If you're a fan of the Americana and alt-country music found on our channel Boot Liquor, you should definitely head over to Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park this weekend for the FREE Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival. The concert will be held this Friday-Sunday (October 2, 3, & 4) and will span six different stages across the park.  

[Dave Alvin & the Guilty Women]

Boot Liquor listeners will recognize acts like Dave Alvin & The Guilty Women (who also played at last years HSB), vocalist Neko Case, and influential songwriter John Prine, among others. Big names in bluegrass such as Lyle Lovett & His Large Band, Steve Earle & The Bluegrass Dukes, Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, and famed New Orleans songwriter and producer Allen Toussaint will also grace the stages and surely draw the crowds. 

Hope to see you there!  

The annual San Francisco Electronic Music Festival (SFEMF) provides an opportunity for the pioneers of these soundscapes to share their work with other Bay Area electronic artists, to engage in discussion of new technologies, to collaborate in creating new music, and for fans to come and witness the beats unfolding.  SMEMF is being held this year at the Brava Theater from September 16th- 19th. Attendees will get to experience a vast array of musical styles and techniques, from contemporary classical to free improvisation to glitch. The equipment used will range from classic synthesizers to inventive displays of acoustic and electronic instruments sharing the stage.

Performers for the evening include long-time festival performers Miya Masaoka, Pamela Z, Donald Swearingen - and musicians new to the event - Lukas Ligeti, Maria Chavez.

For more information or to purchase tickets visit the SFEMF website.

Here's a little taste of Mutek.

Opening with THE FUN YEARS (Ben Recht and Isaac Sparks) , BURNT FRIEDMAN and CAN drummer JAKI LIEBEZEIT.

Rusty just left Detroit Electronic Music Festival and sent us some photos from the event! Enjoy. 

RJD2

Sound guys repair speaker 30 ft. off the ground

Z-trip (left) and RJD2 (right)

Main Stage crowd during Carl Cox

Rusty is headed to Mutek Festival in Montreal next so keep an eye out for photos from Canada! 

Summer-time is built for festivals and street fairs and next weekend in San Francisco is no exception.  If you'll be in the Bay Area on May 10, stop by the How Weird Street Faire.  It's going to be 10 solid city blocks of music, art, food and fun. 

The street fair runs from noon to 7 and costs $10 (or $5 if you come in costume).  The festival benefits World Peace Through Technology.

More info here!

We saw some of this last year, and it was great. Cutting edge electronic music, visuals, etc. It was in a very tiny space last year, but this year expands.

"Highly Recommended" -- Rusty

Yeast by Sweet Beast 2009 Schedule and details; basic schedule below:

Admission: $5 per night

Sat mar 14 at salvage vanguard (2803 Manor Rd)
Admission: $5
Main Stage:
Projections by Eyeplug
7:15 to 7:45 pm --------Book of Shadows
8 to 8:30 pm -----------Bee vs. Moth
8:45 to 9:15 pm --------Yells at Eels
9:30 pm to 10 pm -------ecfa
10:15 to 10:45 pm ------Waco Girls
11 to 11:30 pm ---------Great Tyrant
11:45 to 12:15 am ------Future Blondes
12:30 to 1 am ----------Balaclavas
1:15 to 1:45 am --------ST37

Side Stage:
Projections by Lars
7 to 7:25pm-------------Aunt's Analog
7:30 to 8 pm -----------Carlos Villareal
8:15 to 8:45 pm --------Concrete Violin
9 to 9:30 pm -----------Tiger Hatchery
9:45 to 10:15 pm -------Clear Spot
10:30 to 11 pm ---------Skullcaster
11:15 to 11:45 pm ------Xathax
midnite to 12:30 am ----Steve Marsh
12:45 to 1:15 am -------The Watchers
1:30 to 2 am -----------Muzak John

Sun mar 15 at Plush (617 Red River)

