Remember when Montreal seemed like a total breeding ground for great art and all your favorite indie bands back around the mid-2000s? Well, it still kind of is. From August 3-5, Osheaga Festival presents what’s been dubbed as the largest festival of its kind in Canada, showcasing some of the best bands around, as well as art exhibits across several venues around the city. Some of those well-known Canadians like Metric and Feist will be performing this year, as well as plenty of up and comers from Canada’s epicenter of culture and beyond.
The Sheepdogs – without knowing anything about these guys, we could easily be persuaded that The Sheepdogs are a classic Americana band hailing from somewhere in the southern U.S, and may have shared the stage with Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers back in the day. Turns out they’re actually from Saskatoon, SK but they sure do know how to rock and rollick along.
Half Moon Run – One of Montreal’s own, this trio combines many different elements to create melodic and textured tunes. They come off as the kind of band that are great to see live, just because being able to see them create their sound layers would be like getting let in on their secrets.
Austra – We caught this dark-wave outfit lead by the classically trained Katie Stelmanis last summer, and seeing them live is still highly recommended.
Zeus – An extension of the aforementioned mid-2000s Canadian indie scene, Zeus is the backing band for Jason Collett of Broken Social Scene fame, and since the end of the last decade have been making their own jams, as well as each member looking a bit like different interpretations of Nick Offerman.
Poliça – formed by a couple of Gayngs members, this psych R&B group has been around barely a year yet have already been featured in Rolling Stone, and received lots of other buzz from finding a way to use auto-tone and have it actually sound experimental and interesting.
Scour the full lineup for yourself, check the festival’s bilingual status updates, and watch performance videos from years past to get psyched up.
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