Braids, originally from Calgary and now based in Montreal, released their latest album, ' Deep in the Iris,' last April.
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From Sept. 16 to 20, POP Montreal is welcoming 450 bands and over 200 multidisciplinary artists to one of their 14 sites in the city.
Over 65,000 fans of indie music are expected to attend.
Here is our list of performers you shouldn't miss.
1. Royal Canoe
Sept. 17th, 9:30 PM Petit Campus
Fresh and photogenic are only two words to describe this six-piece Winnipeg force of nature. This is a virtuosic keyboard band with terrific vocals. Songs from their initial offering, the Juno nominated, Today We're Believers absolutely cracks with rhythmic punch à la early Prince. Matt Peters is the band's charismatic lead singer, keyboardist and guitarist and along with keyboardist Matt Schellenberg contribute a fascinating palette of sounds and vocal arrangements. Goodness, if the friggin' New York Times put them on their Top Music List – you should check them out!
AroarA is the collaborative project of husband and wife duo Andrew Whiteman and Ariel Engle. Their surprisingly strong 2013 EP called 'In the Pines', based on the poetry of American poet Alice Notley, was long listed for the 2014 Polaris Music Prize. This is an intelligent record brimming with musical inventiveness while being respectful of Notley's text. Whiteman is as close to a guitar wizard as you're likely to experience while Engle's angelic harmonies provide emotional intelligence. Listen to their sound cloud sample – the definitive video still awaits.
3. The Barr Brothers + Guests
Sept. 17, 2015 - 8:00 PM Église St. Jean Baptiste
The Barr Brothers again, you ask? Yes! For a decade now, the Boston-born, Montreal-based brothers, Brad and Andrew Barr have been pop innovators constantly seeking an identity for their brand of guitar based world roots music. With the ethereal harp of Sarah Pagé and help from sound engineers Ryan Freeland (Bonnie Rait) and Icelander Valgier Siguroson (Bjork, Sigur Ros), a distinctive sound was born. Their recent release, the Polaris long listed 'Sleeping Operator' is a thing of sensorial beauty. Their incredible outdoor show last month that opened the Jazz Fest wets the appetite for more things Barr.
4. Tim Hecker: "Fog Works II" + Guests
Sept. 18, 2015 - 8:00 PM Centre PHI
At the intersection where pop and ambient music collide, you'll find Montreal based sound artist Tim Hecker revelling in the world of noise, dissonance and melody. Hecker's most recent offering 'Virgins' infuses the trance like qualities of electronic dance music with a spiritual twist. Close your eyes and imagine a high octane Gamelan Orchestra. The New York Times describes his work as "foreboding, abstract pieces in which static and sub-bass rumbles open up around slow moving notes and chords, like fissures in the earth waiting to swallow them whole." Whatever you call Hecker's music - it is an experience not to be missed.
5. Braids
Sept. 17, 2015 - 12:00 AM Piccolo Rialto
Get ready Montreal – Braids has reached another level! Five years after their first record 'Native Speaker', singer Raphaelle Standell-Preston and bandmates Taylor Smith and Austin Tufts have released the dazzling and deeply satisfying 'Deep in the Iris.' The band's pulsating percussive keyboards and confessional story lines all work organically and should cast a spell on the POP Montreal crowd. Check out the lyrical directness of a song like 'Miniskirt' or the surprising 'Warm Like Summer' that draws on R&B grooves and lush 'Kate Bush' phrasing. Even before 'Deep in the Iris' was released the band was heavily booked across North America. With this new record, Braids should get to see the entire planet.
