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Pop music seems to be in the midst of a revival of sorts. Every month, a new “internet queen of pop” seems to emerge from the constant content explosion that is TikTok, from Renee Rapp to Chappell Roan. While these artists are all pumping out fantastic back-to-back cuts, one consistently stands out from the crowd: PinkPantheress. I was introduced to PinkPantheress, as much of her fanbase was, in the summer of 2021. Breaking onto the scene with a generational run of five back-to-back singles within 3 months, it felt like nowhere on the internet was safe from her frightfully catchy hooks. Since then, she has dropped two albums, collaborated with some of the biggest new names in the industry, from Ice Spice to Central Cee, and grown a veritable cult fanbase, all hooked on her jungle-pop fusion. So, when I saw that she would be stopping by Montreal's own Beanfield Theatre, I knew it would be a special night; and special it was. 

Between the Beanfield’s raised viewing platform and the stage lay a sea of phone cameras set to 0.5 and mullets, both telltale signs of a Gen-Z crowd, which, for PinkPantheress, makes sense. The singer is only 22, and the internet has repeatedly benchmarked her rise to fame. To say PinkPantheress owes her come up to TikTok would be a criminal dismissal of her talent as a musician, but it has played a huge part. This is not to dismiss the parents chaperoning their (at most) middle school-aged kids, of which there are plenty, which if anything shines an even brighter light on the average age of the PinkPantheress fan. As the room began to fill up, the buzz and excitement hung in the air like a cloud, mixing well with the lingering scent of cotton candy vape and sweat. This isn’t the artist's first warm welcome from Canada though; two nights earlier in Toronto she sang to a sold-out theatre, with some waiting over 7 hours in line just to get a hand on the barricade. The crowd of fourteen-year-old girls beside me told me this, before grilling me on my admittedly lacklustre PinkPantheress knowledge. Thankfully, before they could realize I was but a rookie in comparison to their stan behaviour, the lights dimmed, and the Beanfield was filled with enough screams to coax any artist out of the comfort of the green room. 

Sticking with the theme of musicians who got their rise on TikTok, Bktherula opened the show, joined on stage by her hype man, cameraman, and two people with bubble guns (awesome). For a crowd expecting the poppy, upbeat, garage-style dance tunes that PinkPantheress is known for, BK got a warm welcome. Playing a collection of tracks off her new album LVL5 PT2, followed by an unreleased track featuring Soundcloud legend Lil Uzi Vert, and finally, a collection of her hits, like “Tweakin Together” and “Idk What to Tell You”, BK had the Beanfield crowd going hard enough to shake the top floor. With a trap-plugg style reflective of some of the best underground hip-hop right now, Bk graced the Beanfield with her melodic vocals and deep 808s, sonically representing her home city of Atlantas in a way that would make even Three-Stacks proud. 

Just as soon as Bktherula and posse had cleared the stage it was covered in movement, as dozens of workers began setting up for what promised to be a fantastic headliner. Unable to contain their excitement, the young crowd whooped and hollered, clapping at any semblance of a musician on stage. Then, almost as suddenly as they had dimmed, the pink and purple lighting hit the Beanfields stage, exposing 5 live musicians and PinkPantheress’s signature stage piece - an oval, full-body mirror, as seen on the cover of her November release, Heaven Knows. The live band aspect was admittedly a shock to me at first; it's not every day you see a garage set with live drums, guitar and keys, especially with the pop-vocal heavy sound that PinkPantheress is so well known for. Worried flashbacks of the early 2010s trend of ukelele rap covers filled my head but were thankfully quenched the second the bassist played the first bar of one of my favourite tracks, “Break It Off”. And, as PinkPantheress skipped out onto the stage, the crowd went wild with excitement. It seemed like the entire room knew every word as if possessed by the giddy, British, 20-something pop queen in front of them.

