Music scenes: By the time you’ve found them, they’re usually over. “You had to be there, man,” is their mantra. They live, die and burn out (better than fading away) by word of mouth, to such a degree that the bands, venues, labels and even the fans come second to the buzz. Is Canada any different? DailyXY’s blog miniseries will examine the great Canadian music scenes of the last five decades.

Part 3: MONTREAL (2000-2005)

“It wasn’t so much about ‘making it’ — it was more about making it. You were just trying to get your dreams to come out of a pair of speakers so people would take you seriously, instead of just another drunken yap at the Biftek.”
—Murray Lightburn, The Dears

In Montreal, more than in most Canadian cities, you’re either in or you’re out.

Montrealers stand together, whether they’re crowding the bars of the intimidating cool Mile End neighbourhood — the city’s indie hub in the early 2000s — or bumping and bouncing to electronic music in the icy weather at Igloofest in Old Montreal. They don’t get caught up in what was, because they’re too busy with what is. They’re proud to the bone, and why not? Beautiful, culturally rich, and so alive you can almost see the smile lines on the face of Mont Royal; Montreal is hard to leave, but first you have to get in.

Getting in ain’t easy: Montreal is a tough city. As united as Montrealers are, they’re constantly facing division: be it by language, style, taste, or ideals. Anglophone and Francophone bands play to unpredictable rooms, constantly at risk of turning off their audiences. It’s a blessing and a curse that no single genre has flourished over the other (not surprising, given the city’s tradition of holding the arts in high regard). Even in the indie craze of the early 2000s, there was no unifying “Montreal sound” like there was in Halifax or Toronto’s Yorkville.

The bands all sounded different, but the one thing they shared was ambition and sheer talent. It was the early digital age, indie music in particular was ascendant, and a golden era began in Montreal — not because there was a lot of innovative indie happening in the same place at the same time, but because there were a few great bands making great records, and they were all doing it on their own.

Take Montreal’s most famous indie success story, Arcade Fire. Before they won a 2011 Grammy and became international festival headliners, they were Mile-Enders just like everyone else. They played art galleries, bars, and other small venues, as did other local indie bands like The Unicorns, The Stills, and Wolf Parade, who sadly have all broken up at one point or another since. Some bands of the era survived: The Dears are veterans compared to the others, having formed in 1995 and released five full-length records (the first, End of a Hollywood Bedtime Story, dropped in 2000). Still, the band members at least in part credit their early success to positive reception received in Toronto, which was not an uncommon phenomenon.

Montreal and Toronto seemed to have a strange, thoroughly competitive love/hate relationship when it came to indie music in the early 2000s — more so than usual, that is. Arcade Fire had its “rival” in Broken Social Scene: Both were massive groups, in terms of popularity and number of bandmembers and associated acts. More importantly, for a time, Montreal and Toronto bands seem to coexist as a sort of ever-changing network of Canadian musicians, with groups like Broken Social Scene being made up of members of Toronto- and Montreal-based groups including Stars, Metric, and about 30 others, too numerous to list.

The early 2000s lit a flame in Montreal, and the fire rages on, no Arcade necessary (though it’s there). Feeding indie’s flames today are acclaimed bands like The Besnard Lakes, Karkwa, Malajube and Young Galaxy, to name only a handful. (It bears mentioning that the middle two acts in that alphabetical list are Francophone: Montreal is far more open than other Canadian cities to the shouldn’t-be-radical idea of music first, language second.) Still, many Montrealers pine for those early days, when their favourite new band hadn’t broken up yet, and you didn’t need a TV to watch Arcade Fire perform.

“Maybe doing what we did back then sent the message to some of the kids we see now: You can have almost nothing and still make some ‘impossible’ music and people will hopefully give a shit.”
—Murray Lightburn, The Dears

The DailyXY SoundScenes Playlist: Montreal
(Suggested alphabetically, by artist)
Arcade Fire, “Wake Up”
The Dears, “Lost in the Plot”
The Stills, “Still in Love Song”
The Unicorns, “Child Star”
Wolf Parade, “Modern World”

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Image courtesy of Dangerbird.