Author: Dakin Hardwick

NOISE POP 2024 PHASE 1 LINEUP!!!

SOUND THE ALARM! It’s time to start planning your 2024 ALREADY!!! Noise Pop dropped their Phase 1 lineup, and it goes on sale TOMORROW! Highlights include two nights of Snail Mail at Great American Music Hall (including one night with The legendary Softies opening!), The Mountain Goats are doing a stripped-down, solo acoustic set (at Grace Cathedral, of all places!), Nine Inch Nails’ (and first ever Italian to get inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, in case you were wondering) Alessandro Cortini is playing Gray Area, and many other Spinning Platters favorites like Cherry Glazerr, chokecherry, Kendra Morris, Thee Sinseers, Roman Candle and more! Full lineup below! Tickets for single shows are on sale 11/10 at 10am here. A limited number of badges remain and you can grab those here! 

Single of the Week: “Make It Up” by King Isis

My first thought, before I even took a chance with an artist called “King Isis,” was, “That’s an awfully brave name!” Digging deeper and learning that King Isis is named after the ancient Egyptian goddess and adding the gender play to that would definitely deeply offend that other organization that ruined the word. So, yeah, I’m already impressed. And the song? It’s a guitar-driven, slightly sludgy, yet incredibly catchy song that doesn’t remind me of anything, and it’s great. And the video is dark and weird and clearly filmed in Oakland, so it’s a bonafide win all around. 

“Make It Up” is available in all the usual places. More to come, of course… And you can find all that out here! 

Show Review: The Breeders with Belly at The Warfield, 10/23/23

On October 24th, 1993, my uncle brought me out to see my favorite band, Belly, as an early birthday present at The Warfield. I was *just* about to turn 13, and it was tradition for us to be taken to our first concert by our uncle. (My sister, a few years earlier, was treated with REM on the legendary Green tour. We are all pretty nerdy kids.) That was literally 30 years ago. Since then, I’ve probably gone to 100s of shows at The Warfield (especially since I worked there for a spell), and live music has essentially been a cornerstone of my life ever since. However, I wasn’t expecting to return to the place where it all started, WITH the band it started with, in time for that anniversary. On top of that, they would be supporting The Breeders! The Last Splash is a record that I know by heart, and although I never got to see them in their original go around, that record was one of my initial “Buy 5 for the price of 1” BMG record club picks! (The rest? Pork Soda by Primus, Human Wheels by John Mellencamp, Stone Free: A Tribute To Jimi Hendrix, and Ramonesmania.)  Continue reading “Show Review: The Breeders with Belly at The Warfield, 10/23/23”

Single of the Week: “DANCER” by IDLES

Somehow, in the many years I’ve been doing this column, we haven’t awarded IDLES with the Single Of The Week prize. THAT CHANGES THIS WEEK! Amazingly, the politically charged UK punk band gives us a song that’s just plain fun? I genuinely appreciate music and dancing, and it’s warm and fuzzy and fills me with great joy. 

“DANCER” is the first single off IDLES’ upcoming full-length record, TANGK, coming to you on February 16th. Preorders and such can be found here. 

Noise Pop 31 Dates Revealed!

(Photo of Thank You Come Again by Marc Fong) 

It’s not even Halloween yet, but it’s time to start getting ready for next Winter’s festivals! Noise Pop decided to extend to 11 whole days for next year, which is BONKERS! So it’s time to clear your calendar and stock up on hangover remedies so you can destroy your eardrums from February 22nd – March 3rd. 

Early Bird badges are SOLD OUT, but watch this page for the next release. It’s certainly going to be worth the money. 

Single of the Week: “Practice” by Jamila Woods featuring Saba

Chicago’s poet/singer/rapper Jamila Woods is very quickly becoming one of those rare artists that I’d buy anything from blind. Her latest record, Water Made Us, keeps dropping great singles. “Practice” is a sexy, romantic, and genuinely happy track. It’s such a nice relief from the exceptionally stressful news week we’ve had to listen to a song that’s such a joy. It’s also a rare video where every single person is naked, yet it’s somehow not NSFW?

Water Made Us is available to stream wherever you pay your monthly streaming dues to. The physical version of the record is coming October 24th, just a few days before my birthday, so if you feel like buying me this on vinyl, I’ll gladly accept it! Woods is also touring, and I’m pretty excited to see this show live. Tickets went on sale today! Continue reading “Single of the Week: “Practice” by Jamila Woods featuring Saba”

Single of the Week: “Out Alpha The Alpha” by Megan Thee Stallion

I guess we are getting a raunchy, musical adult update on The Parent Trap. And it’s called Dicks and it stars Nathan Lane, Megan Mullaly, and Megan Thee Stallion, and it seems pretty absurd. What isn’t absurd is how I’ve spent most of 2023 learning that Megan Thee Stallion is really, really talented. This piece is just chock-full of witty braggadocio, and I’m sure within the context of the film, it’s even wittier, but she is just a beast on the microphone. 

Dicks is in theaters on October 20th, and the soundtrack is out NOW! 

STOP THE PRESSES!!! NEW SLEATER-KINNEY SINGLE!!!! TOUR DATES!!! ALBUM ANNOUNCEMENT!!! HAPPINESS!!!

Good news! The *actual* greatest rock band in America has gifted us a new single, “Hell,” and it’s a cathartic piece of anxious psychedelic darkness. This is probably the biggest song to come from Sleater-Kinney- in a short 3:22, we are taken on a cinematic roller coaster that builds and releases and contracts and I haven’t even started on the video. Miranda July is making her third appearance in a Sleater-Kinney video, and, really, she is so good at expressing a wide array of emotions with just her eyes. Brilliant. 

2024 marks the 30th Anniversary of the band’s first release, “You Ain’t It.” To mark this momentous occasion, they are releasing their 11th studio album, Little Rope, on January 19th. And, of course, they are going on a Spring North American tour! Dates are here, and tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. local time on October 6th! 

Show Review: Lauren Mayberry with Alaska Reid at August Hall, 9/28/23

Brilliant. Chvrches lead vocalist Lauren Mayberry decided to share her first solo album by touring it BEFORE releasing it. It’s such a brave endeavor- we all know her band’s work, but anyone who bought a ticket to this was taking a risk that this project would be worth their time and money. I decided it was worth my time because the curiosity was killing me. Continue reading “Show Review: Lauren Mayberry with Alaska Reid at August Hall, 9/28/23”

Single of the Week: “Lenny” by Atka

I keep trying to figure out what the story of “Lenny” actually is, which maybe why I’ve listened to it so much. Atka says, “This is a song about how one man’s tunnel-visioned obsession with finding meaning turns everything around him into a swamp of meaninglessness that also sucks in everyone around him. It’s witnessing empty repetition right in front of your eyes and the helplessness and all-limbs-dropping-to-the-floor exhaustion felt as a result, when caring for someone who is depressed. And ultimately it’s about the absence of being perceived by that person and one’s drift into a ghost-like state. When no one is watching or sees me – do I even exist? Lenny is about “reverse-paranoia” if you want it.” The song itself is heavy on the analog electronics, with a Kraftwerkian anxiety that somehow doesn’t sound like The Postal Service. All I know is I both really want to know Lenny, but I also don’t want Lenny to get dragged down by my own mental health. 

Anyways, you can also dig deep into the inner workings of “Lenny” and reading your own struggles with your own psyche into the song by streaming it here! Atka has plenty more coming your way, including an EP called The Eye Against The Ashen Sky, due out November 3rd!