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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:

1. 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.

2. 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).


3. 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:

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

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

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

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

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

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!

The Daredevil Christopher Wright - "The Animal of Choice". The return of the band behind one of the best gigs - and my 48th-most-favourite song - of 2009. As I said when I stumbled across their debut: Here's something great. With lightness, vigour & appetite, these Wisconsin folkies set themselves apart from all the lonelies and weepies. The Daredevil can sing in three-part harmony but their music isn't posed, over-deliberated. Nor has it been imposed upon some poor back-porch. Like "Clouds", the best track on In Deference To A Broken Back, "The Animal of Choice" is a journey, a romp. It roams from samba to bruised pop, each section like a sideways step. Three minutes after it opens with lyrics about wolves, bears, "sympathetic tragedies", Jon Sunde (?) is singing happily, catchily, about hideous bros. Do you think those dudes were just born plain horrible? / Nah, I don't think so / but then I been wrong before. As a song it's absolutely fucking delicious, a newsletter I would like to subscribe to, a plant I would water every day.

Their new EP, The Longsuffering Song, is available now at Bandcamp. I cannot wait for the new LP. See them on a Canadian tour this fall with the (unfortunately simpering) Dan Mangan. Dates include Toronto! Sackville! Montreal! Vancouver! Do go see them - I will vouch, vouch, fistpump for the quality of their live show.

Chayse - "Walls (ft Jadakiss)". Like building a good raft and setting it in the river and jumping up and down, up and down, happily, proving with every jump that it is a good raft. The song goes like this: If these four walls could talk / they would be like / "Hello! Hello! Hello! " And this: You make my body say, "Hello! Hello!" For Chayse, Hello means love, orgasm, fulfillment. Which casts my everyday greeting in a very different light. [website]

---

Elsewhere:

I wrote about Adam & the Amethysts for an Hour cover story.

And this weekend is the fourth annual M60 - the Montreal 60 Second Film Festival. I help run this thing, which results in dozens of of one-minute movies from amateurs and pro filmmakers across the city. (Dan and I both contribute!) There are no submission fees, no judges, no jury, no prizes - just gangs of willing folk and, this weekend, a willing crowd. If you're in Montreal, please do join us. Screenings take place at the magnificent Rialto Theatre on Friday, Sept 16 and Saturday, Sept 17, 7:30pm. Tickets are just $8 - with free popcorn. Read more about the festival in today's Gazette.

(photo source, not photoshopped)

Howe Gelb & a Band of Gypsies - "Blood Orange". Howe Gelb begins this song as if accepting a dare. The first line is this: See the sky a-broil and the colour of a blood orange. Yes, he must rhyme with "orange". On the next line, as he sings the word "door-hinge", you cannot even hear his grin. He lets the song lie dry and motionless. The sashay is almost imperceptible, until the middle of the track. Even then, after the girls have made their appearance, the dance number does not go to them; instead it is the guitar and pedal steel, twirling in tiny circles. [buy]

XMTR Derailleur - "No Sleep Ever". A simple series of actions, like locking your front door behind you. But did you remember? Did you forget? You go back and check. Yes, you did. You walk away. You go back and check. XMTR Derailleur's electronic shuffle recalls the Eels, Emperor X and the Books. It is not complicated. It is direct. But it is deceptive. Did you remember? Did you forget? You go back and check. [Bandcamp / thanks tyler]

(image from Wacky Cards)

Hospitality - "Friends of Friends". I'm one of those guys who shoves his friends. It's how I say Hi. It's how I say, I love you, you dumb fuck. I take two strides over and pow both hands, into the sidewalk. Then my friend dusts themself off and says, "Yo, Goonie!" Because my name is Goonie. I'm a DJ, a gardener, I make the best ice-cream sandwiches in the world. I shove my friends into brick walls and pavement. I've never been to New York but when I go I won't take the subway, because the subway is for chumps who are too lazy to walk. [Merge will release Hospitality's debut in early 2012]

Lindsay Buckingham - "Seeds We Sow". I am not an engineer or a musician but if I had a studio like Lindsay Buckingham's studio, like the studio I imagine Lindsay Buckingham to have, I would never leave my house. Every single dream or wish, I would render in music. I would record a song of true love, of fulfillment, of a holiday in St Petersburg. I build up my friendships with chords, I would say my farewells with reverb. My walls would be lined with golden records, each one with a secret message in the slow fade out. [buy]

The Cyrillic Typewriter - "Names".
The Cyrillic Typewriter - "Troops of Pure Silver".

In Italy, perhaps, a zumpano is the name for a sparrow, a magpie, a quick black bird that snatches berries from branches. In Canada, Zumpano is just a musician, a Vancouver familiar, but he too is quick, snatching. The Cyrillic Typewriter's Cyrillic Typewriter is a suite of short-long songs, vignettes and portraits, like a collection of handmade stamps or a YouTube compilation of sunrises. They feel handsewn but not at all ramshackle, and so it's fitting that this is a vinyl release: warm, solid, scratches strung together on a disc. "Names" is one minute long and full of silver hooks, all jumble and harmony. There's a more complicated progress to "Troops of Pure Silver" - advancing, retreating, testing the ground. Maps you can't trust, destinations that may no longer exist. Listening to that patient cello I imagine a field with buried chests, treasure or landmines, cows idling through the clover.

[buy The Cyrillic Typewriter, on limited edition vinyl, for just $20]

(image source unknown)

The World Provider - "Gary Sinistre". A fiery arrow of guitar pop, just that little bit melancholy, recalling the Rentals, the Cars, and maybe somehow um rental cars. Bashful oh-oh-ohs, drums as flat as level looks. But what I love most of all are the bells in this song, deep in the mix. I hear those distant sounds and I can't figure out if it's a cathedral I'm imagining or just someone at the door.

[Montreal's World Provider release History of Pain on September 13. They are launching the album with gigs in Montreal, Toronto and Guelph. Download Adam & the Amethysts' remix of "Gary Sinistre" at the World Provider website.]

Stephin Merritt - "You Are Not My Mother and I Want To Go Home". Terse, persistent, fucked-up. Like that part at the end of a dream where you know you are going to win. You are going to win so long as you do not get distracted. Do not conjure strange forests, new enemies. Tell the dream you are going to win and then exit through the blinking door.

[buy / originally part of the Coraline audiobook]

(image source unknown - i think a movie?)

The Blow - "Hey Boy (Nicolas Jaar re-work)". Nico Jaar takes Khaela Maricich's indolent complaint and makes it a thing of regimented community, marshaled handclaps. It's my favourite kind of dry and hopscotch beat: you trace and retrace the same dance steps, stamping footprints into the floor. Clouds assemble and dissipate; hurricanes wave and skim away. The boy never calls. [buy Jaar's Bluewave Edits, which also includes his version of Missy's "Work It"]

Jhene Aiko - "Snapped". "Baby," Jhene begins, "I got ya / I shot ya." She is a cold-blooded killer. She is deliberate and merciless. She is a girl who runs the world, who writes her songs herself, who takes no prisoners. The exquisite "Stranger" did not prepare me for this brutality. Look:

(image by the inimitable Uno Moralez)