About the Cover: Noise Pop Artists Are Ready to Play

Photos by Amanda Lopez.

To illustrate this package of stories about the 20th Anniversary of Noise Pop, SF Weekly photographed some of the local artists headlining shows at this year’s festival. The music of Thao Nguyen, John Vanderslice, Sonny Smith (of Sonny & the Sunsets), Bare Wires, Papercuts, Young Prisms, and Dirty Ghosts all sounds fairly different — there’s sprightly folk, primitive power pop, and innovative electro-rock among them. But these are among the Bay Area’s premiere indie musicians, the kind that Noise Pop has shown off over the last 20 years. Giving national exposure to the local scene has been one of the festival’s most significant cultural contributions — and part of the reason why, after two decades, it’s hard not to see Noise Pop’s indie-minded crusade as a success.

For the full list of who’s on the cover, visit http://bit.ly/sfwnoisepop