John Waters\ – Spinning Platters

Mosswood Meltdown- Single Day Line Ups // Afterparties // New Acts!

“Mosswood Meltdown is a pissed-off July 4th weekend celebration for the punk rock elite. Slum-goddess feminists, butch twinks, homo-masculine straight guys-we’re all ready to pogo our way to musical mayhem.”

– John Waters

Our good friends at Mosswood Meltdown continue to make the greatest festival lineup ever (according to me) even greaterest! (WTF? Grammarly didn’t flag that word?!?!) In addition to the previously announced returns of Le Tigre, Bratmobile, Gravy Train!!!!, Mika Miko, The Rondells, JJ Fad, and too many more to name, we have been gifted with four ridiculously cool additions! We have Oakland’s Twompsax bidding us adieu with their last two performances ever. We also have Japan’s greatest surf band, The 5678s, returning to the US for the first time in a while. For those of you sick of music played by humans, the Teddy Bear Orchestra (which really is a band comprised of robot teddy bears) will give pleasure to your ears as a distraction while they plot to take over the human race.

They’ve also FINALLY let us know who is playing on which days. For me, personally, that stretch of SNOOPER to Bratmobile on Sunday is about as perfect as a music festival could possibly be. Full details are below, as well as info on the afterparties! Tickets are available here, and get them while you can! This is looking like selling out is not out of the question…

Continue reading “Mosswood Meltdown- Single Day Line Ups // Afterparties // New Acts!”

Mosswood Meltdown 2023: Full Line Up Announce (It’s kind of insane!)

(Poster by “The Real” Janelle Blarg)

The year is 2001. I’m broke, sharing an illegal inlaw in the Sunset with a friend. My job at the record store is distracting me from school, and I’m not sure I can focus on school, anyways. The soundtrack that gave me the motivation to get through it all? Well, it was mostly Bratmobile and Sleater-Kinney. Fast forward 20 years, and I’ve got a good job, a great partner and kiddo, a moderately successful music blog, and the joy of getting to introduce my kid to the greatness that is Bratmobile live! THEY ARE PLAYING THEIR FIRST PUBLIC SHOW SINCE 2003 AT MOSSWOOD MELTDOWN!!! Amazingly, several other bands that brought me joy in the darkness of my 20s are also playing! Le Tigre, GRAVY TRAIN!!! and Quintron & Miss Pussycat were already announced from my Electroclash era, but joining them include Disco Punk groundbreakers ESG, Hip-Hop Pioneers (and the group whose success funded the first NWA record) JJ Fad, SF Punk Icons The Avengers, LA Punks Mika Miko (playing their first show in a decade themselves), and way too much more. Full lineup below the jump, and tickets are on sale now. Get them quickly, as they are gonna sell out in a supersonic boom!

Mosswood Meltdown Full 2023 Lineup Continue reading “Mosswood Meltdown 2023: Full Line Up Announce (It’s kind of insane!)”

Thee Stork Club Hath Returned

One night, maybe about a decade ago, I found myself bar hopping with a group of friends and, somehow, my high school girlfriend. It was already a weird night, and we landed on The Stork Club. I had heard about this place for years, but, somehow never entered it’s hallowed halls. There was a real drunken haze to the night already, but I am pretty sure there was a burlesque show happening when we arrived at like 11pm. Then at midnight it turned into an 80’s goth dance party. Then at 1am, I’m pretty sure a jam band started setting up. It was a very weird night. But it brought me much joy, too… So I was gutted when they ended up shutting in 2020.

Fast forward to 2022, and the folks behind Mosswood Meltdown, Eli’s Mile High Club, and Hemlock Tavern have gotten together to reopen the place. Only with an extra “e”, so it’s now Thee Stork Club! And there will be a retro cocktail bar, a live performance space, and what is especially vital in this day and age- THEY ARE OPENING UP IT’S BACK YARD!!! So you might actually be able to enjoy a drink with a limited threat of COVID!

Opening night is July 1st, and it will be a special show with John Waters, Shannon Shaw, and Budget Rock’s DJ Chris Owen. Sadly tickets are sold out, but there will be plenty more fun where that came from!

Mosswood Meltdown Line Up Announcement!

Remember late 2019 when the amazing Bikini Kill announced they were touring again, and those dates included an appearance at Burger Boogaloo in Oakland? And remember how excited we all were? And then a self-destructive GOP gambled away anything possibly enjoyable in 2020 by deciding that “COVID-19 will just go away on its own” instead of doing something bold and decisive and fast, and over a year of our lives was stolen from us?

Well, I’ve got some good news for you. Coming to Mosswood Park on July 2nd and 3rd, 2022, is a brand new festival, rising from the ashes of Burger Boogaloo. The event organizers have cut all ties with Burger Records and are bringing you two days of punk rock fun, and John Waters is still on board as the master of ceremonies! It’s called Mosswood Meltdown, and your original Burger Boogaloo tickets will still be good for it!

