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Surprise, it's Santapalooza! More specifically it's BVST Goes Santapalooza XII: The 12 BVSTs of Santapalooza on CJLO 1690AM! Join BVST host Angelica as she's joined by special guest Matt Kiernan for an annual heaping helping of carefully curated Christmas music surprises! Tune in tonight December 20 at 7pm ET and get all your holly jollies!

This past June, Amber Bain a.k.a The Japanese House released not just a great indie-pop record, but one of the best albums of 2023. Featuring co-production by George Daniel of The 1975, as well as contributions from Katie Gavin of MUNA, Charli XCX, and Matty Healy (also of The 1975), her sophomore album In the End It Always Does is a triumph in focus. Every instrument, lyric, and vocal fits perfectly in place over the forty-five-minute run time. Gorgeously produced, deeply personal and moving, ITEIAD shows Bain in peak form. To support her stellar album, Bain has been on an extensive tour across the United Kingdom and North America, with Montreal being the third to last stop. Joining her on tour is Quinnie, fresh off the heels of releasing her debut record earlier in the year, which garnered the attention from Pitchfork and DIY Magazine. 

For an opening act, you couldn’t ask more from Quinnie. It was an understated performance; she with two friends, sitting down and happily playing guitar. Despite singing at a relatively high pitch, I would hesitate to describe her vocals as sweet. The amount of honesty conveyed through her lyrics tinged them with just a hint of darkness, but not distractingly so. Quinnie and her bandmates were soft-spoken and charming, throwing out her broken tambourine parts midway through the performance and joking about guitar tunings. Highlights of their setlist included “man,” with its sharp and catchy lyrics (“no amount of nail polish could paint you a good man”), as well as the viral “touch tank,” which received a visceral reaction from the crowd. It was the start of winter, but her music gave the feeling of the changing seasons: the coziness of fall or the hope that comes with spring. 

If there was one word to describe how The Japanese House came across, it would be grateful. Whether it was grateful to be playing yet another sold-out show, or just grateful to be nearing the end of a lengthy tour, Amber Bain was not faking her spirit. It’s the kind of joy that engages the audience, pulling them into your world but still human at the end of the day. She wasn’t too chatty but she wasn’t too quiet either. That same spirit came through in the music. 

There was a blend of that same tightness present on the album but with a newfound looseness. “Friends” was already kind of a party anthem, but now with hundreds in the room and five instruments playing live (including a saxophone!), it felt more like that than ever. The use of crowd vocals in songs such as the opener “Sad to Breathe or Over There” was strong, replacing Bain's original background vocals with backing from her bandmates, giving warmth and texture only possible in a live setting. 

There were some setbacks, though. While the vocals were utilized well in “Over There,” the gentle nature of the song was contrasted heavily with drums that were too loud for the ambience it goes for. On the other hand, it felt like a missed opportunity not to replicate the noisy vibes of “Dionne” (originally featuring Justin Vernon of Bon Iver) and play it straight instead. Fortunately, the night ended with a high, piercing straight through the heart with a stunning encore rendition of the album’s closer, “One for sorrow, two for Joni Jones.” “Sunshine Baby” wrapped the night on a bow, and that was that. After playing thirty-six shows, I just hope Bain and her bandmates get some rest, it’s clear they deserve it.

The 1975 has been “Playing on my Mind” ever since they came to Montreal’s Bell Centre Friday, November 17th, 2023. The indie-pop band has been active since the early 2010s but as the title of their tour suggests, they remain relevant across many demographics. People of all ages and genders gathered in the arena to witness the talent that is The 1975. The band’s ability to reach such a large audience is commendable and speaks to their adaptability to the fluctuating music trends of the past decade.

