As your friendly neighborhood music editor, I take in a lot of music festivals. On the whole, it’s a nice perk of the gig. But I’d be lying if I said I always enjoy them. I’m not in my twenties anymore, and the idea of camping in a field and having a Bloody Mary for breakfast doesn’t entice me the way it once did. I’m not trying to yuck anyone’s yum, but I just don’t get quite as excited for music fests these days.
Unless that festival is POP Montréal. Now entering its 25th year, this is a showcase for the best Canadian indie and experimental musicians, though there are plenty of non-Canuck acts among the 400-plus artists who will perform next month at more than 50 different venues in the heart of the Mile End and Plateau-Mont-Royal neighborhoods.
POP, which runs from September 23 to 27, recently announced its full lineup — and, no surprise, it’s stacked. Highlights include New York City indie-rock outfit Luna, ambient-music duo A Winged Victory for the Sullen of Brussels, English punks High Vis, Calgary folk singer Chad VanGaalen, Montréal indie rockers La Sécurité and influential Brooklyn rapper Jeru the Damaja.
POP is more than music, though. It’s a true cultural event featuring mini fests within the fest, such as Art POP, Film POP, Kids POP and Puces POP. (Puce means “flea” in French, so that last one is a massive craft fair with hundreds of vendors.)
It’s also a great place for me to take the pulse of the music journalism industry. For anyone not paying attention, it’s been a rough go for music scribes in recent months. The latest blow was mass layoffs last week at BrooklynVegan, Alternative Press, Goldmine and Revolver, all publications owned by Veeps. The ticketed live-stream service and media company was cofounded by twin brothers Joel and Benji Madden of the band Good Charlotte, who then sold a majority stake to Satan, er, Live Nation, presumably for gazillions of dollars and a lifetime supply of Hot Topic clothes. Because, hey, eviscerating the indie-music press ain’t cheap.
Back to the point: For all the dire news, every time I head north of the border to attend POP Montréal, I come back suffused with hope. At POP, I see the shape of indie music to come, including the way we cover it, even as legacy publications and corporate models fail or are folded for equity. Great music is being made and therefore must be covered. That doesn’t change, and seeing so much of the industry coalesce around this festival feels, well, career-affirming.
It doesn’t hurt that I usually come back with a trunk full of vinyl, either.
The legend that is Tom Banjo returns for a performance at Burlington’s Junktiques Collective this Thursday, August 20. Banjo, real name Tom Azarian, is a nonagenarian who has been a fixture on the Vermont folk scene since the early 1960s. He even ran for governor in the ’80s!
Tom Banjo shows are somewhat rare these days, so this is not one to miss. He’s joined by his son, musician Ethan Azarian of Austin, Texas, as well as Junktiques owner Phinneus Sonin and Peg Tassey & the Loud Flowers. Check out junktiques.net to learn more.
And in new-release news, we have a few fresh singles from Vermont artists this week.
Winooski’s Ruminations have released “What Was Last,” a jittery indie-rock number with echo-laden guitars and a pensive, building groove. Front man Greg Bonsignore said the song is about “the need to practice self-study as a means to avoid emotional explosions.”
The track and its B-side, “Curious Movies,” are part of a series of DIY recordings the band did in the basement of a repurposed textile mill on the Winooski River, which it then sent over to Tank Recording Studio in Burlington for mixing and mastering. Listen at ruminationsmusic.bandcamp.com.
Green Mountain folk singer Jason Baker also has a new single out this week, titled “We Could Do It Any Old Time.” The calypso-style tune features Baker singing over his banjo in true stripped-down folk fashion. In an email, Baker described the song as promoting global food security, single-payer health care and universal basic income.
“We can take care of everyone on the planet if we just choose to do so,” he wrote.
The song is part of Baker’s initiative to release a social justice song every month of 2026, and indeed, “We Could Do It Any Old Time” is his eighth single released so far this year. Pop over to jbakervt.com to listen.
This article appears in August 19 • 2026.
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