If you happened to be walking down St. Laurent Boulevard or Mt. Royal Avenue last week around midnight, you probably stopped to watch the steady stream of bright flickering lights that passed by. How do you explain this strange phenomenon? Two words: POP Montreal. And the flickering lights? That would have been the sea of Bixi bikes carrying music fans, artists, hard partiers and hipsters to their next venue. POP Montreal, which is very arguably one of the coolest festivals happening in North America right now, just wrapped. For five days and nights, the city of saints was hit with a deluge of new music, cool ideas and fantastic art. In 24 hours you can take in a fashion show, Jian Ghomeshi, ground-breaking electronic shows with the likes of Belgian duo SoldOut, and still find time to raise your beer glasses to cheers some good old-fashioned rock ‘n roll (see Michael Rault). Seriously, folks! Put this festival on your musical bucket list.
While it wasn’t easy, we’ve made a shortlist of bands and artists that performed at this year’s POP Montreal that were a) Put on mind blowing shows; or b) Are going to be blowing up in the next year. In Notable’s humble opinion, this is the music that should be on your radar.
Notable Pick #1: AKUA.
What do you get when you combine loop pedals, analog imperfections and a soulful voice? You get AKUA, the Montreal-based songstress who has the voice of a siren and is already making waves with her ambient synth beats and velvety sound. AKUA opened for Solange (a.k.a. Beyonce’s little sister) this year in Montreal and Miss Knowles was so impressed that she asked AKUA to join her tour as a back up singer… not too shabby.
Notable Pick #2: Cousins
Tell your brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles about these guys! Cousins are tearing up the music scene with a stripped down lo-fi garage rock sound. We had the pleasure of watching the pair take the stage at Sala Rossa. It was a victorious show filled with heavy drums, misty vocals, big energy and the crowd was eating it up. The band has an interesting approach to making music that you don’t really see: the members are constantly on rotation to keep the sound fresh and if you’re hoping to grab their latest album at the show, then be pre-warned that you’ll need a tape recorder. Cousins only trade in the musical currency of cassette tapes. This group is on its way up!
Notable Pick #3: Local Natives
Chances are good that if you listen to indie you’ll be familiar with Local Natives. These LA dudes impressed festival crowds and Pitchfork with their debut album Gorilla Manor and are now on tour promoting their latest labour of love: Hummingbird. Local Natives deliver a sound that swells with collaborative harmonies, cymbals and restrained guitar riffs. “Breakers” and “Heavy Feet” should be on your Sunday morning playlist. While you might think that seeing Local Natives would be a quiet show, the band bring a surprisingly big stage presence and they captivated the crowd at POP Montreal when they played at the Metropolis.
Notable Pick #4: Killer Mike
For hip-hop lovers at POP Montreal, there was Killer Mike, who left his tour with Big Boi to perform at the festival. This is a rapper with a cause and he loves to share his outspoken political views with the audience (just take one listen to “Regan” and you’ll see what we mean). Killer Mike is a big guy, really more of a gentle giant, and while he may not be quick on his feet, he’s an agile rapper with some pretty clever lyrics. All the fans that were in the front row for the Cabaret du Mile End show were losing their minds and crowd surfing to the best tracks from R.A.P Music. Thank you, Atlanta!
Cover Image: Local Natives
