Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Noise Pop Next Week in San Francisco

As a long-time attendee, I'm pretty excited to be hitting this year's Noise Pop Festival in San Francisco next week. Since its humble beginnings (it began with one $5 show at the Kennel Club in 1993), Noise Pop has expanded in length and scale over the years. I first went in 1994, when it cost $15 for an all-access pass to 3 nights of shows at Bottom of the Hill. The 2009 edition (February 24th to March 1st) is much more elaborate with a variety of music-related events, including shows, lectures, films, art and panel discussions taking place all over San Francisco.

Over the years, I've been to a bunch of cool panel discussions during Noise Pop. These daytime conversations typically happened at music venues or bars like Noe Valley Ministry, the Makeout Room, and 12 Galaxies. This year the day-long session, Industry Noise, is a bit more formalized than in prior years, focusing on indie music, technology and the changing music industry. It happens on Friday, February 27th at the Swedish American Hall in San Francisco. Keynote speakers and panelists include Fat Mike from NOFX and Fat Wrek Chords, Lou Barlow, Bob Mould, Penelope Houston, and others. In terms of radio, Aaron Axelsen, Music Director of commercial radio station Live 105 will be moderating a panel about "The Next Big Thing," which will delve into the role of major labels in the music business today.

2 comments:

Karla Hernandez said...

I'm going to be attending for the first time this year. I'm pretty excited, considering I grew up 1.5 hour from SF and was never able to make it in the past. I'll be hitting up a few shows, but unfortunately cannot afford the pass for the panels. They seem really interesting, though. Will you be blogging about that? I hope so! :)

Jennifer Waits said...

I guess the recession hit the panels, as they used to be free! I will be going and will blog about it.