Cakes Da Killa, She-Devils, Nap Eyes, Ought, By Divine Right, and Partner are the second wave of acts added to the lineup for SappyFest XI: Republic Of SappyFest. They join previously announced artists Dilly Dally, TUNS, Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars, and Little Scream for the festival, which takes place in Sackville, NB from July 29 - July 31, 2016.
Passes for SappyFest are on sale now for $100 (taxes and fees included) and are available HERE.
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CAKES DA KILLA (New Jersey, USA)
"...the music is less about playing games with your memory and more about making weird noises that you won’t recognize, and then about pounding those noises into your head with brutal efficiency. This is alien musical landscape, but Cakes Da Killa sounds absolutely at home on all of it. This is charged, physical, confrontationally sexual music, tactile and specific...with the sort of single-minded focus that reminds me of a great punk record." - Stereogum
SHE-DEVILS (Montreal, QC) - Co-Presented with Pop Montreal
"'Precise' is not a word one might use to describe She-Devils, a Montreal-based duo that paints in broad, messy strokes on their self-titled debut EP. Instead of showing off tightly wound musical chops, Audrey Ann and Kyle Jukka create murky sonic textures that meander through various states of consciousness without fully committing to one. The EP’s four tracks fluctuate between sweet and vaguely sinister, with Jukka’s vinyl samples colliding with Ann’s voice and lending it an extra layer of emotional depth." - Consequence of Sound
NAP EYES (Halifax, NS)
"Nap Eyes sound like the kind of slacker-rock band that plays while slumped over on half-folded futons, but even in its quietest moments, Thought Rock Fish Scale is an album brimming with passion and protest. It finds confidence in humility, power in relaxation. Its lethargy feels like an act of defiance against the hyper-speed pace of modern life. Its pledges of sobriety and good health constitute affronts to peer-pressured intoxication and food-blogged indulgence. And its purity of vision amounts to a declaration of war against a culture that encourages mass distraction.." - Pitchfork
OUGHT (Montreal, QC)
"These Montreal post-punks (Ought) write harsh songs for harsh times on their excellent second album, building on last year's debut More Than Any Other Day. Tim Darcy squawks about trying to keep what's left of his human feelings alive, over abrasive guitar that clangs like Mission of Burma. When he sneers, 'Put on your evening attire/We've got a lot of forgetting to do' in 'On The Line,' he sounds like a cross between The Fall's Mark E. Smith and the grifter on the corner selling you the watch he stole off your wrist an hour ago. 'This is the high watermark of civilization,' Darcy says over the throbbing bass-and-feedback groove of the finale, 'Never Better.' The sad part is, he probably means it." - Rolling Stone
BY DIVINE RIGHT (Toronto, ON)
"Sunny, uplifting, jangly pop. All words often used to describe By Divine Right’s brand of psychedelic-tinged rock, which has been an influential force in Canadian indie music since the band’s seminal 1997 album, All Hail Discordia. On BDR’s ninth studio effort, it sounds less like [José] Contreras is struggling to hold on to anything, and more like he’s letting go, giving into improvisation and ending up with an album mixed with rich, psychedelic grooves, pop-driven hooks and dreamy, Beach Boys-esque harmonies." - CBC Music
PARTNER (Sackville, NB)
"Young, gifted and stoned, Partner are the best new band in Canada. Drumroll, chug and then the heaviest, phosphorescing riffs – a cri-de-coeur of overflowing confidence and ambition, with somehow still a sense of slacker haplessness. It’s a mighty trick: making something so perfectly composed, meticulously rehearsed, feel messy and alive. Their success rests on Caron’s premier shredding skills but just as much on [Josée] Niles’s deadpan presence: she’s like a punk-rock spirit animal, dry and goofy, singing perfect harmony at the top of her lungs." - The Globe and Mail