From then on, the night was a blur. Every hit was played, which seemed to be her entire catalogue; from lofi deep cuts like “Passion” and “Pain” to new crowd favourites, like the Y2K throwback “Nice to meet you”. These tracks were interspersed with beautiful instrumental sections from the live band, witty banter from the singer herself, and some of the most genuine crowd interaction I have ever seen at a show. At one point, a fan wearing the same thing as PinkPantheress was pulled up on stage and given a round of applause, before being dragged off by security (to the dismay of the young singer, who booed the guards off). It felt less like watching a show, and more like watching a friend play their surprisingly good music for you, as the old Beanfield was filled with Britpop-infused affection. And although the sun was shining throughout Montreal that day, it felt infinitely warmer in that room, as someone who genuinely loves what they do got to share their art with a crowd more than willing to support it. This was evident after the double encore, as the crowd applauded for over 2 minutes, recognizing PinkPantheress as exactly what she is: a new-gen queen of pop. 

As I said before, pop music is in a revolution. No longer is the dominant sound coming out of L.A. studios, or big-budget labels; it's coming from bedrooms. With unbridled access to the internet, more and more people are turning to music-making for fun, experimenting with sound in ways unthought of just 10 years ago. Artists are coming full bloom out of apps like TikTok, gaining popularity off of talent and genuinely good music. While this may create the most resilient of artists, one thing is clear: PinkPantheress is here to stay. Whether you are a pop fan or not, I urge you to dive into her discography, as it is filled to the brim with the innocent charm of someone untainted by the music industry. It is true, unbridled artistic talent, and damn is it fun. Check out PinkPantheress’ newest album, Heaven Knows, here, and Bktherula’s LVL5 PT2 here. 

Dan Bejar’s Destoryer is one of Western Canada’s biggest names in indie rock. Recording music for over twenty five years, Destroyer’s lush instrumentation and whimsical lyricism has seen many different genre shifts over the years, spanning from indie-folk to synth-heavy art pop, as Bejar and band navigate shifting inspirations and moods. 

Opening for Destroyer was fellow Vancourverite band, Lightning Dust. The duo consists of Amber Webber and Josh Wells, both members of heavy rock band Black Mountain. Lightning Dust, the musicians’ more synth-focussed effort, provided an atmospheric and calming start to the show. Webber and Wells’ vocals interwove and harmonized beautifully over their heavy guitar petals and moody synth passages. 

Destroyer kicked off his set with “Helena” off 2001’s Seahawk: A Seduction. This acoustic track worked well as the start to this show, as Bejar was performing with only his frequent-collaborator David Carswell on electric guitar. Just guitars, no synths, drums, or any of the layered and lush production one comes to expect from a Destroyer record. However, Bejar’s unique, highly-annunciated voice and complex lyricims more than made up for the sonic differences, as the audience was forced to pay extra attention to every lyric uttered. 

This tonal difference was especially felt in the back to back “Cue Synthesizer” and “Your Blood,” two of Destroyer’s more upbeat songs, the former losing its titular instrument in favour of a more slowed down acoustic tone, while the latter got a more heavy guitar-pedal treatment from Carswell. 

During Destroyer’s set, Bar Le Ritz began to pack in. The sold-out show truly felt it, as Bar Le Ritz tends to become rather claustrophobic even at partial capacity. Between songs, Bejar mentioned that the show felt like one he played twenty-three years ago at Plateau institution Casa Del Popolo. He asked the crowd if anyone here was also in attendance all those years ago, a small pocket in the middle-back of the venue cheered. His nostalgic memory of that Casa show is likely what drove him to play at a small venue such as Bar Le Ritz. Destroyer can obviously sustain a larger venue, as he has played Theatre Fairmount in years past. Yet, Bar Le Ritz, despite how uncomfortably packed in, did give the feel of a more hard-core-fans-only atmosphere, where the excitement was deeply experienced. 

Bejar’s idiosyncratic, at times elusive stage presence was on display that night. In a few instances, he’d pause between songs, as if to start on a typical bit of stage banter, maybe an anecdote, just to instead leave the audience hanging in a sort of ironic anticipation. In one instance of this, Bejar paused while tuning his guitar to say, “Seems nuts not to mention the eclipse,” and stood there for about fifteen seconds before just jumping into his next song, getting some knowing chuckles from the audience. 

During the show, “Painter in Your Pocket” was a highlight, as the already acoustic guitar-driven and lyrically-dense song fits well with this style of show, and the audience sang along to this fan-favourite tune. 

