Noise Pop, which began as a teeny, distinctly homegrown-feeling indie rock festival in 1993, has grown over the past decade into one of the Bay Area’s heaviest hitters in terms of promoters, booking the Treasure Island Music Festival and the newly refurbished Swedish American Hall, as well as planning events like the (growing) annual 20th Street Block Party. But perhaps there’s no better indication of how the formerly tiny company has grown than the lineup for the 2017 fest, the first “phase” of which was rolled out today, Nov. 14.
Vince Staples, who sold out two different venues during last year’s fest, returns as a headliner; in 2015, Noise Pop’s Dawson Ludwig explained to KQED Arts how the fest came to embrace jazz and hip-hop these past few years. This year’s inclusion of up-and-comer Adia Victoria — known for her “Gothic blues” — as well as Canadian electronic producers BadBadNotGood, known for their collaborations with Tyler, the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt et al., only serves to stretch that umbrella a little bit wider.
Other headliners from the initial announcement have obvious Bay Area cred: songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ty Segall, prince of the Bay Area’s garage rock revival, makes an appearance, as do the city’s reigning black metal heads, Deafheaven (who were reportedly great sports in the rain at TIMF, for what that’s worth). A few more offhand recommendations from farther down the poster: old-school melodic noise rock from Blonde Redhead; terrifyingly smart hip-hop from clipping. (featuring Oakland native and Hamilton star Daveed Diggs); the gleeful, defiant queer punk of PWR BTTM; and hazy, synthy dream-folk from Emma Ruth Rundle.
The festival runs Feb. 16–26, 2017. Early-bird badges ($145 and up) go on sale here Nov. 14; tickets for individual shows go on sale this Friday, Nov. 18, at 9am. For a full lineup — or, rather, the first chunk of at least three or four more announcements — see here.