Projections by RecSpec

8 to 8:30 pm -----------Canada Coda
8:45 to 9:15 pm --------Bobbie
9:30 pm to 10 pm -------Bright Duplex
10:15 to 10:45 pm ------7 Inch Stitch
11 to 11:30 pm ---------Dust Congress
11:45 to 12:15 am ------FM Campers
12:30 to 1 am ----------Plutonium Farmers
1:15 to 1:45 am --------Jherri Seinfeldt's Atrophied Sac

Mon mar 16 at Plush (617 Red River)

Projections by Paul Baker

8 to 8:30 pm -----------Mold
8:45 to 9:15 pm --------Johnkin'kin
9:30 pm to 10 pm -------Jacob Green & Tamara
10:15 to 10:45 pm ------Low Red Center
11 to 11:30 pm ---------Expensive Shit
11:45 to 12:15 am ------Laundry Room Squelchers
12:30 to 1 am ----------Doug Ferguson
1:15 to 1:45 am --------Aurora Plastics Company

OK, we're on the road to SXSW. Rusty, Elise and Merin will be there, keep an eye out for us. And a great place to find out what's happening at SXSW is the unofficial SXSW Insider's Guide where you'll find all the inside scoop on cool shows and parties during this years SXSW.

Great article on Clubbing in San Francisco: America's equivalent of Berlin for electronic music:

...that's what makes San Francisco unique as a city. San Francisco has a huge base of veteran clubbers who, well-versed in the history of dance music, continue to support the scene...

And that's exactly how we feel about it!

Attention Sonic Universe fans: Jon Hassell & Maarifa Street are touring the US in February. Jon is one of the artists that defines Sonic Universe, and he's great to see live if you get the chance.
The tour dates are:

• 5 Columbus, OH (Wexner Center)


• 6 Knoxville, TN (Bijou Theater)


• 8 Philadelphia, PA (World Cafe Live)


• 9 Day Off/Promotion New York


• 10 New York, NY (Zankel Hall)


• 11 Chicago, IL (The Morse Theater) - tbd


• 12 Minneapolis, MN (Walker Arts Center)


• 13 Los Angeles, CA (Royce Hall)


• 14 Vancouver (Chan Center)

Want to get an idea what it's like to see Hassell live? Read this report from Norway's Punkt festival last year.

Performance at the Rockwood Music Hall (Allen at E. Houston), New York on Wednesday Oct. 22, 2008

Iceland Airwaves concluded last night, and it was a lot of fun. We discovered a lot of new really good artists; we heard new material from some Icelandic artists we've come to love but who don't release enough CDs for us to hear all their material in the US.

Through the next week, we'll be uploading more images, video and audio. We have some great interviews with Benni Hemm Hemm, Borko and Seabear. We theoretically have some good live recordings of some of the acts.

So we'll be posting this in our Iceland Airwaves 2008 event coverage section.

In 24 hours, we'll be headed back to New York for the CMJ conference, where I will be on a panel on Wednesday about the situation with internet radio royalties. The rest of the week, Elise, Merin and I will be hitting up the CMJ Music Marathon music showcases around the city. We'll keep you posted on what we discover.

Tonight, we ran around and saw Soundspell, Disa, Olafur Arnalds, Ghost and FM Belfast.



Soundspell we saw last year, they're always good to see. They tried out a lot of new material, so hopefully a new CD is coming soon. (We play Soundspell on Digitalis)



We knew that we'd like Olafur Arnalds performance when they brought out 5 red chairs.



Olafur Arnalds and his String Quartet mix electronic and classical music, creating beautiful sounds that take you to another place.



Disa was a young singer with a small band, kind of reminiscent of old Sugarcubes.



Ghost got to their set late due to a type in the Airwaves directory- their show was rushed and not as nice as when we caught their small show at the bookstore the other day. Still, they show a lot of promise.



FM Belfast is a huge local favorite. They're the band that everyone is friends with. 2/3rds of the audience was singing along with their songs and knew every word. They're an electro-pop act that's mostly a DJ/Laptop Performer and a bunch of vocalists / dancers.