Their lead singer, Matthew “Matty” Healy, has gone viral on TikTok for his erratic behaviour and controversial comments during this tour. While he was drinking from a flask or a glass throughout the show, he remained on his best behaviour in Montreal. In fact, Healy brought attention to the audience’s anticipation, commenting “What’s he going to say?” This was a signal to the crowd that they would not catch anything offensive on video that night. This is not to say that he was not entertaining. Indeed, The 1975 know how to put on a show. 

The stage design for this tour is quite elaborate. The stage was turned into a house and the band appeared to be having a cocktail party throughout the show. Furthermore, the backdrop gradually changed the time of day it was presenting (night sky, moon, daylight) to curate the time passing. This creative scene is captivating to the crowd, especially in the way The 1975 interacted with it. While they had another performer on stage, Healy climbed to the roof of the house and sat there for the duration of the song. He moved around the stage throughout his performance, sometimes sitting on a couch, at a piano, and sometimes in front of a small television watching it play. In this way, the set goes beyond being a prop to an integral part of the show to tell a particular story. 

The stage was not the only thing keeping the audience entertained. Apart from Healy’s incredible vocals and the impressive instrumental skills of the rest of the band, The 1975 let their humour shine during their performance. When the screens to help people seated farther back see the band were not reflecting the performance, they had a combination of slime ASMR, Dance Dance Revolution, and Subway Surfer videos playing. In Healy’s words, both humbly and humorously, this was so the audience would “not get bored.” He also had the audience laughing during “TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME” when Healy tried pronouncing “bonjour” into his autotuned microphone. Acknowledging how he butchered it, he stated with the autotune still on “That’s the best you’re getting.” 

Humour aside, Healy was inspirational. One young boy had a poster that said it was his first concert ever and he wanted it to be memorable. Healy was determined to make it so and thus, he brought the child on stage and had everyone in the crowd cheer for him. Healy urged the boy to pursue a career as an artist and to avoid becoming a politician. The interaction was overall admirable and showed Healy’s soft side, in contrast to the negative comments about him swirling around the internet. 

Given the extensive list of fan-favourite songs by The 1975, the concert was quite long (and therefore well worth the money). Songs such as “Robbers,” “Somebody Else,” and “About You,” among others, were sung along to by almost everyone. Despite this, some fans were left disappointed when the concert ended and their favourites had not yet been performed, most notably “Girls” and “Chocolate” were missing. With this being said, the fact that in two hours of top hits, there were still anticipated songs just goes to show how good the band is. Indeed, The 1975 is “Still At Their Very Best”. 

I recently read an article on what hip-hop fans and industry professionals have called the “death of hip-hop,” covering how for the first half of this year, not a single hip-hop song or album claimed the number one spot on the Billboard 200 or Hot 100. Any true hip-hop fan can tell you that this is a terribly inaccurate and surface-level analysis of the state of the genre.

Yes, over the past three years, we have seen a rampant decrease in mainstream, commercial raps, but the place where great hip-hop is made is thriving more than ever: the underground. As the genre moves away from large-scale releases from artists like Drake and Travis Scott, the movement of rappers whose masterpieces exist below the charts is growing at a rate never seen before, and I cannot think of a more exciting example than Maxo.

While the L.A.-based rapper is no rookie to the game, with his mixtape origins dating all the way back to 2015, he remains a fresh source of consistently introspective bars that flow over beats ranging from classic Madlib production (“48 feat. Pink Siifu”) to trippy, atmospheric instrumentals from the one and only Beat Butcha (“2 for $10”). Fresh off the release of his final Def Jam record Even God Has A Sense Of Humour, and subsequent solo album Debbie's Son, I got the chance to catch Maxo at his Montreal gig, and even managed to ask him a few questions over Zoom the next day. After this experience, It's apparent that the rapper is in the midst of his renaissance. 

After an electric opening performance from the Washington, DC rapper Sideshow, who I highly recommend checking out, our small crowd of 30-odd people were treated to one of the most unique evenings La Sala Rossa has ever had the honour of housing. Within his 20-minute set, Maxo only used the stage as a table for his drinks. Performing directly from the floor, embracing and rapping along with the crowd, Maxo gave an intimate performance that will be remembered by me, and undoubtedly by the rest of the crowd, much longer than any mainstream, stadium tour, hip-hop concert will be.

