No calm before the POP

After the craziness that was last Friday — with Voivod, Sleep, Boris, Morne and Possessed all playing the same night at four different shows — is a little bit more quality-concentrated. Along with a range of regular gigs, Wednesday marks the first night of local institution POP Montreal, which will run until Sunday, Sept. 29. There are some cool gigs on their schedule so if you want to get your jump on, go to the festival’s website.

 Before we POP off, these are the shows to see:

Thursday: Tampa, Florida’s Sleeping Pills are going to lay down the post-punk/dream pop on you at la Sotterenea, with openers Mickey Dagger and Broken Column. If you miss Dagger tonight, you will get another chance on Friday and for a good cause, too. 4873 St-Laurent, 9 p.m., $7

Friday: If you want to get your doom on, head down to Barfly to catch the doomy doom of Kurse with the “smokin’ some bad banana peel” stoner rock of the Sex Prymes and the mind altering psych of Halcyon Days. 4062A St-Laurent, 9 p.m., $5

If you crave a bit more thrash riffage with your metal, Katacombes is the place to catch the always incredible Metalian, who launch their new long player Vortex and will shatter all the glass in the joint with Ian’s falsetto vocals. Openers are the fine buds in Painbow. 1635 St-Laurent, 9 p.m., $10

Friday night also has your punk rock covered starting at Turbo Haüs with Heart Attack Kids, Diner Drugs and Fomo. I’ll be there, will you? 2040 St-Denis, 7:30 p.m., $10/$12

If you’re wondering whether Epitaph/Fat Wreck mall-punk has aged gracefully, you can check the Bad Religion chug of No Fun at All with Wolfrik and Brand New Lungs at (you guessed it) Foufs. 87 Ste-Catherine E., 8 p.m., $26

A Benefit for ICE Detainees in the U.S. has been set up at Casa with musical guests being minimal dark synth duo Brusque Twins, Mickey Dagger and the Young Blades, Girl Circles and Estorbo. 4873 St-Laurent, 8 p.m., PWYC

Even though POP Montreal gets underway on Wednesday, my big pick of the week is post-rock dreamboats Fly Pan Am. FPA apparently killed it during their recent reunion at Sala so don’t miss ’em when they sell out the comfy confines of le Ritz, with Wreckage With Stick and Myricam Bleau. Get your tickets right now! 179 Jean-Talon W., 8:30 p.m., $10/$12

Saturday: If you agree that nothing sounds as satisfying as “Detroit punk,” then you will want to make tracks to Turbo Haüs to catch the Armed with Dianacrawls and more. Bonus points is DJ extraordinaire (and newly single, nudge nudge) Mathieu Beauséjour, who will be in the selector position on the venue’s bar side for absolutely free. 2040 St-Denis, 7:30 p.m., $16/$18

There’s a psych night to be had at Quai des Brumes with local psych warlords A Devil’s Din, Binoculars and Count Ferrara:Gramaphone. 4481 St-Denis, 9:30 p.m., $10

For a night of rawk with a smidge of grunge, check out Death Proof with punk rockers Fokyoushima and droners Coba and Some Became Hollow Tubes, who are getting ready for their European tour. This all goes down at one of the greatest DIY spaces in the city, Brasserie Beaubien. 73 Beaubien E., 9 p.m., $10/PWYC

My runner-up for big pick of the week is indie jam rock lords Built to Spill, who’ll prove that they’re still every bit as good as they were when they released the killer slab There’s Nothing Wrong With Love way back in the post-grunge year of ’94. Opening at Corona will be Prism Bitch and Wetface. 2490 Notre-Dame W., 8 p.m., $38

Wednesday: POP Montreal starts on this very night and if you would like to read some Cult MTL picks, click here. My big pick for POP this week is definitely Yamantaka // Sonic Titan, who will peel faces at l’Esco with Elisa Harkins and H. DeHeutz. 4461 St-Denis, 9 p.m., $15

In other POP Montreal news, don’t miss ruler of twang and croon Li’l Andy, who launches his new rekkid with help from Gigi French and Rae Spoon at Sala. 4848 St-Laurent, 8:30 p.m., $17.85

Current Obsession: King Tubby, King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown

jonathan.cummins@gmail.com