OG Melody - "OG Realness ft Felicity Williams". At first click, OG Melody are something irony-laced and mildly heinous. After all, Isla Craig and Thomas Gill are not Original Gangster. They are young, white, Torontonian. This certainly doesn't put R&B off limits, but their duo is um called OG Melody. This song is um called "OG Realness". When Craig sings, "I call up my OG crew / mixing jams old school," the first image in my head concerns strawberry, pectin, mason jars.
Despite this first impression, "OG Realness" is exquisite, gorgeous and sincere. It is bone-dry bedroom R&B, a song of love and friendship that tilts and pivots. It is full of cut flowers. The production - restrained, funky - is a perfect balance for Craig's voice. There is a vogue in chillwave R&B, but OG Melody have little of that drowsy mire. This is not a sibling of the Weeknd or How to Dress Well. It does not even feel influenced by the-Dream. Instead, this is jersey organ, bare snare, careful squonking solo. Look to the Neptunes at their warmest, or Cody ChesnuTT, or perhaps a little of the Notwist. Or rather, stop looking. Despite their look-here wink-nod band-name, despite the look-here wink-nod song-name, "OG Melody" feels utterly unconcerned with looking over shoulders, with winks or nods. It is what it is, free as indian summer.
The Records - "Starry Eyes". Like running through a flurry of arrows, without any sign of the archers. Arrowheads gleaming, breathless zing, can't decide if it's jubilant bleeding joy or a death-defying sprint.
People often dream about having a pool in their backyard but it's not something that has ever been a dream of mine... until now!! I need one, I really really need one and it must and I mean MUST come with one of those pods! I want space pod and a pool right now!!!
How do you guys come up with the images to go with these songs? I guess in this one you have something out of the ordinary - astronauts bathing in a backyard pool - matched with an out of the ordinary pairing of white boy/R&B. Either way, both are amazing.
YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN - "Queens". A messenger arrives form the future, in a time-machine the size of a bachelor apartment. It flicks into existence on the lawn of the White House. It makes a sound like someone slapping someone else. The doors slide open, metallic, reveal a woman. She steps onto the grass. She is scared, glancing. She holds up her hand. In the years to come, this gesture will be endlessly analyzed. Was it a greeting? A warning? Was it just the sun in her eyes? But she raises her hand and this is the moment the snipers shoot. The woman is pinioned by multiple bullets, like she is dancing around a maypole.
YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN are an art-psych band from Montreal and Toronto who stand in heavy water, weeds to their hairlines; they scythe through fields with wielded guitars; they recall full summer, apocalyptic winter, the heaviest bits of Espers and Besnard Lakes, Led Zep with the Boredoms. They call it Noh-wave. This is a clever joke. Other jokes that have a bearing on Y//ST: wasps, sparks, jellyfish, ice. This music is available on a white vinyl 12" record and I imagine using this record as a plate, a moon, a circular saw through forests of birch.
Please read the beautiful, breathtaking speech by Slavoj Žižek at #OccupyWallSt, the best thing I have heard from this movement (and many times more sophisticated, yearning and true than the recent speech by Naomi Klein). An excerpt:
In an old joke from the defunct German Democratic Republic, a German worker gets a job in Siberia; aware of how all mail will be read by censors, he tells his friends: "Let's establish a code: if a letter you will get from me is written in ordinary blue ink, it is true; if it is written in red ink, it is false." After a month, his friends get the first letter written in blue ink: "Everything is wonderful here: stores are full, food is abundant, apartments are large and properly heated, movie theatres show films from the West, there are many beautiful girls ready for an affair--the only thing unavailable is red ink." And is this not our situation till now? We have all the freedoms one wants--the only thing missing is the red ink: we feel free because we lack the very language to articulate our unfreedom.
I've been rereading Žižek's 2002 book Welcome to the Desert of the Real and he reiterates the same joke about red ink the first chapter. Check it out if you haven't already.
These songs are from Bert Jansch's debut, released in 1965. He was 22 years old.
Almost 50 years later, so much was still the same:
My love for Bert Jansch does not just stem from his guitar-playing, rightly celebrated. It is his singing - dry, level. His heart is hidden away - inside the chest of a man. So many songwriters show too much; for Jansch, the fact of the singing said enough. The words; the fingers on strings, like light on leaves; the melody that moves closer and then far away.
This music is not theatre, a performance for a crowd. You imagine Jansch alone in a room, singing to himself.
