A response to this week's NOW Magazine story on Pop Montreal.

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. 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.