Noise Pop Just Keeps Growing And Growing

In 1993, a man named Kevin Arnold happened to organize a rock show at the Kennel Club, a music joint with a name that would probably ring a bell for very few in the greater Bay Area outside of the San Francisco Peninsula, and this grouping of five local bands was billed as Noise Pop. Fortune happened to shine upon Arnold and the five bands that night, and the Kennel Club was filled past capacity, which led probably led Arnold to think- what if I do this again? Any serious devotee to independent music knows that this idea haunted Arnold, because a stronger edition of Noise Pop appeared the next year.

Noise Pop '94 moved its venue to the larger and more eminent Bottom Of The Hill, featuring 13 bands and the fancy Cyclopsian poster artwork that indie fans and San Franciscans would come to associate with the festival the; as legend would have it, people responded even more positively to this version of Noise Pop than the 1993 outing. But this was still Noise Pop in its infancy- people wouldn't recoginze it today.

It is hard to grasp that the lineup of the 2007 edition of such a festival, announced yesterday (Jan 29th), would include such indie luminaries as Cake, The Donnas, The Dandy Warhols, Autolux, The Coup, and Clinic, among others, and even marquee comics like Patton Oswalt and Brian Posehn.

However, for those who have not heard of Noise Pop, it is an event which has served as a proving ground for Modest Mouse, The White Stripes, Death Cab For Cutie, The Flaming Lips, Bright Eyes, and Jimmy Eat World on their way to the success they enjoy today since the 1993 event. And during the time since, the most venerated performers have come to occupy not the stage of Bottom Of The Hill for their set at Noise Pop- rather, they play the prestigious Fillmore; the bottom line is that Noise Pop is the most expansive and prolific modern pop music festival that San Francisco has to offer.

However, it's not just a rock festival anymore- Noise Pop also offers a film and visual art branch this year, with 10 independent films and rock art from all over the globe being shown during festival time, but I digress, as the real attraction is still the amazing and massive line up for the fesitval, with performances starting on the 27th of February and ending March 4th.

The performers include (in alphabetical order, due to the absolute GINORMOSITY of the lineup):
The Actual, Annuals, Aqueduct, Audrye Sessions, Ryan Auffenberg, Autolux, Maria Bamford, Ray Barbee and the Mattson 2,The Bent Mustache, Black Fiction, Karl Blau, The Bird And The Bee, The Botticellis, Boyskout, Brightblack Morning Light, Built for the Sea, Cake, The Changes, Vic Chesnutt, Clinic, Comedians of Comedy, The Coup, The Dandy Warhols, Death of a Party, Alela Diane, Dios Malos, David Dondero, The Donnas, The Dwarves, Elephone, Earlimart, Erase Errata, Roky Erickson and the Explosives (13th Floor Elevators), Ester Drang, The French Kicks, Ghostland Observatory, Laura Gibson, The Gray Kid
Gris Gris, Hella, Jolie Holland, Honeycut, Howlin Rain, Georgie James, Damien Jurado, Langhorne Slim, Lemon Sun, Love of Diagrams, Lyrics Born, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Macromantics, Magic Bullets, Malajube, Willy Mason, Matt & Kim, Midlake, Minipop, Money Mark, The Morning Benders, The Mumlers, Alexi Murdoch, The New Amsterdams, The New Trust, No Age, The Old Fashioned Way, The Oohlas, Oranger, Patton Oswalt, The Ponys, Pony Come Lately, Poor Bailey, Pop Levi, Brian Posehn, Josh Ritter, Zach Rogue, Scissors for Lefty, Scrabbel, Sea Wolf, Sebadoh, Will Sheff (Okkervil River), Simon Dawes, Mariee Sioux, Snowden, So Many Dynamos, Spinto Band, St. Vincent, State Radio, Street To Nowhere, The Submarines
Tartufi, Thao, Trainwreck Riders, John Vanderslice, The Watson Twins, The White Barons, Women and Children, Wooden Shjips