Deloro - "Travelling Man". If there is an abandoned country, a man can walk the tracks, collecting rail. Imagine him, Old JR, his wagon full of rail. Imagine his nephew, Reed, riding beside. Reed has a plan: one day he will retrace the steps his uncle has taken, follow the same maps, and gather up all the pinewood ties. He will load his own wagon. Whereas Old JR's home is a thicket of leaning rail, rust-red, Reed's home will be a stately mansion made from weathered planks. He thinks of this as he rides in the wagon, chewing straw. Beside him, Old JR is walking. Old JR always walks. He does not look at his nephew; he already knows what he is thinking. When Old JR was a young man, he too imagined a house made of wood. He did not yet know the cruelty of the world, the enemies in the tundra. He did not yet know the value of a home, somewhere, on a hill, made of the same stuff as guns.
[Deloro is the singer Jennifer Castle, Dave Clarke & Paul Mortimer from $100, Dallas Wehrle from Constantines, and the artist Tony Romano. Their debut, with allegedly splendid artwork, is available now on Idée Fixe.]
Galen Hartley - "Raised Like a Glass". Biding time 'til the chorus, like the way we bide our time until the toast. Finally, we raise our glasses. Finally, the stream of wishes and hopes, cheer and fizz. Finally, that nimble guitar lick, handclaps, sloppy outcried "yeah!" This is a song full of swaggering slapstick, Hartley most of all, and while I am not always certain of the softshoe, I am certain about the messy clink of that chorus.
[Galen Hartley will release Good Dreams at Montreal's Inspecteur L'Epingle on Thursday Oct 6 / Buy or listen at Bandcamp]
---
Elsewhere: Adam & the Amethysts skinny-dip through the video for their exquisite song, "Dreaming" (NSFW). Catch their Montreal record launch at Phonopolis Tuesday night - 6pm.
Canada Day is July 1. This is also my parents' anniversary. Every day is many things.
Emperor X wrote a song, crossed from Canada into Detroit.
First he played the tune on his acoustic guitar. Later he added electric bass. On bass, he tried to play "Canada Day"'s nervous system, to find its firing bump and jerk. He sang and re-sang the lyrics. I hear they're draining the lake now / I hear they're shutting the fountains off / They plan to alter the shoreline / They plan to make it all clean. He sang of defeat and persisting, relinquishing certain things and conquering others.
My favourite part of this song is not the finger-pick or the bassline, not the words or the message: it is the syllables he sings in the middle of the song, clipped and cooing. This moment has no meaning, intention, direction. It is a man singing um, oo and ee. It is like swimming in a river, riding on a bus, watching the fireworks fire in an unfamiliar land.
More than two years after I first discovered the marvels of Emperor X, he is releasing a proper album on Bar/None records. Something called Western Teleport. It includes "A Violent Translation of the Concordia Headscarp," a track from that very first post. It includes a roaring song called "Allahu Akbar", which reminds me of Owen Pallett, Los Camepsinos and very early Bec. It includes autoharp. It also includes "Erica Western Teleport", wherein he seeks a kind of obliteration.
Don't think of her swimming sideways / Don't think of her, kicking at the topsoil / ... Don't think of her running in an old t-shirt / Don't think of her porous membrane / Don't think of her, reading on the L train / ... Don't think of her / Never think of her.
Emperor X is so special because of his particular voice. It is lo-fi pop but it is not from the bedroom, the basement - it feels like it is from the Greyhound, the MacBook, the wi-fi'ed park bench. On "Erica Western Teleport" he namedrops Firewire and Battlestar Galactica, he suggests you go get some exercise. Yet it is not hokey or "funny", the work of a punchline-slinging folkster. It is simply precise. Muddy, catchy, personal, persistent - and precise. In this way, Chad Matheny reminds me of certain rappers: The Streets, Lil Wayne, Lil B, Big Boi. These are MCs who rap whatever images feel rightest, and fuck the universal. Sometimes our longings are broad, sometimes they are very precise.
MProv, the Montreal Improv Festival, runs October 12 to 16. Terrific shows, with troupes from Toronto, Montreal and Winnipeg. Includes performances by both of Said the Gramophone's main writers. Hope to see you there!
Montreal Improv is also organizing Impossible Montreal, an amazing, daunting, death-defying city-wide scavenger hunt, November 4 to 6. Register now.
