Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
October is nearly here. Match pre-Halloween candy sales with some concert-going and that’s a recipe for general happiness.
Here’s what’s coming up this week.
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 9/26/13-10/2/13”
Recovering from Outside Lands has been, well, tough this year. However, much like a hangover, you really just need a little more music the next morning to feel normal again.
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 8/15/13-8/21/13”
Concerts! Shows! Performances! And this week in the Bay Area, they’re extra-beardy!
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 4/11/13-4/17/13”
Spinning Platters’ writers Christopher Rogers and Dakin Hardwick both got to enjoy a performance by Stella: Michael Ian Black, David Wain, and Michael Showalter‘s nightclub show.
Instead of boring you with a typical “review” of the show, Spinning Platters is opening the fourth wall, and allowing you into the personal lives of these two legendary journalists. This is a transcript of a private chat between the two, discussing the show on Google Chat.
After the jump, you will learn how a writer thinks.
Continue reading “Sketchfest Review: Stella at Mezzanine, 1/21/12”
Original Dillinger member Ben Weinman exhorts the crowd onward. Guitar above head in the middle of a song? Yes.
“Sometimes words just can’t express exactly how we feel. The deep complexity of our emotions is something I’ve always felt was better conveyed in song. Sometimes we are put into a situation that we don’t always know how to deal with quite right. Here’s my attempt at letting you know how I feel. All I can offer is my deepest thanks to everyone who sent a card, everyone who wrote about the situation in a zine, did a show, donated money at a show, or offered their sympathy to what amounts to be a stranger. You always put a smile on this cynical asshole’s face and helped me get through the hardest year of my life. I hope I’ll be seeing all of you soon.”
– From the liner notes of the Dillinger Escape Plan’s album Calculating Infinity by former bassist Adam Doll.
As Doll said, some emotions can’t be summed up neat and tidy through words. Sometimes what we feel can only be expressed through sound.
This is where the Dillinger Escape Plan excels. Continue reading “Show Review: The Dillinger Escape Plan in Yerba Buena Gardens at GDC, 3/2/2011”
The Corin Tucker Band – 1,000 Years.
Corin Tucker was one-third of one of the greatest bands the world has ever known.
In Sleater-Kinney, she made powerful, personal music strong enough to restore a person’s conviction in themselves or rock-and-roll or both. Her voice arced through speakers and rock clubs like the weapon in a video game that could cut through all the enemies in one stupendous blast and keep going to and through the edge of the screen.
Then, in 2006 Sleater-Kinney went on hiatus.
Now what? Continue reading “Album Review: The Corin Tucker Band — 1,000 Years”
Aaron Espinoza and Jason Lytle of Admiral Radley, plying their craft.
Jason Lytle and Aaron Burtch of Grandaddy plus Aaron Espinoza and Ariana Murray of Earlimart equals Admiral Radley.
These two midtempo guitar-and-keyboard indie rock crews plugged in their effects pedals together and now the Admiral has come to town. Continue reading “Show Review: Admiral Radley at The Bottom Of The Hill, 7/23/2010”
Frontguy and basketball enthusiast Doug Martsch at work.
Had Built To Spill been resting on their laurels?
The two previous albums before the current There Is No Enemy LP displayed what could be construed as the gentle complacency of an aging NBA star on a team going into the rebuilding process: a few gems here-and-there to remind us what they were capable of, but a general sense of the motivation just not being there.
Doug Martsch‘s band had released several albums and tracks widely regarded as classics: the Perfect From Now On LP; songs like “Car,” “You Were Right,” and the gorgeous, haunting “Randy Described Eternity.” He’d spearheaded and mastered his own brand of good-natured wide-striding heavily-layered swirling guitar-heroics-based indie rock. Now what?
What would it look like if Boise’s second-favorite export had something to prove?
San Francisco got the answer when Built To Spill took the stage at Slim’s.
Continue reading “Show Review: Built To Spill at Slim’s, 7/15/2010”
Ani DiFranco played a set of new unreleased songs before a tiny audience of mostly students at Ex’pression College Of Digital Arts in Emeryville.
Opening with an atonal labor song from the 1930s that she’d written new verses for, DiFranco invited the crowd to sing along. Continue reading “Show Review: Ani DiFranco at Ex’pression College For Digital Arts, 6/24/2010”
Every so often, something positive will happen.
A puppy may cross your path. Sometimes, a meal will far exceed expectations. Occasionally, a friend will find someone who is a really wonderful match for themselves. These are all simple good things.
This year, my favorite band from when I was much younger decided to get back together. Continue reading “Show Review: Faith No More at The Warfield, 4/12/10”