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August 7, 2018

May 1, 2018

This article originally appeared on Northern Transmissions.

Half the thrill of going to a venue-based music festival is the discovery of new, burgeoning artists. In M for Montreal’s case, such a thrill has led to alumni like Grimes and Mac DeMarco eventually achieving global success. A celebration of artists bursting through Montreal’s rich music scene, M for Montreal doesn’t have a plethora of shows happening all at once – unless we count the Friday night from this year’s festival – but it’s nonetheless a fantastic opportunity to be smack dab in the middle of this city’s eclectic and ever-bustling indie scene.

Wednesday night was a tale of two classic Plateau/Mile End venues facing each other on opposite sides of St-Laurent: Sala Rossa and Casa del Popolo. While the attendees at Casa seemed to be largely industry delegates – admission for this show was limited to gold, silver and festival badge-holders – they were in for a treat, getting a bill with Ghostly Kisses, Un Blonde, and rappers Cadence Weapon (an Edmonton native who once called Montreal his new city but has since decamped to Toronto) and Lou Phelps (aka Kaytranada’s brother).

Meanwhile, a bigger and decidedly more packed Sala Rossa would play host to a sold out show headed by singer-songwriter/La Voix alum Geoffroy. With huge lettering spelling out his album title Coastline behind him and his band, the buzzed-about local artist delivered a barrage of generally pleasant-sounding indie rock with a mildly Flume-esque electronic edge, and the cozy venue’s crowd went wild throughout.

Opening that ticket would be ‘80s-inspired Quebec City act Men I Trust, and French-born, Quebec-raised singer/actor Aliocha. Both acts would bring very distinct vibes despite playing next to one other; the former kicking the night off with some dreamy, feathery bedroom pop, and the latter bringing a modern, hooky brand of folk rock suggesting a cross between Jake Bugg and Cage the Elephant.

On Thursday came another cross-the- street venue soirée, this time at Club Soda and fabled strip club Café Cléopâtre, with two polar-opposite shows both in terms of genre and overall ambience. The Club Soda side would host a celebration of Quebec franco-rap headlined by Koriass, and a night full of bands with significant throwback vibes on the strip club side (save for Toronto rapper Clairmont the Second at the end of the night).

The standout of this ticket would probably be Corridor; a local francophone post-punk act playing fast, driving tunes with instrumentals and vocals largely indebted to the sounds of the early ‘80s, and owning that sound as if they came from that era themselves. Groove-heavy psychedelic act Anemone and the progressive, more abstract Saskatoon band the Avulsions would warm things up nicely beforehand.

For those hitting the festival up throughout the four-day span, Friday left them spoiled for choice, but not so much for time management. Artists playing shows starting around the exact same time would include Alvvays, Darcys, Del the Funky Homosapien (all the way at the Casino de Montréal), and Odesza. Despite so many exciting gigs pitted against each other in a battle to the death, this writer opted for the latter show, and the concert itself was nothing short of mesmerizing.

Complete with an eye-popping LED light show; ethereal visuals reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey; an impeccably mixed variety of tunes old and new (even if their most recent album A Moment Apart was hot and cold); and even a fricking drum line performing alongside them, the Seattle indietronica duo brought what was not only the most ambitious set of this year’s festival, but arguably its most beautiful and well-executed. Clearly, an Odesza show is best experienced at a major concert hall like MTELUS (RIP Metropolis).

One thing M for Montreal truly plays up as a strength is its diversity, and it can especially be seen in the showcases put on over the years by publications, labels and other organizations. The final day of this year’s festival included one put on jointly by Le Bureau Export and popular French music magazine Les Inrockuptibles. Coming to Sala Rossa from across the Atlantic would include lively indie dance acts like Caspian Pool and the Pirouettes, showing off sounds seemingly influenced in various ways by synthpop, Hot Chip and the French touch sound their country counts among its most influential modern cultural exports.

