Noise Pop: Mount Eerie never meant to have a music career
(photo: Jeff Miller) Words by Erin Lyndal Martin From now until the start of Noise Pop, we'll be profiling some of our favorite artists playing the festival this year. Phil Elverum comes to Noise Pop after his world was rocked in 2016, and issuing a world-rocking album in response. Through unimaginable loss and critical praise, he still feels really, really lucky. Throughout most of Mount Eerie’s albums, noise and hush bask in a peaceful coexistence. For instance, Mount Eerie released two albums in 2012, Ocean Roar and Clear Moon. While the former was much louder — a splintering, metal-tinged oblation [...]
Noise Pop: Carla dal Forno veers between dreams
Carla dal Forno has made a musical life composing atmospheric post-punk songs that veer between extreme minimalism and dreamy nu-gaze. It’s exactly the soundtrack a San Franciscan might imagine for a walk in Berlin – where, incidentally, dal Forno was based for years. In 2016 dal Forno released — to critical acclaim — her debut solo record on the London-based Blackest Ever Black label. You Know What It’s Like is a mostly ambient, instrumental and electronic journey into an ambivalent zone. That is to say, its emotions are at once compelling and completely detached. Dal Forno herself invites us in, [...]
Noise Pop: Father/Daughter is the hardest-working label in SF
From now until the start of Noise Pop, we'll be profiling some of our favorite artists playing the festival this year. This time we're profiling Father/Daughter, the now-legendary SF label gathering some of the Bay and beyond's best and brightest. Jessi Frick and her father, Ken, live 3,000 miles away from each other. But in 2010, the two came up with a plan to make that long distance feel a little shorter: they founded Father/Daughter Records, and started releasing music out of their respective living rooms. In the years since, Father/Daughter has grown in both size and notoriety. The label [...]
Noise Pop: A brief history of Shamir
(photo: Mathew Parri Thomas) From now until the start of Noise Pop, we'll be profiling some of our favorite artists playing the festival this year. Allow us to introduce you to Shamir, the unexpected, but now indispensable, pop star turning the established order of indie stardom on its head. “I don’t have much to offer you...but my soul, my heart, and everything I’ve been through,” Shamir confesses on “Games,” the opening track from his latest LP Revelations. As the 23-year-old genderqueer musician continues to battle his demons and move past the accidental success of his 2015 hit “On The Regular,” [...]
Noise Pop Festival shows loads of local love
The annual Noise Pop Festival is a highlight for any music lover in San Francisco. A solid week of shows and other events from local and national artists at venues all around the city. (And extending into Oakland this year!) We're covering different parts of the festival — from interviews, previews and reviews — and wanted to give special love to some of the local Bay Area artists on the roster. There are so many! Serious props to Noise Pop for representing the Bay so well! From opening acts with solo guitar to headlining hometown favorites — this is a [...]
We made a playlist of local artists playing Noise Pop this year.
Noise Pop recently finalized its local lineup for this year, so our Outreach Director Victor Valle made a playlist of (most of) the local acts playing this year's festival. There's a lot of them, across a lot of genres: The Y Axes, Caleborate, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and 57 more. Take a tour of some of the best in local talent below.
Noise Pop release second lineup drop: Waxahatchee, Shamir, Built to Spill and more
Noise Pop loves stringing us along. Today, Noise Pop is releasing the second wave of names playing 2018's festival. New on the bill: Waxahatchee, Shamir, Palehound, Death Valley Girls, the Coathangers, ROAR, and tons more. Noise Pop will take place, as it always does in various venues across the Bay Area for two weeks in February. This year it's running from the 19th to the 25th, with not just music but its trademark film and art additions, too. The latest music lineup can be viewed below, and stay tuned for even more additions in the coming weeks. Badges and passes [...]
Noise Pop releases first wave of 2018 lineup
Is it too early for a Noise Pop 2018 update? Nah. Never. San Francisco's annual music showcase is coming back for its 26th year, and today, they've released the first many names of their 2018 lineup. This batch alone could carry a festival, but rest assured there will be several more name drops to come between now and February. For now, we have this list of top-tier independent acts that made a splash in 2017, full of locals like Geographer and Jay Som, national acts like Melkbelly, and established indie heavy-hitters like Mount Eerie and Superchunk. Noise Pop will take [...]