Note: The views expressed herein are those of Jesse Brown , an independent writer and broadcaster. These opinions do not necessarily reflect those of Pop Montreal.
Sarah Liss can blow me. She's written a whiny, passive aggressive hatchet job on this year's Pop Montreal festival. Though the headline exuberantly reads "Montreal's poppin'" the actual article is filled with snide jabs. Her basic argument is that Pop Montreal's "honeymoon" has ended. And why? Well, according to Liss, the reasons for Pop being so over are as follows:
- 1. Montreal's music scene was "semi-fictionalized" to begin with.
2. Unless you know music industry "honchos" you don't have a chance in hell of getting into the "hot ticket mega-shows."
3. Only "1/27 of the faces in the crowd at every hip hop gig belonged to people of colour."
I'll respond in order:
1. This is just abject bullshit. Do I need to make a list here? Well, nuts to that- lists are for music critics like Sarah Liss, who along with every other music critic put the Arcade Fire and Stars on her "top 10 of 2004" list. So if the scene was "semi-fictionalized" to begin with, Liss was among those fictionalizing it. The fact is, Montreal has produced a staggering amount of great and unique music in recent years, and continues to do so even after the international hype has come and gone. But now that the secret's well out of the bag, Liss has to diss. Like evey other insecure hipster I've met, she can't just be happy that the rest of the world's caught on to something she liked. I will give her credit though- while most of the crybabies use the "it used to be cool when I was into it" defense, Liss goes one better with "it was never that cool to begin with". The only problem is, she's on record saying otherwise.
2. The fuck is she talking about? What "mega-shows"? The only ones Liss directly mentions are Joanna Newsom and The Mighty Sparrow, neither of whom are exactly U2. If anything, this year's festival suffered from a lack of big name draws. And as for not getting in, I had a press pass and had somewhat more trouble getting into shows than my buddy who was buying tickets at the door with all the other proles. Even hyped-up concerts like Sunset Rubdown's closing night gig were a cinch to buy tix to for twelve bucks, a mere hour before the openers hit the stage. My guess is that like me, Liss found that her press pass didn't always guarantee her unlimited access, and Liss got pissed. Which sort of proves the opposite of what she's saying- it's industry insiders like her who have a hard time getting in so that everyone else doesn't.
3. Again, WTF? While Liss was racially profiling the hip hop crowds, computing her ratio of caucasians/coloureds and determining whether the scene was black enough for her, everyone else was bouncing to some truly eclectic shit. Pop's inclusion of hip-hop is not a "healthy outreach" program to the hip hop community- it's a recognition that hip hop, along with country and klezmer, are not racial communities, but kinds of music. Even by Liss' dubious race standards, her argument is weak. For example, white hipsters were a distinct minority at the Mighty Sparrow show, where heebhop fusionist Socalled got up in front of a room of middle-aged Caribbeans and screamed out the question "who wants to hear some Yiddish theater music?" The crowd screamed back.
Liss does take the time to big-up a few acts, like Cadence Weapon. But that's just the thing- even when she likes something, she's got to affect a knowing, too-cool-for-school pose, taking shots at other critics for hyping Cadence and then sneering at the guy himself for what she thought was an unfunny joke about "Mont-reel". Word to Liss: it wasn't a joke, funny or otherwise. "Mt.Real" is just what rappers call Montreal, same as "T-dot" for Toronto or "Chi-Town" for- well you get it. The point is, she doesn't know what she's talking about. Same goes for her swipe at "supposed Montreal mash-up kings Flosstradamus" who Liss poops on, calling their live show a "grand désastre". It's really funny to insult a Montreal band by writing in French, except for the fact that Flosstradamus aren't from Montreal, supposedly or otherwise. They're from Chicago. Which begs another question- if they're so overhyped, wouldn't Liss know where they're from? But none of this journalistic laziness stops her from acting like she's seen it all and is bored with it.
Well, boredom is boring, and Liss is a fucking snooze. No-one says she has to like Pop, but look: the whole thing is an enormous celebration of music and art, well run by a non-profit organization staffed mostly with volunteers. It's exploded in popularity in a few short years, introducing local musicians to the world and world music to the locals, yet Pop remains accessible to both small acts and cash-strapped music fans. Meanwhile it smooshes together Frenchies, Anglos, geriatrics,hipsters and heads unlike anything else I've seen. Love the festival or hate it Liss, but don't act like anyone's trying to sell you anything. If you're so over it, somebody else could probably use your tickets.
Frankly, I’m tired of this
You're ridiculous.
Okay in the second graf she
Okay in the second graf she talks about how "international hype" (such as the forced whine of a thousand fake Klostermans writing limp, identical columns for the bovine mass of North American free weeklies, perhaps?) is engendering an undesirable situation where "access to popular gigs is contingent on how many doorpeople you know". The average fan is getting squeezed out from an "anti-establishment" festival initiated to "challenge corporate monopolies," and it's only great Tribunes of the People like Liss that can see the cracks in its "laissez-faire ethos".
