Helping to spearhead a revival of neo-psychedelic pop, California's Sugar Candy Mountain fuses sunny, retro sounds with lush, sophisticated composition. Blending classic '60s West Coast psychedelia with pastoral folk and pulling inspiration from pop experimentalists and Brazilian Tropicalia. Their latest album "Do Right" takes a more modern approach layering vibrant synths alongside more organic instrumentation. Oscillating between the hazy psychedelic pop of Mild High Club, the driving energy of Tame Impala and the danceable familiarity of The Supremes, the band is a perfect cocktail of old and new, imploring the listener to take a ride into the sunset with Sugar Candy Mountain.
Confusion, frustration, love and loss are all expressed throughout the first album, “Forgive Me,” from Los Angeles alternative band, Starling. Written over the course of about a year, the LA band recorded themselves in various sheds, apartments, and garages. The record was mixed by drummer, Erik Sathrum Johnson, artwork was shot by the band and their friends, and then mastered by Greg Obis (MJ Lenderman, Wishy, Duster).
gloomy june is the soundtrack of a fog-soaked San Francisco Summer. Punk guitar riffs and rhythms combine with indie pop melodies to create emotional anthems you can simultaneously dance and yearn to. Self-titled album out now.
Enjoy an intimate night with Shannon Shaw, the powerhouse vocalist and songwriter behind Shannon & The Clams. Known for her magnetic stage presence and a sound that fuses soul, doo-wop, and California garage rock, Shannon brings her a blend of grit and vulnerability to this special Noise Pop Festival showcase. This exclusive performance offers a chance to get up close with a distinctive Bay Area see artists up close surrounded by stories, sound, and community.
Hosted by KQED Live in partnership with Noise Pop Festival, the evening celebrates the local roots and bold voices that continue to shape the Bay Area’s music scene. Join us as Shannon Shaw takes us behind the songs, her creative journey, and what keeps her tied to the Bay.
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Shannon Shaw, the captivating vocalist, bassist, and founder of Shannon & the Clams, valiantly strikes out on her own, gracing us with her first solo album, Shannon In Nashville. In a nod to Dusty Springfield’s 1969 classic Dusty in Memphis, Shaw made her own pilgrimage down South to collaborate with The Black Key’s Dan Auerbach and a congregation of revered old-school session musicians which have played on notable records by Elvis, Willie Nelson, John Prine, Herbie Mann, Aretha Franklin, Sturgill Simpson, and Nikki Lane, to name just a few.
Punctuating wistful, daydreamy indie rock with surfy guitar hooks, Boyscott approaches their songs from a hazy, lighthearted perspective as gentle as ocean breezes. The project first took shape in college dorm rooms and grew into a loose collective. Boyscott finished recording their whimsically drawn 2015 debut Goose Bumps before ever playing live, and continued developing their upbeat, nautical sound on 2024's Spellbound.
Presented by Popscene and Noise Pop Festival 2026
Winston Surfshirt began as the solo project of their eponymous frontman, singer, producer and rapper. Over time, he brought together close friends and local artists to form the globally beloved project that we know today. His soulful RNB & Hiphop sound likened to that of Jungle, Parcels and Jamiroquai - extensive touring has led to Sir Elton John himself claiming Winston Surfshirt as his favourite Australian band, sold-out shows across the UK and Europe, highlighted by iconic performances at Falls Festival, SpiltMilk, Field Day and Splendour in the Grass, with the latter immortalised on triple j’s Live At The Wireless. Across 250 million streams, three dreamy albums and collaborations with the likes of Cosmo’s Midnight, Benny Sings and Talib Kweli, the multi-Platinum and 4x Gold certified artist is celebrating nearly a decade of music-making, inviting fans along for the journey as he elevates and expands his sonic landscape.
Wabie, also known as Wabie the musician, is an LA-based artist influenced by iconic bands and artists such as The Beatles, Wilco, Miniature Tigers, and Todd Rundgren. Working from his studio in Los Angeles, Wabie produces, writes, and creates all his own art. His skills extend beyond music to include coding, home improvement, and pottery! Wabie's presence in the LA music scene continues to grow as he works on new projects and explores different creative endeavors.
