Graphics by Olivia Angst
Now that I’ve had a taste of the Canadian festival circuit, I’m hooked. I had so much fun in September at Pop Montreal, seeing the different styles and methods with which music took over the city, that I decided to head up to Toronto for the 19th annual North By Northeast. With South By Southwest as its model, this ten-day festival’s main focus is music, but also includes days devoted to film, comedy, art and digital media. I had thought that Pop Montreal was comparable to SXSW with its 500+ artists, but NXNE is a much closer match, nearing 1,000 musical performers and an audience of 350,000 people roaming the bustling streets of the downtown area. Toronto has also been referred to as “the New York of Canada,” so I figured it’s about time I head up there to see what the fuss is all about.
This year’s headliners include St. Vincent, Spoon, Juicy J, Sleigh Bells, and Danny Brown – a real potpourri of musical styles.
(A-) Given that the nature of these mega-festivals is to encompass as many niches of the music world as possible, it’s always difficult to assign an overall lineup grade, since there are essentially hundreds of mini-festivals happening within the larger umbrella. After close examination of the long (long, long) list of acts and exploring the unknown talents, I would give NXNE an A-. After all, I had to filter my picks several times until I could narrow it down to the handful of promising artists featured here.
Crystal Stilts:
Though I must admit, it’s been a few years since I have opened my ears to the low-fi wonder of Crystal Stilts, as soon as I gave ‘em a listen doing the rounds of the NXNE lineup, I was reminded of why I loved them to begin with. ‘Low-fi’ has been ubiquitously adopted and appropriated in the past few years within the indie genre, but in my mind, Crystal Stilts, formed in 2003, is one of the bands that pioneered this popular trend. The key to a successful low-fi sound is effortlessly equating all of the musical components of a song, which they accomplish with their nebulous charm. Instead of focusing on the vocals at the forefront of the music, the lyrics are almost lost amidst the blanket of sound, serving more as an ambient instrumental effect than a narrative form. The melodies are embedded in the chord progressions, allowing the listener to get lost in the overall musical impression as opposed to isolating all of the separate components.
Mac Demarco:
Mac Demarco has built up a small army of loyal fans, which I have heard primarily stems from his quirky live shows. Though his music may be an example of the more recent wave of the chilled-out, low-fi style, I’ve been hounded with tales of Mac crowd surfing his audiences, feeding salad to audience members (including his own mother, in honor of his album title “Salad Days”), and inviting dance parties to the stage. I can only imagine that his local Canadian fans will be even more enthusiastic to participate in shenanigans of all sorts.
Dan Croll:
We just can’t stop talking about Dan Croll. We’ve had our eye on him for a while now, and love his every move — that being said, with an album only recently released in March, no doubt Dan Croll will bring his straightforward, energetic melodies, renegade guitar riffs, and soft harmonies to the stage at NXNE.
HOLYCHILD:
On the cover of HOLYCHILD’s recently released EP “MINDSPEAK” sits a chocolate donut immersed in a sea of rainbow sprinkles behind the bright pink capital letters spelling band’s name. To me, this is an absolutely perfect image to match the LA group’s synth pop sound, so delectably saturated you can’t resist taking a bite. HOLYCHILD always sounds on the brink of exploding, bursting from the seams with rambunctious energy generated by playful melodies and expansive synths.
Courtney Barnett:
Almost the antithesis of HOLYCHILD’s spirited girl pop, Melbourne’s Courtney Barnett focuses on her words to weave the songs’ meaning. With a hint of grundgy lethargy, the overall effect of which is an unimposing, down-to-earth charm. Listening to Courtney Barnett, I feel like her goal is to have a candid conversation with her listeners, rather than perform for them.
Tei Shi:
Vancouver via New York Valerie Teicher is the R&B singer of your dreams — she uses the high register of her voice to layer stacks of soulful harmonies, but with a grace and delicacy that feels supernatural. Tei Shi reminds me of what the Dirty Projectors’ background harmonies would sound like isolated from the rest of the music. It’s somewhat eerie, but mostly mesmerizing, and in the right state of mind, can be totally hypnotic.
Chic Gamine:
Winnipeg’s Chic Gamine incorporates an immaculate blend of voices with a modern soul interpretation of pop, soul, and jazz. Their music is nostalgia at its finest, emphasizing the choral backing vocals while emulating the vibrancy of contemporary dance tracks. If the ‘60s girls groups I grew up with time-traveled to present day and were shut in a studio with an R&B producer, they would sound something like Chic Gamine.
Rah Rah:
With alternating lead vocalists, Rah Rah is an indie rock band from Regina, Saskatchewan that leans towards folky colors and tropes. The mellow female tones complement the fullness of the instrumentation and boyish storytelling. While multiple members claim full songs as solos, they have several where the whole band is singing in tandem. Though there are moments of utter sweetness, seconds later within the same song, you might find an interlude of garage rock cacophony.
The Cliks:
A local Toronto band, The Cliks are a dapper retro dance-pop group, toeing the edge of ska, a genre whose presence I have missed in the general indie landscape. With an upbeat croon and baritone sax that evades cliché cheesiness, The Cliks neatly bind together musical homages to the past with a self-reflective eye, keeping the beat bouncing into the present and future.
Seoul:
When I stumbled upon Montreal’s Seoul back in September, I was as attracted to them for their mysterious and sparse internet presence as I was to the sole (heh) single they had released. Months later, as a much more informed listener and fan, I will rave about them again for crafting dream pop that is clean, pristine and still very melodic. Seoul is dream pop that you can listen to over and over again because you want to hear the chorus again, not because you get lost in its ambient noise. With shimmering chords and muffled percussion, everything about Seoul is soft, inviting and just plain lovely.
