Here’s what to see at this year’s Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival
Now entering its 14th year, Montreal’s Suoni Per Il Popolo festival once again features a wide range of acts across a multitude of genres, with programs focusing on the electronic, experimental, folk, jazz, and punk rock realms. Set to run from June 4-22 at a number of venues throughout the city, from club shows to DIY show rooms, Suoni is the rare festival that actually bears the imprint of being curated by a team of enthusiastic music nerds, eager to spread the word about their favourite acts, regardless of genre restrictions.
Our music critics Gabe Sigler and Amanda Harvey have scoured the lineup to pick out some of this year’s highlights.
Brooklyn’s Parquet Courts are a quirky indie-pop band with a firm 90’s slacker sensibility – think mid-period Pavement and you’re partly there. They have a restless energy that allows for all the various sonic detours they take to come together in a cohesive whole, which is on display on their Sunbathing Animal LP, out this week (What’s Your Rupture?). In what is one of the strongest bills of the festival, the band have brought along weirdo Detroit rockers Tyvek, and fellow Detroit post-punk outfit Protomartyr. If you like your angular post-punk tinged with a gothic sensibility, with a frontman who looks like he wandered over from a construction site, then Protomartyr should be right up your alley. (Gabe Sigler)
For those of us who can’t make it out to this year’s Ottawa Explosion, Canada’s preeminent garage/power-pop rager of a festival, this is the next best thing. Montreal’s Sonic Avenues are celebrating the release of their excellent new Mistakes LP (Dirtnap Records) with this show, a record that shows the band progressing from their earlier melodic buzz-pop to a more layered, yet still irresistibly catchy sound. The band are a true force live, and this is the first time to catch them playing out their first new material in a few years. Be sure to get there early to see Vancouver’s Needles//Pins, who along with Sonic Avenues, are some of the best purveyors of hooky power-pop out there. Their 12:34 LP was a pure adrenaline blast about girls, drugs and bad choices, which bodes well for their soon-to-be released sophomore full length, Shamebirds (Dirt Cult). (GS)
Little Scream – June 13th – Breakglass Studios
Laurel Sprengelmeyer, a.k.a Little Scream, can do it all. Her debut album, The Golden Record, covers all the bases. Laura not only plays guitar, violin, and keyboards, but she also happens to harness an incredible vocal range. Her voice is arresting, soothing, and harmonizes with her flirtatious melodies. Part avant-guard pop, and part emotionally charged folk rock, her songs flow like water. Her lyrics coax listeners deeper into the paradox that is Little Scream. Although she is American-born, Little Scream spent several years based in Montreal collaborating with many of our indie big-wigs, including Arcade Fire, Stars, Thee Silver Mt. Zion, and The National. Her live performance is an eclectic rarity that should be savoured. This performance is unique in that it will be live streamed from Montreal’s own Breakglass Studio. Book early, as seating is limited and you will regret missing this one. (Amanda Harvey)
Excepter – June 14th – Casa Del Popolo
Excepter‘s music may be difficult to describe, but part of its beauty is in its ever-changing formula. Spanning a 12 year career that includes numerous EPs and LPs, it is impossible to categorize or genre-ify this band. Founded by John Fell Ryan in Brooklyn, Excepter has released their work on numerous labels and are known for their improvisational style both inside and outside of the studio. Their experimental compositions makes their live shows exceptionally unique. Wandering harmonies bleed into unexpected noise, vocals surprise when we least expect. This electronic jam band displays a spaced out, groovy swagger that is, at once, dense, haunting, and abrasive. They drift away before looping back around to dizzy, confuse, and intrigue us. Their forthcoming album Familiar is highly anticipated, and their live show is sure to enchant even the most skeptical of listeners. (AH)
Low/ Big Brave – June 16th – La Sala Rossa