The last few years have found SUMMER SALT straddling the line between past and present tense. In 2024, the Austin, TX-formed breeze-pop group celebrated the 10-year anniversary of their debut EP, Driving To Hawaii, with a special remaster and nationwide tour – alongside a brand-new release, Electrolytes, that further solidified them as one of the most consistently blissful, eclectic forces in the indie world.
Now, on their fourth LP, RESIDE, the group (founded by childhood friends vocalist/guitarist Matthew Terry and drummer/multi-instrumentalist Eugene Chung in 2012 and rounded out by Winston Triolo and Anthony Barnett) continue the push and pull between where they’ve been and where they’re going, honoring the sun-soaked charm that won them their devoted fanbase while exploring new creative terrain.
“We always want to make sure we're bridging the gap between celebrating what we’ve done and veering into the places that interest us now,” Chung says. “It feels like there’s always more to explore with our music.”
An ingenious blend of electronics and improvisation, SML make “strikingly original and wildly evocative art-fusion" (SPIN). With a lineup known for work with Jeff Parker, Makaya McCraven, and Meshell Ndegeocello, their 2024 debut made Pitchfork’s list of Most Anticipated Albums of Summer, and they bring their singular approach and masterful interplay to this appearance on the heels of their 2025 San Francisco Jazz Festival performance.
This quintet—featuring bassist Anna Butterss, synthesist Jeremiah Chiu, saxophonist Josh Johnson, percussionist Booker Stardrum, and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann—embodies the spirit of creative risk-taking and collaboration that defined their former home base, the now-shuttered ETA (Enfield Tennis Academy) club in L.A.’s Highland Park neighborhood.
Two Shows: 7:00 PM and 8:30
BIG SIS is a sibling duo from Liverpool. Their music combines cheeky lyricism with infectious dance beats. Many of their tracks illicit a nostalgia for first wave euro pop, though our their live performances have been touted as refreshing and leading edge.
Carpool Tunnel is a San Francisco–based indie rock band made up of Ben Koppenjan (vocals, guitar), Kalani Faith (bass, vocals), and Michael Reed “Junior” (drums, background vocals). Known for their tight musicianship and emotionally honest songwriting, the band brings a dynamic blend of driving rhythms, melodic hooks, and raw, lived-in storytelling. Their chemistry—rooted in years of playing, writing, and growing together—gives Carpool Tunnel a sound that feels both unmistakably modern and grounded in the spirit of Bay Area indie rock.
Tom Kenny & the Hi-Seas is a high energy 12 piece band “RocknSoul” party band.
Performing songs from artist such as Chuck Berry, Sam Cooke,The Shangri-Las, The Righteous Brothers, Gary US Bonds, the band has gained a reputation for raucous live performances in venues from Los Angeles to Atlanta to Tijuana, Mexico.
ESPRIT began in 2012 as an anonymous outlet for George Clanton to explore sample-based music. Quickly embraced by the emerging internet genre known as vaporwave, ESPRIT’s early EPs—Girls Only (2012) and Summer Night (2013)—have since become foundational works, regarded as essential listening among genre devotees.
Bold and outspoken Chicago rapper CupcakKe has achieved viral success and critical acclaim with her brazen, unapologetically explicit songs and videos that channeled the likes of , , and . Her work explores sexuality in graphic detail, and while many of her songs are humorous and playful, she has more serious, introspective material that deals with sexual abuse ("Pedophile"), racial issues ("Picking Cotton"), and LGBTQ empowerment ("Crayons"). She debuted in 2016 with a pair of raunchy EPs and a full-length, Audacious, following with the critically acclaimed Queen Elizabitch (2017) and Ephorize (2018).