To cap off what has been another great year for the festival, Quebec City singer-songwriter Peter Peter would provide Fairmount with a pleasant-sounding array of wistful indie pop, and Yamantaka // Sonic Titan would play at Le Ministère while sitting on the polar opposite side of the musical spectrum, going through some rollicking and highly experimental indie punk tunes with a bit of metal sprinkled in between. Oh, and they did it while rocking all-white face paint, too. It was a tale of two entirely different types of music in that short of a timeframe, but that’s M for you.

From the shows themselves, to industry keynotes, to events like the hangover brunch and everything in between, M for Montreal’s 12th edition was a compact – but nonetheless fun and exciting – last four days of 514 festival madness just before the cold, frigid winter arrives. While M might be less saturated with shows and more industry-focused than POP Montreal, it’s every inch as fun. Beyond that, it’s a pitch-perfect excuse to not only check out Montreal and network with industry figures and fellow music heads, but also to see what this city and its vibrant music scene have to offer.

Words and phtos by David MacIntyre

As one of the most intriguing and festival-friendly bands to come out of Los Angeles in the last decade, Local Natives have solidified themselves as a forced to be reckoned with in the indie rock world. Now, their vocalist/keyboardist Kelcey Ayer has stepped out on his own under the moniker of Jaws of Love.; the first time any member of the group has released a side project. Ayer’s debut solo album as Jaws of Love., Tasha Sits Close to the Piano, is a personal and oftentimes darker-sounding affair with musical reference points linking to ambient electronic music. Ayer took a moment to chat with us over the phone from L.A. to tell us how the album and his solo endeavour came together, what inspired it, and how hard it is to write joyful love songs.

Northern Transmissions: You’re the first member of Local Natives to release a solo project. Since no one else in the band has done it before you, did that make it easier or more difficult to make the record since you’re essentially setting the benchmark for the rest of the band to follow if they also want to release side projects?

Kelcey Ayer: Yeah, I think it will definitely make it easier for people to do in the future. I feel like it was pretty hard just because no one in the band has ever done anything musically outside of Local Natives, so it was uncharted territory. It’s been equal parts exciting and anxiety-ridden for me.

NT: In what sense?

KA: Just how to work on something outside of something you’ve committed your life to for so long with these other people that feel like brothers, in a way that everyone feels respected. I’m just trying to not step on anybody’s toes and try to make it so that it doesn’t have a harmful effect, because it can feel kind of like infidelity in a way. It felt pretty tricky in that way, but I’m lucky because everyone’s been pretty supportive. I think I’m on the other side of actually releasing the album and feeling like it went really well. We’re about to work on another record, and it’s felt really good to have a little break from Local Natives for just a tiny second to make this record.

NT: What was the origin of the name “Jaws of Love.”, and why do you think it fits how you approach your solo material?

KA: I think for the music that I made for this record – obviously “Jaws of Love.” is the name of one of the tracks off the record – I thought it represented the tone of the project so much. I liked the idea of letting my name still be open to do whatever it can do and have this project be its own entity so it can live on and be its own thing separate from Local Natives, eventually. It definitely has not gone that way so far (laughs), but I really hope in the future that this thing can start to bloom and create its own moon next to Local Natives’ world.

NT: Listening to the album, I get the sense that there’s a big theme of love and dealing with its “trials and tribulations” as you’ve said, not to mention the tone of the album itself seems pretty dark at times. Seeing as you’re actually happily married and named the album after your Siberian husky Tasha, what made you decide to frame the record like this?

KA: For everybody, you use music as something to lean on or to help you through something… I’ve always loved the darker, more cathartic variety of music. For this record, all the issues and any problems that may have arisen just being in a relationship and being in love kind of changed the surface on all of these songs. It just kind of ended up that way. Even though everything is really great, and you can be in a really functioning, loving relationship and still have problems just speaks to the nature of love being such a complicated thing. I guess it’s in that material that I wanted to talk about it, because I’ve always felt it really hard to actually write happy love songs. I don’t know that I have the stomach for it (laughs). Some people can, and I find that to be super impressive.

