So there's this music festival called Noise Pop, and it's gonna be five years old this year. It started out as one humble little show at the Kennel Club in 1992. Since then, it's grown to be bigger than it ever really expected, showcasing year after year a wide variety of bands making tuneful, sincere, noisy pop music. Last year, it took six shows over four days at four different clubs to handle it, and twenty-seven bands from all over the place came to San Francisco to willingly satisfy its appetite. As Noise Pop turns five it expands again, adding some new favorites from around the country for bigger and better shows while keeping things busy at the now standard venues Bottom of the Hill and the Kilowatt. As usual, a long list of local talent will be mixed in with select bands from around the west coast and other areas far and wide. This year's shows add up to eight total, spanning five days at five different clubs (thirty-seven bands, I think?). Otherwise, things will be pretty much the same: Big bright posters will be made (by SF artist Alan Forbes). Door prizes will be given out. Rock music will be dispersed in excess. Help with Noise Pop comes from all directions this year: bay area zine SnackCake! will be presenting the Noise Pop companion guide issue, featuring lots of info on the festival and features on the participating bands. Live 105 will be co-presenting the shows again this year and doing giveaways of posters and music, as will local college radio stations KUSF and KALX, as they have in the past. BAM also joins on this year as a co-sponsor, helping out with getting many, many Noise Pop stickers printed up. Noise Pop's online personality is provided this year courtesy of the genuises at Barbell Web Design. Look back here often for links galore, info updates, and lots o' photos after the festival. And look for news on the festival from co-presenting web music zine Addicted to Noise, with coverage in the Music News of the World section throughout the festival and RealAudio sound treats, too. Select shows will be webcast on the the Internet for the second year by the folks at MediaCast, who will also help new Internet live music site 9up put on a special live Internet-only show from their wired SF rehearsal space venue on Saturday, March 1st at 5pm. For info on shows and tickets please get in touch with Kevin Arnold at horsebrand@usa.net. For more press and publicity information on the festival drop Amy Bloebaum of Dish Media a line at amy@nolife.com. And lastly, while it has been rumored (stated, actually) that this will be the last Noise Pop, judgement on that will be withheld for the time being. You can count on Noise Pop popping up again in some fashion in the next year or so.