With no encore, Destroyer ended on a deep-cut from the band’s early discogragrphy, “Don’t Become the Thing You Hated,” which Bejar described as a lullaby. Whether this is literally true or a joke about its slowness, the song did act as a soothing closer to a sweet, intimate, Bar Le Ritz show.

Aviva Majerczyk is the magazine editor at CJLO 1690AM. She is also the host of The Alley, a folk-rock show airing Fridays at 11:00 AM.

CJLO has been heading down to the SXSW festival since 2016 with only the pandemic preventing us from going back. In the planning stages before the festival, there was a renewed sense of energy and excitement for us to platform CJLO to a higher stage. The excitement came to a stop when the team learned that this year the festival was being sponsored by the US Army and by Collins Aerospace (a subsidiary of RTX Corporation, previously known as Raytheon). With that knowledge, there was a shift in our hearts and soon everything began to shift around us as well. 

Squirrel Flower was one of the first artists to publicly boycott the festival, as seen in a statement she posted online. Soon, many other artists began to follow suit such as  Horse Jumper of Love, Scowl, They Are Gutting A Body of Water, Chalk, Sprints, Omni, Mamalarky, Subsonic Eye, Tomato Flower, and Frances Chang, adding up to about 80 in total. In fact, so many artists had dropped that our plans for a live broadcast from the festival got canceled. In response to the artists’ boycott and a tweet by Governor Greg Abbott, SXSW made a statement online explaining and upholding their choice of sponsors, while supporting the right to free speech for the protesting artists.

To say that the team felt conflicted about attending the festival is quite the understatement and it was challenging to know the right way to participate. There seemed to be a moral tightrope that all the SXSW stakeholders were walking with many different people coming to many different conclusions. In this next section, I’d like to share my experience through the performances and statements of three amazing artists who all had different interpretations and individualized decisions on how to partake in SXSW 2024.

The first part of the story starts on South Congress Avenue, or what the cool kids call SoCo, and this was where half the CJLO team stumbled upon an unofficial event called SXSJ or South by San Jose. Founded in the early days of the festival, the creators wanted to present a free alternative to the otherwise exclusive SXSW. When we entered, we were lucky enough to see innovative post-punk group cumgirl8. Not only did they put on a killer set, but they were also vocal about their disagreement with the festival’s sponsors. For fans who follow them, this would come as no surprise as the group publicly shared their thought process about SXSW online. They shared the famous meme of the two red buttons with the choices “Not go to SXSW as a statement” and “Go to SXSW and protest as a statement” demonstrating them being stuck in a damned if you do or damned if you don’t situation. In the end, they decided to boycott all the official showcases put on by the festival and only play at shows that were not directly affiliated with the sponsors. In their final statement on Instagram, cumgirl8 stated their position strongly but opted for compassion for those who may have chosen differently.  

Next, I was quite desperate to see English electronic musician Nabihah Iqbal who was set to play at the British Music Embassy, an official showcase at the Sheraton Hotel on Thursday night. At that point in time, the artist was receiving pressure from her fans online to boycott the festival. She had first stated that she wanted to continue with the official showcases and use her stage as a platform for the cause, citing that there were few artists of Pakistani descent present at the festival, to begin with. In less than two days, she made another announcement that she decided to boycott the festival and to align herself with the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) position on the matter. She proved elegant, composed and strong in her own decision despite being subjected to what she described as “aggressive” and “mean” backlash in comments on her previous post. In the end, multiple artists from that specific British Music Embassy showcase ended up boycotting the event including Gruff Rhys, CURRLS, and Rachel Chinouriri. All of them shared their own personal reflections about their decisions online, with Rachel Chinouriri speaking about her own experiences with the aftereffects of war, being the daughter of parents who grew up as child soldiers. 

There was one more act that the team and I had wanted to see, Dry Cleaning, who interestingly did not drop from the aforementioned British Music Embassy event that Thursday night. They were still playing official showcases and were set to play at the Radio Day Stage on Friday. Halfway through their performance, singer Florence Shaw put down her mic and took out her reading glasses and notebook. On behalf of the band, she recited a speech on their position on what’s been happening at SXSW this year. She stated that the band wholeheartedly disagrees with having the US Army and Collins Aerospace as a sponsor, but spoke of how they wanted to use their position at the festival to speak their truth. Here is an excerpt from the speech as transcribed by KXT.org:

“We know that many people working the festival, as well as people attending the festival, also feel that these companies shouldn’t have any place on our planet, let alone at this festival. But perhaps they’re unable to say anything, or lack the platform to do so. We would hope that any station that’s keen and supportive enough of our band to broadcast our set today will include this in their broadcast. Thank you for listening.”

