Noise Pop: Sunday Preview!
February 28, 2009
It will be sad to see Noise Pop end, but they will indeed go out with a bang.
Two shows punctuate Sunday’s Noise Pop festival. At 1pm, No Age (LA) will headline a show at Bottom of the Hill with White Circle Crime Club (Belgium), Infinite Body (LA) and Veil Veil Vanish. No Age plays a raucous and infecting type of power-punk that’s quite naturally produced in LA. If you want education about the more esoteric aspects of punk, check out this show, as they may soon be the master’s. $12.
noage_teencreeps.mp3
No Age – “Teen Creeps”
The last hurrah will take place at the Mezzanine with New York’s Les Savy Fav, The Mae Shi (LA) and The Drums. Since 1995, Les Savy Fav have charmed audiences with their post rock tunes and on-stage shenanigans. They make out-there rock songs that are somehow totally listenable and danceable. Don’t miss this unique performance. 8pm. $20.
lessavyfav_whatwouldwolvesdo.mp3
Les Savy Fav = “What Would Wolves Do?”
Artist’s Television Access will also host two more films at 2pm and 4:15pm, for $9 each. “Loki” is a biography of Brazil’s Arnaldo Baptista, lead singer of Os Mutantes. And “Nightflight: Born Again” is a 90-minute mix of rock concert footage and art film of 80s counter-culture. Read more details at Noise Pop’s film page.
Until next year.
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Kool Keith, Mike Relm, Crown City Rockers at the Mezzanine
February 28, 2009
Noise Pop has a focus on the indie rock slant of things, but if whoever was smart enough to book Mike Relm and Kool Keith as co-headliners for Thursday night was a genius.
Its important to make the distinction between DJing and turntablism. Both are art forms in their own right, but actually quite different. Turntablism in its simplest form is scratching while DJing is more about song selection (think of turntablism as a component of DJing). This night featured master’s of both, and live music to boot. [More...]
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Photos: Thao Nguyen, David Dondero, Sean Smith @ Swedish American
February 28, 2009
Photos by: Reid Williams
Thao Nguyen
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Noise Pop Film Festival 2009 — Incarcerated Guitar Cases: Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison at the Roxie
February 28, 2009
Words by: Ben Richardson
The crowd outside the Roxie Theater was teeming Wednesday night, awaiting the kick-off of the Noise Pop Film Festival and the presentation of Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, a documentary by director Bestor Cram. A line of graying hipsters, professionals in Converse, and eager Cash fans stretched down 16th street, jostling with confused theater patrons trying to winnow their way into Bloods and Crips, the Roxy’s other movie involving musicians and jail.
Seating was at a premium inside, but everybody was comfortably ensconced by the time the event began in earnest with a short video from last year’s Noise Pop, courtesy of SOMA-based rock-archivists Wolfgang’s Vault. Onscreen, San Diego band Delta Spirit launched into “People C’mon,” a strident anthem that showcased the yowling talents of vocalist Matt Vasquez and whetted the audience’s appetite for the Cash-on-the-mic delicacies that were soon to follow.
Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, as its title implies, concerns itself with the Man in Black’s hyper-famous 1968 concert. Made into a cultural landmark by the impeccable live recording that issued from it, Cash’s watershed gig is well-worn territory for documentarians and cultural historians, stamped as it is in every half-serious music-lovers brain. Even those who have never heard the album itself are likely to know the story, whether through the efforts of a pre-MC Hobo Joaquin Phoenix, or through countless other avenues.
It is Cram’s task, then, to skirt this two-ton gorilla of familiarity, a task that he carries off with significant aplomb. Together with writer Michael Streissguth, the director picks at the edges of the Folsom concert story, constellating an impressive array of side-narrative and ephemera around the lodestar of the music itself. Drawing on extensive interviews with two of Cash’s children, his bandmates in the Tennessee Three, and various other supporting characters, the film fleshes out the fascinating details of a well-known but incompletely understood piece of history.
