Author: Dakin Hardwick

Outside Lands 2021 has been moved to Halloween!

The news that we’ve been expecting for quite some time has finally dropped… Sadly, it looks like it’s not quite feasible for Outside Lands to happen in August this year. The good news? We get to party together in Golden Gate Park for HALLOWEEN!!! Yes, Outside Lands 2021 has been moved to October 29-31. Does this mean that we may get a replay of Tame Impala’s Halloween 2013 show when they performed as The Spice Girls? Dear God, I really hope so. 

More good news: in addition to the already stacked lineup with Lizzo, The Strokes, Tyler, The Creator, Hinds, Vampire Weekend, Kehlani, and more, we’ve got a bunch of new names! We have the first black performer ever to win an electronic music Grammy, Kaytranada. We also have Glass Animals, Lord Huron, Flo Milli, and 24kGoldn all coming to the park for a massive Halloween bash. And, of course, there is still more to come! We haven’t even thought about The Barbary, Heneiken Dome, or Gastromagic stages yet!  

Tickets are available NOW! Including payment plans, if you can’t do it all at once. If you can’t make the new date, you can request a refund until April 17th. But, really, why would you not want to spend Halloween at Outside Lands? 

Single of the Week: “Egg Salad” by The Paranoyds

I’ve been sleeping on The Paranoyds… There is so much good garage rock coming out of LA these days that sometimes it’s easy to miss something amazing. Well, by the grace of God, they decided to drop a new single and video off their 18-month-old debut full-length Carnage Bargain. And, well, I really like it. “Egg  Salad” is a fun, organ-driven punk rock number that fills my heart with great joy. It’s a dance song, and it’s the kinda song where I can’t wait until it’s safe to get sweaty to this jam in person. 

Carnage Bargain is NOW available in all the usual places! 

Single Review: “Pay Your Way In Pain” by St Vincent / “Leave The Door Open” by Silk Sonic

 

In typical times, March would be the beginning of the music business’ “year.” Normally, there is a lull of news and new releases between December and February, and March usually starts with the Grammys, allowing everything to “wake up.” We would have a slew of festival line-ups coming through, and everyone looking to make a big year would be starting that cycle with SXSW. Continue reading “Single Review: “Pay Your Way In Pain” by St Vincent / “Leave The Door Open” by Silk Sonic”

Single Of The Week: “Rainforest” by Noname featuring Adam Ness

Factory Baby, Noname’s 2nd full-length album was due to come out in 2019. Then Chicago’s finest MC (Yes, Chance and Kanye, she is Chicago’s finest MC) decided that she was leaving the music business. She dropped off a massive triple headlining tour with Chromeo and Toro u Moi. The album never saw the light of day, and she was pretty silent throughout 2020, aside from a low profile single, “Song 33” and starting a NoNameReads, a book club dedicated to uplifting the voices of POC. 

Well, about a month ago or so, Noname reactivated her artist profiles on social media, teasing that she’s back. Her first track since her “return” is “Rainforest.” Her smooth, calm delivery almost makes you miss the fact that it’s a biting, no-holds-barred attack on colonialism and capitalism. If this is what we are going to expect from Factory Baby, then I’m totally on board. 

“Rainforest” is available in all the usual places. More news on Factory Baby as we get it!

 

Spinning Platters presents “How Did I Get Here?” Season 2 Premiere with Yo Kinky

Spinning Platters presents “How Did I Get Here?” is available most everywhere you enjoy podcasts. You can find us and subscribe here!

Remember January 2020? It was a time of magic and optimism. It was an election year, and our Democratic contenders were such a supergroup that whoever we ended up with was going to win. The economy was looking up, the music industry was about to have a record year for live performances. That’s when Laura Wight and Tom Unish met at a rock club and started talking music. They connected pretty deeply and quickly started writing and recording together. Two months later, a global pandemic hits the US, and hits New York City particularly hard, where Wight & Unish live. So, what do you do? Do try to work remotely? Do you put everything on hold til it’s over? Or do you roll the dice on this relationship and move in with each other two months after meeting? Well, Laura & Tom decided to take the gamble, and Yo Kinky was born! We talked about these logistics, music, and a lot more. (YG even comes up!) Enjoy the episode and don’t forget to pick up their debut EP at yokinky.bandcamp.com!
 
Note: This is episode 1 of season 2, and I haven’t recorded one of these in a while. I made a few mistakes in terms of setting recording inputs, causing a handful of moments where the sound quality is less than great. I tried my best to reduce the noise, but I couldn’t do it. I decided that the content was good enough that you, the listener, won’t judge me too hastily here. Thank you for your support!