NT: How much does travelling influence your work? Because you have one song called “Costa Rica”, another called “Lake Tahoe”, and another about the license plates you saw in Hawaii.

KA: Any place I’ve gone usually ends up having some sort of effect on me. My dad was a pilot for American Airlines. I was in a pretty big family. I had three siblings – [including] a much older sibling that was out of the house when we were growing up – but we would take a lot of family trips because we would get standby tickets to go someplace, and it was affordable through my dad’s work. I ended up going to these different spots, and I’d get a new record through wherever we were going and just listened to that record nonstop. Any other time I heard that record again, it took me right back to that place. I think travelling and records have always… felt like they went hand in hand, so that might have something to do with linking different places to different songs. I think travelling is such an amazing way to grow and learn about different places, and maybe that has something to do with lending itself to having an easier time to create a story from a new place that you don’t have any baggage with, and you’re seeing something for the first time. I feel like it’s such a blank canvas to create something, or create a mood.

NT: How much of an influence does experimental and electronic music have on the sound of this record? Because I hear a lot of that in the record, and also you mentioned artists like Portishead and James Blake as being influences for the LP in other interviews, and I hear a bit of artists like Four Tet on the record as well.

KA: Those are all definitely really big influences for me. I love the idea of synthetic elements coming in and creating actual organic feelings – those are my favourite kinds of synthetic sounds, where they feel alive and untethered. Another big one for me was Jon Hopkins’ Immunity, I really got into that record. I feel like that would be amazing to collab with him one day, he’d be on a bucket list of people to work with. I love when a synth feels fluffed up and out of control. That’s what I love about Portishead’s Third. There’s some awesome videos of [Portishead member] Adrian Utley; he’s in his studio and he’s fucking with his synths, going through a tape delay, and liking synths that they use for horror movies, and using those instead of something more contemporary. It’s a pretty fun video if you want to nerd out on synth stuff.

NT: Now that the album’s out, what’s the most satisfying part of the end result for you?

KA: I’ve really tried to make it feel like a cohesive record, and something that you could just play through and it feels like one solid piece of work. I’d say the one song I’m most excited [about] and encapsulates the whole project is “Microwaves”. I was talking to someone while I was making it, and they were like ‘Yeah, you should just go as far from anything you’ve ever done, as far from Local Natives as possible, and just make the project something completely its own.’ I feel like I got the closest to that on “Microwaves”, just having some freeform moving thing that doesn’t even repeat parts that often – until it repeats the same thing for three minutes! (laughs)

NT: What do you think the future holds for you as far as more solo material?

KA: I’m excited to see how the album goes from here, and how it will hopefully get passed around to anyone else who hasn’t heard it yet in the Local Natives world, and just let it be this thing that finds its audience slowly. It’s a grower of an album, I suppose, and I’m excited to see what doors are unlocked through it. I’m excited to do more records for [Jaws of Love.]… I’m always gonna love being in Local Natives and writing with them, but it’s nice to know that I have this other outlet as well that I can feed from time to time.

Words by Dave MacIntyre

This article originally appeared on Northern Transmissions.

The last two days of POP Montreal 2017 were a doozy, with a hyped reunion show, a promising indie rocker from Oakland, and an eventual Polaris Prize winner. Above all, it was just more proof that as far as multi-venue music festivals go, POP is a national treasure. Here’s our second and final recap of POP Montreal’s Sweet Sixteen.

Aside from their BBQs at the POP Quarters, one of the most fun elements of the entire festival is when shows are held on the rooftop of Montreal’s Ubisoft building. The Montreal HQ to one of the biggest video game companies in the world hosted several sets through the weekend, with Saturday’s bill including local acoustic indie pop singer-songwriter Jason Bajada, and Francophone folk outfit Avec pas d’casque (the non-French speakers around me were calling them “Avec podcast”, because I suppose that’s easier).

