Spinning Platters’ Top 10 Albums of 2023

By The SPINNING PLATTERS STAFF

Hello! It’s your favorite procrastinating music blog here to present you with… THE LAST TOP ALBUMS OF 2023 LIST! I know everyone else is trying to be first. But the one you remember best is the last one you read, and this is probably the best list anyway. It’s also only 10 records, so you can really sink your teeth into it. 

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Keep Live Alive: SF Sketchfest & Noise Pop Open Their Archives

Before the COVID Virus decided to destroy life as we know it in the Bay Area, we were lucky enough to get to enjoy two of the best festivals the Bay has to offer: SF Sketchfest and Noise Pop. Both fests had banner years, and as a thank you to the venues that helped make them happen year after year, both SF Sketchfest and Noise Pop are opening up their rich archives of great shows. This gives you the opportunity to either relive these shows, or if you couldn’t make it, actually get to enjoy shows you missed, and all to raise money for these venues so they can reopen once the pandemic is contained, as well as other local charities!

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Festival Review: LoveLoud 2019 at USANA Amphitheatre, 6/29/19

It’s July, and another successful SF Pride Parade is in the books… or so I hear. I personally missed it, sadly, but I did so for good reason. Obviously, we live in one of the most gay-friendly cities in the world, and while it would have been fun to come out to share the celebration (not to mention the spectacle) that is Pride in the Bay Area, I chose instead to celebrate with the LGBTQ+ youth of Salt Lake City.

The only photo I took of Kesha’s LoveLoud set: her fabulous rainbow confetti all over the ground.

Utah is, of course, fairly synonymous with Mormonism. Imagine growing up LGBTQ+ and having to consider whether to stay closeted, or to come out and risk being shunned, rejected, or excommunicated not only from your entire church, but your community and likely your whole family, too. It’s not hard to see why the LGBTQ+ youth in the LDS church have an incredibly high suicide rate. Enter one of the most famous Mormons this side of Donny & Marie: Imagine Dragons’ frontman, Dan Reynolds. Reynolds founded the LoveLoud Foundation, which puts on an annual festival in the Salt Lake City area every June to allow a safe place to celebrate Pride while raising money for local and national LGBTQ+ charities. 

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Outside Lands 2017: Top 10 Acts from The Bottom Half of The Poster

The best thing about a festival is tripping over your new favorite band, not hearing The Who do “My Generation” for the 4,000th time. So, I present to you here are your ten new favorite acts… all pulled from the bottom half of the Outside Lands poster. Still haven’t bought tickets? Well, there’s still time. Just click here!
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Show Review: Icona Pop, k. flay, Sirah at The Fillmore, 12/18/13

iconapop

Icona Pop were supposed to play The Fillmore back in August. I was out of town, and bummed that I couldn’t make it. I don’t generally get excited about illness, but I was happy that one of the members falling ill led to a rebooking to a date I can make.  The rescheduling didn’t hurt attendance, either, as it was still the hottest ticket in town. They are riding high on a debut record where nearly every track is all over the radio, from the spring time smash “I Love It,” to the current “All Night,” they are one of the few break out acts of 2013. So selling out The Fillmore was a most epic way to end a stellar year.

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 12/18/13-12/24/13

graffiti-artist-vs-a-vandal-1

Merry Christmas! Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 12/18/13-12/24/13”

Show Review: Phono del Sol, 7/13/13

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Phono del Sol is quickly becoming a festival to be reckoned with. In it’s third year, attendance seems to have more then tripled their attendance from the year prior, and I think, these year, have finally solidified itself as the tastemaking music festival of the Summer. It’s the perfect situation: a sunny day in one of San Francisco’s most underappreciated spaces: Potrero del Sol Park. It has a stage pre built directly in front of a skate park, making for a stage experience unlike any other show. This year they added an additional stage, doubling the amount of music. And, much like Treasure Island, the two stages were set up so there was no overlap, and, in fact, we got to enjoy 6 1/2 hours of continuous music.

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 7/11/13-7/17/13

Wednesday Night at The Fillmore
Wednesday Night at The Fillmore

The week is going to be a glorious week of rock n roll madness.

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Treasure Island Music Festival 2012 Diary: Day 1

A festival patron is enjoying use of the trampoline.

Normally the Treasure Island Festival likes to separate Saturday and Sunday by genre: Saturday is the electronic day and Sunday is the rock day. However, as the lines blur between the two worlds, so did the festival. As Sunday will have a fair amount on laptops, Saturday seemed to have a healthy dose of live drums and guitar. And, well, for me, a lot of new music to tap into. This may be the first year where I was largely unfamiliar with the bulk of the acts playing on Saturday, which made my day even more exciting. I had a nice adventure, and I hope you enjoyed yourself, too. And if you didn’t, well, I feel bad.

(All Photos are by the fantastic Kelly Hoffer)

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 10/11/12-10/17/12

Thursday at The New Parish!

We’ve reached the mid way point in “Rocktober,” and things certainly aren’t mellow… I may be at a show all 7 of these days. You will be, too!

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