Montreal – City we Love

Montreal of course has a thriving live indie music scene that gives the city a legit claim to fame, and makes Montreal one of the defacto great indie places to live and visit – but did you know that Montreal is also a heroic home to indie lit in the form of one of North America’s largest small press fairs, Expozine; or that Montreal has an active community of support for indie film and filmmakers; a flourishing culture of indie beer brewers; a friendly network of indie craft shows like Hotcakes and Puces POP, indie art shows like Souk a SAT, indie artist collectives and co-ops like The Arterie and atelier circulaire; not to mention indie boutiques like Headquarters, General 54 and Local 23, and much much much much much much much more…? There are reasons Montreal is one of the happiest places in the world.

Reasons to love Montreal:

Here are some of the major attractions of this city for artists – warning!
you may experience some heavy wikipedia referencing in this section.

inspiring, inexpensive neighbourhoods:

- The Mile-End / Plateau Neighborhood

A 2001 study deemed the Plateau Mont-Royal Borough Canada’s most creative neighbourhood due to the fact that 8% of its labour force is composed of artists.

- Griffintown and St Henri in Le Sud Ouest
- Little Italy in the borough of Rosemont
- Ville-Marie
includes:
- downtown
- Old Montreal
- Chinatown
- the Gay Village
- the Latin Quarter
- Quartier international
- Cité Multimédia
- Shaughnessy Village/Quartier Concordia
- Mount Royal Park
- Saint Helen’s Island
- Île Notre-Dame

writers and poets:

Mordecai Richler, Irving Layton, Leonard Cohen, Émile Nelligan

philosophers:

Mario Bunge and Charles Taylor

dancers:

Margie Gillis, La La La Human Steps

painters:

members of the seminal Canadian painters group the Group of Seven, Paul Emilie Borduas, The Beaver Hall Group, The Eastern Group.

alternative music industry:

“Artists such as Martha Wainwright, Sam Roberts, Patrick Watson and the musical acts Bran Van 3000 and Arcade Fire manage to prosper internationally while remaining in Montreal.”

theatre:

There are several professional theatre companies, notably the Centaur Theatre.

film and television production:

The headquarters of Alliance Films and five studios of the Academy Award-winning National Film Board of Canada can be found here, as well as the head offices of Telefilm Canada, the national feature-length film and television funding agency.

video game industry:

Companies include Ubisoft Montreal, EA, Eidos Interactive, Artificial Mind and Movement, Strategy First, mainly because video games jobs have been heavily subsidized by the provincial government.

circus arts:

Montreal is also home to one of the world’s largest cultural enterprises, the Cirque du Soleil.

architecture:

In 2006, the city was recognized by the international design community as a UNESCO City of Design, one of the three world design capitals.

sex industry:

Since American Prohibition Montreal has been a liquor running, sex selling town known for having some of North America’s most famous burlesque and drag stars in history, legal contact at strip clubs, and an active movement to legalize prostituion in order to better legislate it and protect sex workers.

festivals:

The city’s largest festival is: the Just for Laughs international Comedy festival, which is the largest in the world of its kind.

Other popular festivals include the Montreal International Jazz Festival which is, you guessed it, the largest jazz festival in the world.

Blue Metropolis is Montreal’s annual international literary festival. Festival Nuits D’Afrique celebrates all of the different routes and voices of the African diaspora with an 11 day festival that is a local favorite. The Montreal Irish community organizes a popular Saint Patrick’s Day parade.

Pop Montreal and Suoni Per Il Popolo highlight local Montreal talent in the independent music scene. The annual international Fringe Festival happens in Montreal annually with over 100 local and international, French and English, performing arts and theatre companies and an outdoor site with free performances produced in partnership with POP Montreal and Indyish.com (that’s us!)

Indie in Montreal

Montreal is uniquely delicious in some ways that make it easier then other places to be independent. There is the cost of living which is relatively low, and the quality of living, which is relatively high. And as Andrew Rose of Pop Montreal and local indie label Secret City Records put it, things are relatively simple here:

People love this city because it’s easy. It’s easy to move here, buy a bike and get around, find whatever you need to live, and meet whomever you need to meet. If you go off exploring, you won’t find yourself in some industrial wasteland, lost and disappointed.

(And if you do, chances are it’s an interesting industrial wasteland, where the crazy loft parties aren’t hard to find.)

Indie Craft in Montreal

Ariadne Knits (www.ariadneknits.com) and Effilohe (www.effiloche.com) not only carry an excellent variety of knitting and spinning supplies (some of it locally produced), but they encourage crafters to come together with their comfy couches and welcoming atmosphere.