Saturday night really began, however, with a performance – and some hilarious stage banter, to boot – at the upstairs of the Rialto from Toronto-based Colombian singer Lido Pimienta. If you have to pigeonhole her, you could argue her music is a mixture of traditional Latin-American music, Björk, and electronic music à la Massive Attack.

The tone of her music can be extremely political – she asks all the women, women of colour and trans people go ahead of all the men in the crowd, and performs a song protesting Nunavut selling water bottles for $20 – and her style is very experimental while also being strangely hypnotic. That said, she’s got obvious talent in both her performance and vocal elasticity, and the (unfortunately) smallish crowd ate it up. The fact that she’d win the Polaris Music Prize two days later is merely a happy coincidence.

Meanwhile, ‘90s noise/blues rock band Royal Trux took to Fairmount in front of a crowd noticeably smaller than the one this venue had for Ty Segall earlier in the week. The music felt like a jammier, bluesier Dinosaur Jr., with guitar noodling, jumbled song structures, and complex bass riffs front and centre. It’s intriguing for what it is, but it’s a lot to get used to, and singer Jennifer Herrema also slurred as if she could have been drunk or high during the performance. (She might not have been, mind you, but you have to wonder.)

That said, night four at POP Montreal 2017 would end with a loud bang thanks to the first show since 2011 by Montreal dance punk-flavoured indie rockers Think About Life. Whether or not this show is simply a one-off reunion remains to be seen, but sweet Jesus did they ever bring it.

With a packed crowd at the Piccolo Rialto waiting in anticipation similar to that felt for the Unicorns in 2014, frontman Martin Cesar comes onstage with a Real Madrid jersey and pure intensity from start to finish. Positive vibes, crowd-surfing, and a trip down memory lane for Montrealers who knew the band during the late nineties would ensue.

As if the show wasn’t crazy enough, some dude in a wizard costume – or a Jesus costume, I’m not sure which – comes onstage and rips through a few songs on bass. Utter madness.

The band then closed with, rather appropriately, “Sweet Sixteen”. Given how much of a frenzy their crowd was in throughout, they’ll need to speed up the timeline of their next reunion show.

It’s hard to imagine topping that on the final day, which is probably partly why the Sunday was the quietest day of the festival. My choice of curtain-closing for this year’s edition would be Stef Chura (indie rock with a Stevie Nicks-meets-grunge voice); Jay Som, aka Oakland musician Melina Duterte, who fuses dream pop with jangly Mac DeMarco-esque guitars to make what the New York Times calls “D.I.Y. bedroom pop”; and Hurray for the Riff Raff, a bluesy Americana act from The Bronx with very political between-song monologues (“We’re Hurray for the Riff Raff… we’re from the Divided States of America”), and a singer with a strong, technically gifted voice and an energetic live persona.

I didn’t go to as many shows or venues as I wanted to this year, but one can only be in one place at a time – unless, of course, you’re Hermione Granger and you own a Time-Turner. That’s the beauty and the curse of POP Montreal: it’s full of great shows and both new and old artists to check out in a smaller venue, but its over-saturation can also give you some definite FOMO. In any case, I can’t wait to do it all again next year.

by Dave Macintyre

 

This article originally appeared on Northern Transmissions.

Once again, another wild – and in this year’s case, very wet – edition of Osheaga has made it into the history books. Despite inclement weather permeating the better part of day one, as well as being held at a temporary site due to the usual festival ground undergoing construction until 2019, the Montreal midsummer festival made the best of a bad situation and satisfied tens of thousands of keen festival-goers once again. Here are my top 10 performances from across the three-day event.