Love this. Also love the promise on his website to play three songs outside the concert and get fish tacos with you if you can't get into the show because it isn't all ages. I'd give that a shot but can't pass as 17 anymore :(
by Karin S., Sep 30, 2011
Man, totally psyched to hear this LP! Not psyched to pay $25 for it...
I've listened to this album all day yesterday. 'Erica Western Transport' makes me think I let something go I shouldn't have, or that I will... Not to be picky, but the lyrics end with "Always think of her" rather than "Never think of her".
by Marc, Oct 5, 2011
wow, I've been listening to Erica Western Teleport for days now, the lp is ordered, but I can't wait! thanks, sean, this sure has the potential to be the album of the rest of the year!
by Maks, Oct 9, 2011
I went on tour with Chad and The Front Bottoms this past September and he is one of the most interesting and down to earth people I've met. I still owe him a practical joke however, which he will get when he least expects it...
by the way, if I know what you're thinking, then that's not an autoharp on "Sig Alert". that's a piano, with the top opened and the strings being strummed!
CANT - "Too Late Too Far". Sick for six days, eyeing the potted plants, feeling like their leaves are blurring into the wallpaper. Sick for six days, rashes on your legs, wrists, sides. Day seven, seeing the rash everywhere. It is spreading to the bedspread, to the carpet, to the waxen leaves of the potted plants. You rub your eyes, rub your eyes, cough phlegm into the wastepaper basket. The rash has spread to the wastepaper basket. You know this is a dream but you do not believe this is a dream. Something has cut the tether between knowledge and belief; you are still in your bed and reeling, sweating sick and dry as a stone. Did another person do this to you? Is there someone to blame? Was it another person's gorgeous eyes and the way they turned their back? [buy Dreams Come True]
Lunice - "Hitmanes Anthem (Noaipre remix)". I missed Lunice's Pop Montreal gig last night. The line was too long. Was this what I would have heard, inside? This, performed live - a band of three keyboardists, one baritone, a pistol loaded with blanks? I would have liked to dance to this. I would have held the keyboardists' eyes, inhaled the pistol's black powder. And if Lunice had been something else, if Lunice had played something else, I would have danced to this anyway. It would have been my secret, hidden, noisy and dumb. [buy the Stacker Upper EP]
Pop Montreal is upon us. For five days there will be too much to do, in too few hours, and we are hopefully going to dance our feet off. For kids like me, Pop Montreal is the city's annual music blow-out - our SXSW, our ATP, our Home Game. Hundreds of artists pile into dozens of venues across the city, from churches to concert-halls, conjuring rackets. The concerts and films are complimented by dozens of free talks, events and barbecues, spontaneous parties, all kinds of splendour. This year's centrepiece is a gigantic free outdoor gig by Arcade Fire. This is Pop Montreal's biggest-ever event, and reason to celebrate, but it's perhaps also crowding some of the other programming. Despite Arcade Fire's talents, the festival highlight is unlikely to be something glimpsed on a jumbo screen.
After years of doing Pop, I feel the important thing is to seek out the most extraordinary moments. The artists and contexts you don't usually get the chance to experience. And don't run around so much that you don't have any fun. Very often it's the small secrets, the long evenings, the little discoveries, that offer the most enduring rewards.
This Guide
As always, this Guide is my guide to Pop. It's not a universal guide. It is personal, subjective, honest. I recommend the things I love, the things I am curious about. And I leave out the things - even if they're highly touted - for which I'd have to fake excitement. Take everything with seas of salt.
I made similar guides in 2008 and 2009, 2010, and in 2008 also wrote up my experiences for McSweeney's.
If you're a visitor to Montreal, please take advantage of the city's Bixi bike rental system. Please also look at the sidebar on the right, where Said the Gramophone has some local recommendations (they're mostly restaurants).
How to Use This Guide
I suggest you flip between this guide and the official printed Pop program, which is full of band descriptions. (You can also build a schedule via the festival's slightly finicky website, but I find paper helpful: you can write on it.) This year Pop has also created a handy Pocket Guide schedule, which is useful for um putting in your pocket. Look for copies around town.
Pop HQ
If I refer to Pop HQ, I am referring to their registration/box-office/symposium/gallery space at L'ancienne École des beaux-arts de Montréal, located at 3450 St-Urbain, corner of Sherbrooke.
Tickets and Passes Some of Pop is completely free. There are afternoon concerts, art openings, barbecues, installations, record and craft fairs, as well as workshops, lectures and conversations between artists. Symposium - the name for Pop's "conference" component - is often my favourite part of the whole festival. This year looks to be no different - from an interview with Tune-Yards to a conversation between Tim Hecker and Grimes... also, there's usually free snacks.