As he moved from bar, to stage, to the middle of the floor, Maxo kept up with every bar and beat from his newest album, crafting an atmosphere that can only be described as trippy. Almost as suddenly as the rapper's set began, it ended, with Maxo abruptly walking out of the venue's front entrance, performing a veritable Irish goodbye. That wasn't enough for the Montreal crowd, however, who followed him out and met him on the venue's front steps, then coaxed him back into the venue to get a few pictures and have some truly genuine conversations. While this intimate and personal style of performance is nearly opposite to what I expected coming in, it made the message of Maxo’s mind-bending, melancholic music hit harder than ever before.

Maxo solidified the power of his live performance when I got the chance to sit down with him, as he drove down to Toronto for his next performance. “It communicates the best, it gets [the message] across the best […] The full energy presence, you really feel it,” he stated contemplatively, with the same insightful haze he bore in his performance the night before. There's a certain serenity to Maxo that shines through in his music, but it's not until you have a conversation with him that you see that he seems genuinely at peace.

He did chirp up when I brought up the idea of a “Maxo renaissance” that seems to be going on right now, with the artist having dropped two albums, performed at Flog Gnaw, and put out a performance film in Berlin, all in the past 9 months. “I feel like I just got into the NBA, or any professional realm. Everything before this was practice… like college.”

Maxo continued by touching on how he is the only music man in his family, which meant that there was nobody to really learn from on his come-up. “I had to learn first hand, going through a lot of things… But I think now I’m at the point where I'm intentional with it, my language is meeting up to my skill, what I want to say I'm able to say… I’m becoming more aware of it.”

Aside from the obvious upgrade to Maxo’s lyrical ability on both of his recent albums, there is a notable shift in production, from the beat selection, to the song composition, to the overall tone of the tracks. While this is partially due to his sonic evolution, it can mainly be attributed to his utilisation of a much broader catalogue of producers, which includes some fairly big names. “I'd be cool if I just made a whole tape with Madlib, I see that in the foreseeable future.”  While working with big-name producers certainly makes for great music, Maxo’s style really shines when he's combining forces with a longtime collaborator, who produced the rapper's entire 2018 album SMILE. “Me and Lastnamedavid been building something from like a skeletal place, ‘cause also that's my homie. Like I damn near grew up with him.” This is evident in much of Maxo's music, especially on SMILE, where every song seems to flow together, like one coherent piece of work.

In terms of a full switch up in sound, however, Maxo seemed a little more hesitant; especially in the punk direction that the underground seems to be moving towards, (such as, Paris Texas and AG Club).  “I'm not no punk”, Maxo explained, “I would more so probably dive into some house shit,” which I'm sure would be a welcome pivot in sound for any fan of the scene.

Even after working with such big names in production, Maxo still seems to have a very philosophical outlook on the music industry as a whole that you don't see too often anymore, especially when it comes to his influences. “Really, what influences me is more so real people, real things… actual people I grew up with and I get to talk to rather than just music.” After our interview ended, due mainly to Maxo’s obligatory tour bus driving duty, I was left mildly stunned at what I had just witnessed: a truly humble, down-to-earth rapper, on the verge of becoming what can only be described as underground royalty. 

After what I’ve seen and heard over the past couple of days, I can wholeheartedly endorse you checking out Maxo’s music. If you are a fan of any kind of hip-hop, or poignant, soul-stirring music in general, I cannot advocate for anyone more. Check out Maxo’s two 2023 releases, Even God Has A Sense Of Humour and Debbie's Son anywhere you find your music. While you're at it, keep an eye out for Maxo's next stop to the 514; if it's anything like the experience at La Sala Rosa this week, it's definitely something you don't want to miss.