#10: Phantogram

Kicking off my list is an early afternoon main stage set that, frankly, would’ve gone down just as nicely at night time, if not more so. New York electronic rock duo Phantogram didn’t play in front of the biggest crowd over the weekend, but it hardly seemed to faze them, as they went through their set with plenty of enthusiasm and a full band adding some oomph to their hip hop-edged sound. Singer/keyboardist Sarah Barthel went full Geddy Lee by singing and playing the bass, and the black and white graphics in their onstage projections looked incredibly slick.

#9: Cage the Elephant

For a band with seven career number one singles on Billboard’s alternative charts, you’d expect Cage the Elephant to be pushed further toward the top of the bill. Nevertheless, despite a late afternoon set time and two members missing from the equation, the crowd ate it up like a mouth-watering steak. Performing with genuine liveliness and positive energy – topped off by frontman Matthew Shultz’s relentless shimmying that would’ve given Thom Yorke a pretty decent run for his money – they delivered a rollicking performance in front of a massive audience, showing how they’ve managed to become one of the most popular alt-rock bands of this decade.

#8: Sampha

Still riding high off his debut full-length Process – arguably one of the best albums of 2017 thus far – Sampha Sisay descended onto Osheaga on Friday with his trademark falsetto, skittering alt-R&B beats, and a band including two drummers (one on live drums, another on electronic) backing him up. Thankfully for us, the sky stayed relatively clear and dry as well. Even though his vocals were a bit quiet at times – mic issues seemed to be a problem basically throughout the entire festival – his music is stirring and utterly gorgeous (listen to songs like “Plastic 100°C” and “Timmy’s Prayer” if you need proof), and his performance matched its intensity and emotional rawness.

#7: Lorde

Considering how rainy the first day of this year’s festival was, Lorde coming onstage with a bright white umbrella to match the colour of both her dress and pair of sneakers was entirely fitting. Fashion choices aside, her headlining performance was executed beautifully. Cranking up the theatrics and production value compared to her first time playing Osheaga in 2014, the Kiwi songstress brought the hits (she opened with “Tennis Court” and saved “Royals”, “Team” and “Green Light” for the end), the super-long monologues between songs, and occasionally, the quirky dance moves – basically everything one would want and expect from a Lorde show.

#6: The Weeknd

Perhaps the most divisive headliner this year – partially because he’d just played the Bell Centre back in May – Abel Tesfaye (best known as the Weeknd) nonetheless returned to Montreal with a rapturous grand finale mostly showcasing his more polished and pop-friendly current sound rather than the hazy and drugged-up brand of alternative R&B he made his trademark back in 2011 (“Wicked Games” was the lone track he performed from that era). Regardless, Tesfaye undeniably capped off the Osheaga Weeknd (I know, groan) extremely well by delivering hit after hit while working the crowd with astonishing ease. The fireworks toward the end of “I Feel it Coming” were merely a cherry on top.

#5: MGMT

Regardless of whether or not you’re indifferent toward their newer material (or even to their heavily psychedelic and left-field 2010 sophomore album Congratulations), MGMT remain a force to be reckoned with as a live act. Even during elongated renditions of older songs, the oddball psych-rockers sounded as clean as a whistle. Songs like “Time to Pretend”, “Electric Feel” and “Kids” – the tracks this crowd cheered loudest for – still sound just as fresh and exciting now as they did a decade ago, and they can still round up a huge festival crowd and leave them riding a wave of nostalgia and good vibes.

#4: Run the Jewels

It’s absolutely insane how well Run the Jewels’ uncompromising sound, incredibly smart lyrics and raucous energy on record translates into their live performances. It’s seamless. Despite some initial problems with their mics, Killer Mike and El-P tore up the Scène de la Rivière to hit the mid-day Osheaga crowd with hard-nosed rhymes, booming bass and mosh pits galore. They knew how to restore calm and order as well, with Killer Mike telling everyone to take two steps back when people in the front were getting crushed. The New York/Atlanta duo seldom disappoint in smaller indoor venues, and they showed on Sunday that they can just as easily rock crowds several times as big.