Unlike the old days, when you could browse the whole festival for about $80, these are the options in 2011:
Buy tickets. Most Pop concerts are like any other concerts, year-round: you can buy tickets at the door, online, or at the record shops listed here. Almost everything's cheaper if you buy it in advance. Setting aside the free shows, most gigs cost between $10 and $30, which includes the headliner and up to three openers. Buying tickets is really the simplest way to do Pop - figure out the concerts you want to see, buy the ticket, show up. For $10 you can also get a one-day Pop Hopper upgrade to any ticket. This pass lets you drop in on most of the night's other gigs. (See below.) Please note: Pop Hopper upgrades require planning. You can only buy them when buying tickets online, or by dropping by Pop HQ, 12pm-8pm.
It's also worth noting that some of the festival's smaller gigs are ineligible for a Pop Hopper upgrade. Mostly these are shows at Cagibi, L'Escogriffe, 3 Minots, Tour Prisme - places like that. Because they do not issue tickets in advance, there's nothing to turn in for an upgrade. On the bright side - these gigs are often wonderful and cheap.
Pop Hopper Day Passes.These $30 passes are for people who wish to skim and graze between shows, rather than seeing any one line-up in particular. Buy them here or at Pop HQ, 12pm-8pm. Pop Hopper passes don't guarantee access - most concerts have a certain allotment of Pop Hoppers they will allow in, and some gigs (Arcade Fire, Chromeo, Tune-Yards, Japandroids, Girls, Stephen Malkmus) won't allow any Pop Hoppers at all. If you want to visit multiple venues in one night, it's usually a better deal to buy the ticket for the concert you really want to see, then spring for the $10 Pop Hopper upgrade (see above).
Super Pass. For $361.50, do more or less whatever the hell you want.
Recommendations over several days
Besides the concerts, films and Symposium events, Pop has a couple more important segments. Most importantly there's Art Pop, with visual arts exhibitions which are mostly on all week. This year my program highlights are these: Raincoats drawings/photos/&c, the "new media" group show And No One Was Around, and especially an installation by the incredible Marcel Dzama, who never answers my emails.
Do your holiday shopping early: Pop's massive, excellent art&craft fair, Puces Pop, takes place Saturday and Sunday in the basement of St-Michel church (St-Viateur @ St-Urbain). There's also a record fair a few blocks away, in the basement of the Ukrainian Federation. Finally, if you're a parent, do look into the often-overlooked Kids Pop.
Recommendations day by day
Every day, I break things down as follows:
What I'm doing:
Instructions for following me around! But there are gazillions of Pop shows, much more than any one person can do; depending on your tastes and budget, there's much more to recommend.
Anchor your evening:
The ticketed shows that deserve your doubloons, usually including several acts.
Roam:
The night's other best sets, for those with slimmer wallets, industry passes, Pop Hoppers, or a sense of adventure.
Roll the dice:
The day's foremost curiosities and gambles - could-be treasures and maybe-flops.
And then a list of the day's highlights, as far as I can tell. It's important to note I am not listing entire bills - just my highlights. So check the program for full set-times.
I highly recommend everything on these lists, but everything listed in bold is CAN'T MISS.
This list has been made using the Pop's updated online schedule of September 18. All dates/times are as best as I know.
Update Sept 20: Updated to reflect several cancellations. Update Sept 22: Updated with Thursday's Passovah shows at Divan Orange.
Tuesday, September 20
19h30 - The Suburbs screening [Place des Festivals - free]
20h - H2Oil screening [Place des Festivals - free]
Wednesday, September 21
What I'm doing:
My only certainty on Pop Montreal's first night is Lunice (mp3), a local producer who came at me out of nowhere. I'm keen to hear his bass boom on Le Belmont's speakers, and might stick around for Araabmuzik (mp3). But I'm also very very curious about Marques Toliver (mp3), a London/NY art-soul guy who comes recommended by Leif Vollebekk.
Anchor your evening:
Two choices if you want to spend the whole night in one place:
Hip-hop at HOHM, with some of Canada's very best MCs - I'm esp keen on D-sisive (mp3) and OG Hindu Kush (mp3).
Liam Finn's glossy folk show at O Patro Vys - I'm only so-so on the headliner, but I like the new Reversing Falls single (mp3) plus the aforementioned Mr Toliver.
