puscifer – Spinning Platters

Show Review: Puscifer with Luchafer at the Fox Oakland, 12/8/2015

Puscifer (Mat Mitchell, Paul Barker, Jeff Friedl, Carina Round, and Maynard James Keenan)

Let’s get one thing out of the way before this review starts: Puscifer is not a side project. It’s a sprawling, multifaceted, genre-defying, borderline-synaesthetic outlet of artistic expression, the brainchild of Tool vocalist/winemaker Maynard James Keenan and musical mastermind Mat Mitchell — and at this point, they’ve been grinding the axe for nigh unto a decade (closer to twenty years, if you count their brief appearance on Mr. Show way back when), and it absolutely shows. The collective has been refining the elements of what their sound, their mission, and their performance entails, for that entire span of time and 2015’s Money Shot — the album, the tour, the experience — is the next step along the journey within the minds of this collective of visionaries. As with everything released during their career thus far, don’t let the smirk-inspiring record title (nor its positively comedic artwork) lead you into dismissing them outright. If anything, it’s a bit of a relief to know that the men and women of Puscifer have a sense of humor to match the seriousness with which they take their production, both for the live show and the music itself.

Continue reading “Show Review: Puscifer with Luchafer at the Fox Oakland, 12/8/2015”

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 12/3/15-12/9/15

This week around the San Francisco Bay Area: Love! Honey! Medicine! Class war! Typos! Beards! And a moonlighting winemaker.

Let’s preview the week’s upcoming shows, shall we?
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 12/3/15-12/9/15”

Show Review: Cinquanta: A Special Evening with Puscifer, A Perfect Circle & Failure at the Greek Theatre LA, 5/10/2014

I’m going to be turning 30 later this month, and I’ve already got a grand party planned out. It’s a jovial occasion in recognition of youth and times gone by, as much as it is one of the future to come and a chance to just let loose in the present moment with my closest friends. With the experiences I’ve had and the frequently wonderful, often chaotic, but always memorable memories that come from them, there’s an awful lot that has happened to me in the 3 decades I’ve spent on the planet. I can only begin to imagine when doing something like this will be in decades to come, but I can only hope that it is anything close to the fantastic evening that Maynard James Keenan, world-renowned musician and dedicatedly rustic winemaker, shared with close friends and hardcore fans alike in celebration of his 50th birthday. Continue reading “Show Review: Cinquanta: A Special Evening with Puscifer, A Perfect Circle & Failure at the Greek Theatre LA, 5/10/2014”

Show Review: Carina Round at The Apple Store and Café du Nord, 5/8/2012

Watch the people get tricked out of time

If you were fortunate enough to catch the last two waves of touring put upon by Puscifer, the brainchild of one Maynard James Keenan of Tool fame, you might have caught a glimpse of a sultry and furious siren known as Carina Round, who opened for the art-collective-cum-musical-explosion on every single one of their dates. In addition to kicking off the show and stunning audiences who were unprepared for an opening act that held her own ground and shook the foundations of the theaters she co-occupied, the Wolverhampton, UK-born Carina also lent her rich and sensuous voice to the backup vocal duties of the main act — sometimes taking center stage to lead the musicians around her, while frontman Keenan practiced his customary hiding in the shadows. What you might have missed, however, was the release of Tigermending, her self-produced third record. Nearly half a decade in the making, with guest appearances from musicians as varied as Brian Eno, Billy Corgan, and Dave Stewart, the album is a dense and thunderous exploration of worlds unknown and lingering, decadent thoughts and messages. To express all of the fury and power of this release in a live setting is a daunting task, but tonight at Café du Nord, Carina proved that she was more than up for it.

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 3/15/12-3/21/12

kaiser — The guys who baked these rolls are at the Fillmore on Tuesday night.

Just because half of the music blog world, including many Spinning Platterers (Spinning Platypuses?), are off in Austin at SXSW doesn’t mean that the music stops up here in the Bay Area. We’ve even got a unique and fantastic event this coming weekend that will blow the lid off of anything being offered down South this weekend. And no, that’s not just me being envious of those partying in Austin, although I am. So those of us left behind, we so-called SXSF folks, where will we be? Read on! Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 3/15/12-3/21/12”

Week in Review: Top 5 Posts from 10/30-11/5

Maynard wants you to read Spinning Platters

This week was pretty much dominated by Puscifer, the traveling musical carnival and brainchild of Maynard James Keenan. A simple little tweet gave us a record traffic day on Friday, so there’s no surprise what will be at #1 on this week’s busiest posts. But why stop reading at number one when numbers two through five are also chock full of valuable musical information? Continue reading “Week in Review: Top 5 Posts from 10/30-11/5”

Show Review: Puscifer with Uncle Scratch’s Gospel Revival at The Fox Oakland, 11/5/2009

Hey! Wait! That title looks awfully familiar. You mean to tell me that those troublemakers in Puscifer, the art/music/performance collective spearheaded by Maynard James Keenan of Tool/A Perfect Circle, were allowed into the Fox Theater for yet another night of mayhem, debauchery and… Wait, what’s that? Country music? No, Puscifer doesn’t play country music, they play industrial-experimental-electronic… What do you mean, the stage is built like the front of a Wild West house, complete with porch armchairs and old-style pop filter microphones?

Yes, Puscifer was back. Yes, they brought Uncle Scratch’s Gospel Revival back with them. But, no, it was not like the first night — as evidenced by the aforementioned set design, Puscifer had come back to play some old-fashioned country westerns. Well, old-fashioned is actually an incorrect term — after all, these were their own songs, although there’s probably some desolate corner of the world where these bastardized country ballads could be considered old-fashioned westerns.

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Show Review: Puscifer with Uncle Scratch’s Gospel Revival at The Fox Oakland, 11/4/2009

Puscifer02

Forget any expectations you have for the evening at hand. Leave them at the door, which, in the case of tonight’s show, is beset with a flock of confused, wary patrons, eyeing a man in an off-tan suit and taped-together sunglasses, who is armed with a megaphone. The man is Brother Ed of Uncle Scratch’s Gospel Revival, and he is begging, PLEADING for the patrons to not enter the Fox Theater tonight, to not forsake their own souls as the cost of attending this show which, according to him, can only be the work of the Devil himself.

Brother Ed should be scared. His rants, while facetious at their core, are somewhat justified. He and his band will be opening, tonight, for Puscifer.

Continue reading “Show Review: Puscifer with Uncle Scratch’s Gospel Revival at The Fox Oakland, 11/4/2009”