#3: Broken Social Scene

Mesmerizing. Few adjectives better sum up Broken Social Scene’s return to the Osheaga main stages. Kevin Drew and his gang of Canadian indie rock royalty gave a career-spanning spectacle, opening with “Cause = Time” from their landmark 2002 album You Forgot it in People, all the way to new material from their solid fourth LP Hug of Thunder. In addition to Drew’s monologues to the crowd calling for love and friendship, the band also brought out Metric’s Emily Haines to help sing newer songs (“Halfway Home”, “Protest Song”) and an old chestnut (“Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl”). If they’re not one of the greatest Canadian bands of the last 25 years, I don’t know who would be.

#2: Justice

Your best memories of Justice are likely through their debut LP Cross (†), a slap bass-heavy thrill ride of hard rock-tinged, ultra-cool electro house. A full decade later, their prowess as live performers is still as strong as ever. Smoothly mixing both newer and older material in an hour-long set with a huge white light show, the French duo reminded all in attendance just how much they’ve deserved their legacy over the years as modern EDM forefathers. Newer single “Safe and Sound” set the tone deliciously, while older classics like “Genesis”, “D.A.N.C.E.” and “Stress” feel very ahead of their time nowadays.

Before I unveil my top pick, here are a few honourable mentions:

– The Lemon Twigs (Shoutouts to their drummer, who looked like he’d just come back from an audition to join KISS)

– Majid Jordan (OVO’s lone representatives over the weekend)

– Liam Gallagher (Yes, he played “Wonderwall”)

#1: Alabama Shakes

Brittany Howard and co have earned a reputation for being absolute dynamite live, and their Osheaga set this year was no exception. The penultimate main stage show of this year’s festival would combine Howard’s effortless stage presence and commanding voice with a show full of soul, firepower and pure musicianship. Sadly, Howard’s mic would suddenly get cut off during “Over My Head,” bringing their otherwise stunning performance to an abrupt and extremely awkward end. Regardless, this should prove once and for all that they belong on big festival stages. If they keep their momentum going, you’d have to think a future Osheaga headline slot is theirs for the taking.

 

*Cover photo credit Tim Snow/ EVENKO

 

This article originally appeared on the blog for WatchMojo.com.

It wasn’t pretty, but we made it. Despite Osheaga not quite selling out this time around; having to adjust to a whole new festival site; dealing with torrential downpours right off the jump; and seeing cancellations from big names like Solange, De La Soul and Lil Uzi Vert, the 12th edition of Montreal’s midsummer bash did pretty damn well this year. While the crowd took some time to get used to the temporary digs, the festival would find its bearings nicely as the three-day event progressed – and Shoeclack was there for all of it. Here are my biggest takeaways from a very rainy, very different – and ultimately, still loads of fun – Osheaga 2017.

Mother Nature didn’t seem to want Osheaga 2017 to happen.

If you arrived at Parc Jean-Drapeau at any time between 2 or 4 p.m. on the Friday, chances are you didn’t see a whole lot of music at first. If anything, you were probably busy looking for whatever semblance of shelter you could find. Multiple sets were either delayed, rescheduled, or cancelled altogether – notably indie darling Angel Olsen, slated to perform at 2:45 that afternoon.

Downpours would again interrupt the music once it re-started, including during BadBadNotGood’s set, and also forcing the Shins to start late. Glass Animals were particularly unfortunate victims of the rainfall, being forced to play only two songs after their synths got water damaged.

The rain would continue to hit on and off throughout day one, especially around the start of Lorde’s headline set. Fittingly, the Kiwi electropop superstar would come onstage carrying a white umbrella while wearing an equally white dress and pair of sneakers. In the end, the weather wouldn’t put much of a damper on an excellent set that showcased how much Ella Yelich-O’Connor has grown as an all-around performer since her last Osheaga go-round in 2014.

