On POP- general preamble to festing.

Pop Montreal is a sprouty fun fest starting today in Montreal. The vibe it gives off is of a lot of loving, intense, fueled for fun, wild eyed, beer soaked, sweaty but still highly attractive music/film/art lovers finding ways to hook up and make their wet dreams come true. And not just for a week, no, but for extended never-let-it-be-over periods of time throughout the year. Pop can’t help itself- it adds fun to the Fringe Fest, to the street fest, and to regular unsuspecting venues. I find this inspiring- not least because I like to think of Indyish as kind of like software plugins- you stick us into things to add some other good, and in this, Pop is trailblazin’.

From the inside on out, the fest seems special. The intensity of the listening sessions conducted to pick the 1000ish bands that get to participate sounds like best-camp-ever for sound lovers (or power lovers- nah, I’m sure that never comes into it…. right?) The massive labour of bite and sweetness and sass that is the program, with it reckless disregard for translation, or celebration of bilingualism depending on how you look at it, is tough not to read from cover to cover. It comes close to, but largely avoids, that fuck-you-i’m-cooler-than-you-i-don’t-have-to-justify-my-taste-distinctions tone that too often characterizes our weekly press. Instead it’s mostly funny, tired out from the aforementioned listening sessions, and seriously just really into music.

The 100 vendour art sale, Puces POP, sounds like it’ll be pretty much unrivaled in terms of joy and chaos. The Director of Puces POP is Haiiku designer and community princess Iris Taborsky-Tasa. She’s Indyish, actually! And her gorgeous stuff will be in here as soon as this chaos calms. She’s pulling together a real good thing for artists with Puces POP, and a good thing for art lovers and I’m proud we get to be a part of it- I hope we do her proud! Puces POP will feature workshops on live recording with open source software and print on demand, (hehehe ok, that’s us- last shameless plug i swear) and sculpting! and printing! and more! all drawing small businesses and co-op’s into the Puces benevolent glow. And there will be 2 days of djs; and a fashion show celebrating independent designers; and performers from one of the most famous and respected contemporary dance groups around- LaLaLa Human Steps (Think about it- How many Contemporary Dance Groups can you name? After LaLaLa it gets a little fuzzy, doesn’t it? That’s bc they’re awesome.)

This is a craft sale to galvanize all craft sales. And again, it feels like friends pulling friends into events to make bigger funner events. Like the program book, the Puces Pop and Film Pop organizers are bs-free and sweet as can be. They are deliciously self-deprecating about their corporateness, with a tendancy toward slight disorganization and favour trading that makes me feel happy and at home. I was raised by artsy hippies and university types- I have difficulty trusting people who don’t sometimes make organizational mistakes and then laughingly get over them, shrug and say that’s life and keep on trucking. That, to me, is what constitues a positive working envionment where new things can grow. And Pop seems full of laughter and pulling good things together.

We’ll be blogging it from stem to stern as best we can, trying to catch as many shows, screenings and Future of Music Panels as we’re able, in addition to profiling fellow Puces Poppers. And we’ll be pulling no punches, so watch out for us. Not just cheer and props over here at Indyish, we’re all about keepin it real, ok? I’m planning a scathing write up of today’s press pass pick up, for example. Boutique Hotel, eh, POP? Fancy yourselves fancy or something? Ha! Think Again!

Ok.
keep good, and if you’re in Montreal, bring your fog lamp with you today, it’s like soup out there.
risa