Sled Island bands head north

Sled Island? Works for us!

Calgary’s Sled Island is quickly becoming an important new music festival, and Edmonton is increasingly benefiting from spin-off shows.

This year, the weekend of June 24-26 will see three bands play at various venues after finishing up at the Calgary festival. First, on Friday night as part of The Works multimedia festival, An Horse will play the Winston Churchill stage at 8:45. An Horse is one of the headliners at Sled Island this year, which usually precludes them from doing shows in nearby cities; they must’ve received special dispensation for this event.

The Australian duo is receiving a lot of buzz in the music blogosphere this year after being raved about at South by Southwest, then releasing their critically-acclaimed album “Walls” on April 26. Check out the opener “Dressed Sharply”, or “Know This We’ve Noticed”, stellar indie pop-rock tracks that feature Kate Cooper’s amazing vocal and guitar work.

The next night, the focus will shift to New City as it hosts Montreal’s Honheehonhee, as well as local artists kickupaFuss (who are also playing the main stage of Boonstock later that week) and One Way State. Honheehonhee is part of the incredible new music scene in Montreal, with their pop-rock sound fusing blazing guitars and drums topped by synthesizers, in an ecstatic cacophony.

Finally, Sunday night sees guitar maestro Pujol play the same New City venue. The Tennessee native recently released an album on Jack White’s Third Man Records. Guests have yet to be announced.

Author Michael Senchuk also writes about new music on his own blog, New Music Michael, which is presenting the Honheehonhee show to celebrate its first birthday.