More pictures and information in our special Iceland Airwaves Special Coverage.

Today was a beautiful day in Reykjavik for the start of Iceland Airwaves. Although as I'm writing, the rain has begun to fall- but the sliver lining to that cloud is that the rain makes it warmer than when it's clear. So it's a blessing and a curse.

Lots of people have arrived today. The town is filling up with music lovers, and everyone seems happy and excited.

The real event kicks off at 7:30pm tonight. In addition to all the "on-venue" or official events that make up Iceland Airwaves, there are also a lot of "off venue" performances. These are often at bookstores, coffee houses and smaller bars, and are usually very intimate.

I caught band Ghost doing an in-store show at the bookstore adjacent to our hotel. They have a "real show" tomorrow night before FM Belfast at Tunglið. I got there right as they were finishing, but I really liked them and can't wait to play more of their stuff for you.

Airwaves Officially Begins

We arrived a bit early to Tunglið (which means "The Moon" and is pronounced "Toon-Le-Oh") and the band playing was much too hard for our taste, so we walked next door to Organ to see who was playing. "Perla" was the band, and from the outside as we walked it, they seemed downtempo rock, but then erupted into full-bore death metal; albeit musically complex, and only for a while. Not really our kind of music, but the sort of thing you hear and say, wow, if I liked this kind of music these guys would be great. (And we mean that as a compliment.)

Back to Tunglið and an awesome set tonight by Icelandic band Borko. Don't let the silly-sounding name fool you, these people make beautiful music, mixing laptop electronica, trumpet, guitar, bass and drums. You'll be hearing more from them on Digitalis.

They were followed by local favorites Benni Hemm Hemm who did a good show, but nothing too surprising (we're scheduled to interview Benni

Later, "Hjaltalin" did a really good set at "The Moon". You don't find too many rock bands that feature Oboe and Violin, but they pull it off perfectly- their instrumentation never sounds gimmicky.

We left shortly after local favorites Retro Stefson went on, because frankly Tunglið was too crowded and you couldn't move, and there was a line a block long to get in outside. We figured we'd check out the band playing the "press party" at B5, "UltraMegaTechnoBandidStefan", another Icelandic band.

UltraMegaTechnoBandidStefan put on an Amazing show, and I think that the oldest member of the band was 19. Perhaps I exaggerate. But only about their youth, not about what a great show they put on. Imagine Kraftwerk re-incarnated as teenagers channeling the Sex Pistols and you might get these guys.

We'll have some videos uploaded tomorrow so you can see for yourself.

Tomorrow night: we'll probably see Soundspell, FM Belfast, Ghost, Gusgus, and some others. See you there!

We're here in Reykjavik right now, and contrary to what you may be reading in the media about the state of Iceland's economy- I can say that from walking around the city, everything seems to be normal. Stores, bars and restaurants are open, ATMs are dispensing cash, and record stores are selling CDs.

One word of advice I will repeat again and again, however, is make sure you stop at the Duty Free store in the Iceland Airport (there is a big one right next to the baggage claim area) and buy your limit of beer, wine or liquor because it will be about half the prices as it would be to buy from the normal liquor store in town. Even if you aren't going to drink it, it makes a great gift to anyone here, and a great way to make new friends by inviting them back to your hotel for a drink before going back out to the clubs. And because of the strong dollar relative to the Krona, some brands are actually cheaper than in the US.

Iceland Airwaves kicks off in about 48 hours. If you see someone in a SomaFM shirt, say hi and introduce yourself!

We've been invited to cover Iceland Airwaves again this year, and I must say that it's an amazing collection of cutting-edge music.

You can still purchase a Iceland Airwaves pass online, but they're buried on Iceland Air's tour package add-ons site. So, here are the steps you need to take:

1. Go the Icelandic Air Tours site.


2. Choose the Currency USD/CAD option.


3. Select REK as your destination.


4. Select your travel period (start with the day of your arrival, or 13-Oct-08 through 20-Oct-08 will work).


5. Click on tours, dinners and passes. (the button actually says "browse add-ons" under that heading)


6. Click on Promotion

The Iceland Airwaves pass will then appear for purchase. The current price is $155 per person, and the pass gets you into everything for 5 days.

