Norcal Noisefest 2011, Sacramento's fifteenth annual gathering of experimental musicians and noise artists, returns this week for a six-day noise marathon featuring over 50 performers from across the continent. Starting on Wednesday September 28 and running every day until Monday October 3, this year's Noisefest has expanded in both time and space: on Thursday night, simultaneous shows will occur in both Sacramento and San Francisco, followed by an on-air Noisefest performance on KDVS, 90.3 FM, in Davis. All other performances take place in Sacramento--at the Naked Lounge downtown, the Geery Theatre in Midtown, Luna's Cafe, and Sol Collective at the edge of Curtis Park. Noise is difficul

The 2011 In the Flow festival came to an end at Luna’s Café on Monday night after five days of enjoyable music at different venues. Jazz, rock, electronic, noise, poetry, spoken word, blues and other genres were delivered by talented musicians from May 12 to 16. On a rainy Monday evening, several bands came to share the small stage at Luna’s. The intimate setting provided great entertainment and gave it a delightful jazz club ambiance. In the Flow is the brainchild of Ross Hammond and Byron Blackburn. Performers play smaller venues such as La Raza Galeria Posada, Luna’s, Antiquité Maison Privée, Phono Select Records and the Press Club. Hammond’s grassroots approach is creative and provid

A five-day festival filled with music by 40 groups in five Midtown venues is about to engulf the Sacramento scene. The In the Flow Festival, an annual event going from Thursday to May 16, will be bringing out improvisational players of jazz, rock, blues, electronic, poetry/spoken word and visual art. Co-organizer and guitarist Ross Hammond, 33, addressed why it was created. Hammond said it is important to create a music event in Sacramento and bring out the unknown and/or unrecognized talents. “I knew enough people and acts, so we decided to put something cool together,” Hammond said. “It is a celebration of creative music and art. It is the music, art and poetry community just coming

Show for all ages Day one of this year’s Norcal Noisefest was held on Friday, October 1 at Luna’s Café on 16th Street. About a dozen acts showed off their unique Noise (music) making abilities. Some of these acts, probably like people back in the Paleolithic Age, used any available material to construct music making instruments for their performance. Styrofoam, 10 gallon plastic water bottles, tin foil, bricks, soda cans, nails on a board, sticks, and other rudimentary noise making instruments were used to make rhythmic sounds. None of the shows I witnessed used the nails screeching down a blackboard but it would have been interesting. Traditional instruments played their part with some

 Music flowed from Beatnik Studios on Sunday during the third annual In the Flow Jazz Festival. Musicians from all over the West Coast played, including Nels Cline. The guitarist from band Wilco played Saturday afternoon. “My friend Byron and I, we came up with doing just a festival of jazz to let local and regional artists play,” said Ross Hammond, the event’s co-founder. The festival started at the True Love Coffeehouse three years ago, and moved to its current location at 2421 17th St. last year. Hammond said the celebration has been growing steadily. “The first year was kind of more Sacramento, then we added some Bay Area stuff, and now there’s a lot of other people from up and down

*Note, there is a bias here because I'm directly involved with the Festival's organizaiton, etc. -RH In The Flow 3! The 3rd annual In The Flow Jazz/Improvisational Festival will be at Luna's Cafe, R5 Records and Beatnik Studios this weekend (Friday, 5/14 through Monday, 5/17). The lauded young improvisational music festival will feature musicians from all over the West Coast, including Vinny Golia, Nels Cline, (guitarist from super group Wilco and the Nels Cline Singers), Lovely Builders, Gerry Pineda, Tony Passarell, Henry Robinett and many more. In The Flow 3 Festival, produced by area guitarist Ross Hammond along with a group of volunteers, will post up over thirty music groups at tw

"So what do you mean by noise?" That's probably the #1 question about the Noisefest, except maybe "Do you have any earplugs?" The answer to the latter question is simple (yes, we do) but the first question is more complex. People know what noise is in the general sense, but not very many know what noise is in the musical sense. In some ways, the Norcal Noisefest is intended to answer that question by showing people what noise is, instead of simply telling them. The 2009 Norcal Noisefest, formerly known as the Northern California Experimental Music Festival, is the thirteenth festival in a series orignally started in 1995 here in Sacramento, intended to bring noise music to the public ear