A Mountain of Noise Pop

For Travis Trevisan, vocalist and guitarist for San Diego discordant-pop three-piece Tape Deck Mountain, the 5.1 rating out of a possible 10 they received from music website pitchforkmedia.com for debut full-length Ghost doesn’t faze the band.

“I wish the score would have been lower and the review more negative,” writes Trevisan in a January 4 email. “That seems to get almost as much buzz on the street as the positive reviews. I read the review and it seems like they spent time with the record. That’s all I ask. When you make art or music, not everyone is going to get it or like it.”

And while the December 10 review considered Tape Deck Mountain’s first LP an “undergraduate” effort, the buzz about the band intensifies. TDM was asked to play San Francisco’s annual Noise Pop Festival, an independent music showcase, on February 24.

In the past 17 years, the festival has featured Modest Mouse, the White Stripes, the Shins, and Jeff Tweedy of Wilco.

Acts for this year’s festival include the Magnetic Fields, Rogue Wave, and Mark Kozelek of the Red House Painters.

“I’m excited just to go to Noise Pop festival; playing is icing on the cake,” writes Trevisan regarding the gig, where his band will be the opening act for British singer-songwriter Scout Niblett.

“I’ve been a fan of Magnetic Fields and Mark Kozelek for some time now, and tons of other amazing bands are also performing at Noise Pop. We’re excited to run around San Francisco catching as many great acts as we can see and hopefully turning some heads with our set of noise and pop.”