The final Airwaves lineup has been announced, including recent additions: The Fuck Buttons, The Mae Shi from California and Icelandic artists such as Cocktail Vomit, Sykur, experimental electro-jazz outfit Audio Improvement, <3 Svanhvít and pop rocker Ske. See the full Iceland Airwaves 2008 lineup.

And be sure to check out our ongoing coverage of Iceland Airwaves, starting with our review of Airwaves 2007 and our Guide to cost-effective Eating and Drinking in Reyjkavik.

We've posed the first couple interviews from the Treasure Island music festival.

Rusty talks with Amon Tobin in an audio interview, and Meghan talks with The Foals.

It's almost time for it: the Treasure Island Music Festival! Saturday and Sunday, September 20th and 21st in San Francisco.

We'll be there, talking to the bands and artists you hear on SomaFM. If there are any questions you'd like to have answered by any of the artists playing there, leave a comment and let us know, and we'll try to get your questions answered.

While Nitya is waiting for the photos from his photographer, another friend from All About Jazz, John Kelman, has posted his report about the 2008 Punkt Festival.

Nitya, host of Sonic Universe on SomaFM (left, with Eivind Aarset), has arrived in Kristiansand, Norway to cover Punkt 2008. His first report gives us an overview of the event and how Punkt's uniqueness stems from it's live remix concept, and what we can expect to see and hear.

We've been talking to lots of different artists lately, including some that make music outside the genres that we currently play. It's all part of the never-ending search to find more good music.

SomaFM: Interviews: Parlor Mob: "
We caught up with the Parlor Mob backstage at Download Festival. The initial comparisons to Led Zeppelin ring true even when these guys aren't on stage; they recline on those tacky red couches with an ease you would expect from a group of classic rock legends. We get to chatting about their first national tour, New Jersey and a run in with Suge Knight."

Read more...

We did a ton of live interviews and met a bunch of cool people at Download 08.  Here's the first, an interview with Louis XIV.

    

More interviews will follow in a couple days.

The weather is beautiful down here, and the crowds are starting to arrive in force. We had M83 and Tapes'n'Tapes come by for interviews - we'll have the podcasts of those up later, in case you missed them.

The live broadcast goes until 6pm pacific time, that means 4 more hours from now. Thanks for tuning in!

Tune in to the Download Festival San Francisco, live from Shoreline Ampitheater, Today from Noon-6pm. Music, interviews, more.

MP3: 128k and Windows Media: 128k feeds will be live a little before Noon today.

We'll be broadcasint live from The Download 2008 festival, this Saturday (7/19). If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, come out and visit our booth.  Loads of cool music for just $20.

More info

Here's The Line-Up

In addition to selling t-shirts and CDs, we will be doing live artist interviews for most of the day. Here is a partially confirmed list (I'll post the final list when I get it) of bands who are coming to visit us:

12:30: Tapes 'n Tapes*
1:00: M83*
1:30: Vedera*
2:00: Datarock*
2:30: Cut/Copy*
3:00: De Novo Dahl
3:30: The Duke Spirit
4:00: Mates of State*
4:15: Yeasayer*
4:30: William Fitzsimmons*
5:00: Louis XIV
6:30: Parlor Mob
7:00: Natalie Portman's Shaved Head*
7:30: Blitzen Trapper*

*Confirmed

So stroll on by our booth or holler at us!

Congratulations to winners of tickets to the Download Festival:

Sean D.
Lorinda Marie F.
Sergio F.
Troy T.
Matt E.
Shannon M.
James S.
Ryan D.
Heather C.
Sara D.

Thanks for listening to Indie Pop Rocks on SomaFM!

SomaFM plans to be at the Download Festival in July in the San Francisco area. Stay tuned for more information.