Single Of The Week: “23” by Wallice

For those who have been paying attention to this column, it’s not hard to see that the writer has been pretty frustrated and feeling both suffocated and frightened for the last, um, 11 months or so. Everything is equally an existential crisis and a real crisis, and despite the news getting more and more positive every day, it’s still scary, and life is still pretty much trapped in four walls. That’s where “23” comes in. It’s a lovely, poppy, fuzzy number that feels simultaneously free and trapped. Think somewhere between Courtney Barnett and Diet Cig. Lyrically it’s a witty and insightful look inside the mind of someone transitioning into adulthood and what it means. Wallice’s jazz-trained vocals come through without losing her relatability. My 41-year old self, whose career was pretty much severed because of COVID and has been thrown into a stay-at-home dad life, not because of choice but because there’s no other option, has been stuck listening to this song on repeat because the situation is different, but the sentiment is on point. 

“23” can be streamed/purchased in all the usual places. More to come from her, so it may be wise to hit that “follow” button on your chosen platform. 

Single Of The Week: “Hey Lou” by Liz Phair

David Bowie’s Blackstar. Metallica’s Hardwired… To Self Destruct. Cher’s Believe. Green Day’s American Idiot. Bob Dylan’s Oh Mercy. It’s rare for an artist to go over a decade between “classic albums.” These five were the only five I could really think of where the band was able to find that magic, get that “this is why I love this artist” sound after years. Liz Phair’s two most recent records, Somebody’s Miracle and Funstyle weren’t for me. I actually wasn’t even sure Phair was going to release another album after 2010’s Funstyle, let alone a record that I was going to be legit excited about. 

So, when I put on “Hey Lou,” that angular acoustic guitar HIT ME IMMEDIATELY. THIS IS THE LIZ PHAIR THAT I LOVE!!! It’s classic Liz Phair: rough, a little abrasive, vivid lyrics. Yet, the song sounds fairly mature. The arrangement is complex and fascinating in a way that someone with 30 years experience under her belt as a songwriter would be able to do. And, really, she is a better singer now. It’s just a great song. 

“Hey Lou” is out now in all the usual places. It’s the first single off her upcoming record Soberish, due later this year. If you are jonesing for a Liz Phair concert, she’s doing a live stream on March 3rd, aptly titled “I Was Almost There.” And, of course, we are still waiting to see officially when we will be able to enjoy live music again, but Phair is still due to tour with Alanis Morisette and Garbage later this Summer. Dr Fauci said that it’s important to make plans out in the world for after this is over, so it’s really beneficial to start buying concert tickets anyways! Until then, keep double masking, avoiding unnecessary trips into the world, washing your hands, and be sure to get your shots when they become available again, and we might actually enjoy this ridiculous lineup together. 

Single Of The Week: “National Song” by Nana Adjoa

Yes, Spinning Platters is still dealing with an avalanche of great singles from 2020 that we missed… We will get to 2021 soon enough, but 2020 was so dark and painful that a lot of music got lost in the shuffle and I’m glad it’s shuffling back to the surface. Our single this week is “National Song” by Nana Adjoa, a track off last year’s Big Dreaming Ants. It’s a bold, haunting, dark number with a slightly “off” fragile synth line that does that thing where a part of a song makes your heart all gooey and warm. It’s a stunner of a single that belongs in the same class as the best material from Portishead and Feist. 

Big Dreaming Ants is out now and available in all of the usual places! And don’t forget to check out her performance on NPR’s World Cafe!

Single Of The Week: “Helado” by Rudy de Anda

There were a lot of records in 2020 that got lost in the shuffle, mostly due to the fact that there weren’t any shows. And, without the ability to play shows, it’s hard to get people’s attention. Tender Epoch by Rudy de Anda was one of those. It’s a perfect party album, and the perfect live show record. But, in a year where partying just isn’t in the cards, it’s just a bummer for these. “Helado” is the latest single from Tender Epoch, and it’s perfect for dancing around your apartment. Since that’s all we can do these days, you might as well do it with abandon! 

Tender Epoch is out NOW on Goldmine Records. You can stream it in all the usual places, but you probably want to purchase it in Topo Chico Bottle colored vinyl, which you can do here for $20. 

 

SF Sketchfest Review: Festpocalypse at Everywhere On Earth, 1/30/21

I didn’t even mention this clip in my review. You’ll have to support SF Sketchfest and rent the thing to find out what’s going on with Kumail Nanjiani’s hair

If this were a typical 2020, by now, you would have read my 10,000-word “Nerd’s Guide to the 20th SF Sketchfest,” half a dozen interviews of performers, and a few dozen reviews of shows. I would also be exhausted laughing and taking in 2-3 shows a night for three weeks. Instead, I’m exhausted because my days are spent chasing a child that’s nearly two around the apartment, as well as being emotionally spent from the pressures of life during a pandemic. I also got to enjoy SF Sketchfest on my couch and took in as many performers as they usually book over three weeks in a single 3 ½ hour block.  Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Festpocalypse at Everywhere On Earth, 1/30/21”