Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
Here’s what you’ve been waiting for: my 2023 cinematic favorites! You can also check out fellow film critic Chad Liffmann’s list here to compare and contrast and see who you agree with more. Will Oscar voters agree with us? We’ll find out when the nominations are announced on January 23rd!
Continue reading “Film Feature: Carrie’s Top 10 Films of 2023”
If you love basketball and you want to see an in depth movie about Michael Jordan, watch Netflix’s The Last Dance. But if you love stories about high-stakes gambling, go see Ben Affleck’s Air. What Affleck gives us here isn’t a sports story. It’s a tale about business, and a wonderfully juicy one at that. Air tells the story of how Jordan’s contract with Nike nearly single-handedly transformed the middling Oregon-based company into the world’s greatest apparel empire, thanks to the story’s main characters placing big bets: on Jordan by Sonny Vaccaro, a then little-known Nike marketing executive; on Vacarro by his boss, Nike founder Phil Knight, and on Nike by Jordan’s family, particularly his mother Deloris.
It’s Pride Weekend in San Francisco this week, and it’s fun to see all the bright-eyed people in the city who are attending their first Pride celebration.
Speaking of going to new things, let’s talk about this week’s concerts. Here’s what we’ve got coming up this week in the Bay Area: tanned people, clan people, French people, bad people, and cool people. Should be a pretty cool week.
So, let’s preview. We’re previewing now. Let’s preview and do the preview where we preview. Preview!
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 2017-06-21 — 2017-06-25”
The announcement sent panic waves throughout the indie rockers of San Francisco: Phoenix at The Independent on April Fool’s Day. And this was not a hoax. What it was, though, was an impossible ticket. A representative of The Independent was quoted in the paper as saying the show sold out “immediately.” It sent everyone I know scrambling for tickets, wanting to be at what was officially the welcome back party for Steve Masters of Live 105, and would also serve as the unofficial kickoff to Fauxchella. Continue reading “Show Review: Phoenix with Mac DeMarco at The Independent, 4/1/2013”
“What’s wrong Chazzy Black, you look sad?”
“I don’t know Linux, I know we have all this great music that came out in 2011 (Spinning Platters Top Ten Albums of 2011), but I’m just not happy. I like dreamy guitars, sad depressing themes, and booty shaking grooves and all that, but I’m just not sure it means anything anymore. All these albums are derivative…”
“Chazzy Black you’re the only person I know that can take a wonderful thing like the music of 2011 and turn it into a problem.”
“Isn’t there anyone that can tell me what music is all about?!
“Sure Chazzy Black I can tell you what music is all about”
“Time Machine Please…”
“And there was my favorite music of 1998…”
Continue reading “Who Needs New Music? My top albums of 1998!”
Electronic acts far and wide have begun to embrace the digital world as a new means of performance, production, and musical composition. Despite the ease and shimmer that is brought to songs of digital birth, there is really nothing quite like the humming, warm drones of analog circuits, whether they be in new-school oscillators or old-school synthesizers — or possibly both. Tonight’s performance at the Fox Theater welcomed two acts — Air from France, and AM from Los Angeles — who brought the gentle charm of analog and the sweeping beauty of ambient electronics to a theater which often plays host to some of the loudest and most bombastic rock acts of today. Continue reading “Show Review: Air with AM at The Fox Oakland, 3/26/2010”
Chances are, if you’re a music aficionado, you’ve already heard of AM. If not directly from a friend or by way of online channels such as Lala and thesixtyone, where he currently enjoys a strong presence, then you’ve most likely been exposed through a more traditional medium.
This is due to the fact that every single track off of his 2006 full-length debut, Troubled Times, has appeared in either a film or TV show. Thus far, the Tulsa-born, New Orleans-bred singer-songwriter has been savvy enough to capitalize on the momentum of such a promising start. AIR has asked him to open for them on their North American tour and when that concludes, he’ll embark on a stint with none other than Charlotte Gainsbourg as she also treks through the U.S. and Canada.
Continue reading “Album Review: AM — Future Sons & Daughters”
After all the chaos that was Spinning Platters’ visit to Austin, TX for a bit of SXSW action, it’s time to come home and do what we did while we were in Texas, see a bunch of great live bands. Many of them we will be seeing again. So, fire up those ear plugs and get ready to dance: Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 3/24/10-3/30/10”
I was super busy with work this week. I tried squeezing in more music but just couldn’t. A lot of my time was spent listening to lame music. I will redeem myself next week. Continue reading “New Release Round Up, 10/6/09 — 28 Instant Album Reviews”