Elizabeth Eden Harris was born in Chicago in 1997. At the age of 14, she began writing religious-themed poetry, performing in local churches. She started turning her poems into raps and uploading them to YouTube, receiving thousands of views. In late 2015, inspired by 's hit "My Neck, My Back," she decided to write sexually explicit material. The videos "Vagina" and "Deepthroat" appeared and quickly spread on the Internet like wildfire. Both songs appeared on her debut mixtape, Cum Cake, in February 2016. S.T.D (Shelters to Deltas), named for Harris' years spent in homeless shelters, followed in June, and the studio album Audacious arrived in October. The releases received praise from Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, MTV News, and numerous hip-hop websites.
Harris guested on 's song "Lipgloss," which appeared on her March 2017 mixtape, Number 1 Angel. CupcakKe's second studio album, Queen Elizabitch, appeared soon after, and the rapper toured North America twice during the year, in addition to releasing two subsequent singles, "Exit" and "Cartoons." Both songs appeared on her third studio album, Ephorize, which dropped near the beginning of 2018. The set peaked at number two on the Heatseekers chart, while landing in the Top 20 of the Billboard Independent Albums chart. Months later, she issued her fourth full-length, Eden, featuring the singles "Quiz" and "Blackjack." CupcakKe closed her decade with a flood of singles in 2019, including the size-obsessed viral hit, "Squidward Nose." The following year, she reached a career high with the single "Discounts," which topped streaming charts and rose into the Top Ten of the Billboard Digital Songs chart. ~ Paul Simpson, Rov
The Fiery Furnaces is the long-running collaboration between siblings Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger. Renowned for their dense, allusive lyrics, formally inventive compositions, and unpredictable live shows, the band occupies a singular space in the landscape of experimental pop. They will reconvene for a limited series of duo performances to revisit their 2004 album, Blueberry Boat–a cult touchstone of adventurous songwriting and raw, idiosyncratic energy. This reunion is less a nostalgic reprise than a continuation of the band’s interrogation of song form, memory, and narrative—rendered now with renewed clarity and conceptual precision.
Since his 2016 debut album Primitives, Bayonne has channeled his vast imagination into an elegant yet wildly experimental form of electronic pop, equal parts meditative and mesmerizing. In the making of his latest body of work, the Austin-based artist/producer/multi-instrumentalist otherwise known as Roger Sellers found himself in even greater need of an outlet for his kinetic creative impulses, thanks to an intense convergence of events in his personal life: his father’s diagnosis with and eventual death from cancer, the end of a significant relationship, and an overwhelming struggle with depression and anxiety. Deeply informed by a deliberate transformation of his musical process, Bayonne’s third full-length Temporary Time ultimately makes for his most expansive work to date—an album of both painfully raw introspection and otherworldly beauty.
The partnership of Armistead Burwell Smith IV and Rob Crow is at the heart of some of the most complex, postmodern indie pop happening on the West Coast. In the first few days of 1998, Smith (of San Diego-based Three Mile Pilot) and Crow (of Thingy and Heavy Vegetable) formed a part-time recording project under the name Pinback.
Born and raised in the Bay, MAMA SAN is a Taiwanese-American DJ and event producer who’s shaking up San Francisco’s nightlife with electrifying sets and unapologetically queer parties. They’ve DJ’d everywhere in the Bay from large outdoor events like Outsidelands and SF Pride, to indoor venues like 1015 Folsom, Midway, DNA Lounge, Public Works, The Foundry, Monarch, Jolene’s, and more. They’ve been on lineups with Rupaul, Heidi Montag, Fckers, Chase Icon, Doss, Only Fire, SoFTT, Alice Longyu Gao, and more.
