Over its fifteen-year existence, the multi-venue POP Montreal has proven itself to be one of the most consistently progressive, thought-provoking, and trendsetting music festivals on the continent, helping to launch the careers of Arcade Fire, Grimes, Japandroids, Majical Cloudz, and many more. We made the trek to the Great White North last fall and caught everyone from local heroes Ought (who were celebrating the release of their excellent LP Sun Coming Down) to guitar antihero Arto Lindsay to the recently relocated Tim Hecker, who premiered a new piece with perfumed accompaniment. Oh, and we ate some stuff. A lot of stuff.
Now that we’ve finally sobered up from that trip to Le Vin Papillon, we’re thrilled to be announcing the lineup for this year’s edition of POP. The mixture of highbrow culture with lowdown party is a tidy reflection of the festival itself and of the city it calls home. In addition to a few familiar faces (The Kills, Angel Olsen, rising punks Diet Cig, Holy Fuck), POP will also play host to the Canadian premiere of Colin Stetson’s reimagining of Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3 entitled Sorrow. Also: noted Montreal Canadiens fans 69 Boyz will be there. Filmmaker and cactus candy aficionado John Waters will appear at the Rialto Theatre, and early outré punk experimenters Psychic TV—whose Genesis P-Orridge will be speaking at the POP Symposium—will play up the street at the Fairmount. And French composer Wally Badarou, a collaborator of Grace Jones, Jimmy Cliff, and Talking Heads, will bring his funky synth setup to Sala Rossa. Plus about 450 others.
Below, you’ll find the rest of the initial lineup, as well as a mixtape of the announced performers; it’s quite possibly the only time you’ll hear “Tootsee Roll” up against an avant-garde sax composition.
POP Montreal 2016 initial lineup
69 Boyz – Acid Priest – Allah-Las – American Lips – Angel Olsen – Colin Stetson – Craig Cardiff – D.R.A.M – Diana – Diet Cig – Groenland – Holy Fuck – Ibrahim Maalouf – Jerusalem In My Heart – John Waters – The Kills – Les Hôtesses D’Hilaire – Michael Angelo – Mourn – Nicole Dollanganger – Psychic TV – Seth Bogart – Sonic Avenues – Steve Adamyk Band – Uniiqu3 – Wally Badarou – Wolves in the Throne Room
