As we move about the Burning Man Exodus from San Francisco, we experience those last few days where the city feels less dense and compacted. You notice a bit more elbow room in Cloud City. The coffee line at your favorite café is shorter, and shopping at Trader Joe’s is, well, not as unpleasant as usual. Public transportation, like bus rides and BART trips, feels more manageable.
However, just as we adjust to the 8,000 people from San Francisco who attend Burning Man each year, we can expect that big wave of desert-dwellers slowly making their way back to the city starting September 1. As Samuel L Jackson so eloquently put it, in the first Jurassic Park flick, “Hold on to your butts!“
Did I mention? We are still Under The Stars, a quasi-weekly column that stays on message with strong-ass opinions, presenting new music releases, upcoming shows, and other adjacent items. We keep it moving, hustling with the changes, thinking outside the margins. We’ve been doing this for five years… Spend some time with us…
NOISE POP RETURNS, FEBRUARY 19-MARCH 1, 2026
Noise Pop is an integral part of San Francisco city life; casually ingrained in our culture like catching burritos in the Mission. It’s what you do come February. This 33-year-long-running San Francisco highlight for independent bands and music started in 1993 by Kevin Arnold and later Jordan Kurland, as a $5 show at the city’s Kennel Club (now called the Independent), and speedily expanded into what we like to call here at 48hills the all-inclusive, crosstown, downtown, around-town music party that reads vast and feels personal, cause it fits.
Noise Pop Industries recently announced the festival will return in 2026 for 10 days starting February 19 and ending March 1. You can assume the early announcement for the dates is so everybody can maneuver around these tariffs (ahem) and get to the business of choosing line-ups, establishing venues, flights, lodging, and all the intangibles that need to be sorted. I’m reminded of Coachella this year, where about 60 percent of Coachella attendees paid for it via a layaway program established by promoters; it’s a big jump from 2009, when only about 18 percent of attendees utilized such plans. Times are tight. So planning early is essential and smart.
“As we look ahead to 2026, we’re building on the momentum of an unforgettable 2025 edition that pushed the fest to even grander and more creative heights with special sets from St. Vincent and Ben Gibbard at Grace Cathedral, the successful launch of SF Music Week, and a ton of other events,” said Kevin Arnold, founder of Noise Pop Festival. “Our mission remains the same as it has since 1993—create a platform to showcase both world-class and emerging artists while celebrating the diverse, vibrant, and independent arts community of the Bay Area.”
This year’s sprawling festival, its 32nd, drew in 20,000 attendees over 11 days, with 60+ concerts featuring 100+ artists (according to official figures). Noise Pop works best when local artists, orgs, venues, and scenes are featured up front, not just in supporting roles; it’s what makes coming to the Bay key.
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I’ve been gobsmacked by seeing Cymande, St Vincent, Ethiopian jazz-legend Hailu Mergia, Arooj Aftab, and Helado Negro here at the festival, witnessing IRT local acts such as San Francisco former pro-skater Tommy Guerrero, Dani Offline, No Vacation, Idris Ackamoor, Chime School, and Seablite all connect with local fans, the ones who’ve attended shows at Wacky Wednesdays in North Beach or the Knock Out in Outer Mission.
Seeing a local band open for Laetitia Sadier in front of out-of-town attendees, that’s a connection rooted in community. Presenting the Bay Area’s best alongside features from across the globe, that’s financial bliss for everyone.
Purchase super early bird festival badges here.
NECTAX, STAR & SHADOW EP (UP YA ARCHIVES)
As junglism marches on into the great unknown, producers remain adamant about chopping that dusty, reliable “Amen” break, utilizing the foundational part of this addictive grumbling-bass music to create new sonic pathways. Enter Nectax, one third of Newcastle (UK) based club night & label STEREO 45, and nominated for Breakthrough Producer at DJ Mag’s Best of British Awards 2025. This in-demand breakbeat aficionado puts that acumen and those accolades to sonic work, delivering an all-killer, no-filler Shadow EP just mashin’ the bejesus outta snares, poppin’ in and out with the soulful vocals, getting conservative, less is more, with the yardy chat, and Ginsu-ing that Winston Brothers gospel tune break in ways that should be NSFW illegal. I can’t explain.
All the while riding atmospherics of the liquid kind on top, and rolling out the big, bad bass like Jabba the Hut was alive once again, coming for your Millennium Falcon. Jungle hits best when it’s swinging for the fences like those Xenomorphs in the Alien franchise, chewing through rooms of Bacchanal cosplay meatbodies, never stopping to look back at the carnage.
