Siren Music Festival

The Black Lips, Siren Music Festival 2007

Photograph: Stefano Giovanni/Siren Music Festival

Coney Island; Sat 19

The Village Voice unveiled its Siren Music Festival in 2001 with a pair of ’90s Matador Records luminaries—the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Guided by Voices—helming the bill. At the time, devoting such a massive event to something so piddling as indie rock seemed novel; seven years on, rambling indie festivals are summertime fixtures, dwarfing the Siren Fest much as a Six Flags roller coaster does the Coney Island Cyclone. Yet rather than falling victim to its own success, the free event remains a big draw. This year’s edition is headlined by yet another ’90s Matador heavy, Stephen Malkmus, plus a smattering of more recently anointed stars hailing from points north (Broken Social Scene, Islands), south (Annuals), east (Beach House) and west (the Dodos). The true star, however, is the glut of enthusiastic young people, drawn to Coney Island much like their ancestors, craving overstimulation.