Noise Pop 2010: Industry Noise Video
[media id=31 width=530 height=300] On February 27th, Noise Pop 2010's Industry Noise conference brought together musicians, record labels, music techies, and more for a series of panels and meetings on the state of the music industry going forward. Fenny and Nicole were there and captured some of the day's happenings in this video clip. Video by: Fenny Kuo Hosted by: Nicole Browner
The Bay Bridged Presents: Noise Pop 2010 Happy Hour
[media id=30 width=530 height=300] This year's Noise Pop 2010 Festival was a blast, and on top of the two shows The Bay Bridged presented at the Swedish American this year, we also hosted a Noise Pop Happy Hour at Bender's with Hunx & His Punx, Spencey Dude & the Doodles, and Weekend. Thanks to the event's sponsors, Fernet Branca and Noise Pop, we were able to have some fun with both the bands and attendees, shown in the video above. Again, we'd like to thank everyone that made our Happy Hour such a packed and exciting event.
Noise Pop 2010: Edward Sharpe, Watson Twins, AB & the Sea, Northern Key @ Bimbo’s
Photos by: Charlie Homo The closing nights of the last two Noise Pop festivals have focused not only on musical quality, but on the credo of the more outrageous live performance. See: 2009's Les Savy Fav antics at the Mezzanine. For 2010, this meant bringing together the harmonious indie rock collective du jour: Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros. The former Ima Robot man (Alex Ebert) and his merry bunch have cultivated a significant following over the past year, not just for the appreciation of the songs on 2009's Up from Below. Although, for my money, "Home" is one of the [...]
Noise Pop Film Festival 2010: All My Friends Are Funeral Singers
Directed by musician Tim Rutili, All My Friends Are Funeral Singers is an endearing, intermittently amusing first film. Girl, Interrupted and May actress Angela Bettis stars as Zel, a thirty-something fortune teller who lives in a haunted house. In place of unavenged murder victims or malevolent poltergeists, Zel is haunted by indie rockers, and Rutili's band Califone spends a good deal of time onscreen, sporting beyond-the-grave all-white togs and faraway looks. There are also a number of other ghosts in the house, each with their own story (and all-white outfit). We are meant to believe that they hail from different [...]
Noise Pop 2010: !!!, Maus Haus, Sugar & Gold, My First Earthquake @ The Mezzanine
!!!, Maus Haus, Sugar & Gold and My First Earthquake all brought their A-game to the Mezzanine last Saturday night. My First Earthquake, a local electro-pop quartet, opened up the night with their snappy humorous ditties. "Sack Lunch" - about a pervy teacher (Rebecca's words, not mine) - and "Hot Girlfriend" were the standouts of the night. Lead singer Rebecca Bortman is a born show-woman, ribbing her band mates and chatting up the audience before prompting us to rock the fuck out. "Cool in the Cool Way" (which has an accompanying video about Mission hipsters), with its Nintendo-inspired synth riffs, [...]
Noise Pop 2010: Black Prairie, Trainwreck Riders, Billy & Dolly, Birds Fled From Me @ Rickshaw Stop
Photos by: Jared Giarrusso Black Prairie Trainwreck Riders Billy & Dolly Birds Fled From Me
Noise Pop 2010: We Were Promised Jetpacks, The Lonely Forest, Bear Hands, Tempo No Tempo @ Slim’s
Some Noise Pop shows are a sum of their parts: openers with enough reputation to draw a substantial portion of attendees, rounding out an evening that features a particular headliner, creating a true showcase of bands. Other shows, however, start out being almost entirely about the headliner, and the crowd will reflect as such. Saturday's show at Slim's seemed to fall into the latter category. The venue was absolutely packed to the gills with enthusiastic fans of the Scottish band We Were Promised Jetpacks. There was the giant push to the stage as the headliner trickled on; there were outrageous [...]
Noise Pop Film Festival 2010: Blood Into Wine
Blood Into Wine is a strange choice for the Noise Pop film festival -- it's only tangentially about music. More precisely, it's a feature-length vanity project for veteran rock singer and novice winemaker Maynard James Keenan, who has delighted audiences since 1990 with his rock band Tool and hopes to do the same for oenophiles with his forthcoming line of Arizona-grown wines. Made by new-on-the-scene filmmakers Chris Pomerenke and Ryan Page, whose IMDB pages are as sparse as their Rolodexes clearly are not, the film was created without a definable narrative. To compensate for the lack of dramatic tension, the [...]
Noise Pop 2010: Pop N’ Shop
The bells and whistles of the Noise Pop festival manage to thoroughly round out the week's events and provide a satisfying respite from the standard mix of concerts. Case in point: Pop N' Shop, which took place this year on Saturday at the Verdi Club. Pop N' Shop was set up this year to feature over 40 Bay Area designers, artists, jewelry-makers, poets, crafters, etc. selling their wares, keeping consumption local and creating an unhurried social environment. The place was packed, and the vibe was very relaxed and friendly. The folks selling their items were lined up and down within any [...]
Noise Pop 2010: Thao Nguyen / Mirah, Horse Feathers, Dave Smallen, Carletta Sue Kay @ Swedish American Hall
Photos by: Nicole Browner While the audience, and even the performers, might have expected Saturday night's collaboration between Mirah and Thao Nguyen to come across as a spirited little experiment, it was quite plain after the first couple songs that this venture was going to be a distinct highlight of the festival, if not a prelude to a storied pairing to come. Mirah, having recently moved to SF from the heralded indie rock village of Olympia, seems to have arrived just in time to intersect with her soul-crossed musical sister who is beginning to sell out shows left and right [...]