Roam:
Honestly this is a good night for dodge-and-weaving. Said the Gramophone loves CAVE (mp3), and I'm also really fond of the new Extra Happy Ghost album (mp3). Belgrave (mp3) play very capable Arcade-Death Cab-Coldplay pop, while Pat LePoidevin's windy folk seemed really promising when I heard him in Dawson City.
Roll the dice:
Lots of the evening's highlights are electronic/hip-hop/dance music - Lunice, Technical Kidman, Araabmuzik, OG Hindu Kush. It will all come down to whether it's working in the room. Let's hope.
21h - Belgrave [Les 3 Minots]
21h - Pat LePoidevin [Cagibi]
21h - Reversing Falls [O Patro Vys - $15]
21h30 - Arcade Fire [Metropolis - sold out]
21h30 - Isle of Pine [L'Escogriffe] 22h - CAVE [Il Motore - $15] 22h - Marques Toliver [O Patro Vys - $15] 22h30 - Bass Drum of Death [Divan Orange - $15]
23h - Liam Finn [O Patro Vys - $15]
23h - Extra Happy Ghost!!! [Cagibi]
23h10 - OG Hindu Kush [HOHM Private Club - $12] 00h - Lunice [Le Belmont - $11.50]
00h - The Narcysist [HOHM Private Club - $12]
00h - Ponctuation [Quai des Brumes]
00h40 - D-sisive [HOHM Private Club - $12]
01h - Hooded Fang [Les 3 Minots]
01h - Technical Kidman [Mission Santa Cruz - $10]
01h - Araabmuzik [Le Belmont - $11.50]
Thursday, September 22
What I'm doing:
I'm planning to start my day with this funny reception/seminar run by the Government of Taiwan - curious about Taiwanese music, and hoping for uh free Taiwanese food. Clearly Arcade Fire's free gig casts a shadow over most of the evening's programming; and if it's not already clear, I'm little wary of this massive outdoor gig. The intersection of music and memory is complicated, and I rarely enjoy gigantic shows. But if Kid Koala (mp3) is on his turntables (and not playing his new organ music), his opening set will be killer. And Arcade Fire - they'll surely play their hearts out. I just hope this corporate blow-out ends up feeling communal, shared, not simply diluted.
Anchor your evening:
Setting aside Arcade Fire/Kid Koala/Karkwa, this is a night with four strong all-night line-ups.
Two of them are dance parties:
DFA Records have programmed the DFA Dance Party, starting at 9pm and headlined by Hercules & Love Affair's Kim Ann Foxman.
Even better, there's Masala's all-nighter at CFC. Acts from Haiti, Brussels and Brazil, curated by the outstanding music blog. Masala's DJ Valeo is honestly one of the best DJs I've ever heard, with incredible taste - and I want to be at any party he's running.
Lots of great one-offs tonight, too. Molly Sweeney (mp3), a great folk singer, has been stranded on an awful bill at Balattou. JEFF the Brotherhood's (mp3) punk pop is terrific in concert. Gramophone favourites Adam & the Amethysts (mp3) are warming up for their Friday show with another intimate gig at O Patro Vys. Katherine Peacock makes a rare appearance as Mussaver. And you can't fuck with Fucked Up (mp3) at 1:30 am - holy shit.
Roll the dice:
Patricia tells me wonderful things about the live experience of Doldrums (mp3), and There's buzz around the gothic folk band Tasseomancy (formerly Ghost Bees) (mp3). Also, um, there's a bicycle race in the tiny emptied Bain Mathieu swimming pool (with music later by USA Out Of Vietnam).
11h30 - Music managers panel (Arts & Crafts, Arbutus, etc) [Pop HQ - free]
13h - Pop BBQ [Notman House - free] 14h - Stranger (ex Magic Weapon/Miracle Fortress/Ancient Kids) [Divan Orange - free]
15h - Taiwan music reception 15h - THOMAS [Divan Orange - free]
16h - Reversing Falls [Divan Orange - free]
17h - Taiwan music seminar 17h - Parlovr [Divan Orange - free]
18h - Minidrome cycling qualifiers [Bain Mathieu - free?]
