POP Montreal Present POP Shots Episode 6: BIG | BRAVE

The band, who are the first Montreal band to sign to Southern Lord, recorded their second album Au De La with Godspeed/ Thee Silver Mount Zion’s Edrim Menuck on production duties.

The band hit the uk this week for the following shows:

25th November Birthdays, London
26th November Stag and Hounds, Bristol
27-29th November ATP
30th November Headrow House, Leeds
1st December Broadcast, Glasgow
2nd December Rainbow Cellar, Birmingham

The session was recorded and Mastered by LANDR.

As for POP Montreal itself, we sent Mar Sellars to the festival and these were her top 5 memories:

The Cribs

I lived in the UK when the Cribs were one of the biggest indie bands, headlining the Radio 1 stage at Reading/Leeds, hell, Johnny Marr from the Smiths was even in the band for a few years. But I’m guessing Montreal never got the memo, or maybe there was just too much competition as there were only about 50 people in attendance at the Fairmont Theatre to see Britain’s finest. But those 50 people (me included) were in for a treat. Lee Ranaldo from Sonic Youth guested on a song. Guitarist Ryan Jarman was high on codeine the entire set because he hurt his hand the night before in a fight at their Toronto show; luckily it was his strumming hand. Babes in Toyland came to heckle Lee Ranaldo but stayed for the whole set (they had been playing just up the street). They ripped through a decade of hits and the sparse crowd danced, sang-along and ate it all up with giant smiles on their faces. I felt like it was 2009 again.

The Smiffs

Who doesn’t like the Smiths? Ok, maybe shinny happy people who can’t seem to get into Morrissey’s cloudy grey world. But if, like me, you spent most of your teenage years singing along to Smiths songs in your bedroom and wishing you lived in England, the only way to end an eclectic festival like Pop was to dance to Montreal’s tribute band extraordinaire The Smiffs (featuring members of Suuns and other local Montreal acts). The singer’s jeans even hung on him just like Morrissey’s on the Live in Dallas VHS. It was great! All my faves, I lost my voice singing along! What a close at 2am on a Sunday

Viet Cong

This was one of the most intense gigs I had been to in a very long time. A week later, I still had a red mark on my arm from where a crowdsurfer’s boot kicked me. This was the last show they played before announcing their name change the following morning. However the band is yet to change their name yet. The band was up for the Polaris Music Prize the day after Pop Montreal and that recognition heightened the awareness of how offensive their name is to certain people. No one protested at the Montreal show though, people were just going nuts and enjoying the powerful music. Lead singer, Matt Flegel, did say “we are a bunch of idiots from Calgary, who just want to make music.”

Eating Portuguese Chicken

Sometimes the best parts of music festivals, isn’t necessarily the band, but it’s just something that happens, a moment, a cool hang with a friend, whatever. At one point a bunch of us were in desperate need of food and lead by M for Montreal’s Oriane, we went and got takeaway Portuguese chicken and ate it on picnic tables in a park just outside Leonard Cohen’s house. It was great. The food was awesome, rotisserie chicken, salad, fries (Romados on Rue Rachel East), there was about 15 of us from all over – Canada, UK, America, Japan, it was just a nice hang with some interesting people and one of my most pleasant memories of this year’s Pop. Plus we all secretly hoped Leonard Cohen would come out to check his mail.

Tasseomancy

If you think you know Tasseomancy, you don’t. Widely know as the former backing singers in Austra. There’s a fresh new Tasseomancy. I thought I knew what to expect, I’d seen the twins (Sari & Romy) perform numerous times, got their latest record, I knew it’d be pretty low key, quiet, possibly acoustic, lots of haunting vocals. Of course those are still there, the haunting vocals, but the music is so much more upbeat and almost electronic with the added full time drummer ( Evan Cartwright) and keyboardist (Johnny Spence). It’s really taken over their sound. The Ukrainian Federation hall was sweltering in the Montreal Indian-summer heat, we were plastered in our seats unable to move due to sweat sticking to the seat, but also hypnotized by Romy’s vocals.