DANNY ROBINS' INDIE TRAVEL GUIDE: MONTREAL

So this week we're talking Montreal, city of Arcade Fire, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Silver Mt Zion, the Wainwright siblings, Leonard Cohen and Celine Dion, but ironically not the band Of Montreal, who come from Athens, Georgia.

Canada's second biggest city (after Toronto) is also the second biggest French-speaking city in the world, after Paris. It's the main city of Quebec, the French speaking part of Canada that intermittently threatens to go independent and well over half of the population speak French as their first language. All of which gives the city that mixture of European and North American influences that makes Canada unique. This is clear in the juxtaposition of the striking sky-scrapers with the old town, known as Old Montreal, which is very picturesque. The city is on an island too, so you're always close to water.

It definitely ticks the boxes of an indie city, with a strong music scene, good festivals, great gig venues and bars and an arty, cultural feel. I think it attracts so many indie types because it's an easy city - easy to live in, easy to like and easy to get around -you can drive across the city in 20mins, and it's also very pedestrian and cycle friendly.

There's a vibrant film scene here too. Jesus of Montreal is one of the most famous independent movies shot here. The most recent film to feature the city is Barney's Version starring Paul Giamatti, hotly tipped for an Oscar, it's based on the book by local author Mordecai Richler.

Montreal is also a very gay-friendly city with a big gay scene. It even has a gay bike shop - the brilliantly named Bikurious, which has a lesbian hairdressers attached.

Where's it at?

The mountain that Montreal is named after, Mont Royal (Mont Real in old French) is the centre-piece of the island, with the city lying around it. The area immediately North and East of the mountain has been hipsterville for a while - the Plateau neighbourhood, where I believe Leonard Cohen still keeps an apartment, and, even more so, the area called Mile End - which is where Mordecai Richler was from and where Arcade Fire are based.

Mile End is very definitely the heart of the city's independent music scene and this is where you'll find loads of great vintage clothes shops, record shops and places to eat, especially around Boulevard St Laurent (also known as Main).

In Mile End, check out the famous Fairmount Bagels, baked in a wood-fired oven, and the brew pub Dieu du Ciel, who do a beer named after the area, an 'English style ale, called Mild End.

Gig venue wise, have a look at Casa Del Popolo https://www.casadelpopolo.com/ good beers, vegetarian food and indie acts on Boulevard St Laurent. Its sister venue, La Sala Rossa over the road, also does great food and hosts gigs - some people even claim it has the better sound. They alos run their own festival of experimental and avant-garde music, Suoni per Il Popolo, which is from 6th-23rd June this year.

As with any city though, areas slip in and out of fashion. The new kid on the block is an area called Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, or 'HoMa' for short. Like Dalston in East London, it's a poor area that's been invaded by students, artists and trendies because it's cheap and is apparently the 'new frontier' of cool. It's home to Sata Sushi, one of the city's best sushi joints.

The best way to explore is to hire a bike. Bixi Bikes are hire bikes like the ones Boris Johnson recently launched in London.

A city of lots of festivals

Montrealers love their festivals, perhaps because it's so cold in the winter, that by the summer time they are desperate to get out and party.

Montreal's best known festival is Just For Laughs, which happens to be the world's biggest comedy festival. It happens in July every year and features comedians from all over the world. You may well have seen performances from it on TV as a lot of it is filmed.

The city also hosts the biggest jazz festival in the world, if that's your thing.

Indie-wise, we have to talk about POP Montréal International Music Festival, this is kind of like a Montreal-based version of South By South West, in that it's a mixture of music industry events and public concerts spanning five days. Over 400 acts play in over 50 different venues across the city and you can buy a pass to go between them. There are well known headliners each year along with loads of up and coming bands who could be next year's big thing.

There are also spin off events covering other art-forms, including Film Pop - an underground film festival and Puces Pop - an indie arts and crafts flea-market type affair.

The 2011 dates are 21st - 25th September.

Another festival is Osheaga, an outdoor Coachella-style festival of indie and alternative music that takes place in Parc Jean-Drapeau on Île Sainte-Hélène, a small island off the main island of Montreal. Last year they had Arcade Fire, Weezer and Sonic Youth headlining.

It's on from July 27th to 31st this year. The people behind it also run indie gigs in Montreal throughout the year.

And we've just missed it, but in January every year there's Igloofest, where people where retro ski-suits and dance around outside in temperatures that can be as low as minus 10 degrees.

This short film about local DJ/producer Lunice gives you a flavour of what igloofest was like. There are lots of people dancing in VERY warm clothes!

You could also have a look at Mutek, an electronic music festival.

The rest of the year, the main indie promoters in town are Blue Skies Turn Black . Check out their website for details of upcoming gigs. Pop Montreal also run things throughout the rest of the year, so always worth checking their site.

Some classically Montreal things to do:

Go surfing nowhere near the sea. The St Lawrence River has what is a known as a 'standing wave' - basically a wave that's always in the same place. It's known as Habitat 67 because it's next to an iconic building with that name - an eye catching housing development that looks reminiscent of Lego blocks.

You can get surf lessons or hire boards from these guys, I believe. Just make sure you don't try and do it the 4 or 5 months of the year when the river is frozen solid!

Eat poutine Poutine is Canada's national fast food. It's chips and bits of cheese curd with gravy on top. You can get it in loads of fast food places - even McDonalds do it in Canada.

One story has it that the name came from a bloke called Fernand Lachance who is meant to have exclaimed "ça va faire une maudite poutine "("it will make a damn mess").

Visit churches Montreal is known as "la ville aux cent clochers", the city of a hundred belltowers. The author Mark Twain, when he visited, said, "This is the first time I was ever in a city where you couldn't throw a brick without breaking a church window." Not sure if that means he was in the habit of chucking bricks when he visited places.

Some of the churches are used as gig venues too - places like the Eglise St Jean Baptiste and Santa Cruz church, which looks a bit like a giant club sandwich and hosted local band made good The Dears last autumn.

Final thought... road trips...

How about this for a road trip? It's about 6 to 7 hours drive from New York to Montreal. You could go through Vermont or stop off at somewhere like Lake Placid on the way.

Alternatively (or even additionally if you've got time), it's about 6 hours drive from Montreal to Canada's other indie city, Toronto. You drive along the shore of Lake Ontario. From Toronto, it's just another hour and a half or so to Niagara Falls.

Other local bands to listen to whilst you're there.... The Dears, Stars, Plants and Animals, Socalled, Patrick Watson, Karkwa, a French band who recently won Canada's Polaris Prize (like their Mercury), Braids, Chromeo and DJs called Poirier and A-trak.

Thanks for help and tips from Brendan Murphy, a local blogger , writer and good source of Montreal news. He's editor of Montreal Buzz.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?