The band then quickly slid into their signature nonchalant indie rock, with Shaw’s soft-spoken flow floating over the heavy sounds. As an attendee, I felt very grateful to have witnessed the group’s speech and I took in another interpretation of the larger issue at hand, comforted by their transparency and collectivist spirit. 

Feeling energized from Dry Cleaning’s performance the staff headed over to another unofficial showcase at rock venue The 13th Floor, where, much to my heart’s desire, we got to see none other than Nabihah Iqbal. Playing a set with just her and her guitarist/saxophonist, she brought her full London nightclub sound to this tiny bar in Austin. She too took the time to address the crowd on her position on the sponsors which was met with applause and when she ended the set with a cover of “A Forest” by The Cure, the audience was electric. 

I could never digest the idea that something as simple as performing or attending a concert could be supporting war or weapons technology. Musicians should not be placed in a moral dilemma when practicing and promoting their art and, much like Florence Shaw from Dry Cleaning said in her speech, many festival stakeholders don’t agree to having sponsors as they do this year. In my opinion, which I understand is only a composite of my learned knowledge, SXSW could still be a great place for promoting musicians and overall a positive experience for everyone involved. With the support, education, and transparency from the artists and stakeholders who bravely shared their opinions online, I feel strongly in this collective spirit that, moving forward, this festival can better reflect artists’ ethics and values, most importantly without the sponsorship from any army or weapons manufacturer. We will all be waiting to see what happens next year.

Not much can convince me to go out on a Sunday night, let alone out of my immediate neighbourhood, and above that, after I spent the day moving all my belongings to a new apartment. However, this particular late March Sunday promised a truly jam-packed show of slowcore legends, exhilarating DJs, and up-and-coming rock bands. So, trying to ignore my lumbar pain, I headed out for the night to witness Ciel Noir, a one-day festival produced by Blue Skies Turn Black, featuring five acts you’ll likely never see on the same bill again.

Slowcore has been having quite a moment in the past few years. Ciel Noir headliner, Duster, specifically, has seen a massive rise in listenership thanks to their sudden virality on TikTok, where their dreamy and minimal tracks are used as backing for tens of thousands of videos of, well, just about anything. This online fame didn’t come completely out of nowhere, as Duster’s 1998 album Stratosphere has held cult status on Discogs, online music blogs, and ‘niche’ music meme accounts for a few years now. However, the meteoric rise of this over-two-decade-old indie album, which had very little success upon its release, cannot be overstated. The Duster renaissance dovetails with a more general new age of appreciation for dreamy 90s alternative, as shoegaze legends like My Bloody Valentine, and Slowdive are also finding new fans in today’s teenagers through TikTok, and popular current artists such as Slowpulp and Yves Tumor take heavy inspiration from the hazy sound. 

The Gen Z love of slowcore was on display at L’Olympia on March 31st. In the minutes leading up to the start of the show, there was a distinct line of separation between the teenagers up against the barricade, clad in their face glitter, platform Doc Martins, and subversive mullet haircuts and the older generation of beanie and funky glasses-wearing Millennials and Gen Xers clutching their overpriced beers. I was somewhere in the middle. 

Those who know, know that Codeine was the band to see on Sunday. Veritable pioneers of slowcore, the band tends not to get the recognition of many of their peers, such as Low, Mazzy Star, and, well, Duster. With a heavier and often more experimental sound compared to their slowcore contemporaries, often sharing more similarities with post-rock acts like Slint, Codeine’s music is dark, dreary, and unrelenting. 

Codeine’s Stephen Immerwahr (vocals and bass), Chris Brokaw (drums), and John Engle (guitar) entered the stage precisely at 8:00 PM and jumped into their song “D,” the first track off their seminal 1991 album Frigid Stars. Starting with a fan favourite proved successful, as it was evident this Canadian crowd was thankful to finally get their chance to see Codeine live, as Immerwahr mentioned the last time they placed up here was 30 years ago (almost exactly to the day) when they opened for Pavement. 

