Toronto - The first week of October is known for a few things..mainly, the start of the NHL season, which results in many fantasy hockey drafts, and the start of MLB playoffs. Why do I keep making sport references in a blog whose demographics clearly do not care about sports? I have not a bloody clue. For music fans, the first week of October also means Pop Montreal, the annual music festival that celebrates both French and English music. This year marks the sixth time that Pop Montreal has occurred.

So if you are heading to Montreal this week, here are some of my suggestions for today and tommorrow. I don’t tread in the Canadian Indie Pop waters as much as Wade does, so he’ll probably know better acts to see. Hopefully he’ll provide a list too.

Hot Chip (Wednesday, Metropolis, 9:15) - Hot Chip is awesome live. Review of Toronto’s show will be up shortly. Not really a Pop Montreal band per say, but they are still awesome.

Dirty Chinese Thieves(Thursday, L’Escogriffe, 1:00 am) - I don’t even know anything about these guys, but they have ‘Chinese’ in their band name. That can’t be that bad.

The Chinese Stars(Thursday, Le Divan Orange, 2:00 am) - Ditto.

Why are these bands with the words ‘Chinese’ in them playing so late? probably so you can go grab yourself some Chinese food after. Do they have 24 hour noodle shops in Montreal? I don’t really know.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds(Thursday, Metropolis, 9:15) - If you don’t have tickets to this show, you probably aren’t getting in. Fresh off the successes of Grinderman and Dig Lazarus Dig, Nick Cave is strangely, riding a wave of momentum about 10-12 albums into his career.