Jim Guthrie @ Pop Montreal 2002

ChartAttack staff swarmed the Pop Montreal festival last weekend. Here are some of the highlights:

This intimate, artist-friendly venue is the perfect locale for the introspective musings of Jim Guthrie. Using a Sony Playstation to "bring feeling to computers" and an electric guitar plucked with determined hands, the solitary singer laid down minimal rhythms and hues for his quiet compositions. Hiding behind his long dark bangs and shuffling his sneakers self-consciously, Guthrie was endearing, if awkward and shy. But the guy can work the word "oscillated" into a pretty folk song and keep a room full of industry schmucks hushed, so hopefully he'll get out of his room — and his shell — more often.