Forget Aruba, Jamaica, Bermuda and Bahama. Come September, the folks at Another Planet Entertainment and Noise Pop wanna take you (via biodiesel shuttle buses from AT&T Park) to a different island paradise—of the San Francisco Bay sort. This fall marks the debut of the Treasure Island Music Festival: a two-day event billed as SF’s premier boutique musical happening—an idyllic outdoor celebration set against a dazzling panorama of the city skyline that promises a decidedly un-festival festival experience. “I’m not a festival person, which is ironic,” admits Noise Pop cofounder Jordan Kurland. “But that’s why I wanted to do it. It’s not this giant thing where you’ll have to wait 40 minutes to get a hot dog. It’s not the size and scope of Coachella—it’s an intimate affair.”
Leave it to San Francisco to turn something inherently large and commercial into something quirky and modest: With 14 bands a day performing on two stages, the festival breaks down into a dance-electro-focused Saturday (featuring Thievery Corporation, Gotan Project, M.I.A., Ghostland Observatory and locals Zion I, Honeycut and Kid Beyond) and an indie-rock-centric Sunday (with Modest Mouse, Spoon, Built to Spill, Earlimart and locals Street to Nowhere, Trainwreck Riders, Film School and Two Gallants on the bill). “Obviously, there’s a Noise Pop element with the indie rock, but we also tried to bring in the electronic scene, which SF has always embraced,” says APE’s vice president of entertainment, Allen Scott. “We were the first in the country to do it: In the ’90s, in places like the Justice League, we ushered in Fatboy Slim, the Roots, Ozomatli, DJ Krush and DJ Shadow.”
Since the Bay Area was responsible, in 1967, for the very first rock festival (Marin’s KFRC Fantasy Fair & Magic Mountain Music Festival, which would become the model for Woodstock) and that year’s seminal Monterey International Pop Music Festival, SF’s legacy is top of mind for the festival’s producers. But in line with Treasure Island’s own origins (it was built in 1939 to house the Golden Gate International Expo), the event will feature plenty of nonmusical wonders—from a Ferris wheel to an underground-artist poster show and even, perhaps, a treasure hunt. Not that the lineup couldn’t sell tickets on its own merit: This marks Spoon’s first official Bay Area show promoting their new record, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s only Bay Area date this year, one of three confirmed North American dates for Thievery Corporation and one of only two stateside performances of DJ Shadow’s and Cut Chemist’s “Hard Sell” show (during which the duo will share eight turntables and spin 45s exclusively).
Still, according to Noise Pop cofounder Kevin Arnold, the ultimate lure is the location: “It’s good to get out of context and into an environment that offers something special. The attraction should be just as much the setting—the sun and the stars and the skyline—as the entertainment,” he says. Of course, in keeping with the festival’s very SF attitude toward individuality, even the organizers seem to have differing opinions about what constitutes that extra something: “There is no real theme, but we’ll definitely incorporate some pirate elements into it,” promises Kurland. “I can’t believe that no one liked my idea for puffy shirts for the stage crew,” he adds, before demonstrating the sort of attitude necessary to make undertakings like this one come to fruition: “They’ll catch on.”
Treasure Island Music Festival at Treasure Island, Sept. 15 and 16.
OTHER LIVE EVENTS
Itzhak Perlman at the SF Symhony Oct. 3, 4, 6 & 7.
Chanticleer at the SF Conservatory of Music Concert Hall, Sept. 22.
SF Blues Festival at Fort Mason, Sept 28-30.
Amy Winehouse at the Warfield, Sept. 21 and 22.
Bonde do Role at the Independent, Sept. 28.
Download Festival at Shoreline Amphitheater, Oct. 6.
Blanche at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park, Oct. 5-7.
SF Jazz Festival, Oct. 22-Nov. 30.
ALBUMS
by Anne Marie Harrison
 |
Ethereal Nevada City–based folk songwriter Marie Sioux may be a mere 22 years of age, but the lyrics on her album, Faces in the Rocks (Grass Roots Records), reflect an old soul. Setting her poetry to music and featuring Native American flutist Gentle Thunder, Sioux’s mystical album (which demands the Joanna Newsom comparison) is due out this month.
