-- we become the scapegoat for the cutting in their funding."

PromArt isn't the only arts funding program on the chopping block. CBC News reports that Trade Routes, a $9 million fund "which helps promote cultural exports abroad," will be cut as well.

Holy Fuck have a heap of non-government sponsored tour dates ahead of them. The next one is tonight (August 14) at the Pukkelpop Festival.

Holy Fuck:

08-14 Hasselt, Belgium - Pukkelpop Festival
08-15 Biddinghuizen, Netherlands - Lowlands Festival
08-16 Brighton, England - Loop Festival
08-22 Leeds, England - Leeds Festival
08-23 London, England - Push Club at Astoria 2
08-24 Reading, England - Reading Festival
09-05 Detroit, MI - Royal Oak Music Theatre *
09-10 Quebec City, Quebec - Pavillon Desjardins-Maurice Pollack
09-12 Chicago, IL - Subterranean
09-13 Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheater (Monolith Festival)
09-17 Montreal, Quebec - Metropolis
09-19 Hamilton, Ontario - Pepper Jack's
09-20 London, Ontario - Victoria Park (LOLA Festival)
09-25 Toronto, Ontario - The Phoenix
09-26 Kingston, Ontario - The Grad Club
09-27 Peterborough, Ontario - The Montreal House
10-05 Glasgow, Scotland - Barrowlands
10-06 Newcastle, England - Digital
10-07 Leeds, England - The Faversham
10-08 Manchester, England - NOW Wave Club
10-09 Stoke, England - Sugarmill
10-10 London, England - Islington Academy
10-11 Brighton, England - Audio
10-12 Sheffield, England - Leadmill
10-13 Bristol, England - Carling Academy
10-14 Birmingham, England - Carling Academy
10-15 Nottingham, England - The Social
10-16 Brixton, England - Brixton Academy
10-17 Oxford, England - Zodiac
10-18 London, England - King's College
10-19 Belfast, Northern Ireland - Speakeasy
10-20 Dublin, Ireland - Academy
10-23 Halifax, Nova Scotia - Halifax Pop Explosion

* with Bloc Party