Spinning Platters’ Top 20 Albums of 2020

By The Spinning Platters Editorial Staff

What a shit year, am I right? I guess that’s the consensus all around. It was also a weird year for music… The first half of the year had a bunch of great records that were released with touring in mind, full of epic live songs that are meant to be heard in a crowd and that simply didn’t happen. The second half was full of intense projects made while in seclusion. Projects where the recording is really the only means of connecting. This was a great year for the art of the album, despite it being a terrible year for musicians to make a living. Which is why we are giving you a top 20 this year! A lot of independent artists mixed in with the big ones, so please buy a record or two, or some merch to help keep them alive and able to hit the road when it’s safe. 

A quick note: We begin this process in October, so our years is 11/1-11/1. So, yes, you will see at least one late 2019 album on this list. Continue reading “Spinning Platters’ Top 20 Albums of 2020”

Spinning Platters’ Top 10 Albums of 2019

By The Spinning Platters’ Editorial Team

2019 was an insane musical year… If I traveled back to 2000 and told me that Trent Reznor would have writing credit on the longest running #1 single of all time, and that song was a duet between a 20 year old rapper and Billy Ray Cyrus that won a CMA award, I’d think you were insane. (BTW: I just watched the video to this song for the first time, and it’s pretty wonderfully weird) The insanity is a good thing, and our top 10 of the year ended up being our most eclectic one yet!

#10  Pony / Orville Peck Continue reading “Spinning Platters’ Top 10 Albums of 2019”

Spinning Platters’ Top 50 Records from our First Decade: 31-50

Our very first photo posted was too small an image of Marnie Stern & I. I stand by the importance of this image.

The very first article posted to Spinning Platters was March 25th, 2009. It was a diary of the first few days of my second visit to SXSW. You can read that here, and even look at a picture of me 29 year old me with Marnie Stern. 

That means this little music blog that has evolved into a music, film, theater, and comedy blog, and has been around for more than a decade at this point. So, in order to commemorate this time, I reached out to every person that has ever contributed to the site to pull together a top 50 records of the first ten years of Spinning Platters. That would be between March 2009 and March 2019. 

Not everyone got back to me. I even got a couple, “I don’t remember doing this” emails from people that only contributed a couple of articles. However, this is definitely a list that represents the tastes of everyone that has been part of this thing. Since 50 records is a lot to take in at once, I’m just going to give you 31-50 today. Only without any words about the record at all, just a video from that album. Coming soon will be 11-30 with more commentary, and 1-10 with even more commentary will be coming your way before Christmas. So without further adieu, here’s your list! 

Continue reading “Spinning Platters’ Top 50 Records from our First Decade: 31-50”

Spinning Platters’ Best Of 2014: Individual Staff Lists

One of the many great records that Spinning Platters Writers enjoyed in 2014
One of the many great records that Spinning Platters Writers enjoyed in 2014

2014 was a good year for music — you just had to lose yourself in something unsafe. – Staff Writer Jonathan Pirro.

A lot of people seemed mighty nonplussed by 2014’s recorded music output. Sure, there was a lot of somewhat generic, unimpressive stuff. However, if you did some real hunting, you’ll find that there was some incredibly impressive stuff out there. Here are Spinning Platter’s Staff’s individual lists of favorite records of 2014, starting with my own list:

Continue reading “Spinning Platters’ Best Of 2014: Individual Staff Lists”

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 9/1/11-9/7/11

Opening for Archers Of Loaf on Saturday Night!

Happy Labor Day! Let’s appreciate the working men and women of American by going to an awesome show this week! What do you say?

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 9/1/11-9/7/11”

Spinning Platters Picks Six (x2) – 12 Most Important American Pop Songs of The Last Decade

TigerBeat-JustinBieber P1As the decade comes to an end, it means it’s time for lists. Lots of lists. All making a vague attempt at condensing the most pivotal parts of our popular culture, and spitting them out in a haphazard form. This is a list of what I, personally, consider to be the most important pure pop musical moments of our decade. You will be upset by things on this list. You may think I am a complete idiot for missing “____” by The _____’s. Just remember, this is a list of POP songs. I will not mis-estimate the importance of Radiohead, AR Rahman, The Strokes, Arcade Fire, Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, and other acts that will appear on every other best of the decade list. This is just a pop list. I don’t have room for the Fleet Foxes, I’m sorry.

Please Read, then begin arguing about my picks in the comments area (In no particular order):

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Picks Six (x2) — 12 Most Important American Pop Songs of The Last Decade”

Spinning Platters Podcast: Episode 5 – Digital Delay

This Gordon could kick our Gordon's butt in a fight.
This Gordon could kick our Gordon's butt in a fight.

Episode 5 of the Spinning Platters podcast features guest Caroline Hernandez of Spinning Platters joining us to discuss the upcoming Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.  As always, we go off on our crazy tangents, and we invite you to listen to the crazy digital-delay blooper all the way at the end of the podcast.

We also discuss the following: Continue reading “Spinning Platters Podcast: Episode 5 — Digital Delay”