Then in the fourth graf she works in a little name-dropping and makes casual reference to how down and hooked-up she is, when confronted with a crowded gig where "we wouldn't've made it in without the help of a friendly Ninja Tune honcho." Later on, forced to wait among the hoi polloi outside Lambi, only "divine intervention snuck us in". How blessed. Your newspaper sent you to cover a festival, you didn't get the gold-plated media treatment (getting in to whatever show you wanted whenever you felt like showing up) you expected, and then you talk about the end of some "grassroots-to-the-max" "honeymoon"? Motherfucker please. She'd never pull the same thing with SXSW, lest they exile her from the media kissassery she seems to think she deserves.
Also she can't fucking write:
-A "kaleidoscopic grab bag"?
-A "buzzy act that turned out to be a downer"?
-Cadence Weapon's "unrehearsed rambles added tons to the experience"? She writes for a living, is paid to tell us something interesting, and she deems the appropriate intensifier to be "tons".
-There's "something exhilarating [what, exactly? isn't that the thing which you're paid to specify?] about watching a crowd of franco-freaks [here we just call them "concertgoers", or alternately "people"] wave their hands in the air while listening to rhymes [wow, there's rap in French -- cra-zee!] delivered in their mother tongue [guess there weren't any allophones in the spot that night, huh Sarah?]". Ah, the Torontonian descends to examine what the Ethnics are up to, out there in the dark beyond the radius of her own self-importance, and deems them worthily amusing as they engage in what can only be explained as a ritualistic reaffirmation of their identity.
I was amused to see Timber on the "bad" list -- that's all you can give us, "bon" or "bad"? are you presuming, perhaps correctly, that your readers can't comprehend information delivered outside of a sidebar? -- as I was under the impression that they *didn't fucking play*. Maybe she mistook one Ships at Night band for another one that included a roughly identical configuration of members, which even I do sometimes if I've been drinking. Still, it's hard to know what impressions to take away from a magazine that appears to be heading straight for the post-literate age. If this trend continues, within five years NOW will be distributed as a brief text message containing a "hot or not" list written in Chewbaccaspeak.
She gets paid to do this?
Your Diss of Liss Missed
Your Diss of Liss Missed
I disagree. First, after taking a look at the Liss article it is obvious that you've overexagerate her apparent contempt for the festival. You read it with the blind-anger and vainty of someone defending a friend's amateur pop show. As you say, "It's exploded in popularity in a few short years, introducing local musicians to the world and world music to the locals..." It is undeniable that the festival has grown likely beyond anyone's initial expectation, and as such it's not the same animal it once was. "[Y]et Pop remains accessible to both small acts and cash-strapped music fans..." yes it does, it provides a profoundly accessible platform for a unique "celebration of music and art." But it's not perfect. We can't ignore the growth that the festival has been exposed to and pretend it is still ideal.
As a fan, one of those that all you critics are debating about as if you know our experience precisely, I can confidently say that I know many people that have found it increasingly hard to see the shows they want to see at Pop Montreal. But that is just a testament to how necessary this project is; people want to see, people are clamouring to see it.
So don't take it out on Liss for writing an honest review though it may not idealize an awesome festival.
Yeah this article is kinda
what's also hilarious is,
She's the Janet Wong of Pop
Lazy journalism aside, Liss'
Lazy journalism aside, Liss' misinformed/misguided comments might actually be pointing to cosmic truths. You know, each year being better than the next -- it's the Pop way.
Pop Montreal
Art Curation Coordinator
Marketing Coordinator
You know, having finally
You know, having finally read the article, (which can be found here, for those interested), I don't really think Liss intended to come off so negatively. The real low point of the article as far as I'm concerned is the impression it gives that Pop Montreal was a collection of about 5 shows when it was really more than 300. Pop isn't your conventional festival, and as far as I'm concerned, how good a time you have is proportional to how much energy and enthusiasm and experimentation you invest.
Liss probably could have gotten into Joanna Newsom if she came early enough and hung around and persisted; there were plenty of artists who didn't have access who were desperate to see her and managed to do so. And no one was turned away at the Mighty Sparrow.
Had she dug a little more she may have found her way to the late night jam sessions held by Patrick Watson which were all out musical exorcisms. And the Cadence Weapon show on Friday wasn't the only show happening. She could have wandered into the PopCast showcase and stumbled onto Denitia Odigie, a 22 year old girl from Nashville who applied to the festival cold and ended up stealing many hearts. That kind of magic was all over. I don't begrudge anyone for not being able to find it, but to then reduce an account of this kind of personal failure to say something like 'the honeymoon is over' because you need a good tag line...that's what I hate about this kind of journalism. Besides, Ms. Liss: a honeymoon supposes a marriage, and everyone knows Pop is one big polyamorous love affair.
I feel band for the women on