New Noise Pop Festival confirmations & NEW Contest

The 15th annual Noise Pop Festival takes over the city by the bay (San Francisco) February 27 to March 4th. They've just announced some new confirmations to an already stellar lineup, bringing the current list of performers to:

Roky Erickson and The Explosives
The Ponys
The Dandy Warhols
Jolie Holland
The Donnas
Sebadoh
Ted Leo And The Pharmacists
Josh Ritter
Autolux
Richard Swift
Earlimart
Ghostland Observatory
Midlake
Hella
Vic Chesnutt
Lyrics Born
John Vanderslice
Spinto Band
Clinic

FULL SCHEDULE HERE

I am hoping to possibly come out for Noise Pop: My sister just got a job at Stanford and will surely need some help unpacking and getting settled and what better way to get settled than to see a bunch of awesome shows! Logical.

I wrote about Peter Ellenby's new book of rock photography, Every Day Is Saturday. I got the book for Christmas and I can categorically say that is awesome, one of the most interesting books I've read in a while.

The photographs open new ways of seeing bands I thought I knew, give insight into the artists pictured, and illuminate the vibrant music scene that comes from and passes through the San Francisco area.

The commentary accompanying the photographs, by author Christopher Slater, is top notch -- taking you behind the scenes of the pictures in the book in a very engaging fashion, and filling in the reader on the music world in San Francisco for the last 15 years. The segments documenting the rise of the Noise Pop festival, and Peter Ellenby's role as un/official Noise Pop photographer, are required reading. Here's an excerpt:

Noise Pop and the success of Ellenby's photographs opened up a much larger world for him, both professionally and personally:

"I really met a whole lot of people. We had so much fun doing this thing [the early Noise Pop festivals]. I mean, it was totally exhausting, but it was the catalyst. I realized, this is exactly what I want to be doing. Going to the shows, seeing amazing bands, finding new amazing bands, meeting new amazing people, meeting my wife. It's not just about music and photography -- it's about friendship and all this other stuff.

And it all started that weekend. I think it was four days. You know, like when you hear a song and say, 'I've been waiting for this song forever.' Or when you meet your soulmate, it's like, 'This is what I love.' It's so great to finally find that."

That beautiful passion comes through in this book, and frankly made me want to pick up a camera and learn how the heck to use it.

After seeing the faces of all these bands that I somehow missed and never heard, I also found myself curious about their music -- then I remembered that the book comes with a sampler CD of just that, tucked in the back. Fantastic soundtrack for a second reading.

If you'd like to check it out yourself, I have one extra copy of the book and CD to give away, thanks to a shipping snafu from Amazon. I don't usually run two contests at once, but since I am closing up that Lucinda contest on Friday (great entries, folks), I figured we'd start this one up.

CONTEST:
To win the Peter Ellenby photography book, leave me a comment with a link to view your favorite concert photo on the web. Doesn't have to be one you took, but you can upload your own if that's your choice. For example, mine would be this.

A little tricky of a contest, I know, but I hope to get some good visual responses. Also make sure I have a way to contact you if you want to win. I'll run this through next Thursday (Jan 18). Oh, and since I have to pay for shipping this one myself, only US peeps can win. Sorry, my lovely and respected international brethren.