19h - Kid Koala [Place des Festivals - free]
20h - Karkwa [Place des Festivals - free] 21h - Arcade Fire [Place des Festivals - free]
21h - DFA Dance Party (all night) [Belmont - $12]
21h30 - Mussaver [Cagibi]
21h30 - Sean Nicholas Savage [Mission Santa Cruz - $10]
22h - Molly Sweeney [Balattou] 22h - Masala DJs [CFC - $12]
22h10 - Silver Dapple [Casa del Popolo - $10]
23h - Minidrome cycling head-to-heads [Bain Mathieu - free?] 23h - THOMAS [Casa del Popolo - $10]
23h - Grimes [Mission Santa Cruz - $10]
23h - Neil Hamburger [Club Soda]
23h30 - Tasseomancy [Église Saint-Édouard - $15]
23h40 - TONSTARTSSBANDHT [Mission Santa Cruz - $10]
00h - Mr OK [CFC - $12] 00h - Adam & the Amethysts [O Patro Vys]
00h30 - Grand Trine [Casa del Popolo - $10]
01h - JEFF the Brotherhood [Club Soda]
01h - Cadence Weapon DJ set [Mission Santa Cruz - $10] 01h30 - Fucked Up [Église Saint-Édouard - $15] 02h30 - Doldrums [Tarot]
Friday, September 23
What I'm doing:
Friday is the day of absolute bonkers bonkers bonkers-ness. Too much has been programmed simultaneously. It's disappointing, frustrating, tragic. But we'll soldier through this surfeit of riches. I'm starting the day with Symposium talks - Ponderosa Stomp is an extraordinary New Orleans festival, which I helped pitch to Pop several years ago. Alas, I can't attend the gig tonight, but I'll be there to hear their panel at 11am. Then Drew talking to Merrill, Natasha talking to R Stevie Moore, and I'm excited to see what Marcel Dzama has planned. From there, despite a night of rival passions, I will go see Tune-Yards (mp3)/Pat Jordache (mp3)/Touchy Mob at the Ukrainian Federation, followed by Adam & the Amethysts (mp3) at Tour Prisme (plus special guest?), & closing the night by getting my mind blown in by Yamantaka//Sonic Titan's (mp3) heavy art psych.
Anchor your evening:
So much in contention:
The Ponderosa Stomp Revue, with the Velvelettes, Li'l Buck Sinegal & Bobby Allen, Ralph "Soul" Jackson, is quite possibly the best show of Pop Montreal 2011. No, I won't be there. (Argh.) Some of Louisiana's greatest lost blues, R&B and soul acts, brought together with scuff and smoke. This won't be polite.
Last week I profiled my friends in Adam & the Amethysts (mp3) for Hour. They've finished one of my favourite albums of the year, and today they have curated a whole night of outstanding folk acts. These include Sea Oleena (mp3), whom I fell for last year, The Weather Station (mp3), whom I've been falling for this year, and a secret guest who is a highlight elsewhere in these pages. This will be a very special evening, tucked away in the cozy Tour Prisme.
Tune-Yards (mp3) is one of my favourite live artists in the world today. This is a return to her former place of residence, a celebration with friends, bolstered by the damaged art-rock gang Pat Jordache (mp3), and Touchy Mob, a glitchy German songwriter that P sings the praises of.
Much like Adam & the Amethysts' evening at Tour Prisme, the marvelous Snailhouse (mp3) headlines another intimate line-up at Casa del Popolo. Spectral Jennifer Castle (mp3) and the revitalized One Hundred Dollars (mp3), in particular, have been on my to-see list for months.
On the noisier side of things, Passovah are running an excellent showcase at Mission Santa Cruz. Cousins (mp3), Mozart's Sister (mp3), Cotton Mouth (mp3) and Miracle Fortress (mp3) are some of Montreal's thrillingest things. (OK ok Cousins aren't from here.)
Finally, Dirty Beaches (mp3) play really cool decaying rhythm & blues, and support from Mavo (mp3) = awesome.
Roam:
It's only on a night like this that I could imagine overlooking a screening of films for one of 2011's best records, PJ Harvey's Let England Shake. Let alone Stephen Malkmus. And Snowblink (mp3), a highlight of previous Pops, is another really gorgeous glimmery folk act.
Roll the dice:
I don't know his work, but R Stevie Moore is a DIY legend. I'm also a big fan of Moonface (mp3), the new project by Wolf Parade's Spencer Krug; he will be recording in front of a live audience at Breakglass.