Cardboard People is the Bay Area’s quintessential art-pop-electronic-soul band. Like other dynamic duos before them (Sylvan Esso, Sofi Tukker, Eurythmics, etc ), Cardboard People is rooted in the creative relationship of two visionary musicians Yunoka Berry & Jim Greer, each possessing unique skill sets and a shared vision for erasing boundaries around gender, race, and musical genres. Cardboard People brings positive, inclusive energy that lights people up when they perform and their sets at the Independent, Joshua Tree Music Festival, Noisepop and other great plays in 2025 have been spreading the word about their infectious live energy. In the studio, collective efforts with luminaries such as Big Freedia, Del the Funky Homosapien and a diverse cast of local friends cement proof that the two are creating a colorful genre unique to them, made with box-cutters, synthesizers and a radical free spirit.
Devotion to music has driven Spacemoth's Maryam Qudus —a performer, composer, and producer based in Oakland—for as long as she can remember. At age twelve, she traded chores for guitar lessons; at sixteen, she took on after school jobs to pay for voice lessons. From a young age, Qudus was determined to find a place for herself in music, and after years of building a reputation as a sought-after producer and studio engineer, she’s found a prominent place for herself. She’s collaborated with countless artists, including clients like Toro y Moi, Spellling — and La Luz, who she joined as a full-time member after producing the band’s most recent album “News of the Universe”, out on Sub Pop
Since 2017, Michael Michael Motorcycle’s been releasing a steady stream of Bay Area ear worm weirdness out into the world. The San Francisco guitar duo of Michael Pannone and Jesse Cobb combos with the mighty rhythm section of Marin County’s Jono Clay and Greg Moye to deliver a unique brand of harmony focused guitar driven music that draws from genres like indie rock, folk, Americana, dream pop and good ole rock and roll.
Suzanimal is a Bay Area indie pop-rock band that makes danceable, groove-driven songs about bugs, naps, doubts, ideas, swimming, fear, parties, games, imposter syndrome, cooking, infinity, shady Airbnb hosts, and more. You know in teen movies when there’s a sick live band playing at a house party, and they’re way cooler than actually seems realistic for the situation? That’s what Suzanimal shows feel like. At times the band sounds a bit like Talking Heads, Remi Wolf, or Tame Impala.
Singer, songwriter and bassist Suzanne Galal - a scientist and pharmacy professor by day - picked up a bass guitar for the first time at the age of 30, and began writing songs soon after. The band includes a cast of veteran Bay Area musicians, including Benjamin Andrews, AJ McKinley, Andrew Laubacher and Brendan Liu of Con Brio (on guitars, keys, drums and trumpet, respectively). The band quickly earned a reputation for engaging live performances and genre-defying style. A Suzanimal show is designed to make you lose yourself to the rhythm — with just enough of the unexpected to keep you on your toes ‘til the afterparty.
Chroma Sea is an audiovisual project based in San Francisco, California created by Paul Ouellette and Michael Valenzuela. The duo's sound has been described by White Crate as “an aqueous ambient techno adventure" which spans a range of genres from Vaporwave and Trip Hop to Shoegaze and Drum and Bass. Together with an ever-growing list of local visual artists, they create immersive and hypnotic visual worlds to be paired with their live performances. In 2023, they released their debut album Portals with Ryan Celsius Sounds on VHS/Cassette and have another on the way for 2026.
Presented by Popscene and Noise Pop Festival 2026
Jamie Fine
Ottawa-born singer/songwriter Jamie Fine uses her music to inspire audiences to explore emotions we all feel but often struggle to express—ranging from anger and isolation to joy and connection. Her unique ability to convey intense emotion is her superpower. For Jamie, music is deeply personal: “I write music for me—it’s cathartic. It helps me process my experiences.” Releasing music, she admits, feels vulnerable: “The safest place in the world is in my head. Sharing my music is like opening that space to others, aiming to create a safe place for them to explore their own emotions.” Jamie values unfiltered, honest conversations with family, friends, and her audience: “Real connections feed my soul like writing and performing.” Time with loved ones keeps her grounded. A four-time Juno nominee, Jamie’s music has over 100 million global streams. Her hit single If Anything’s Left reached Platinum status in Canada and Double-Platinum in South Africa. With nearly 1.5 million followers worldwide, fans are drawn to her energetic personality, quirky humor, and openness. As her audience grows, Jamie’s goal remains to create inclusive, emotional spaces through her music.
