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Friday

The first thing I noticed after getting through the lax security was the reorientation of the festival grounds. Last year, Palomosa’s premier, the smaller Jardin stage was under the Tois Disques sculpture by blahblah. Instead of dancing under this creative brutalist concrete being, we were in a muddy pit of AstroTurf surrounded by festival bars all selling the same expensive drinks ($10 for a blue PBR is crazy).

   “So you got the FME virus and you’re here for the cure,” remarked one of the many volunteers who make the festival possible. That cure? A sonic elixir composed of music, music and more music. Over the four days of Labour Day weekend, August 28th through the 31st, the northern Quebec city of Rouyn-Noranda served as the incubator for the vaccine. So began the twenty-third edition of FME, Festival Music Emergent 2025.    

Something happened in Montreal this week. The long-awaited Something Fest occurred with its day passes completely sold out and the promise of 9 acts spread over 3 venues and 10 hours. The planning of the thing was something I was lucky enough to witness from the sidelines, and it cannot be understated what a triumph of community organizing Something Fest turned out to be. Arriving at the first venue and seeing the giant Something Fest banner hung behind the little DIY stage opened a new angle of appreciation for this city within me, and I strapped myself in for a whole day of music.

Here I am, in the BAnQ Library, typing on a public computer after what felt like an unforgettable night. Last night, I wandered through the Plateau, from Parc La Fontaine to La Banquise, then down Duluth Street at 1 am, beneath a heavy cumulonimbus sky, blasting The Ophelias on my busted JBL speaker, trying to gather my thoughts together about their music. 

Throughout, I kept asking myself, Who are these people? What makes them special to me and to you, the reader?

It has been exactly a month since I, along with the CJLO music team, returned from Austin, Texas for SXSW 2025. In that time, I have been trying to form my takeaways from this year’s festival, in a way that is more substantial than ‘Woo! Fun!’ I assume my job there (other than shaking hands with label reps)  is to act as a bit of a trend correspondent. With that, here are some of my music director takeaways from this year’s SXSW. 

During this Broadcast, the CJLO team runs you through everything they saw on their first full day at the festival. We talk about the new wave of slowcore, the state of experimental music, the Pop Montreal and M for Montreal showcase, and how Montreal is the best music city on the planet.

Originally aired: March 13th, 2025