Shadow EP gives the term keep it movin, a deadly, elevated status.
Grab it here.
PRINCE, SIGN O’ THE TIMES AT AMC METREON IMAX, THU/28-AUGUST 31
With the recent rollouts of Bruce Springsteen’s 7-CD box set Tracks, and the fairly transparent Billy Joel doc And So It Goes still streaming on HBO Max, I’ve come to treasure the rock and roll charm of “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man” by Prince just a bit more these days. His pen game was elite, too.
In this live concert film, released for the first time exclusively in IMAX theaters globally in newly remastered form, we get a vignette to accompany the song, detailing small-town friskiness on a Friday night. I can’t front. When Prince released his ninth studio album, Sign o’ the Times, in 1987, it was a critical watershed moment that had me rewinding my cassette to the funk of “Housequake,” tripping off how deep “If I Were Your Girlfriend” was, and enjoying the elongated jam “It’s Gonna Be a Beautiful Night.” But now I get it. With “I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man,” Prince is matching up to Springsteen’s small-town stories, jamming up Joel’s obsessive love songs, and slightly outmaneuvering Tom Petty’s folksiness of writing something complex in an undecorated form. Bullhorning John Cougar Mellencamp, I got my own “Jack & Diane,” buddy.
Listen, there are so many treasures in this live concert film to mention, but just know this: If you think you hear Charlie Parker’s “Now’s the Time” during an interlude, you’re not bugging. This slice of Prince in the late ’80s captures that wild, creative arc of one of the best musicians and songwriters of the 20th century, just burning and moving so fast; his costume changes match the many moods of these timeless arrangements.
See this in IMAX here.
HIGHEST 2 LOWEST, DIRECTED BY SPIKE LEE, STREAMING ON APPLE TV+ 9/5
If you think for one second that I’m letting myself get caught up in all the “Spike has lost his fastball when discussing hip-hop” blah blah swagger-jacking talk, then you, my friend, are high. Grossly misinformed. His latest film, Highest 2 Lowest, an English-language reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 Japanese film High and Low, with the screenplay by Alan Fox, has Denzel Washington working with Lee again for their fifth film after a seemingly 20-year hiatus. Adding to that magical chemistry this time is the masterful Jeffrey Wright. Spike and Denzel’s last project was the Manhattan-centered crime-heist flick Inside Man.
Let me say this upfront: I don’t expect Spike to be the authoritative voice on the state of drill-rap in 2025. His Public Enemy days, with “Fight The Power” and “He Got Game,” belong to a different era. But when it comes to filming New York—Black New York, that is—and discussing the ownership of African-American art (a topic brought up earlier this year in the jaw-dropping blockbuster “Sinners,” produced, written, and directed by Bay-Area native Ryan Coogler) and letting Denzel and Jeffrey Wright, two of America’s best actors, just cook? Yep, that’s what I’m here for. Nobody else will get their best. NOBODY, people.
Even if the script is a little meh, I’ll take Spike’s cinematic vision. Go back and peep Malcom X, not for the Academy Award-winning performance that Denzel got robbed of at the Oscars. Just the way Spike shoots all the black, brown, and beige hues in Brooklyn and Harlem in that film. My God. That too remains unsung.
I’m always down for numerous questions, Spike, every time, poses to moviegoers. We’ve been brainwashed with the endless capes, tights, and mask edition of movie-going these past 25 years. Spike implores you, wants you to think; you don’t have to agree, just pay attention. Listen, not every Scorsese film is a classic; Spielberg has misfires, too. But you watch both auteurs anyway, because even the average projects have depth, still carry weight, substance, and the perspective of a master storyteller.
Spike, in that department, never lets us down.
GUMBY’S JUNK AT GAMH, FRI/29
Rock critics, snooty blog writers, and influencers from all points of the internet just can’t quite pin down the self-described “nightmare cartoon” that Eli Streich, Emmalee Johnson-Kao, and Jas Stade have assembled. With production finesse handled by rock legend Greg Saunier of Deerhoof on the group’s upcoming sophomore album, Business & Pleasure, expect more confusion in describing it. But don’t despair, go see Gumby’s Junk yourself at their album release show, where they will be joined by the mind-bending Juicebumps. Porkbelly and Petra are performing in support as well.
Trust your ears and eyes, grab a ticket here.