The film is at its most powerful during interviews with Millard Dedmon, a former Folsom inmate who was behind bars at the time of Cash’s seminal performance. In addition to providing an invaluable first-hand account of the concert, Dedmon’s narrative is a heart-rending tale of crime and punishment, atonement and reformation. Sentenced to life without parole, Dedmon endured decades of incarceration, and it is difficult to reconcile the avuncular African-American old-timer that appears on-screen with his rueful tales of late-sixties criminality. [More...]
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Noise Pop: Saturday Preview!
February 27, 2009
Tomorrow is the last full day of Noise Pop, and it’s a duesy. But before you start your night of shows, head over to the Pop N’ Shop at The Verdi Club. This awesome independent design fair has become one or Noise Pop’s coveted non-music events, and includes designers and artists selling clothing, jewelry, posters and more. It takes place from 12pm-4pm and is free!
Saturday will also feature a couple of matinee shows, one of which is at Bottom of the Hill with The Matches, Dizzy Balloon and Ex-Boyfriends. Oakland’s The Matches are guaranteed to put on a fun show with their brand of pop-punk:
The_Matches-Wake_the_Sun.mp3
The Matches – “Wake the Sun”
As night breaks, you’ve got some fantastic options. The Independent will host New York’s self-proclaimed “New Pornographers on acid,” AC Newman. He plays with Dent May and his Magnificent Ukulele (MS), Devon Williams (LA) and City Light (Seattle). This feels like a rare line-up for the Bay Area — a great grouping of some of indie rock’s up-and-coming bands. 8pm, $15.
01_acnewman_ThereAreMaybeTenOrTwelve.mp3
AC Newman – “There are Maybe Ten or Twelve”
Cafe Du Nord also has a fantastic lineup with Portugal. The Man, Girls, Love is Chemicals and Agent Ribbons. Portugal. The Man playes a unique breed of indie with plenty of synth sounds and noises, and various vocals overdubbed and effected to their heart’s desire. 9pm, $13. For the full night’s schedule, head over to Noise Pop’s website.
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Josh Ritter, Laura Gibson, Dave Smallen and Tiny Television at GAMH
February 27, 2009
Words by: Emily Logan
Photos by: Adrian Bischoff
I’ve yet to see a bad show at the Great American Music Hall. And last night was no exception. The show that sold out so early in the game was well worth any extra effort to push your way into the crowd or burrow for a ticket on Craigslist. The audience was a bit different than some other Noise Pop events – perhaps slightly older, with more glasses of white wine floating around than plastic cups of beer.
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From Monument to Masses at Bottom of the Hill
February 27, 2009
Words and Photos by: Nicole L. Browner
From Monument to Masses means so much to a lot of people, and this is something easy to forget when a band goes on a prolonged hiatus. I still listen to The Impossible Leap once or twice a week, dwelling in the memories of their shows, which always left me feeling reborn.
Last night Bottom of the Hill sold out by the time doors opened, and frequent audience shouts for the headliners during first two bands made it clear that excitement was in the air. [More...]
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The Bay Bridged Presents: A Noise Pop Happy Hour
February 27, 2009
One of our favorite parts of Noise Pop are the free happy hour shows that serve as the optimal post-workday/pre-show way to get a few drinks and catch some great San Francisco Bay Area bands. We’re pleased to be hosting the happy hour on Friday, February 27th at the new Happy Hour location, Bender’s Bar (806 South Van Ness at 19th Street). We’ve got three great bands at the show, so we hope to see you there!
The Bay Bridged Presents
A Noise Pop Happy Hour with:
maus haus
Sugar and Gold
Tempo No Tempo
Friday, February 27th, 2009
Bender’s
5pm-8pm, FREE, 21+
01-rigid-breakfast.mp3
maus haus – “Rigid Breakfast”
04-slice-me-nice-1.mp3
Sugar and Gold – Slice Me Nice
medicines.mp3
Tempo No Tempo – “Medicines”
About the bands: [More...]
