Bring the piNoise

PiNoisepop 7 takes place Thursday through Saturday, Aug. 22-24, at Bindlestiff Studio. Here are a few of the most intriguing local artists.

Bobby Banduria Stand-up comedian and actor Bobby Banduria (aka Kevin Camia) spiffs up traditional Filipino instrumentation with a jazz/funk rhythm section and a woozy charm that recalls drunken wedding receptions.

CharminThis poppy punk quartet includes piNoisepop founders Ogie and Jesse Gonzales and Alex Torres, and is responsible for the popular sing-along "Balikbayan Box," a mixture of Tagalog and English that suggests Filipino-American kids would rather have fudge cookies, DVDs, and sex toys than MTV.

The Clarendon HillsThree suburban Illinois kids come to NorCal for schooling and end up writing speedy garage-rock songs about the "educated hips" of intellectual girls and sensitive numbers about how unconfident they are -- both subjects that are likely to get them laid.

From Monument to MassesOn its eponymous debut, this Oakland threesome seems to believe that the revolution can be brought about by complex guitar figures that loop as often as a plane at an air show; samples of speeches that instruct rather than whine; and CD-cover imagery of folks holding as many guns as guitars. Only time will tell if FMTM is right.

The LibrariansWith The Pathetic Aesthetic, this East Bay quartet shows its smarts and its snarks, name-checking both Sammy Hagar and Martin Heidegger, bragging about oral sex skills, bemoaning those "goddamn kids," and instilling each song with a surplus of mod-ish hooks and harmonies.

PidgeonA newly formed gaggle of boys and girls who rock in a savage fashion, swear they're full of "tragic pep and verve," and have "big amps and big dreams." The Skyflakes' pick for most exciting newcomer of the festival.

Robert + KarenStrangely, none of the guys in this East Bay band are named Robert or Karen. Odder still, the indie rock act financed most of its recordings by buying candy wholesale and reselling it for a profit during high school. The new EP Maximum Love Vibessounds like a bunch of teenagers wolfing down whatever indie rock groups they could find -- from the yelp and buzz of Pavement to the slow instrumental grandeur of Yo La Tengo to the circuitous surrealities of the Dismemberment Plan.

Scrabbel#Poundsign# drummer Becky Barron's other band, in which she and Dan Lee take indie pop conventions -- lovey-dovey lyrics, plinky-plonk keyboards, jingly-jangly guitars -- and feed them through a big old bong. The duo's self-titled debut is Sgt. Pepper's for the twee set, a pretty, psychedelic trip down Pillowmint Lane.

Turntable D.08Bay Area DJ Mercury Bonez and tabla player Ferhan Najeeb Quereshi mix hip hop scratch wizardry and Indian/Pakistani classical improv drone, trying not to get any yogurt sauce on the decks.