A few weeks ago we got a review copy of Margot & the Nuclear So and So's record Dust of Retreat and rolled our eyes at their horrific name. We expected MATNSS to be a novelty pop-punk band fronted by a marginally talented 19 year old girl with blue hair. It's unclear what finally inspired us to listen to it, but turns out it's an endearing, melodic, diverse record and we've fallen in love with......

San Francisco grups were in full effect Friday night, as the hot demographic of 30-something indie-yuppies swept into the Cafe Du Nord Noise Pop event of the evening. For the record, it was singer-songwriter night, with Jason Collett (from the Canadian Broken Social Scene crowd) headlining, but the crowd had that vaguely open-minded/not-as-plugged-in-as-they-once-were feel of "let's go check out some New Indie Rock on Friday night after work." (We totally put ourselves in that group! We read that article about the Broken Social Scene in the New York Times!) When indie rock is no longer your life, and is instead your after-work hobby, you approach the whole concert thing differently. For instance, we saw folks IMing on corporate Blackberries and having loud conversations about office politics throughout the entirety of the Submarines' delicate set. No one was shouting out the names of obscure B-sides for any of the performers. It was actually kind of nice to have all that indier-than-thou pressure off, though we did feel bad for the Submarines. Etienne de Rocher's set was notably enlivened by an old-fashioned really-into-it indie rock fan, who flung out her Solid Gold dance routine, all thrashing head and horse-kicking calves. It was especially cool because de Rocher's set was actually kind of medium-tempo and introspective, like Jeff Buckley. Highlight of the evening: at the climax of one of de Rocher's songs, this woman let out a triumphant shriek, and the entire audience involuntarily took a half-step back. She definitely brought an indulgent smile to the faces of the crowd. I used to love indie rock that much!, you could see people thinking. Collett's set of rainy Sunday afternoon songs closed out the evening at around 1:30 a.m., as folks on the 9-to-5 stifled back their yawns of fatigue from the end of the work week. It's hard committing to the indie rock lifestyle when you've got bills to pay! ...

Special Noise Pop 2006 edition Noise Pop '06 is already proving to be memorable. Tuesday night's Feist show was among the best shows we've ever seen, despite the relentless sound problems at Bimbo's, and last night we went backstage to witness a saucy embrace by Britt Daniel and John Vanderslice. Luckily our new favorite photographer Julie Schuchard was there to document the love; look for her photos in our show reviews! See another hot indie......

We're wishing Noise Pop a happy birthday today, as San Francisco's indie-est music festival kicks off its 14th year. The all-festival badges are sold out, as are tickets to some of the biggest shows, but SFist will bring you our coverage so you can live vicariously. Check the festival schedule for all the shows, and stay tuned for SFist's show reviews and what we're hoping is going to turn out to one Noise Pop giveaway......

Danielson: A Family Movie is a must see for any fan of adventurous music or artistic visionaries. You have two more chances to see it on tonight at 4:30pm at the Roxie and on 2/14 at 7pm. We'd heard of the Danielson Famile throughout the last decade or so, but we'd never actually heard their music. We knew Jeff Buckley would urge people to go see them, we saw their crayoned album covers in Other......

We're trying out** a new way for you to hear the music we're writing about this week. Ever heard of a service called Rhapsody? We've been subscribing for nearly a year now, and for less than the price of one record a month, we get access to tons of artists and albums to stream at any time. If you have Rhapsody, click on the link below for songs from 10 of the artists who are......

Win it before you can buy it! We've got a copy of The Long Winters' excellent new Ultimatum EP that comes out October 11th. You can download the title track here and be sure to catch them opening for The Fiery Furnaces at Cafe Du Nord on Saturday. (Contest ends Weds. 10/5.) Tonight at the Rickshaw Stop Casiotone for the Painfully Alone celebrates a CD-single release, and at 12 Galaxies there's a Quintron and......

Amazing Grace: Jeff Buckley is a sentimental and beautifully crafted portrait of the young man as an artist. Jeff Buckley was a singer-songwriter who started out singing in cafes in New York and recorded and released a single full-length album for Sony Grace which gained him a certain level of appreciation, mainly with other artists and overseas. Buckley never got the homeland recognition many feel he deserved until after he died by drowning, at......