Picks for Slacker CMW Music Fest 2012

Canadian Music Week gets off the ground today.  Putting the music conference aside for the moment–it’s open mostly to industry weasels like me–let’s take a look at the music festival.  Anyone can go to this and with the weather promising to the best-ever for CMW, I’d expect a huge turnout at every venue every night.

But with 900+ artists performing over just five days, where do you start?  Here are my ten picks in no particular order.

1.  The Sheepdogs:  They’ve come a long way in the last 18 months.  They’re tighter and stronger than ever.

2.  I Mother Earth:  One of the big reunions at this year’s festival, the others being Treble Charger (well, Greig and Bill, anyway) and the Inbreds, who pioneered the just-guitar-and-drums approach back in the middle 90s.

3.  The Pack A.D.:  Speaking of two-piece bands, this female duo is wonderfully noisy.  

4.  Saul Williams:  A poet, a singer, an actor.  Trent Rezor thinks the world of this guy.

5.  Connaisseurs of Porn:  Don’t let the name scare you.  They’re more into a Captain Beefheart/Jesus Lizard thing than anything that might be too NSFW.

6.  Teenage Kicks:  Young Toronto band with an appropriately Undertones-ish attitude.  Huge potential here.

7.  The Balconies:  Three classically-trained musicians originally from Ottawa who know how to write a damn good pop song.  They already have a substantial following in the UK.

8.  Cloud Nothings:  Lo-fi indie rock from Cleveland. The current album, Attack on Memory, is brilliant.

9.  Oberhofer:  NYC indie band that’s most beloved by hipsters.  They have a point.

10.  Spoek Mathambo:  “Afro-futurist” from Johannesberg.  He’s into some fascinating stuff.

For more details on Slacker CMW Music Week 2012, go here.