11h - Bobby Allen, Li'l Buck Sinegal & Dr Ike talk Louisiana Music [Pop HQ - free]
11h - Music supervision panel [Pop HQ - free]
11h - 13h - Pop BBQ [Notman House - free] 13h - Tune-Yards workshop/discussion w Drew Nelles [Pop HQ - free]
14h30 - Bitter End MC a talk on music biz war stories [Pop HQ - free]
15h30 - R Stevie Moore interviewed by Natasha Pickovicz [Pop HQ - free] 17h - Marcel Dzama Q&A, films, "live musical accompaniment" [Pop HQ - free]
19h - Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune film [Blue Sunshine - $8] 19h30 - 12 short films on PJ Harvey's Let England Shake [Pop HQ - $8]
20h - Cousins [Mission Santa Cruz - $15]
20h - Touchy Mob [Ukrainian Federation - $20] 21h - Pat Jordache [Ukrainian Federation - $20]
21h - Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks [Corona - $25]
21h - Cotton Mouth [Mission Santa Cruz - $15]
21h - Tasseomancy [O Patro Vys - $15]
21h - Sea Oleena [La Tour Prisme] 21h30 - Lil Buck & the Buckaroos [Cabaret Mile End - $25]
21h30 - Superfossilpower [Divan Orange - $12]
21h40 - Snowblink [O Patro Vys - $15] 22h - Mozart's Sister [Mission Santa Cruz - $15] 22h - tUnE-yArDs [Ukrainian Federation - $20] 22h - Moonface [Breakglass Studios - $12]
22h - Mavo [Il Motore - $15]
22h - David MacLeod [Casa del Popolo - $12] 22h30 - The Weather Station [La Tour Prisme]
22h30 - Tanika Charles [Cabaret Playhouse] 22h40 - Jennifer Castle [Casa del Popolo - $12] 23h10 - Ralph "Soul" Jackson [Cabaret Mile End - $25] 23h10 - Adam & the Amethysts [La Tour Prisme]
23h30 - One Hundred Dollars [Casa del Popolo - $12]
23h30 - Goose Hut [Divan Orange - $12]
23h30 - Azealia Banks [Le Belmont - $14] 00h - The Velvelettes [Cabaret Mile End - $25]
00h - R Stevie Moore [Sala Rossa - $18]
00h - Miracle Fortress [Mission Santa Cruz - $15]
00h - Dirty Beaches [Il Motore - $15] 00h30 - Snailhouse [Casa del Popolo - $12]
00h30 - Kid Sister [Le Belmont - $14] 00h30 - Yamantaka//Sonic Titan [Le Phoenix - $12]
01h - Miles Cleret DJ set [HOHM - $10]
Saturday, September 24
What I'm doing:
Hard to imagine something more weird & Pop Montreal than the dour, cool Tim Hecker talking to Grimes' girlish Claire Boucher. So there's that. Later I'll be at the Arcade Fire/NBA charity basketball game for work. In the evening I'll probably check out Laura Marling (mp3), an English songwriter whose last album was a treasure, then the bonkers Captain Beefheart event - Gary Lucas? Mary Margaret O'Hara? AIDS Wolf's Chloe Lum? - at Cinema L'Amour, a vintage porno cinema.
Anchor your evening:
Get comfy at the film screening by (amazing) international music label Sublime Freqs?
Roam:
James Irwin (mp3) is one of my favourite Montreal songwriters, cracked as a bell. Parlovr (mp3) play excellent guitar-y indie rock. Nguzunguzu is one of 2011's coolest electronic producers. And Metz, hardcore legends, will be playing at Barfly - a place the size of my living-room.
13h - Pop BBQ [Notman House - free]
14h - Breezes BBQ [Cinequanon - free] 14h30 - Tim Hecker talks to Grimes [Pop HQ - free]
16h - A Conversation with the Raincoats [Pop HQ - free]
15h30 - Stomp BBQ [Foufounes Electriques]
16h - Art Spiegelman talk [Concordia University H-110 Auditorium - $20]
16h30 - Pop vs Jock charity basketball game [McGill University Sports Centre - $20]
18h30 - Plants and Animals [Breakglass Studio - $12] 19h - Sublime Frequencies screening/Q&A [Pop HQ - free] 20h - James Irwin [Cagibi]
20h30 - Deleted Scenes [Cabaret Mile End - $20] 22h - Laura Marling [Théâtre Corona - $20]
22h - Gianna Lauren [O Patro Vys]
22h - CFCF [SAT - $17]
23h - The Adam Brown [Royal Phoenix - $12]
23h - Skeletones Four [Quai des Brumes]
23h30 - Chromeo [Metropolis]
23h30 - Daniel Isaiah [L'Escogriffe]
23h30 - Yuck [Cabaret Mile End - $20] 00h - Nguzunguzu [Le Belmont - $15] 00h - Captain Beefheart Symposium (w Gary Lucas, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Chloe Lum, etc) (Cinema L'Amour - $15)
00h - Steel Phantoms [Quai des Brumes] 00h30 - Parlovr [L'Escogriffe] 01h - Metz [Barfly]
01h - Bishop Morocco [Casa del Popolo - $12]
01h - Sheezer [O Patro Vys]
01h - Ford & Lopatin [SAT - $17]
Sunday, September 25
What I'm doing:
Sacred Sunday was allegedly one of the best things at Pop 2010; this time round, Patrick Watson is joined by the Unicorns' Alden Penner, Katie Moore, Stars' Amy Millan, Ariel Engle, Lil Andy and more, performing "music written for god".