Available Sept. 18; myspace.com/marieesioux
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 |
In between playing more than 200 shows (selling out in SF, London, L.A. and NYC) and getting involved in a melee with police at a Houston performance, SF’s Two Gallants found time in 2006 to produce a new record. The self-titled album, from the Saddle Creek label, features the indie-country twang fans first fell in love with set to “no getting out of this mess”–themed lyrics that shine on such new tracks as “Reflections of the Marionette.”
Available Sept. 25; twogallants.com
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 |
Film School ’s latest album, Hideout (Beggars Banquet), breaks through the shoegazer’s wall of sound with textured layers of reverb-heavy dark pop balanced by airy, melodic vocals. Mixed by Phil Ek (Built to Spill, Band of Horses, the Shins and Stephen Malkmus), Hideout, with its anticipated crescendos, begs for neo-noir cinematic accompaniment.
Available Sept. 11; myspace.com/filmschool
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Possessing the vocal and rhythmic irregularities that have become de rigueur for today’s pop chanteuses, Jesca Hoop makes her long-awaited debut with the compelling album Kismet (Columbia Records). Already on the buzz radar, thanks to early endorsements by Nic Harcourt and Tom Waits (who had hired her for a nanny gig), Hoop conjures an Alice in Wonderland quality that makes listening through her looking glass a seductive proposition.
Available Sept. 18; jescahoop.com
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 |
Oakland’s indie-rock outfit Rouge Wave returns with its third album, Asleep At Heaven’s Gate (Brushfire Records). With drummer Pat Spurgeon fully recovered from a kidney transplant and ready to rock (in a ’90s-sounding kind of way), and Roger Moutenot (Yo La Tengo, Sleater Kinney and Elvis Costello) producing, the album features guest appearances by Nada Surf guitarist Matthew Caws and singer-songwriter John Vanderslice.
Available Sept. 18; roguewavemusic.com
|
Forget Aruba, Jamaica, Bermuda and Bahama. Come September, the folks at Another Planet Entertainment and Noise Pop wanna take you (via biodiesel shuttle buses from AT&T Park) to a different island paradise—of the San Francisco Bay sort. This fall marks the debut of the Treasure Island Music Festival: a two-day event billed as SF’s premier boutique musical happening—an idyllic outdoor celebration set against a dazzling panorama of the city skyline that promises a decidedly un-festival festival experience. “I’m not a festival person, which is ironic,” admits Noise Pop cofounder Jordan Kurland. “But that’s why I wanted to do it. It’s not this giant thing where you’ll have to wait 40 minutes to get a hot dog. It’s not the size and scope of Coachella—it’s an intimate affair.”
Leave it to San Francisco to turn something inherently large and commercial into something quirky and modest: With 14 bands a day performing on two stages, the festival breaks down into a dance-electro-focused Saturday (featuring Thievery Corporation, Gotan Project, M.I.A., Ghostland Observatory and locals Zion I, Honeycut and Kid Beyond) and an indie-rock-centric Sunday (with Modest Mouse, Spoon, Built to Spill, Earlimart and locals Street to Nowhere, Trainwreck Riders, Film School and Two Gallants on the bill). “Obviously, there’s a Noise Pop element with the indie rock, but we also tried to bring in the electronic scene, which SF has always embraced,” says APE’s vice president of entertainment, Allen Scott. “We were the first in the country to do it: In the ’90s, in places like the Justice League, we ushered in Fatboy Slim, the Roots, Ozomatli, DJ Krush and DJ Shadow.”
