Check out our list of recommended festival picks and tips for the 20th Anniversary of San Francisco's Noise Pop Festival.

Mixtape: Twenty Bands at Noise Pop 20 (Podcast #271) Noise Pop 20 is just weeks away. From February 21st through the 26th, over one hundred bands will take over SF's venues for six days celebrating independent music. True to form, this year's Noise Pop Festival includes an eclectic mix of veterans and emerging artists, and you'd be wise to buy your tickets soon, because many shows are starting to sell out. To get familiar with many of the bands performing at Noise Pop this year, here's [...]

Photographer Peter Ellenby has been taking portraits of Death Cab for Cutie and John Vanderslice for over 15 years. Now as part of Noise Pop's 20th Anniversary , Ellenby's photo exhibit DC/VJ will be on display, featuring portraits depicting the progression of the musicians' celebrated careers as well as Ellenby's own stylistic progression. DC/JV will be housed at sponsor San Franpsycho's offices located at 1314 Grant (between Vallejo and Green). The opening reception [...]

Mixtape: Twenty Years of Noise Pop (Podcast #269) In February, the Noise Pop Music Festival turns twenty by gathering over one hundred local and touring bands from across the indie spectrum for a week of exciting concerts all over the City. Two decades of championing independent music is an accomplishment worth celebrating, and this mixtape collects twenty bands that have performed at Noise Pop events in years past. As you'll hear, a whole bunch of big names graced Noise Pop bills before achieving fame, as past festivals [...]
Our friend Ian Anderson is up to new things and we'd be remiss if we didn't discuss 'em. One For The Team is no longer, but he certainly hasn't stopped making peppy poppy music. Anderson's latest project is Dream Brother, and the first two released songs feature special guests Paul Sprangers (Free Energy frontman) and indie-veteran John Vanderslice. Catchy yet understated, Dream Brother shows plenty of promise and serves to ensure that Anderson's musical prowess won't be leaving our ears any time soon. Dream Brother - "Haunted Heart (feat. Paul Sprangers)" [MP3] [...]

Editor's Note Happy New Year! Some of you are probably wondering what happened to us. Well work, family, and of course organizing our little (not so little anymore) variety show Snob Theater has taken quite a bit of time away from the website. We've had probably the best year so far and I'm happy to announce my favorite records of 2011 to launch the reboot of Kata Rokkar. I don't review albums at all but i do listen to a shitload and it's been a great and surprising year for new music. [...]
Stream: Dream Brother - "Pretty Eyes (feat. John Vanderslice)" Dream Brother is the newest project from Minneapolis's resident everyman Ian Anderson (of Afternoon Records, One For The Team, the Minneapolis Fucking Rocks blog) and the project has just put out this week their initial 7" single/download for "Haunted Hearts" b/w "Pretty Eyes", tracks that feature collaborations with indie rock royalty John Vanderslice and Paul Sprangers of Free Energy. And go figure, we love the songs, especially the jangle of "Pretty Eyes". Godspeed!

*MP3: Dream Brother - "Haunted Heart" (Feat. Paul Sprangers) *MP3: Dream Brother - "Pretty Eyes" (Feat. John Vanderslice) Hey, Guys — I just posted up the first release from my new band, Dream Brother , for free download here . It was a really fun project to work on and it was great working with Paul Sprangers and John Vanderslice — two rad dudes whose records [...]

You are cordially invited to a very special evening with Snob Theater . This night of humor and brilliant music will be accompanied by the quirky comedy of Jesse Elias , the classiness of Mary Van Note , the clever quips of Alex Koll , and Brooklyn's own fantastic funny-man, Rob Cantrell (HBO, Comedy Central, NBC, CBS). In addition we will have a special performance by the very talented "man-of-variety" Drennon Davis . [...]
San Francisco native John Vanderslice is a staple of independent music in the Bay Area. Once a member of alternative group MK Ultra, he is now a solo artist carrying on many stylistic elements of his former group. During the late 902s, Vanderslice founded Tiny Telephone, a recording studio still standing today. Groups like Death Cab for Cutie, Spoon, and Deerhoof built the studio's reputation for high quality recording by using analog instruments and recording equipment. In 2000, Vanderslice released his first album Mass Suicide Occult Figurines . Eleven years later, in January of this year, he [...]