Nostalgia was the name of the game this year.

When you look at this year’s lineup and see names like MGMT, Justice, Crystal Castles and the Shins, you’d be forgiven for thinking to yourself, “What year is this? Did we fall asleep in the DeLorean from Back to the Future and wind up in 2008?”

Fortunately, those acts – or at least, the ones I got a chance to see – delivered the goods. MGMT provided a very solid early evening set despite the crowd mostly responding loudest to songs from their debut Oracular Spectacular – which, in 2017, feels ahead of its time – and Justice would give an extremely dynamic and hard-hitting set immediately after, criss-crossing effortlessly between both newer and older material.

Keeping the nostalgia train rolling were bands like Temples, who could very well be the living musical embodiment of the ‘60s with both their retro-flavoured image and their John Lennon-meets-the-Yardbirds sound. Beach Slang also brought the sound and raw power akin to that of the Replacements; the Lemon Twigs evoked serious Supertramp vibes; and another big name this year was Foster the People – whose biggest hit “Pumped Up Kicks” is old enough to be in Grade 2 right now. To top it off, Liam Gallagher performed a handful of Oasis classics – yes, he played “Wonderwall” – and Vance Joy’s Sunday set included a cover of Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al”.

Continue reading “A wet and wild Osheaga 2017”

Given how saturated Montreal’s sea of top-notch indie acts can be, it’s not really surprising that Suuns were a band I’d always heard a lot about but hadn’t sought out for myself, despite them already being an established Montreal export. That changed on Saturday night at Club Soda, and boy am I glad it did.

Before they’d take the stage, opener Sarah Davachi brought the early birds her noticeably minimalist style of ambient music– a taste you likely would’ve already needed to acquire before watching her. Her set consisted pretty much entirely of one long, droning number that only occasionally saw new notes or changes in arrangement be thrown into the mix. Perhaps not everyone was expecting this going into the show – at least one guy in the crowd cheered and clapped, perhaps sarcastically, while she was still playing – but she was nevertheless well-received by the end of her set; or rather, song.

As the crowd now gets close to capacity, a Bollywood song plays as Suuns take the stage – with their band name in huge, inflatable letters to boot. Running the gamut from Krautrock to post-punk to art-punk and even a ’90s alternative rock edge at times, they made people stand still as if they’re paralyzed and immerse themselves in the music just as easily as they made them sway and groove hypnotically.

Going into this show without much prior knowledge of their sound, the biggest thing standing out to me right off the bat is their penchant for electronic influences. Some guitar licks were reminiscent of synths from acts like Boards of Canada, while other songs had the type of groove and swing you’d expect to hear more often in trip-hop.

Frontman Ben Shemie’s eerily Lou Reed-esque voice shone through even among an array of sometimes dissonant and sometimes hard-nosed guitars, booming bass lines and repetitive drum patterns. The lack of front-facing light during their show would work in their favour as well, accentuating the mysterious and uncompromising nature of their material – which, in retrospect, feels much more lively and intense onstage than on wax.

Although they rarely interacted with the crowd until near the end of their tight-as-a-whistle set, the Secretly Canadian signees still left them utterly mesmerized during their temporary respite from the frigid Montreal weather.

If any city in the world truly knows how to put on a great party in the middle of winter, it’s Montreal, and the proof is in the city’s yearly Nuit Blanche event. 2017’s edition – its 14th annual – was yet another fun evening of shows, activities, art installations, food tastings and more that kept rolling on until the wee hours of the morning. The only problem? Mother Nature was in no mood to party with us. The weather outside felt like -20 with the windchill – and if you’re like me and you tried jumping from venue to venue to see how different places celebrated despite having to walk for 10-20 minutes at a time, it got to you. Here are my biggest takeaways from a night I’ll unfortunately remember more for the frigid cold than for its otherwise solid events.

This year’s Nuit Blanche celebrated the 50th anniversary of Expo 67, and milked it for all its worth.

