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CBS News
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
San Francisco's Noise Pop Festival rolls into first full week
Celebrating its 32nd year, the annual Noise Pop Festival continues Tuesday with a busy schedule of local and national acts including Death Cab for Cutie songwriter Ben Gibbard, hip-hop maverick Earl Sweatshirt and more. A San Francisco institution ever since it began as one night of loud, tuneful local bands back in 1993, the festival has expanded this year to ten days of music, film and art featuring some of the most respected names in independent music. While the focus remains on the cutting edge of indie rock, the eclectic festival also features modern R&B, global grooves and even avant-garde electronic music. Noise Pop will also be returning to unusual venues with multiple events at Grace Cathedral and Mission District art space Gray Area. After going dark on Monday following a busy opening weekend to the festival that included sold-out shows featuring St. Vincent, the Reverend Horton Heat and Chat Pile, Noise Pop ramps up the activity on a number of fronts Tuesday. Feb. 25 marks the beginning of four days of collaboration with radio station KEXP's live session series broadcasting from 25th Street Recordings in Oakland. This week's Live on KEXP feature artists headlining shows during the rest of the festival (Cymande, Wyattja) in addition to some hand-selected local acts including electronic favorites Toro Y Moi, rising Oakland rockers Fake Fruit and experimental punk band Marbled Eye. Tuesday will also commence the annual series of free happy hour shows at popular Mission District dive Bender's that will offer a range of performers like Fake Your Own Death (led by ex-Elephone guitarist Terry Ashkinos) and local songwriter Jacob Aranda. Other highlights on Tuesday include the first of two nights with acclaimed Odd Future member and rapper/producer Earl Sweatshirt, who will be performing two completely different sets at the Great American Music Hall with support from Navy Blue and El Cousteau and a special set from Death Cab for Cutie/The Postal Service principal Ben Gibbard at Grace Cathedral that includes an opening performance by Sea Lemon, the dreampop solo project of Seattle-based musician Natalie Lew. Wednesday finds August Hall hosting a sold-out show by influential and heavily sampled British funk outfit Cymande. Formed in the early '70s by Afro-Caribbean musicians who had ended up in London, the band was discovered at an underground club in Soho by British producer John Schroeder. The band had some success with its eponymous debut and the bass-driven minor hit single "The Message," touring the U.S. with soul vocalist Al Green, jazz keyboardist Ramsey Lewis and like-minded global funk band Mandrill, but a lack of impact in their native country led the group to dissolve after three albums with a fourth that didn't see release until 1981. However a resurgence of interest spurred by the creative sampling of their songs by De La Soul, EPMD, The KLF, MC Solaar, Heavy D and the Fugees eventually spurred a one-off reunion in 2006. That was followed by a full-blown revival a decade later that included a new album and Cymande's first U.S. tour since 1973. The band has since been the subject of an acclaimed documentary and released another new effort entitled Renascence last year. Brooklyn electro-soul duo Bathe opens the show. Wednesday will also mark the first San Francisco appearances by reunited Austin-based band the American Analog Set in 20 years. Crafting a mix of lush, delicate dream-pop and minimalist post-rock instrumentals, the group earned a loyal fan base starting in the mid-1990s. While the band went on an extended hiatus in 2005, they released For Forever, their first album in 18 years, late in 2023 and played their first live shows since 2011 in Austin last year. The group's back catalog is also receiving a deluxe reissue treatment by Numero Group, who put out a box set of their first three albums in 2024 and will release a second box later this year. These two shows at Grey Area will feature AAS playing a 90-minute set drawn from the band's first six albums. More details about Noise Pop's full schedule of events, tickets and festival badges can be found at
CBS News
18-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
32nd annual Noise Pop Festival takes over San Francisco
Celebrating its 32nd year, the annual Noise Pop Festival kicks off Thursday with a packed schedule of local and national indie-rock acts that runs through March 2. A San Francisco institution ever since it began as one night of loud, tuneful local bands back in 1993, the festival has expanded this year to ten days of music, film and art featuring some of the most respected names in independent music. While the focus remains on the cutting edge of indie rock, the eclectic festival also features modern R&B, global grooves and even avant-garde electronic music. Noise Pop will also be returning to unusual venues with multiple events at Grace Cathedral and Mission District art space Gray Area. While the festival officially commences on Feb. 20 with the annual NightLife kickoff party at the Academy of Sciences featuring a DJ set from modern-funk maestro DāM-FunK with local DJ/producers 3kelves and Yuka Yu, Noise Pop is also co-presenting a tribute to visionary director David Lynch featuring the Red Room Orchestra at the Great American Music Hall Wednesday night in partnership with the SF Sketchfest. Thursday events also include a concert by sludgy alt-metal duo Pagoto led by L.A. Witch guitarist Ellie English who play the Kilowatt with San Francisco headbangers Theya, local heavy trio Highwinds featuring Kyle Gibson (The Fresh & Onlys) and LA-based "dungeon metal" band Forest Lawn. On Friday, the festival ramps up with San Francisco indie synth-pop artist Geographer led by musician Mike Deni performing his breakout album Animal Shapes at August Hall, German electronic producer Parra for Cuva taking over Grey Area in the Mission for a sold-out immersive multi-media show, veteran psychobilly guitarist the Reverend Horton Heat who headlines the Great American Music Hall with support from gritty blues rocker Black Joe Lewis and fiery Tex-Mex ska/punk band Piñata Protest (a triple-threat tour that also stops in Santa Cruz, Healdsburg and Sacramento), and the first of two nights at the Kilowatt with power-pop icon Paul Collins, who will perform favorites by the Nerves (the LA trio he played drums for with future Plimsouls songwriter and current Bay Area Peter Case) and the Beat. On Saturday, the action continues with SF legends the Flamin' Groovies playing at the 4 Star Theater with Sacramento garage-rock greats Th' Losin Streaks and NYC post-hardcore band Les Savy Fav delivering songs from their first album in over a decade at the Great American Music Hall, while Sunday features a highly anticipated sold-out performance by indie-rock chameleon St. Vincent at Grace Cathedral and a sold-out show by acclaimed noise-rock group Chatpile, also at the Great American. Other upcoming performers of note the second week of programing include hip-hop maverick Early Sweatshirt, a sold-out show by Irish folk-rock group Lankum, Death Cab for Cutie/The Postal Service principal Ben Gibbard, influential and heavily sampled British funk outfit Cymande and the first San Francisco appearances by reunited Austin-based dream-pop band the American Analog Set in 20 years . More details about Noise Pop's full schedule of events, tickets and festival badges can be found at
