The Noise Pop festival has announced the first phase of its 2020 lineup featuring Raphael Saadiq, Jamila Woods, the Shigeto Live Ensemble, Mary Lattimore and Lower Dens. This San Francisco Bay Area event will take place from February 24th to March 1st and host different films, art shows, happy hours, and concerts all over SF and the East Bay.
While early bird tickets for the event have sold out, the first wave of tickets are available on the festival’s website for $169 plus fees. Last year’s edition hosted performances from Beirut, My Brightest Diamond and Bob Mould of Hüsker Dü and Sugar.
Saadiq dropped his first album in five years entitled Jimmy Lee, this past August via Columbia Records, which was preceded by a single entitled “Something Keeps Calling” (featuring Rob Bacon). This track was a tribute to old-school R&B and produced in a more traditional style.
“It’s definitely making its loop, and I’m not surprised. For a while, black people got scared because they felt they couldn’t do true soul. But that’s shifting now,” Saaddiq explained in an interview with Pitchfork. More than anything, I just enjoy making it. You can go to sleep and dream about making that music, then you look up and it’s been 30 years! When you’re making music that you really like, you don’t really think about it, you just enjoy the moment.”
Woods dropped her album Legacy! Legacy! earlier this year as well, as did Lowe Dens, who dropped their release The Competition back in September.