Indie Rock and Alternative Music this weekend at the Foburg Music Festival

"Rock is so much fun. That's what it's all about -- filling up the chest cavities and empty kneecaps and elbows". -- Jim Hendrix

This weekend, March 12-14 2010, NOIR (New Orleans Indie Rock Collective) will inaugurate the Foburg Music Festival. This indie rock festival aims to showcase indie rock and alternative rock artists who otherwise do not have their own gathering of this kind in a city who is not too well known for its independent rock scene. Although this genre is an ever growing and thriving presence in the city, it is often placed behind more popular New Orleans genres such as jazz and funk. The festival will take place at various locations on Frenchmen Street and features over 70 artists. The admission cost is well worth the number of bands performing all weekend at $25 presale prices and $30 at the festival
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The concept behind the festival was to give artists a chance to play in New Orleans before heading to the notable SXSW Festival taking place in Austin, TX the following week. Festival organizers and promoters are interested in showing Frenchmen Street and surrounding venues that this progressive rock sound can be profitable if showcased and promoted correctly. The festival includes a myriad of New Orleans based acts as well as national touring bands.

The Frenchmen Street venues hosting this festival will be The Maison; both upstairs and downstairs, Dragon's Den; upstairs and downstairs, Blue Nile: upstairs and downstairs as well, D.B.A., R Bar and Checkpoint Charlie's. With so many acts performing back to back and simultaneously, this festival will surely be full of positive music energy. It is also a great time to host a festival of this sort with spring festival season just upon us. Let's spring towards a unique and incomparable festival season as only New Orleans can!

In weeks past when I first saw the name of the festival in print "Foburg: A Music Festival" I wondered why the word "Foubourg" was spelled incorrectly and I figured it was part of some clever marketing/advertising idea. The webpage for the festival states that they were indeed doing this by playing with the word "Foubourg" in reference to the Foubourg Marigny neighborhood in which the event takes place. "As you know, most indie festivals have silly, but memorable names (IE – Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza) We wanted Foburg to do the same – but with some sort of New Orleans relevance."

Jazz, blues and funk thrill me deeply albeit the idea of listening to different sounds and beats excites me just as much. In speaking about music, I believe change is good and music must mutate and evolve in order to keep audiences interested. Furthermore, New Orleans has historically played a huge roll in rock and roll and it is all but fitting to hold a festival promoting some of the new players in this forever growing genre.

Some of the talented bands showcased in the festival include Rotary Downs, Giant Cloud, Silent Cinema, Big Rock Candy Mountain, MyNameisJohnMichael, Glasgow, Los Po-Boycitos, Mia Borders and Big Blue Marble all from New Orleans. The festival will also feature national acts such as A Million Years and Davey Mooney from New York, BrassBed from Lafayette-LA, Savoir Adoire from Brooklyn, Signals from LA and Hope For Agoldensummer from Athens, GA just to name a few. Just typing all these names makes me more anxious to support this festival with such a huge roster of musicians bringing the rock and alternative scene to Frenchmen Street.

The Frenchmen Street area along with Dragon's Den on Esplanade and R Bar on Royal Street will be saturated with savvy music listeners enjoying the eclectic sounds of indie Rock and alternative music all weekend. Don't miss this first ever Foburg Music Festival beginning this Friday, March 12, to Sunday, March 14. The music will be worth it and might offer some inspiration.

A list of Artist below:

A Living Soundtrack
The Show is the Rainbow
Giant Cloud
The Blue Party
Hope For Agoldensummer
Silent Cinema
Hurray for the Riff Raff
The Bears of Blue River
The Pharmacy
Pumpkin
Caddywhompus
Dr. Manhattan
Big Rock Candy Mountain
Sun Hotel
Givers
The Revivalists
MyNameIsJohnMichael
Signals
Peelander-Z
Savoir Adore
Brass Red
One Man Machine
Dirty Bourbon River Show
Vox and the Hound
Flow Tribe
Smiley with a Knife
Mon Khmer
Yardwork
Chris Rehm
Booty Trove
Luke Winslow-King
The Bellys
Chaz Knapp & The Craft Brothers
High in One Eye
Davy Mooney
Consortium of Genius
Megafauna
A Million Years
Loren Murrell
Alexis Marceaux
We Landed on the Moon
Dinosaur Feathers
Helen Gillet
Rotary Downs
Andrew Duhon
The Happy Talk Band
The Frontier Brothers
Ben Labat and the Happy Devil
Savoy
Big Blue Marble
Wazozo
Mia Borders
Black Taxi
DJ Bees Knees
Wativ
The Other Planets
Drumcart
DJ Pasta
Big Fat & Delicious
The Gills
Jean - Eric
DJ Lefty Parker
The Burroughs
Dummy Dumpster
Sings
Gamma Ringo
Hightide Blues
Steve Eck and the Midnight Stills
Jeff the Brotherhood
Glasgow
Ray Bong
Reno Bo
Mark Weliky Trio
Meg Roussel
Ratty Scurvics Ensemble
Meschiya Lake
New Grass Country Club
Natalie Mae
Hugo
Los Po-Boy-Citos
DJ Alison Fensterstock
Local Skank
King Rey
Zorch
Love Hog
Gris Gris


"You can't stay the same. If you're a musician and a singer, you have to change, that's the way it works."--Van Morrison