Ten Best Albums of 2011 So, the thing with my list this year is that I've been fortunate enough to have either shared a stage, been on a movie soundtrack together, recorded an album with, spent many quality years as close friends, or at the very least, created some memories over some good times with all but two of the bands represented here. However, none of these disclosures swayed my opinion in naming their recordings as the best to come out this year, they're just all that damn good, and I just happen to know them. [...]
As 2011 comes to an end, we are taking a look back at some of our favorite posts of the year by our guest editors. White Wilderness (Dead Oceans) is the latest album from the San Francisco-based John Vanderslice, and he's joined on it by the classically trained Magik*Magik Orchestra. MMO artistic director Minna Choi [...]
As 2011 comes to an end, we are taking a look back at some of our favorite posts of the year by our guest editors. White Wilderness (Dead Oceans) is the latest album from the San Francisco-based John Vanderslice, and he's joined on it by the classically trained Magik*Magik Orchestra. MMO artistic director Minna Choi [...]
As 2011 comes to an end, we are taking a look back at some of our favorite posts of the year by our guest editors. White Wilderness (Dead Oceans) is the latest album from the San Francisco-based John Vanderslice, and he's joined on it by the classically trained Magik*Magik Orchestra. MMO artistic director Minna Choi [...]
photo: colm williamson (happy birthday, Colm) britt daniel (spoon) modern world (wolf parade cover) May 2008 damien jurado nothing is the news richard swift whitman gardens & villa black hills the berg sans nipple convert the measurement culture reject inside the cinema little scream the heron and the fox blackout beach beautiful burning desire john vanderslice sea salt

Sound on the Sound recently featured John Vanderslice in The Doe Bay Sessions - video sessions that "capture some of the Northwest's most talented emerging and established bands going acoustic in a quintessentially Cascadian setting." Previous sessions include the likes of the Head and the Heart and Damien Jurado . John Vanderslice was included in this series due to his recent participation in the Doe Bay Fest . For his early-morning Doe Bay Session , JV performed "Convict Lake" and "D.I.A.L.O." as the sun [...]

Everyone's favorite local music-and-comedy spectacle, Snob Theater , returns this Friday to the Dark Room in the Mission (put together by Kata Rokkar , as always). This month's show features Rin Tin Tiger and Sea of Bees , as well as comedians Lydia Popovich, Imran G-i, Joey Devine, and Matt Morales. If you haven't yet experienced a rendition of Snob Theater, you're in for a treat. The event is light-hearted and engaging, providing easy entertainment [...]
The Washington Independent Review of Books interviews Charles J. Shields about his new book And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut: A Life . Sound on the Sound features a video session with singer-songwriter John Vanderslice . Merriam-Webster Online lists its favorite quotations about words. ( via ) Nerve lists the greatest love songs [...]
John Vanderslice and Dianna Potter ::: photo by Dylan Priest "The longer I'm out here, the more I forget who I was." - John Vanderslice, D.I.A.L.O We've talked a lot about artists embracing "the spirit of Doe Bay" in these write ups. Whether you call it "Doe Bay Magic" or a "community of collaboration" or you [...]
Every day, Daily Downloads offers 10 free and legal mp3 downloads, plus free and legal live sets from around the internet. Today's free and legal mp3 downloads: The Black Angels : 2011-10-31, Brooklyn [mp3,ogg,flac] The Black Angels: "Tomorrow Never Knows (Beatles cover)" [mp3] search for more Black Angels posts at Largehearted Boy Blitzen Trapper : [...]