Why are you still on the fence about getting that 70$ pop pass? It's gonna change your life. For real. Tell us about your really awesome or brutal Pop Moments Past and you could save that money to pay off your student loan or to enable some more good memories! We'll choose the best and worst of what our festival has offered you and compensate your efforts with a pass to the festival. Maybe it went a little something like this?

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:

Neon BibleDuring the finale of their five night run in Montreal in the hundred candle-lit basement of the Ukrainian Federation and an all acoustic version of “the Well and the Lighthouse” , Win Butler walked into the crowd that had followed the band down the stairs after the first encore. The song was ending, the band yelling ‘the lambs and the sheep ain’t sleeping yet’ and a camera followed him into the mass of people parting. He emerged around the other side a minute or so later with the camera in his own hands, pointing it back at the audience before turning it on himself and disappearing backwards into the crowd.

It doesn’t get more grand or dramatic than the Arcade Fire’s sophomore release, Neon Bible, in terms of the ambition of imagery and the breadth of the gestures. Mirrors and bombs, casting of stones and soldiers and the Church, a golden calf, good Christian men, lambs, the flood, a key. If the Arcade Fire are vulnerable anywhere (though they seem a pretty sudden and stern institution around here) it’s in the question, ‘can they really pull that off?’ Are they really standing up there singing “Neon Bible”, and about the big and obvious but almost embarrassing touchstones of our recent age? You know, like war, religion, the public forum and its spotlight? Who do they think they are anyway?

IN THIS EPISODE:

PopMontreal.com relaunched, Think About Life, Professor Murder, Plants & Animals, Krapp, Tapes n' Tapes

PopCast #25 (Side A): What the Future Tapes Might Be (enhanced)

PopCast #25 (Side A): What the Future Tapes Might Be (mp3)

PopMontreal.com has mostly emerged from its facelift, there's exactly one month until the festival, and episode 25 (a two parter) kicks things off for Pop 06 in earnest.

In this episode: Miracle Fortress, Frog Eyes, Andrew Bird, Dan Deacon, Ponytail, Amon Tobin, and an old-school legend.

YAAAAAH!!!! Such a blaze could only sustain itself for 20 minutes.  The video's on its way, but in the meanwhile, check out the most ecstatic show of the past while in photos...

Popmontreal welcomes you

Printable verison with map on the side columns and the complete schedule >>here

Have you seen this yet?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not talking about that blight of our culture of excess, the 2008 Cadillac Escalade. Rather, the man fronting it.