Noise Pop Presents Second Annual 20th Street Block Party
***For Immediate Release***
Save the Date:
Noise Pop Presents
Second Annual 20th Street Block Party
Saturday, August 23
12 pm – 6 pm, Free
“Noise Pop’s 20th Street Block Party is going to be epic.” –KQED
“What better way to spend the afternoon?” –SFGate.com
“Whether it was the delicious franks churned out by Trick Dog or the killer live acts that amped up the afternoon, there was a plethora of rad reasons to attend [the] 20th Street Block Party.” –Refinery29.com
“This free end-of-summer block party has it all: indie bands and DJs, craft vendors, performing arts, and delicious food and drink…” –7×7.com
San Francisco, CA – Once again, Noise Pop takes it to the streets as they announce today the return of the beloved 20th Street Block Party which occurs on Saturday, August 23, between Bryant & Harrison Streets (and Florida & Alabama, between 19th and 20th Streets) in the Mission District of San Francisco, CA. Noise Pop spotlights the corridor in which they reside by featuring renowned Mission District-based food & drink purveyors, small businesses and electrifying music acts purely for the pleasure of the local residents. For 30 years, Noise Pop has proudly worked alongside San Francisco’s premiere musical, artistic, and cultural institutions. The 20th Street Block Party offers an exclusive opportunity to celebrate this iconic neighborhood, its proprietors, and the current renaissance taking shape in the Mission. Mark your calendars for Aug. 23, and come join 10,000+ Bay Area residents for the free music and food extravaganza! For more information, please visit 20thstreetblockparty.com.
With the evolution of the locavore scene deeply rooted in the Mission, the 20th street thoroughfare is home to some of the city’s most acclaimed eateries and beverage haunts. Noise Pop is thrilled to partner with such innovators, placing their fine cuisines and bar programs on full display with the backdrop of a good ‘ol dance party and street fair. A delicious summer feast awaits Bay Area food & beverage aficionados as the initial line-up at the Second Annual 20th Street Block Party includes bites/drinks from such neighborhood favorites as Central Kitchen, flour + water, Salumeria, Trick Dog, Sightglass, American Grilled Cheese, and Rhea’s Deli & Market. Detailed information on each vendor is below, and additional esteemed partners will be announced in the coming weeks.
“One of the primary motivations to launch the Noise Pop Block Party Series in 2013 on 20th Street was to highlight the ecosystem formed by the restaurants and bars in the area,” says David Steele, Noise Pop Partner and Managing Partner of the Ne Timeas Restaurant Group. “From the most casual to the most sophisticated, so many of these businesses have the unifying objective of artisanship and utilizing locally sourced ingredients. Our block parties attempt to exemplify all the great work happening in a particular neighborhood, and 20th Street is an excellent illustration of just one of the outstanding areas in San Francisco.”
As the landscape for emerging musical talent in the Bay Area is drastically changing with venue and rehearsal space closures (and rising rents), Noise Pop adds a second stage specifically for emerging local musicians at this year’s 20th Street Block Party. National acts appearing on the 20th Street Main Stage include Secretly Canadian recording artist Cayucas, as well as Ray Barbee and The Mattson 2 Featuring Tommy Guerrero, Myron & E, and Rock Project. The second Alabama Stage showcases music from Melted Toys, The Bilinda Butchers, 8th Grader, and 1955. Please see the artist bios listed below, and additional acts will be announced soon.
Jordan Kurland, Co-Owner of Noise Pop and Owner of Zeitgeist Artist Management, comments, “We love our little enclave in the Mission District that we’ve been operating out of since 2002. The 20th Street Block Party is our way of honoring the diverse culture, unique stores and merchants, and, of course, the restaurants both old and new. For our second year, we thought it was essential to add a second stage dedicated to local artists, and reconfigure the general layout to host even more vendors from the neighborhood. It’s no secret that the San Francisco arts community is suffering these days. To put it mildly, it’s a challenge to be an upstart artist or musician in the Bay Area so we are very happy to provide another platform to bring attention to the local music scene.”