Artistri (http://artistri.ca/) sell art and fine crafts from female artisans both locally-based and in the developing world.

twist collective (www.twistcollective.com) is a Montreal-based source of knitting patterns and articles, created to ensure that independent designers receive fair compensation for their work

paper and pine (paperandpine.blogspot.com): the charming Atelier Wooden Apples may be gone, but it lives on through Paper and Pine (on a hiatus at the moment as its owners plan Puces Pop.)

Indie Music Promoters

Indyish sat down on a patio with Montreal indie music promoter Meyer Bilercu last summer and got more dish on the emergence of the scene here from his perspective. Meyer is one of the founders of one of Montreal’s most respected indie companies, Blue Skies Turn Black, and is also now partial owner of the new Montreal venue Il Motore which Indyish will be collaborating with in 2009-2001.

Check out a preview of Il Motore.

Recently a new promoter popped up on the Montreal indie music scene with a dedication to putting on indie music live shows, and a name to prove it. Indie Montreal became a member of our indie arts network here on Indyish.com, and with these epic friends on board plus insights from our 200+ other indie artist members based in the Montreal area, and our own adventures in Montreal’s dark independent underbelly, we’ve gotten to share some insider perspective on the struggles and triumphs of this town.

See Posts Tagged Montreal

Indie music promoters and producers and label managers offer a unique perspective on a city that’s become one of the major signifiers for the indie scene and sound, but it’s in the venues of the town that the real shit goes down.

In producing our monthly indie interdisciplinary showcase, the MonthlyMess, we’ve travelled to well over a dozen different local venues and written up some stories from the spaces. We’ve gathered a list here below of all those we’ve had relations with, and any other that we could bring to mind. Please consider this an evolving list and help us keep it up to date by sending in your venue feedback.

Venues

La Sala Rosa, http://www.casadelpopolo.com/contents/lasalarossa
Casa del Popolo, http://www.casadelpopolo.com/contents/casadelpopolo
Il Motore, http://www.casadelpopolo.com/contents/ilmotoreListings
Le Divan Orange, http://www.ledivanorange.org
Lambi, http://www.clublambi.com/
Cagibi, http://www.lecagibi.ca/
O Patro Vys, http://www.opatrovys.com
La Tulipe / Le National, http://www.latulipe.ca
Lion D’or, http://www.cabaretliondor.com
Zoobizarre, http://www.zoobizarre.net
Le Va et Vient, 3706 Notre-Dame Ouest (near Lionel-Groulx Métro) Tel. 940-2330
L’Escogriffe, http://www.myspace.com/lescobar
Le Rockette, http://www.myspace.com/larockette
Foufounes electriques, http://www.foufounes.qc.ca/
Katacombes, http://www.myspace.com/katacombes
Green Room, 5386 St Laurent, 514-495-4448 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              514-495-4448      end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Saints Showbar, http://www.saintsmontreal.com/
Cafe Chaos, http://www.cafechaos.qc.ca
Bar St Laurent 2, http://www.myspace.com/barstlaurent2
The Playhouse, 5656 avenue du parc, (514) 276-0594

Smaller Venues

Yellow Door, http://www.yellowdoor.org/
Grumpy’s, http://www.grumpysbar.ca
Barfly 4062 St Laurent, (514) 284-6665
Les Pas Sages, 951 rue Rachel Est, (514) 522-9773
Centre Saint-Ambroise, http://www.mcauslan.com/en/centre/index.html
Shaika Cafe, http://www.shaikacafe.com
Brutopia, http://www.brutopia.net
Ye Old Orchard Downtown + Prince Arthur, http://yeoldeorchard.blogspot.com/
Zigoto, http://lezigotocafe.blogspot.com/

Assorted Inter-Disciplinary Spaces

These art spaces pop up and make magic for as long as they can.

The Pound, http://www.myspace.com/thepoundmontreal
Centre Chat Bleu, http://www.centrechatbleu.com/
Friendship Cove, http://www.myspace.com/friendshipcove
Rap Machines, http://www.myspace.com/rapmachines
OFF Inter-Arts, http://www.offinterarts.org/
Phonopolis Basement, http://phonelopie.blogspot.com
Electric Tractor, (gone but not forgotten) http://www.myspace.com/theelectrictractor

Club nights

Korova, 3908 boulevard Saint-Laurent, (514 904 6444)
Saphir, http://www.saphirbar.com
Coda, 4119 Saint-Laurent, Montreal, QC
—————

Further Resources

The definitive list of Montreal indie shows and venues could once (and hopefully again) be found via the Stillepost / Montreal Shows board. Right now the Montreal resource list seems to be gone from there…?

Our weeklies also offer good venues lists, check out Hour and Mirror.

——————–

Can you help develop this information in any way?
We would love your input.

Email: submit {AT} indyish.com

Would you like to advertise on this page?

Email: ads {AT} indyish.com