I’ve done Noise Pop Festival all wrong for the past four years. Usually, I go through the lineup when it’s announced, find the acts I know, and go see them. For the fifth year, I did it different.
I went through all of the 150 or so musicians playing this year and got it down to a handful or so to see. Noise Pop made it easier to get through all of the artists. It still took waayy too long, but I love to take on massive amounts of music.
I made a playlist of 14 musicians (9% of the lineup) for “Where I’ll be at Noise Pop Festival 2019,” but I only got to go to see five. It was all over The Bay Area, raining half the time, but I found at least one musician I’ll be following (for real) to every gig I see. Guess which musician it was.
I don’t listen to enough good albums. It’s hard making a great song, let alone more than a few in a row.
I found Tommy Guerrero out of the 150+ musicians performing at Noise Pop Festival this year. He reminded me of the psychedelic surf rock reminiscent of Khruangbin and a bit like Toro y Moi too, but after going through his ten albums, he’s incomparable. His rifts are the catchiest thing I’ve heard all year.
I chose a little over 30 tracks to feature here, but I have a feeling all his music will set in with time. Full albums and all. There’s just too much to love here and I don’t say that enough.