Musical references to the era – such as DJs playing songs like “Twist and Shout” as well as Quebecois songs from that time – in addition to artsy projections of photos from the expo were only a couple of references made to the 20th century’s biggest World’s Fair that night. At the dome upstairs at S.A.T, 3D graphics of “LOVE” and the Beatles’ yellow submarines would occasionally pop up. The overall ‘60s vibe many events tried putting on – including the very ‘60s-themed record sale at S.A.T.’s main floor that night – went off nicely.

Despite the weather, a lot of Montrealers still came out to party in the cold.

With fire pits, marshmallow roasting, deep house DJs – and of course, the freezing weather – defining the activities around the Quartier des spectacles while I was in that area, this year’s Nuit Blanche felt a bit more like your average night at Igloofest than any other year I’d gone. To those of you who likely queued for an eternity to ride on the zip line on Saturday night: I envy your patience and cool (pun intended) under pressure.

Thankfully, it seemed as if enough people stayed home so that walking through the crowd on Ste. Catherine actually made me feel like I wasn’t packed like sardines amongst everyone else – probably the first Nuit Blanche I’ve been to where I felt that way. The same cannot be said for when I headed home for the night, however: the crowd waiting on the metro platform heading north on the Orange Line at Berri-UQAM at 2:45 a.m. rivalled that of Tokyo at rush hour.

The dab is still alive and well.

As much as some people might hate to admit it, dabbing doesn’t look like it’s going out of fashion just yet. I saw several instances of people dancing like they were about to sneeze, the most notable example of which coming through a little boy – probably no older than five – enthusiastically doing so at one of the exhibitions at the Belgo building downtown, to much applause from his mother and the volunteers watching him. Eat your hearts out, Cam Newton and Migos.

You never know what you’ll stumble into sometimes.

While being armed with a media pass obviously helps for getting into places without a hitch, I didn’t expect to suddenly stumble into a Mother Mother concert whilst casually checking out what was happening at L’Astral. However, the biggest surprise of the night came at Old Montreal’s Phi Centre. At the venue’s third annual Nuit Tribe event, I arrived to DJs largely playing afrohouse to a packed crowd, some rather provocative art installations (mainly ones that took children’s TV shows and made them very adult), and even a virtual reality gaming station upstairs.

As awesome as all of that is, it pales in comparison to what happened as I was ending my night: while I’m heading toward the back to leave, I spot none other than Kaytranada chatting with his pals near the exits. Clearly, even local celebrities will brave the elements for a fun night at Nuit Blanche. (And no, I did not try and get a selfie with him, though the temptation was obviously strong.)

And lastly…

Cronuts and Nutella are among the most heavenly food combinations you can think of.

You’re welcome.

(This article originally appeared on Shoeclack. All photos taken by me.)

A day after Coachella dropped its 2017 lineup, New York’s Governors Ball has followed suit, and it looks like yet another solid one.

Headlining this year’s bill will be Phoenix, Chance the Rapper, and reclusive prog metal veterans Tool, with Childish Gambino, Wu-Tang Clan, Flume, Wiz Khalifa, Cage the Elephant, the Avalanches and Air also among those making their way to the Big Apple in June.

Notably, the bill also features a performance from Mark Ronson and Kevin Parker (Tame Impala), as well as Lorde in what will be one of the first shows she’s played since 2014. Other highlights include Danny Brown, Mac DeMarco, Warpaint, Car Seat Headrest, Phantogram, and Skepta.

Governors Ball 2017 will take place at Randall’s Island Park in New York City from June 2 to 4. Three-day wristbands will go at an early bird price of $275 before jumping to $290 and then again to $305 after the first two tiers have sold out. Wristbands will be on sale Friday, January 6 at 12 p.m. EST. Stay tuned to Shoeclack for further Gov Ball coverage!

(This article originally appeared on Shoeclack.)