Singular festivities at the Second Annual 20th Street Block Party include the Ne Timeas Workshop Tent, Southern Exposure Interactive Installation, ArtSpan Workshop Tent made possible by Trumark Urban, and Rocket Dog Adoption Zoo. Specific details are listed below.
New to this year’s Block Party is Platinum Experience, which features access to a private indoor lounge, roof-top viewing area, restrooms in the upstairs of Trick Dog, complimentary snacks from Salumeria, and wine/beer from local vendors. With Platinum Experience, consumers also receive a limited-edition 20th Street Block Party t-shirt, and a mix CD curated by the Noise Pop family. Tickets are $100 per person.
Keep an eye out for news in the coming months about additional Noise Pop Block Parties coming to a neighborhood near you!
20th Street Block Party Food & Drink Vendors, Performing Artists, and Festivities Bios:
Food & Drink Vendors:
Central Kitchen
Central Kitchen is part of the ongoing conversation about what “Californian cuisine” means. Central Kitchen sources locally and sustainably, and aims to create an evolving menu of refined food in a casual setting.
flour + water
flour + water’s core philosophy is sustainability. The cuisine is true Italian, rooted in a fresh pasta program, which produces numerous hand rolled shapes daily, as well as classic wood fire oven Neapolitan Pizza. flour + water works directly with Bay Area farms to support a daily changing menu. All butchery is done in-house, using locally raised whole animals.
Salumeria
Salumeria is a deli and larder that marries the traditions of the old world with the food culture of San Francisco. They take inspiration from the artfully crafted cured meats of Italy and integrate these recipes with local ingredients.
Trick Dog
From the team of The Bon Vivants—Josh Harris, Scott Baird, and Jason Henton—a kick ass, well made, no bull, neighborhood cocktail bar with great music, delicious drinks, and food till the end.
Sightglass
Sightglass is an independent, sibling-owned coffee company. They source coffees directly from farmers at origin, and roast them in-house, in small batches. Their iconic, innovative San Francisco coffee bars and roasteries offer a truly unique experience, and prepare some of the world’s finest coffees.
American Grilled Cheese
The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen is the first restaurant in San Francisco focused on serving award winning gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches, classic American comfort foods, and fresh house-baked-from-scratch treats. The American prides itself in sourcing ingredients locally, and using unique specialty products for its breakfast, lunch and dinner menus. California craft beers and wines are served all day, as well house-made sodas and seasonal lemonades.
Rhea’s Deli & Market
Rhea’s Deli and Market has been a part of the Mission and Valencia community since the early 80s. Now with their second location, they aim to continually spread their tradition as part of the overall San Franciscan experience.
yelp.com/biz/rheas-deli-and-market-san-francisco
SomaFM
SomaFM is a listener-supported, commercial-free internet-only radio station, with 30 unique channels of listener-supported, commercial-free, underground/alternative music. Broadcasting from a converted warehouse in San Francisco’s Mission District, we feature music and genres that aren’t found on commercial radio, music by a lot of independent and emerging artists. All our music is hand-picked by SomaFM’s award-winning DJs and music directors. SomaFM will conduct onsite artist interviews at the 20th Street Block Party at a location TBA.
Music:
Cayucas
Pronounced “ky-yook-us”, Cayucas is the monikered homage to a sleepy little seaside town in San Luis Obispo County, California. That town, Cayucos, has hardly changed in the last 50 years, a far cry from the gentrified tourist traps parading showily down the nearby coastline. In the early 1960s, the surfing craze hit. There was one bar around which local kids congregated back then, the site of helpless crushes and fights and games of pool, a place whose jukebox soundtracked innumerable teenage years as breezy summers rolled into mild winters and back around again. The bar has since disappeared, but as Zach Yudin, the man behind the name, will tell you, the place still holds on tight to its propensity for dreamy, lazy, bonfire-lit nights worth getting moony-eyed about.
