Electro-pop duo Painted Palms is part of Noise Pop 2016.
Noise Pop's 150-plus acts include indie-rocker known for ‘Call Me Maybe’
As Noise Pop Festival enters its 24th year, the annual concert series serves as more than just an excuse to pinball around town hearing great music for two weeks. It’s also a bastion of independent culture, underground artists, local music and, well, Carly Rae Jepsen.
“We have a formula that works, but we have to evolve because we’re in a city that is constantly in flux,” says Jordan Kurland, the music executive who produces Noise Pop. “The people who connected with the brand 10 years ago might not be here anymore, but I feel like we have a really good, diverse lineup that’s going to get people in the room.”
The event, which takes place Friday, Feb. 19 to Feb. 28, will bring more than 150 acts to venues all around San Francisco,
including the Independent, Bottom of the Hill, Rickshaw Stop and 1015 Folsom.
As always, the festival lineup is loaded with indie-rock veterans (Drive Like Jehu, the Mountain Goats, Bill Callahan), up-andcoming acts (Vince Staples, Charlie Hilton, Day Wave), left-field surprises (Kamasi Washington, Ilovemakonnen) and a substantial list of Bay Area artists (Debbie Neigher, Be Calm Honcho, Rin Tin Tiger).
“It’s especially important with the struggles of the local art community,” says Kurland. “We need an outlet for the music scene more than ever.”
The promoters are expanding the film program this year, including an evening with “Decline of the Western Civilization” director Penelope Spheeris, a documentary on the slow-core band Morphine and one on the esoteric exotica music pioneer Korla Pandit.
Meanwhile, at Noise Pop headquarters at the Swedish American Hall, there will be a full program featuring Litquake events, industry talks and the recording of a Song Exploder podcast.
But for all the eclectic curation happening around the festival, there was one show that almost didn’t happen: Carly Rae Jepsen, the Canadian pop star who rose from “Call Me Maybe” fame to becoming an indie fetish item with her latest album, “Emotion.”
“I don’t know what to make of it,” Kurland says. “There was a long conversation internally about whether or not we should do the show. Whether she was a guilty pleasure, and now it doesn’t have to be a guilty pleasure, I don’t know how to explain why everyone is excited. We’re certainly rolling the dice a little bit.”