Pitchfork

O Canada! As previously reported, the annual Pop Montreal festival kicks off this evening. You lucky people get five days (October 4-8) of music from the creme of the indie and sorta-indie crop, including Joanna Newsom, Spank Rock, Akron/Family, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Tapes 'n Tapes, Vashti Bunyan, Dr. Octagon, Regina Spektor, Cadence Weapon, the Russian Futurists, Beirut, Portastatic, Harvey Danger, Sunset Rubdown, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Islands, and Memphis.

Since our last story ran, the fest has added Roky Erikson, Islands, the Constantines, Dirty on Purpose, Flosstradamus, Subtitle, A-Trak, Two Gallants, Damien Jurado, Born Ruffians, So Many Dynamos, Tokyo Police Club, Professor Murder, Chromatics, Earl Greyhound, and more.

Unfortunately, Vitalic seems to have canceled his North American tour, so he won't be appearing.

In addition, during the festivities, the Future of Music Coalition and McGill University will take this opportunity to present the FMC's 6th annual Policy Summit (October 5-7), a forum for musicians, lawyers, academics, policymakers, and music biz gurus to discuss issues like digital technology, blogs, and a slew of other topics. In addition to Pitchfork's own Ryan Schreiber and Chris Dahlen, panelists include David Byrne, the Arcade Fire's Win Butler, Islands' Nick Diamonds, Stars' Torquil Campbell, Malajube's Mathieu Cournoyer, Merge Records man/Portastatic/Superchunk member Mac McCaughan, Arts&Crafts' Jeff Remedios, producers Don DeVito and Sandy Pearlman, and a bunch of industry and educational bigwigs.

Pop Montreal will also host the Puces Pop trade fair, Art Pop, and Film Pop.