5 Must-See Artists at Osheaga 2017

By: Staff –

The Osheaga Music Festival and Arts returns to parc Jean-Drapeau this summer for another not-to-be missed edition. Three days of hip-hop heavyweights like The Weeknd, Run The Jewels, and De La Soul, along with indie rock royalty like The Shins, Belle and Sebastian, and Death From Above 1979, makes Osheaga one of the best summer music festivals around.

Need help figuring out which artists to see at Osheaga 2017? Check out our picks below for the five artists you need to check out at this year’s festival!

Tickets are on sale now.

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Arkells
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Emerging at a time when the internet had thoroughly disrupted the way we make, consume, and think about music, the Arkells’ 2008 debut, Jackson Square, inherited the dying-embered torch for a certain old-school, rock ‘n’ roll ethic—and poured a fresh gallon of gasoline on the flame. They came from a notoriously tough industrial outpost—Hamilton, Ontario—armed with songs about punching clocks and punching faces. And though they were spurred into action by the mid-2000s Canadian indie-rock renaissance—back when bands like the Weakerthans, the Constantines and Wolf Parade were channeling punk-fueled passion into anthems for the overeducated and underemployed—the Arkells were also keen students of the classics. They named songs after John Lennon and pinched lines from Elton John, and if you got them drunk enough, they could play you an hour of spot-on Motown covers.

But while their Canadian indie antecedents had either broken up or gone on indefinite hiatus by decade’s end, the Arkells gamely inherited their mission, and—with the release of their newest album, 2016’s Morning Report, Arkells have achieved the sort of national success that their underdog heroes always deserved but never experienced.

Don’t sleep on Arkells at Osheaga 2017!

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Lorde
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Emerging as a fully formed enigma from her native New Zealand in 2013, Lorde tapped into an untouched well of alienation, becoming the poster child for a generation who found refuge from the eternal excess of the 2010s by submerging themselves in moody art. “Royals,” the hit single that made her an international phenomenon, became a genuine sensation, topping the charts in country after country and being covered by elder statesmen like Bruce Springsteen and Jack White, a move that functioned a bit as a benediction. Lorde didn’t need their blessing, though. The singer/songwriter struck a chord, functioning as the dark corollary to the bright, happy pop of Taylor Swift and Katy Perry and thereby becoming an icon for teenagers who felt older than their years.

With a new album, Melodrama, set for release on June 16^th, and a performance at Osheaga, expect 2017 to be the year of Lorde.

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Danny Brown
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Detroit native and reigning ambassador of psychotropic outsider rap, Danny Brown, returned with his fourth album, Atrocity Exhibition, last September, and hasn’t slowed down since.

The album is a fresh and bold take on Brown‘s ruminations on life and the changes that have occurred -and those that didn’t – following the ups and downs of career success.  Atrocity Exhibition makes for a thrilling third installment in the Danny Brown biopic, following the releases of his critically acclaimed and groundbreaking albums XXX and Old, sold out shows around the world including opening for Eminem at Wembley Stadium, and collaborations with an eclectic range of artists such as Ghostface Killah, Purity Ring, Rustie, Charli XCX, E-40,the Avalanches and more.

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Solange
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A singer, songwriter, and producer, Solange Knowles debuted in the early 2000s with pop-oriented contemporary R&B material and grew into one of the more adventurous, expectation-defying artists of the late 2000s and 2010s. The younger sister of Beyoncé Knowles, Solange has quickly forged her own musical identity.

Her newest album, A Seat At The Table, arrived almost four years after the release of her 2012 True EP. Calmly cathartic and considerably at odds with mainstream R&B, the progressive set promoted healing and empowerment in response to racial oppression, and established Solange as one of the leading voices of R&B.

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Phantogram
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Since the release of their 2014 album Voices, Phantogram have trekked across the globe playing live shows and festival dates, contributed features to everyone from A-Trak to Miley Cyrus and been sampled by Kanye West, The Game and A$AP Rocky, as well as releasing their debut BIG GRAMS LP with good friend and musical partner in crime, Big Boi of Outkast.

The New York bred duo made writing stops at home and in Atlanta before picking back up in Los Angeles to record their newest album, Three. Josh Carter (vocals, guitars) and Sarah Barthel (vocals, keyboards) shared duties on production and vocals, melding elements of rock, pop, hip-hop and electronic. The resulting sound leans darker and more psychedelic yet with some of the brightest and most introspective pop melodies they’ve delivered to date, truly making them genre-defying artists for the 21st century.