Sled Island 2016 Official Program Guide - Published by BeatRoute Magazine

24
MUSIC
Feel Alright has survived its years in Calgary’s
music scene on an effortless ability to please and
Craig Fahner’s melodic intuition. It’s a pleasure to
see them again.
FENSTER
BERLIN, DE
Tue 9:15 - The Hifi Club (Live Score)
Wed 10:00pm - Palomino (Downstairs)
Fenster are four musicians from four different countries
who make breezy and at times eerie psychedelic
pop music. Appearing at Sled Island to perform a
live score for their sci-fi mockumentary EMOCEAN,
as well as for a separate stand-alone concert, we
expect the groovy weirdness to be plentiful.
FEVERFEW
EDMONTON, AB
Fri 2:00pm - Palomino (Upstairs)
Fri 10:00pm - Wine-Ohs
When the solo project of classically-trained harpist
Mary Wood joined forces with a drummer, bassist
and electronic beatmaker, freak-classical unit
Feverfew was born. With this quartet comes enchanting
soprano vocals layered with the delicate
twinkle of harp and ritualistic beats that sound like
a singing jewellery box from another dimension.
THE FLATLINERS
TORONTO, ON
Fri 12:30am - Ship & Anchor
With Fat Wreck Chords’ stamp of approval, over ten
years releasing albums and legions of heart-onsleeve
punk fans across the country, it comes as
a bit of a surprise to have The Flatliners at Sled
Island for the first time. Let’s use 2016 to make up
for lost time, eh?
FOAM
LONDON, ON
Wed 9pm - Dickens
Thu 8:30pm - Tubby Dog
Foam acts on murky, well-timed sludge. Their angsty,
dirty guitars and heavy drumming stimulate moshing
wherever they go. With one foot in the gutter and the
other in the pit, their repetitive riffs and shrieks drown
out everything else with pleasing squalls of sludge.
FORM
CALGARY, AB
Thu 9:00pm - Dickens
Recurring festival picks Whitney Ota (Yankee Yankee,
Burro) and Evangelos Lambrinouis II (Sanctums,
Corinthian) have teamed up for a patient and rewarding
new project. Rooted in techno but incorporating
danker elements of ambient and noise music, this duo
will have you convinced you’re raving inside of a cave.
FOUNTAIN
VICTORIA, BC
Wed 10:00pm - Commonwealth (Downstairs)
Fri 6:45pm - Commonwealth (Upstairs)
Sat 4:00pm - Tubby Dog
Fountain just plain rip. Their riffs are spastic,
immediate nuggets of joyful resistance that spiral
around your head at a breakneck pace that leaves
you woozy. These tunes hearken back to several beloved
punk and post-punk touchstones, but remain
viscerally, inimitably new and compelling.
FRIESEN/WATERS DUO
CALGARY, AB
Wed 10:00pm - Wine-Ohs
The Friesen/Water duo exists where precision and
chaos come together, using intuition and raw
feeling to flesh out their conscious and unhinged
manipulations of sound. Devin Friesen’s expansive
walls of guitar distortion coat Nate Waters’
improvised saxophone, creating an unpredictably
calming experience of drone and free jazz.
FRIGS
TORONTO, ON
Thu 6:00pm - Broken City (Patio)
A bit less dirty but definitely still FRIGS, the lovably
filthy Toronto quartet has cleaned up nothing
but their name. Still dank, still sweaty, still making
rock ‘n’ roll best heard in the dark after midnight,
FRIGS are a band that take grunge and psych
through the sludge of urban living.
GAWKER
CALGARY. AB
Wed 9:20pm - Bamboo
Fri 5:00pm - Local 510
Gawker is a punk band with a bit of a sick sense of
humour. Their rough riffs and self-described bratty
vocals have plenty of sneer, with just enough
goofiness to keep things light and loose.
GENDERS
PORTLAND, OR
Sat 3:30pm - Local 510 (Parking Lot)
Sun 5:00pm - Palomino (Upstairs)
Dream-gothing surf-rockers Genders are the perfect
pastiche of old and new sounds with song structures
that will always keep you guessing. Plus, their
live shows are tops, so add them to your musical
grocery list.
GLAD RAGS
VANCOUVER, BC
Wed 8:30pm - Broken City (Patio)
Thu 8:00pm - Local 510 (Parking Lot)
Don’t try to keep these lipstick-smeared pottymouth
punks down. Like the riot grrrls before
them, Glad Rags’ confrontational cuts about
everything from sexual harassment to anorexia are
rallying cries that hit like a punch in the gut. This
is the next wave of femme firebrands giving patriarchal
society the middle finger one screaming
guitar riff at a time.
HANSMOLE
VICTORIA, BC
Wed 7:30pm - Local 510
Unlike a lot of lo-fi pop, Hansmole’s vocals come
through clearly. It’s a welcome anchor among
unpredictable electronic drums, lazily wading
grooves and walls of synthesizer. Join her on a
journey through art pop that confronts and soothes
the senses.
DEAFHEAVEN
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Sat 1:00am - #1 Legion (Downstairs)
To say Deafheaven are one of the best bands in metal is a disservice to a band that
seems intent on destroying genre. Deafheaven are one of the best bands working in
music, period—merging black metal, shoegaze and a variety of other disparate genres
into an electrifying take on metal that is equal parts emotion and evisceration.
The five-piece rose to prominence and critical acclaim with the release of their sophomore
album, 2013’s Sunbather. Their latest album, New Bermuda, finds the band
expanding conventional ideas of metal even further, incorporating influences like
Red House Painters, Wilco and Low.
Deafheaven’s live show is punishing sonically as well as physically. Drummer Daniel
Tracy anchors the band with pummeling blast beats and a technicality that is even more
impressive in person than it is recorded. Frontman George Clarke haunts the stage,
his near-indecipherable vocals like a priest delivering a sermon. Topping it all off is
lead guitarist Kerry McCoy’s incorporation of old-school thrash riffs that sound as good
now as they did when Anthrax used them. But Deafheaven are at their best are when
they finally relent. A rare moment of bliss forms just long enough for you to catch your
breath—before it all falls apart and the band picks up again.
Sled Island 2016