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• Stars

Summer is here, and so are the fests! As you'll have noticed in this very issue, all sorts of events are coming to Vermont during our brief window of sunshine and warmth, from Grace Potter's returning Grand Point North to the Maple Roots Festival to the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival.

This week also features a special insert devoted to Québec and all the fun to be had with our Canadian neighbors. So in that spirit, I figured I'd take this opportunity to gush about POP Montréal.

Before they found success, bands such as Arcade Fire and Wolf Parade played POP. Founded in 2002 by creative director Daniel Seligman, it's the indie fest to find your next favorite band. As cool as the bigger names on the bill often are, discovery is the name of the game at the five-day festival of music, film and art.

Going down from September 25 to 29, POP Montréal announced a stacked lineup of music last week, including performances by two of Montréal's best and brightest, Stars and the Dears. Both will be celebrating the 20th anniversaries of their breakout albums. Folk singer Iris DeMent; Parisian new-wave legends Edith Nylon; London punks Bob Vylan; and an all-star tribute to American Canadian singer Lhasa de Sela, featuring Feist, Calexico and La Force, are other highlights of the stacked schedule.

Montréal offers a ton of killer fests every year — don't sleep on Distorsion Psych Fest or M for Montréal — but I'm not sure there's a better way to experience the city than wandering from venue to venue at POP Montréal. Head to popmontreal.com for tickets and more information.

Looking to refresh those playlists? Good news: We've got a ton of new releases from Vermont artists to pop on your summer mixes.

First up is the Burlington indie-rock outfit Robber Robber, which is preparing to drop its debut full-length album, Wild Guess, in late July. The advance single "Backup Plan" is a jittery, almost krautrock-leaning track that has me psyched to hear the album, which was recorded by Rough Francis/the Armed/Iggy Pop drummer Urian Hackney and mixed by Benny Yurco.

Singer-songwriter Ryan Sweezey has a new single out on Friday, June 7: "Bartender," which he initially released on his 2020 record Meadowlark Sessions Vol. I. Dissatisfied with his previous attempts to record the song, the pop music-loving Sweezey said he's finally captured the spirit of the track.

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• Miles of Fire

Vermont hardcore stalwarts Drowningman, active from the late '90s to 2005, have largely re-formed as a new band. Featuring guitarists Matt Roy and Javin Leonard, TJ Maynard on bass, drummer William Molleur, and vocalist Ty Gurwicz, the band convened as a new iteration of Drowningman but decided to debut a new project instead. It's called Miles of Fire, and its first single, "Conditional," is streaming now.

Andrew Connelly, a member of folk-rock act Blackwater, has released a solo track under the name Yonders. A gentle acoustic number, "Bluebird" features Connelly singing over a soft bed of slide guitar and whistles before a shuffling beat creeps in. It's a tender, impressive debut that's streaming on Spotify.

Local sax legend Joe Moore, who died of cancer in April, will be honored on Friday, May 24, with a celebration of life service at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington. Featuring more than 15 speakers, including Phish drummer Jon Fishman, who was Moore's Pork Tornado bandmate, the ceremony also serves as the launch of the Joseph Moore Jr. Music for Youth Scholarship Fund. It will benefit students at C.P. Smith Elementary School, where Moore volunteered.

Moore will also be honored during this year's Burlington Discover Jazz Festival with a blowout concert by the Vermont Blues Society on June 9.

Listening In

Spotify playlist of Vermont jams