Established in San Francisco in 1993, Noise Pop started as a one-night event featuring the best underground rock bands in the San Francisco Bay area. With live music as it’s focal point, Noise Pop has developed into a full-scale cultural happening, adding gallery art shows, a music-themed film festival, educational panel discussions with musicians and music industry professionals, an indie designer trunk sale, and a number of planned as well as spontaneous shindigs.
Now in its 17th year, the 2009 festival is once again taking over some of the most beloved venues in the city to showcase some of the best emerging artists and underground legends of indie rock, folk, punk and electronic music. Running from February 24th to March 1st, a full schedule of events can be found here:
http://www.noisepop.com/the-2009-festival-schedule
If you're too far away to attend, or if you'd like a taste of what you'd be in for, this playlist provides some highlights of the festivals from the past two years. There are also some video tracks of these and other Noise Pop performances over at Crawdaddy!:
http://crawdaddy.wolfgangsvault.com/Category.aspx?type=Video
With the country going down the tubes and the music industry in shambles, aspiring artists have a unique environment in which to create. It's an exciting time for music, and one that you don't want to miss out on. Take a listen and see what you think.