Codeine continued playing through the classics, including “Cigarette Machine” and later, “Loss Leader” from 1994’s The White Birch. Halfway into the set, the band moved into a vignette of songs from Dessau, “Tom,” “Sea,” and “Jr.” As Immerwahr alluded to on stage, Dessau was somewhat of a ‘lost album’ before Numero Group unearthed the recordings for a release in 2022. 

While Codeine offered minimal stage banter, Stephen Immerwahr expressed his gratitude to the audience and mentioned that it happened to be his birthday that night. Of course, the crowd erupted in “Happy Birthday” to celebrate the special night, to which Immerwahr thanked everyone, smiling and blushing. Ending off their short, festival-length set, drummer Chris Brokaw came to the front of the stage to take over bass duties from Immerwahr for a climactic rendition of Frigid Stars’ brooding, broken-hearted closer “Pea.”

After a twenty-minute intermission, Duster arrived on stage. A notable push forward occurred in the audience at this point, as crowds of the younger attendees made their way towards the stage, craving a good vantage point for the headliner. Starting with a slightly deeper Stratosphere cut, “The Twins / Romantica,” the audience was immediately exhilarated by Duster’s presence, as this marked the band’s first ever show in Montreal.

The band continued to play mostly from Stratosphere, but included others such as “The Breakup Suite” off of 2000’s Contemporary Movement. Tracks “Inside Out” and “Heading for the Door” appeared to be crowd favourites, as phones lifted into the air and the young audience members around me bobbed and swayed in time. 

After a quick “thank you,” the only words uttered by the band, Duster finished their forty-minute set with ‘Echo/Bravo,” one of their louder, heavier tunes. This song worked as a kind of catharsis for the droning, slow set, offering a moment of wild release for attendees, as the three high schoolers behind me started to lightly mosh along to the driving guitars.

L’Olympia cleared out decently after Duster’s set, as was to be expected on a Sunday around 11:00 PM. Yet, the next set picked up the pace with Pelada. This duo of Chris Vargas and Tobias Rochman got their start locally in Montreal’s after-hours rave scene. The act just recently announced their breakup, marking Ciel Noir as likely one of their last shows as a musical duo. Despite this fact looming in the background, Pelada’s high-energy set proved a much-needed change of pace from the start of the night. This experimental Spanish language act somehow both stood out starkly from the rest of the night’s lineup but also wove perfectly into the mood of the festival. 

As the night went on, and some concertgoers started shuffling out, likely with school or 9-5’s the next day, the energy of the performers stayed high. New York-based rock outfit Model/Actriz took the stage next with their sexy, dirty, and spooky post-punk sound. Fans of Protomartyr or HMLTD, would enjoy this act, with lead vocalist Cole Haden’s sleazy energy oozing from his every move. At a point in their set, Haden even ventured into the audience, a rare sight in a venue as big as L’Olympia. However, the sheer extravagance of his stage presence sold what may otherwise come off as a gimmick. Model/Actriz’ debut album Dogsbody made quite a splash last year, and it’s reassuring to see the band back up their production chops with a great live performance.  

Closing off the one-day festival was Detroit-based dance/hyperpop duo Snow Strippers. The duo played from their mixtapes, not quite singing, but more so dancing and posing over the tracks. As the camera following producer Graham Perez, and the duo’s Instagram presence make clear, this is a very aesthetically-focused musical act. Their 2000’s nostalgic hyperpop sound surely resonated with many of the younger attendees, even as the night was winding down. 

Ciel Noir was an ambitious and well-produced showcase. Despite the variety in genres, all the chosen artists flowed into one another, creating a cohesive vibe for the night. The long runtime of the event made me wish this was a weekend-long festival, as I imagine may have been the initial intention. However, simply having two bonafide legends like Duster and Codeine on the same bill is quite the feat, and cemented Ciel Noir as a name to watch for future local bookings. Here’s to the whispers of another installment next year.

Aviva Majerczyk is the magazine editor at CJLO 1690AM. She is also the host of The Alley, a folk-rock show airing Fridays at 11:00 AM.