Celebrating 20 years as a band just last year, Low know how to make a lasting impression. Founding members Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker are joined by bassist Steve Garrington to show off their meticulously developed emphatic sound. Known for their distinctive vocal harmonies, these Minnesotans create subtle tensions that leave listeners on their toes, waiting patiently for the next cord. Although the band can appear melancholic, their slow jams resonate with the deepest of emotions and you won’t leave their show feeling lost or forlorn. Instead, you’ll leave feeling warm, fulfilled, and fuzzy inside. There is a reason Low’s chilling tunes stick with you. Their songs whisper quietly in your ear like the comfortable voice of an old friend asking you to stay a while, or at least until the music ends. (AH)
Fuck Buttons/Young Magic – June 17th – La Sala Rossa
Fuck Buttons are all about progression. This electronic duo, comprised of Benjamin Power and Andrew Hung, have grown from their hometown noise-rock scene to festival headliners with an ever expanding, and ambitiously mastered aesthetic. Hailing from Bristol, these two use their music to inspire big feelings in a sometimes overwhelmingly small world. Both are self-described equipment scavengers; they know plenty about working with what is accessible. Power and Hung have played with everything from children’s toys to old karaoke machines to add depth and majesty to their already broad soundscape. Their most recent full-length album, Slow Focus, was self-produced, further inferring just how talented these men are. Known for consistently delivering memorable, mind-bending, live performances that linger long after the show is over, they will evoke feelings you might not have ever known existed otherwise. Their deep and menacing music is sure to make you feel alive, even if only for one night. (AH)
Swans may have evolved from their oppressively heavy early 80’s industrial roots, but To Be Kind, (Mute) their third album since reforming in 2010, is still a beast. A 2-hour hypnotic journey that shows singer/songwriter Michael Gira expanding the band’s sound from his pummelling early work to a headier, droning space, To Be Kind once again cement’s Gira’s place as a true innovator in heavy / experimental music. A Swans live show is up there with My Bloody Valentine in terms of a sheer visceral experience, and is absolutely not to be missed.(GS)
tUnE-yArDs – June 18th – La Tulipe
Merrill Garbus, as her moniker tUnE-yArDs, is infectious. This woman is a multi-talented musician in an unconventional mould. Perfectly looping drums and ukulele, she makes operating a one-woman band appear seamless. Possibly the most distinctive component of tUnE-yArDs music is her voice. Garbus is bruiting and honest vocally. Her vocal timbre is incomparable to most contemporary female vocalists. She wrote her most recent full length, Nikki-Nack, inspired by the time she spent while in Haiti. Mixing polyphonic drum rhythms and wandering ukulele with her contrasting morose and silly lyrical styling, she harnesses an inner absurdity that displays wide array of passion, intellect, and intuition. Garbus channels an uncomfortable truth in her lyrics and music—she’s well informed about the world around her and it shows. tUnE-yArDs is an anomaly that is both refreshing and distressing, asking us to follow alongside her on dark side of world we all share. (AH)
England’s Eagulls are a potent mix of early Joy Division-inspired post punk, with an ear for crafting hooks as memorable as the noise of swirling guitars that blanket their sound. Unlike any number of bands aping English post-punk, Eagulls are seemingly less concerned with cultivating a mysterious image than with getting on with the business of delivering tight, anthemic bursts of moody punk rock. With the mounting hype on this Leeds outfit, this has all the earmarks of a “saw them back when” show, so you might want to nab your tickets sooner rather than later. (GS)
Syracuse, NY’s Perfect Pussy are an intense experience, whether live or on record. Their recently-released debut full length, Say Yes To Love, is a nearly unrelenting attack of frontwoman Meredith Graves’ shouted vocals, which are almost buried beneath a deluge of frenetic punk rock and noise. When the band does take a half beat to breathe, they bring to mind early Sonic Youth, with squealing atmospheric guitars and Graves’ insistent vocals trying to push through the din of white noise. The band are infamous for their short, 20ish minute sets, so you’ll want to be there on time for this one. (GS)
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