We're very excited to announce that Japanese punk rock four-piece Otoboke Beaver will be joining us as guest curator for Sled Island 2025, running June 18 - 22! The group's fast, fierce and sincere approach to punk is met with unmatchable style, quick humour and feminine rage, making them the perfect guest curator for next year's festival. 

Along with guest curator duties, Otoboke Beaver will perform at The Palace Theatre (219 8 Ave SW) on Saturday, June 21, 2025. Sled Island passes grant access to this show (subject to capacity). 

Each year, Sled Island’s guest curator puts their stamp on the festival through special programming choices and their presence at the event. Otoboke Beaver’s curatorial selections will be announced in the coming months, along with 200 additional bands, comedy, visual art and conference programming chosen by the festival in multiple venues across Calgary.
 

Artists selected by Otoboke Beaver include:

• The Mummies
• Peelander-Z
• Black Ends
• LEMON BOY
• MUÑECA
• Glockabelle
• BB BOMB
• DMBQ

For more information and for passes and tickets, visit SledIsland.com. 
 

Unfamiliar with Otoboke Beaver? Check out one of their KEXP performances for a taste of the raw energy and sheer musicianship they bring to their live shows, which has garnered them heavy praise from renowned artists like Iggy Pop, Tom Morello, Jack White, Dave Grohl and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. 

For a list of past curators, visit our past lineups page.

About Otoboke Beaver

Before playing a ripping version of “La Dee Da” at Roskilde Festival last summer, Dave Grohl roared, ”I would like to dedicate this song to the coolest fucking band I've ever seen. They're from Japan, they're called Otoboke Beaver, and I got to see them for the first time tonight.” It’s a fitting tribute to the riotous punk-y explosion of this frantic Japanese four-piece.

Named after an Osaka love hotel, Otoboke Beaver took shape in ‘09 when singer Accorinrin and guitarist Yoyoyoshie met at a music club at Kyoto’s Ritsumeikan University. Following several furious years of releases — including the single "Otobokebeaver Daijikenbo" on Jet Set Records and the 2013 mini-album Love Me Sign  —  the band broke through in 2016 with the album Okoshiyasu!! Otoboke Beaver on Damnably Records. This compilation served as both a record of the band’s early work and a mission statement of joyful hardcore delivered with the subversive precision of Manzai — a rapid-fire style of gonzo Japanese comedy that heavily influences the band’s neck-snapping tempo changes.

Adding bassist Hirochan, and drummer Kahokiss to the lineup, Otoboke Beaver has been unstoppable in the years since, embarking on several North American tours and bringing the house down at SXSW, Glastonbury, and Coachella. Their 2019 album Itekoma Hits further developed the band’s rat-a-tat take on noise punk, described by Pitchfork as “a tornado of defiance,” whilst 2022’s Super Champon takes a knife to tradition with sugar-coated girl-gang vocals across songs like “You’re no hero shut the f*ck up you man-whore” and a surf-y fuzz-punk meltdown entitled “First-class side-guy.” Their furious live show — which sold out some of the same venues in ‘23 that Nirvana did in ‘91 — has earned raves from the likes of Jack White (who recently named Yoyoyoshie his new favourite guitar player) and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The band even found the time to compose the theme song for the Japanese TV show Susumu Inomata and 8 Mojo.

With ping-ponging melodies over shredded guitars anchored to the playfully confrontational delivery of Accorinrin, Otoboke Beaver’s Calgary debut opens a portal into punk’s future right here at Sled Island.