Ray Barbee and The Mattson 2 Featuring Tommy Guerrero
The Mattson 2 don’t just want you to listen to music…they want you to connect. They don’t just play guitar and drums…they channel the gorgeously hypnotic gods of surf, sun, and neon-punk-jazz of our modern universe. Their sound is something that sidesteps traditions and fires daggers of physical and emotional sounds into the vast universes of our guts and soul. With the release of their latest album, Agar (release date: August 2014), the Mattson’s once again find themselves breaking new ground with fresh sonic interpretations and perfectly choreographed improvisations. With the help of producers Thomas Campbell and the legendary John X Volaitis (and a few others like Farmer Dave Scher and Maryann Tram), the Mattson 2 have further evolved their sounds and stylings into new realms of experimentalism, rhythm, and story. It’s the lightning in a Blue Note bottle, the punch of new wave swagger and the jangle of your inhibitions and stereotypes dripping from your ears. It’s beautiful…it’s haunting…and it’s a galaxy of musical sound best played loud and wild.
Myron & E
The vocal duo is something of a rarity. Myron (Myron Glasper) was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles. Myron grew up singing in choirs, played piano, was a star athlete in football and track, but found his calling as a dancer. During those years, however, the streets of South Central were no place to foster creativity, so Myron moved to the Bay and began touring as a backup singer, which is where he met E (Eric “E da Boss” Cooke). E, a native of Newark, New Jersey, got his first taste of music by playing records during family card games and fish frys. As a teen, he began collecting records of his own and DJing, hanging at the Music Factory and Rock and Soul in New York City. After relocating to southwest Virginia, he graduated high school and began DJing parties, which allowed him to invest in an Ensoniq ASR-10 keyboard, two Technics turntables and an eight-track recorder.
The two began working together while on the road with the Bay Area’s Blackalicious, and shortly after, E released an independent record as E da Boss. While touring in Finland behind his solo project, E found himself in an impromptu jam session with members of The Soul Investigators, whose work with singer Nicole Willis helped define them as one of Europe’s foremost retro-soul bands. Investigators producer Didier Selin was impressed enough to leave E with several unfinished tracks. Back in the U.S., E recruited Myron as a singing and songwriting partner, and Myron & E was born.
Rock Project
San Francisco Rock Project is a non-profit, performance-based music school for kids age 7-17 dedicated to instilling confidence, inspiring creativity and celebrating collaboration in a dynamic and supportive environment. Our program combines weekly private lessons in electric guitar, bass guitar, drums, keyboard and vocals, with group rehearsals to prepare students for live performances at local music venues, festivals and special events. SFRP is proud to present our House Band at this event. The SFRP House Band is a year-round performing group of student musicians chosen from within the SFRP student body based on criteria such as merit, skill and level of commitment.
Melted Toys
Melted Toys consists of longtime pals Stephen Harkins, Daniel Rosado, Brian Wakefield, and Ole Haarstad, and their casual bond laces the new LP with an unpretentious languidness that’s both downcast and serene, while still retaining an uptempo pop feel. The eponymous work is reminiscent of mid-career FELT, where Maurice Deebank’s somber leads colored each and every detail, rather than having just issued showy statements at predictable intervals. Highlights along the Melted Toys LP spark from timely synthesizer voicings as well, mixed in fantastic contrast against the shadowy mid-tones of Wakefield’s bass and Haarstad’s metronomic drums. After three years of radio silence from San Francisco psychedelic popsters Melted Toys, Underwater Peoples is happy to announce their return with the release of their self-titled debut album this summer!
The songwriting process evident throughout the album is just as much about that space in between song creation, i.e. the life lived outside of music making – the waiting, the strangeness of dreams, and the redundancy of daily life underpinning the desire to escape. This is the color outside the lines of the album’s twelve tracks, and the source of the album’s emotive intensity. Melted Toys will be available digitally and physically on July 15.
