Music Makes the World Go ‘Round at POP Montreal

If music is the stuff of life, the POP Montreal International Music Festival can teach us all a thing or two about how to live large – with a slew of rock, indie-pop, electro, punk and hip hop shows to choose from every day for a full five days, the festival keeps music fans playing on in 2014…

For it’s 14th edition, POP Montreal rallies over 400 artists to join the Montreal-made party September 17-21. Among this year’s highlights: the return of local stars The Unicorns, playing their only show in Canada on this tour; a night of hits and sweet nothings with Sheryl Crow; ska legend Stranger Cole; California countercultural genius Ty Segall; a comeback from “Tom’s Diner” powerhouse singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega; the rocked-out blues-folk sounds of Timber Timbre; the strange and wonderful music of Panda Bear; Brooklyn’s captivating Twin Shadow; American punk band Whirr; pop experimentalists Ricky Eat Acid; a rare appearance by Montreal beatmaker Dishwasher; the Caribbean tunes of Calypso Rose Kobo Town; Blues Control’s psych-rock; New Jersey Americana-rock band The Gaslight Anthem; former The Cramps, The Gun Club and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds star member Kid Congo Powers with his band The Pink Monkey Birds; Montreal songwriter and vocal sensation Mozart’s Sister; Japanese indie-rock diehards Shonen Knife; Toronto’s critically-lauded Trust; and many, many more from Canada and arou

Pop Montreal also makes music-lovers lives exciting even in the days leading up to the festival, with a huge Arcade Fire concert at Parc Jean-Drapeau on August 30, where the band ends its globe-trotting Reflektor Tour on home turf, with openers Spoon and Dan Deacon. In addition, POP brings Indigenous electro-hip-hop group A Tribe Called Red, along with local favourites AroaA, Pierre Kwenders and Masala DJs, to downtown’s Place Émilie-Gamelin for a free outdoor concert on the evening of August 27. And pedal your way to POP’s annual Bike-In on the St-Ambroise brewery terrace, this year screening Brian De Palma’s Phantom of the Paradise on September 6.

As always, the art exhibitions at POP Montreal reflect a diversity of local, Canadian and international artists – this year, Art POP adds its own project idea to the mix, celebrating its 10th anniversary by collaborating with artist Dominique Pétrin and youth organization LOVE Québec on a project that aims to reduce violence in the lives of local teenagers. Music and film go hand-in-hand in Film POP’s program of must-see documentaries and music-inspired movies – this year, Film POP honours Quebecois musician René Lussier’s groundbreaking and political album Le trésor de la langue with a 25th-anniversary live performance, a screening of Fernand Bélanger’s Lucier-inspired Le Trésor archange, and QA session with Lussier himself.

With so many shows, it’s sometimes easy to forget that the festival’s POP Symposium offers great insight into musicians’ artistic processes as well as first-hand accounts of life in the music industry. This year, we’ll hear words of wisdom from Damon Naomi, previously of Galaxie 500, as well as be treated to a live performance of the soundtrack to Naomi’s film Fortune. Also in discussion with POP: the incredible and prolific Ty Segall, filmmaker Astra Taylor, producer and musician Steve Albini, Grammy-award-winning sound engineer George Massenburg, media theory and historiography expert Jonathan Sterne, and more. Meanwhile, Kids POP keeps young music fans active and  welcomes local Grammy-award-winning children’s singer Jennifer Gasoi. With music, art, film and more for all ages and a variety of tastes, POP Montreal consistently makes life’s soundtrack a wondrous thing.

THE DETAILS

Pop Montreal, September 17-21, 2014

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