Music

Calgary's Sled Island introduces headliners, including Jesus and Mary Chain, Explosions in the Sky, METZ and more

by Mark Teo

Toronto has NXNE, Montreal has Pop Montreal (or M for Montreal, depending on your tastes), and Calgary has Sled Island. Today, the summer music and film festival—which, for its 2013 edition, is being curated by Montreal-based ambient songsmith Tim Hecker and Thee Oh Sees’ John Dwyer—announced their initial list of headliners, whose international names include the reunion circuit-dominating Jesus and Mary Chain, Friday Night Lights-scoring post-rock act Explosions in the Sky, the explosively bluesy Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, indie supergroup Divine Fits and noisy post-punk veterans Swans. There’s plenty of Cancon representation, too, with Mac DeMarco, METZ, and the Joel Plaskett Emergency rounding out the fest’s initial list of names. Of course, expect many, many more bands to be added to the bill shortly.

The festival, which takes place from June 19-22, also features a film component. Few details have been released yet, but announced Canadian filmmakers Alexander Carson and Kyle Thomas as curators. Advance passes, you ask? Yeah, right here.