The Bilinda Butchers
The Bilinda Butchers are a dream pop group based in San Francisco. Formed by schoolmates Michal Palmer and Adam Honingford in the suburbs of Northern California, the group takes their name from My Bloody Valentine guitarist and early inspiration, Bilinda Butcher. 2013 saw the addition of drummer Ryan Wansley, whose rhythmic sensibilities proved essential in further honing the group’s atmospheric, melodic songwriting. The group’s upcoming full-length, titled “HEAVEN,” is set to be released on Orchid Tapes (Brooklyn, NY) and Fastcut Records (Japan) in July 2014. “HEAVEN”, which follows two well-received EPs released in 2011 and 2012 respectively, is a narrative-focused record that is at turns both sprawling and intimate.
8th Grader
With his luscious tenor and seductive lyrics, San Francisco singer-songwriter and multi- instrumentalist 8th Grader injects a unique and fresh R&B sensibility to his singular brand of nu-soul. His decadent vocals caress Afro-Cuban polyrhythms, Rhodes piano, and elements of Chillwave. With nods to Prince, Frank Ocean, George Michael and Janet Jackson, 8th Grader fills a nameless void somewhere in between pop and R&B. Currently creating a stir amongst the music blogs, 8th Grader has been gaining acclaim from fans and critics alike with his signature R&B meets Nu-Soul flare.
1955
In late 2012, three musicians retreated to a small practice space built into the back of a wood shop in Sonoma and crafted what would become the 1955 sound: lean,tight songs with a cinematic sweep to them, propelled by a stripped down sound and the bands’ unbridled live energy. A throwback to the simplicity and clarity of early rock and roll songwriting, the songs recall the energy of the bands’ heroes but bristle with a modern edge and danceability. The band recently played at the Desert Daze Music Festival with Blonde Redhead and The Raveonettes and just finished recording with up and coming producer Benny Sagittarius.
Festivities:
Ne Timeas Workshop Tent
Ne Timeas Restaurant Group currently comprised of flour + water, Central Kitchen and Salumeria as well as the soon to open, Café du Nord will be hosting a day-long workshop tent built for culinary adventure and knowledge exchange. The tent will host chefs from the group as well as throughout the city who will highlight various skills and cooking techniques. Full list of delectable workshops will be announced soon.
Southern Exposure Interactive Installation
*Postal Mortem Pledge Drive by Jennie Ottinger
Continuing her project to honor and “save” the United States Postal Service, artist Jennie Ottinger teams up with the Wonderment Consortium to host the Postal Mortem Pledge Drive. During the event, various tables offer services and activities such as handwriting analysis, letter-writing coaching, the opportunity to send hate mail to Darrell Issa (anti-USPS California Congressman) and a place to write thank you notes to Bernie Sanders (pro-USPS Vermont Senator). Restore that personal touch to your communication, write letters and mail things!
Southern Exposure (SoEx) is a non-profit organization founded in 1974 committed to supporting visual artists. Through our extensive and innovative programming, we strive to experiment, collaborate and further educate while providing an extraordinary resource center and forum for Bay Area and national artists and youth in our Mission District space and off-site, in the public realm.
ArtSpan Workshop Tent made possible by Trumark Urban
Come visit ArtSpan at the 20th St. Block Party! MEET local artists, MAKE hand-crafted projects, and LEARN about the San Francisco visual arts community. Featuring hands-on projects for youth, families and kids of all ages, including a 6-foot collaborative mural led by artist Joshua Coffy.
ArtSpan, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization, builds community by connecting the public to visual arts in San Francisco. Through SF Open Studios, youth and adult education, and art-centric events, ArtSpan creates a platform for artists to thrive, fostering a Bay Area that values the arts.
Rocket Dog Adoption Zoo
Rocket Dog Rescue (RDR) is a volunteer based organization serving the greater Bay Area, dedicated to saving homeless and abandoned dogs from overcrowded animal shelters. Rocket Dog Rescue places dogs into temporary foster homes where they are socialized, spayed/neutered, vaccinated, and treated for any medical or behavioral conditions limiting their adoptability. We’re excited to bring RDR onsite with dogs of all ages looking for a cheerful family and a loving home.
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