Up Here, which returns to downtown Sudbury for an eighth year on Friday, Aug. 19 to Sunday, Aug. 21, has just released its musical lineup.
Just who’s playing? Headlining on Saturday, August 20, they’ve got La Luz, all the way from California, capturing sizzling summer in song with their psychedelic “surf noir,” and Pierre Kwenders, from Kinshasa, Congo by way of Montreal, singing and rapping stories across boundaries of language and geography on Sunday, August 21.
On Aug. 19, the festival will also host another of their now-famous hip-hop nights, with two Torontonians taking the stage: DijahSB — whose music is a raw look into the mind of a Black non-binary artist rapping their way through hope, heartbreak, and breakthroughs — and Exmiranda — rapper, advocate, entrepreneur, curator, and cultural connecter.
As always, Up Here boasts a famously wide range of programming, a contrast illustrated best by melancholic Ghostly Kisses from Quebec City and Sister Ray from Edmonton at one end of the spectrum and Backxwash’s horrorcore metal-inspired performance at the other end.
Pop lovers will rejoice in Jane Inc.’s off-kilter, futuristic synth tunes and Wolf Saga’s dreamlike electropop. There truly is something for everyone.
It’s worth getting psyched for Hippie Hourrah from Montreal, a daydreamy throwback to the late ’60s; Toronto’s Absolutely Free, hypnotic avant-rock shapeshifters; and Jasmyn, the front-person of Weaves, now out on her own, ruminating on the patterns in our lives.
Back by popular demand is Status/Non-Status — Adam Sturgeon (Nme’) and his longtime collaborators (fka Whoop-Szo), whose previous work confronted Sturgeon’s complex family history and identity and was long-listed for the Polaris Music Prize among numerous other accolades, have emerged with new music and new stories to share.
Come from Quebec are two Montrealers: Ellemetue, with an intriguing blend of electro-experimental rock music and poetry, and Seulement, a singular combination of melodic voices and electronic sounds at times aerial, organic, and erratic.
Dancers will delight in Toronto’s Lee Paradise, who moves to the beat of nowhere, and Quintron and Miss Pussycat all the way from New Orleans, renowned for their bayou house party puppetry chaos.
Lest you think there’s nothing local, don’t worry, the not-just-Sudbury-famous Tommy and the Commies, fresh from a tour in Europe, will be tearing it up with their signature power-pop, hooligan tunes.
Other locals hitting the stage include garage rockers The Ape-ettes, ambient spaceman Emilio Portal, the echoing beauty of Casper Skulls’ front-woman Melanie St-Pierre’s new project l’loop, the intimate sensibilities of Aurel, the eclectic jams of Bendero & Mars, and the reverb-drenched contemplative rock of Will Powers.
A limited number of all-access, entry-guaranteed passports to the eighth edition of Up Here are on sale now at a price of $90. Individual tickets go on sale July 7 at noon, when the complete schedule will be revealed. Visit UpHere.com for more information.