Since the Bay Area was responsible, in 1967, for the very first rock festival (Marin’s KFRC Fantasy Fair & Magic Mountain Music Festival, which would become the model for Woodstock) and that year’s seminal Monterey International Pop Music Festival, SF’s legacy is top of mind for the festival’s producers. But in line with Treasure Island’s own origins (it was built in 1939 to house the Golden Gate International Expo), the event will feature plenty of nonmusical wonders—from a Ferris wheel to an underground-artist poster show and even, perhaps, a treasure hunt. Not that the lineup couldn’t sell tickets on its own merit: This marks Spoon’s first official Bay Area show promoting their new record, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s only Bay Area date this year, one of three confirmed North American dates for Thievery Corporation and one of only two stateside performances of DJ Shadow’s and Cut Chemist’s “Hard Sell” show (during which the duo will share eight turntables and spin 45s exclusively).
Still, according to Noise Pop cofounder Kevin Arnold, the ultimate lure is the location: “It’s good to get out of context and into an environment that offers something special. The attraction should be just as much the setting—the sun and the stars and the skyline—as the entertainment,” he says. Of course, in keeping with the festival’s very SF attitude toward individuality, even the organizers seem to have differing opinions about what constitutes that extra something: “There is no real theme, but we’ll definitely incorporate some pirate elements into it,” promises Kurland. “I can’t believe that no one liked my idea for puffy shirts for the stage crew,” he adds, before demonstrating the sort of attitude necessary to make undertakings like this one come to fruition: “They’ll catch on.”
Treasure Island Music Festival at Treasure Island, Sept. 15 and 16.
OTHER LIVE EVENTS
Itzhak Perlman at the SF Symhony Oct. 3, 4, 6 & 7.
Chanticleer at the SF Conservatory of Music Concert Hall, Sept. 22.
SF Blues Festival at Fort Mason, Sept 28-30.
Amy Winehouse at the Warfield, Sept. 21 and 22.
Bonde do Role at the Independent, Sept. 28.
Download Festival at Shoreline Amphitheater, Oct. 6.
Blanche at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park, Oct. 5-7.
SF Jazz Festival, Oct. 22-Nov. 30.
ALBUMS
by Anne Marie Harrison
|
Ethereal Nevada City–based folk songwriter Marie Sioux may be a mere 22 years of age, but the lyrics on her album, Faces in the Rocks (Grass Roots Records), reflect an old soul. Setting her poetry to music and featuring Native American flutist Gentle Thunder, Sioux’s mystical album (which demands the Joanna Newsom comparison) is due out this month.
Available Sept. 18; myspace.com/marieesioux
|
|
In between playing more than 200 shows (selling out in SF, London, L.A. and NYC) and getting involved in a melee with police at a Houston performance, SF’s Two Gallants found time in 2006 to produce a new record. The self-titled album, from the Saddle Creek label, features the indie-country twang fans first fell in love with set to “no getting out of this mess”–themed lyrics that shine on such new tracks as “Reflections of the Marionette.”
Available Sept. 25; twogallants.com
|
|
Film School ’s latest album, Hideout (Beggars Banquet), breaks through the shoegazer’s wall of sound with textured layers of reverb-heavy dark pop balanced by airy, melodic vocals. Mixed by Phil Ek (Built to Spill, Band of Horses, the Shins and Stephen Malkmus), Hideout, with its anticipated crescendos, begs for neo-noir cinematic accompaniment.
Available Sept. 11; myspace.com/filmschool
|
|
|
Possessing the vocal and rhythmic irregularities that have become de rigueur for today’s pop chanteuses, Jesca Hoop makes her long-awaited debut with the compelling album Kismet (Columbia Records). Already on the buzz radar, thanks to early endorsements by Nic Harcourt and Tom Waits (who had hired her for a nanny gig), Hoop conjures an Alice in Wonderland quality that makes listening through her looking glass a seductive proposition.
Available Sept. 18; jescahoop.com
|
| |
Oakland’s indie-rock outfit Rouge Wave returns with its third album, Asleep At Heaven’s Gate (Brushfire Records). With drummer Pat Spurgeon fully recovered from a kidney transplant and ready to rock (in a ’90s-sounding kind of way), and Roger Moutenot (Yo La Tengo, Sleater Kinney and Elvis Costello) producing, the album features guest appearances by Nada Surf guitarist Matthew Caws and singer-songwriter John Vanderslice.
Available Sept. 18; roguewavemusic.com
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