The critically acclaimed West Coast-based experimental hip-hop trio, "clipping" is fronted by Tony and Grammy winning actor, rapper and writer, Daveed Diggs along with producers Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson. They initially rose to prominence with their debut album MIDCITY and follow up, CLPPNG. In 2016 they released their opus, SPLENDOR & MISERY, a science fiction concept album that garnered international critical acclaim, including a Hugo Award nomination for Best Dramatic Presentation. This was only the second time ever a music album was nominated for a Hugo Award, putting them up against the likes of GAME OF THRONES and BLACK MIRROR. Their follow up, THE DEEP, garnered similar attention including another Hugo Award nomination as well as influencing a Simon & Schuster published novel of the same name. Most recently the band diverted from their sci-fi storytelling and released a set of horror-based concept albums, THERE EXISTED AN ADDITION TO BLOOD and VISIONS OF BODIES BEING BURNED. Line of Best Fit's Jack Bray hailed it as "sonically intriguing" and "another successful experiment for the group and one of the eeriest examples of modern hip- hop to date."
Tortoise is widely considered one of the most influential music groups of the last 40 years, with a wide-reaching impact on the contemporary music scene. Pitchfork says: “Imagine a graphic showing all the bands the five members of Tortoise were in before they came together and then all the bands they went on to play with after. At the top of the funnel you have groups ranging from dreamy psych-rock to earthy post-punk crunch, including Eleventh Dream Day, Bastro, Slint, and the Poster Children; on the 'post-Tortoise' end are groups focusing on electro-jazz and twangy instrumental rock like Isotope 217, Chicago Underground, and Brokeback. In this graphic, Tortoise is the choke point, the one project that has elements of all these sounds but is never defined by nor committed to any of them. Instead, Tortoise floats free, a planchette moving over a Ouija board guided by 10 sets of fingers, where everyone watches the arrow float in one direction but no one is quite sure how it gets there or who is doing the pushing.”
Open Mike Eagle found comedy in contemporary American horrors on albums like 2014’s Dark Comedy and catharsis in exposing his past on 2020’s Anime, Trauma, and Divorce. Now, the incisive, hilarious, and idiosyncratic purveyor of art rap praised by The New York Times, Pitchfork, and The New Yorker manipulates time like Dr. Strange on his new album, Component System with the Auto Reverse.
Playing 2 Nights with Tortoise at Great American Music Hall on Feb 27-28.
Orcutt Shelley Miller is an avant-rock trio comprised of three highly celebrated figures of experimental music: Bill Orcutt (Harry Pussy), Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth) and Ethan Miller (Howlin Rain, Comets On Fire).
Lyrics Born [aka Tom Shimura] is a hip-hop legend who’s been shattering glass ceilings since his start in the ‘90s San Francisco Bay Area home base. The first Asian-American solo rapper to perform at Lollapalooza, Coachella, Outside Lands, and on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Lyrics Born is now Snoop-Dogg-approved with the OG rapper hyping on Instagram LB's recent single “Take It 2 Far” from his recent studio album, Goodbye, Sticky Rice (October 2024).
Kelsey Kindall, originally from Hershey, Pennsylvania, and now based in San Francisco, has released five projects on all streaming platforms, earning over 200,000 streams and 100,000 listeners with her unique sound and storytelling.
Since moving to San Francisco, Kelsey has performed at venues across the city, performing at the Independent, Make Out Room, Brick and Mortar, Kilowatt, The Faight, and Hotel Utah, Café Du Nord, Swedish American Hall and various venues as a Sofar Sounds artist.
Kelsey’s music has been featured in Clout, Flex, and Lock magazines, recognized for the power of her story-driven lyrics and hard hitting beats. On stage, Kelsey brings her theater background to life with dynamic performances, hilarious storytelling between songs, and a connection that invites the audience to share the moment with her. Her shows are full of joy, inspiration, and a sense of celebration.
