Epitonic Newsletter: Vol. 4, No. 7 'Noise Pop Decennial'
02/22/02
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One of the nation's finest and best-loved independent music festivals is turning 10 this week. That's San Francisco's Noise Pop, held over a week each mid-winter since 1993 at a consortium of local venues. This year the festival will include almost 90 acts, not to mention a series of music panels, a music-related film-festival, and more. That's pretty remarkable when you consider that in its inaugural year Noise Pop consisted of a single night with five bands performing at a club that no longer exists.
Now more than 30 of the bands playing this year are featured on Epitonic. Besides the artists featured in the playlist below, 20 Minute Loop, Adult, The Court and Spark, Death Cab For Cutie, for Stars, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Jason Lytle (of Grandaddy), Lois Maffeo, Matt Pond PA, Pedro the Lion, Persephone's Bees, pinq, Pleasure Forever, The Donnas, The Pattern, Versus, and M. Ward will all be performing -- as will about 50 other great bands.
The festival runs February 26 through March 3. For complete details, visit the Noise Pop website. If you're anywhere near San Francisco next week, try to make it to a show.
"Rollerskate"
by
Call and Response
Lighter than cotton candy, and sweeter too. Call and Response (aka C.A.R.) get right down to the essence of California summer with their delightfully playful pop songs. Endlessly cheerful, kaleidoscopic, and groovy, with harmonies that never quit and keyboard lines that go on for miles.
"The Way To Market Station"
by
The Aislers Set
The Aislers Set makes unpretentiously pretty music. They craft dreamy indie pop gems that have the timeless, classic quality of music that will be remembered for a long time. Guaranteed to put a smile on your face and a bounce in your step, or your money back.
"TV Heart"
by
Dealership
Dealership is a noise-pop lover's dream come true. Endlessly catchy hooks, fuzzily playful guitars, and sweet boy/girl harmonies.
"Touch The Water"
by
Lilys
Kurt Heasley and associates craft dead-on musical tributes, reinventing the Lilys time and again as shoegazers, British Invasion nostalgists, and Kraftwerk-loving electronic minimalists.
"Lenny"
by
Zmrzlina
What is the musical equivalent of Alice's Wonderland? It might very well be Zmrzlina, San Francisco's psych-folk-drone-pop heroes.
"The Guilt"
by
Migala
It's hard to describe the avant-garde folk created by this Madrid sextet, it sounds so different from everything else. Suffice to say that it's nothing less than pure musical alchemy, mournful but warm, lush and deliciously strange.
"Stopwatch Static"
by
I Am Spoonbender
A tribute to Uri Geller (famous spoonbending freak from the 70's), I Am Spoonbender manages to take a lot of old influences and warp them into something new. Original and creative, catchy yet abrasive at times, it's hard to put a finger on a band that at one moment sounds poppy and hip and the next is a maelstrom of percussion.
"Manville, CA"
by
Film School
Oakland's space-pop combo Film School veils dark, delicate moods with distorted Casios and melodic guitar symphonies, the honest, quiet words of Krayg Burton speaking truth like an innocent child saying you smell funny.
"I Hope This Makes It Easier for You"
by
Actionslacks
If you're into high-octane indie power pop, you will certainly be pleased with this fine group of musicians. A bit of beefy bass, solid drumming, electric guitar, catchy male vocals, and even a string section now and again round out this amplified pop maelstrom.
"Dirty Fingernails"
by
Modest Mouse
Indie rock's young Northwestern superheroes offer ear-bending slices of impassioned songwriting and studio trickery.
"Superpowers"
by
The Dismemberment Plan
The Dismemberment Plan mixes tight, distracted post-punk with snotty, wise-guy vocals, staccato guitar attacks, and propulsive time changes. They often move from frenetic screech and skronk to power-pop melodicism to sultry funkified rhythms within the space of a single song.
"Hydroplane"
by
The Stratford 4
Put on your sonic astronaut suit and get ready for some deep space rock! San Francisco's Stratford 4 combines late '70s New Wave pop-punk with '80s and '90s effects-heavy space rock to create a blissful, dreamy, drugged-out sound. Highly recommended.
"Rosary"
by
David Dondero
As rootless as a tumbling tumbleweed, singer-songwriter David Dondero taps into his modern day drifter's existence to create agreeably rough-edged, confessional country-folk.
"Tell Shipwreck I'm Sorry"
by
The Good Life
Cursive's Tim Kasher has named his side project The Good Life, but the choice of moniker may be a bit ironic, because The Good Life's sound suggests that Kasher's has been anything but. His music is a melancholy blend of confessional coffeehouse singer-songwriter fare and anguished synth-pop.
"Gypsum"
by
Virgil Shaw
Singer-songwriter Virgil Shaw emerges from the acclaimed and wacked-out counry-rock band Dieselhed to paint wistful watercolor portraits of rural life at dusk, of the dusty empty highways of the heart, with his delicate, personal folk songs.