Who is playing? Well, the legendary Bikini Kill is making their first Bay Area appearance since the late ’90s. Belgium’s new wave pioneer Plastic Bertrand is playing their first Bay Area EVER. The Carbonas are playing their first Bay Show in over a decade, too! Rounding out the first wave of bands are my favorite modern band, BLEACHED, local icons Shannon Shaw, Pansy Division, and Rubinos, as well as The Fevers, The Younger Lovers, and Midnite Snaxxx. Plus many more to come, including what is rumored to be an absolutely amazing second headliner. 2 Day GA and VIP Passes as well as single-day tickets are ON SALE NOW!!!

Burger Boogaloo 2020’s Lineup IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not a lot of people know this, but one of Oakland’s best kept secrets is this little rock festival in Mosswood Park called Burger Boogaloo. And this year’s line up is seriously the most impressive line up they’ve assembled yet! We have Bikini Kill playing their first Bay Area show in 25 years! We were their in April for one of their first shows back, and it was pure sonic catharsis. Also returning to the bay for the first time in over a decade is LA Hardcore legends Circle Jerks. (No word if they will be bringing Debbie Gibson along with them, but we certainly hope so!) And, if you thought those two things were impressive, they are also bringing to the United States for the first time ever, legendary French rock band Plastic Bertrand. And, yes, that does mean I will finally get to live my dream of getting thrown around in a pit to this song.

Filling out the initial line up announcement is LA punk vet Alice Bag, SF punk vets Flipper, Queercore groundbreakers Pansy Division, one of the greatest modern Power Pop bands, Bleached, who literally wrote the only song to ever make me cry, Panty Raid, Fevers, Twompsax, Younger Lovers, Midnite Snaxx, Carbonas and even more bands will be announced very soon. Oh yeah, and John Waters will be there to MC the party!

The event is in Mosswood Park in Oakland, CA, just a few blocks from Macarthur Bart. The event is happening July 11th-12th, and tickets are available NOW! Just remember, prices will go up, so buy them ASAP.

Here Is A Safe Space: Burger Boogaloo 2017

I used to go to a lot of shows. I spent most of my twenties in Chicago, which, oh man, the music scene. Ten bucks could get you a Huber Bock and what felt like constant access to [The] Gossip. Gingerman, Elbo Room, Delilah’s, the Metro, Empty Bottle, the Vic, and countless little dank bars.

I’m older and more tired now, but that isn’t why I almost never go to shows. On about a 1:1 ratio, for every show I attended in Chicago, there was one I called off at the last minute, one I spent huddled in a corner, one I missed most of because I “stepped out for air” and never went back in. A couple years ago, I stopped fighting the fact that I rarely, if ever, feel safe at shows. I had to start saying it in words when I started dating my husband, who goes to an average of two shows a week, and who can predict with almost 100% accuracy which bands I will like. I’d watch him bop easily around a room hugging friends, and realize we’d never have a relationship if I kept trying to go to shows and standing stiffly in the least crowded part of the space with my arms locked around my chest until enough time had passed that I felt justified shouting “I’M READY TO GO NOW” in his ear. Continue reading “Here Is A Safe Space: Burger Boogaloo 2017”

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 2017-06-28 – 2017-07-02

It’s the week between Pride Weekend and the Fourth of July Weekend. A chance to catch your breath.

Speaking of catching things, let’s talk about what you can catch in this week’s shows. What we’ve got coming up this week in the Bay Area includes: ogres, lifers, (sc)avengers, The Dude and The Iguana.

So, we’re going to do the preview now. Doing the preview now. Preview is go and now we go do the preview now. Previewwww.

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 2017-06-28 – 2017-07-02”

Burger Booglaoo 2015: The Best Show Around

When I visited Gonpachi, the restaurant that inspired Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 1, I watched as a teenage bus boy, carrying a tub of dirty dishes, tripped on the second floor landing, sending a cascade of water on two well-suited Japanese business men at the bar below. Resulting in a flash and flury of apologies, towels, and more apologies, I waited for something to happen.

In all honesty, I hoped this was the open action sequence to a movie – the bus boy, who would *really* be an bus GIRL would be a high-stakes arms dealer attempting to get far undercover into mob headquarters to take out the mob boss who’d killed her father. Amid the building tension and suspicion, Mr. Mob, realizing his restaurant would now be the scene for said revenge, The 5, 6, 7, 8’s would loudly tear into: “I’m Blue.” Brilliantly choreographed knife and fist fights (imagine Kill Bill meets The Raid) between our starring underdog crime fighter lady and the mob’s henchmen would ensue. And above the nash of fists, faces, and katana swords and the interlude of “Bomb the Twist”, John Waters would quietly take the open seat next to me: “Soooo, hmm, yakitori?” he would ask calmly, coyly peeking at me through delighted eyes.

Continue reading “Burger Booglaoo 2015: The Best Show Around“

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 11/20/13-11/26/13

Monday Night at Brick & Mortar Music Hall

Part of this fantastic week of music includes show presented by yours truly… Come join us for Social Studies, Ash Reiter, and The She’s at Brick & Mortar Music Hall on the 25th! You can win tickets, too, if you enter here by November 22nd at 6 PM!

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 11/20/13-11/26/13”