But Sunday's true highlight is the Corner Store Showcase, featuring a slew of my favourite local folk musicians - notably James Irwin, Carl Spidla (mp3) and um, maybe some surprises. This will be a long and special evening - the idea is to arrive at 9pm and stay, instead of flitting around.
Anchor your evening day:
Besides Sacred Sunday and the Corner Store, there are several other full-slate highlights: Socalled will be debuting his new crazy puppet musical, The Season; the legendary Raincoats play with the amazing band Grass Widow (mp3); and Phonopolis is curating a tremendous evening of experimental folk at Divan Orange, including the mesmeric Eric Chenaux (mp3) and Elfin Saddle's (mp3) ramshackle haunting.
Roam:
I'm sad to be missing the bruised pop band Girls (mp3). And don't forget party animals Think About Life (mp3), ringing out the festival at 2am!
13h - Pop BBQ [Notman House - free]
13h - Babukishan Das Baul workshop [Pop HQ - free]
13h30 - Bloodied but Unbowed (Vancouver punk doc) [Pop HQ - $5] 16h30 - Sacred Sunday [Ukrainian Federation - $20] 20h30 - The Season: A Socalled Musical [Theatre Outremont - $20]
21h - Peter Hook plays Joy Division oh god :( [Club Soda - $30] 21h - Corner Store Showcase (Carl Spidla, Shaun Weadick, Katherine Peacock, James Irwin, Neil Holyoak...) [La Tour Prisme]
21h20 - Nick Kuepfer [Divan Orange] 22h - Girls [Corona - $23.15]
22h10 - Babukishan Das Baul [Casa del Popolo - $12]
22h - Kyle Bobby Dunn [Divan Orange]
22h30 - Jesse Dangerously [Royal Phoenix - $10] 22h40 - Grass Widow [Cabaret Mile End - $25] 22h50 - Eric Chenaux [Divan Orange]
23h10 - Astronautalis [Royal Phoenix - $10]
23h30 - The Raincoats [Cabaret Mile End - $25] 23h30 - DJ Q-bert [Sala Rossa] 23h40 - Elfin Saddle [Divan Orange] 02h - Think About Life & DJ Valeo [Église Saint-Édouard - $12]
That's it! I'll try to keep this guide updated with new developments - follow me on Twitter to stay up to the minute. And I'm sure I've missed tons of great things - leave your tips in the comments!
Doldrums just got a recording session with Bilerman at Banff Centre and is out :( And we will have some more news in the coming day...will keep you posted!
by p, Sep 20, 2011
Sunday night at Les 3 Minots ... Topanga, The Cheap Speakers, Reversing Falls, and The Black Void. 21h, $5.
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"And I shall watch the ferry-boats / and they'll get high on a bluer ocean / against tomorrow's sky / and I will never grow so old again."
about the authors
Sean Michaels is the founder of Said the Gramophone. He is a writer, critic and author of the theremin novel Us Conductors. Follow him on Twitter or reach him by email here. Click here to browse his posts.
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and it will begin playing. All songs are also available to download: just right-click the link and choose 'Save as...'
People often dream about having a pool in their backyard but it's not something that has ever been a dream of mine... until now!! I need one, I really really need one and it must and I mean MUST come with one of those pods! I want space pod and a pool right now!!!
How do you guys come up with the images to go with these songs? I guess in this one you have something out of the ordinary - astronauts bathing in a backyard pool - matched with an out of the ordinary pairing of white boy/R&B. Either way, both are amazing.