Author: Dakin Hardwick

A Nerd’s Guide To SF Sketchfest 2019

It’s that time of year again! Time to scour through pages and pages of SF Sketchfest listings, trying to decide what shows to buy tickets for, and never actually going to anything because it’s all too intimidating. Well, fear not! Instead of thinking for yourself, just go to everything I tell you to. Because I have fantastic taste, and you’ll love all of these.  

Don’t trust me? Well, you can always go straight here to pick out shows and buy tickets.

Thursday, January 10th Continue reading “A Nerd’s Guide To SF Sketchfest 2019”

Spinning Platters’ Top 10 Albums of 2018

By The Spinning Platters Editorial Staff

It’s that time of year again… That time when you’ve read every other music site’s Album of The Year list, and have hated all of them because you haven’t seen the best one yet! We have an incredibly diverse group of records… Some you’ve seen on other lists, some you haven’t, and some you’ve likely never heard of before clicking on this post!

So, without further adieu, on with our list:

Continue reading “Spinning Platters’ Top 10 Albums of 2018”

Spinning Platters Interview: Annakalmia Traver of Rubblebucket

Rubblebucket are a soul flavored indie pop band from Brooklyn, NY. They recently released a brilliant record called Sun Machine, and are currently on the road supporting this album. Spinning Platters had the opportunity to chat with lead singer / trumpeter Kal Traver ahead of this tour, and here’s what we talked about!

Rubblebucket are playing August Hall on November 7th with the brilliant Diet Cig opening! Tickets are still available here! Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Annakalmia Traver of Rubblebucket”

Treasure Island Music Festival 2018 Journal

The Treasure Island Music Festival has, historically, been the last hurrah of summer. Taking place in the middle of October (or late September), it’s usually sunny and a great way to let go of the carefree warm months, before we all have to buckle to the stress of the holiday season.

Sadly, they had to take 2017 off. Even sadder was that, due to maintenance on the island, Treasure Island, for the first time, had to move from its namesake venue. We ended up drifting east a few knots to the shores of Oakland, to a beach in the middle of West Oakland’s warehouse district called Middle Harbor Park. Continue reading “Treasure Island Music Festival 2018 Journal”

Show Review: Lindsey Buckingham, JS Ondara at Palace Of Fine Arts, 10/9/18

Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham tours semi-frequently. Every few years, you generally can expect him to hit the road, playing a nice assortment of his eccentric solo work and hits from the Fleetwood Mac catalog. In most instances, this would be a pretty inconsequential tour. However, this being 2018, that means there’s gotta be something incredibly weird and divisive. In this case, the abrupt firing / quitting / temporary leave of Lindsey Buckingham from Fleetwood Mac, followed by both Buckingham solo and a Buckingham-less Mac hitting the road AT THE SAME TIME, often times playing the same market only a few weeks apart.

So, yeah, this makes the current solo tour much more interesting. Is he going to do a full set of Fleetwood Mac hits, complete with his signature guitar work? Is he going to disregard all of their nonsense, and just play his solo work? Are we going to get a long, heated monologue about how awful it is working with Mick Fleetwood? Continue reading “Show Review: Lindsey Buckingham, JS Ondara at Palace Of Fine Arts, 10/9/18”

Show Review: Liz Phair, Speedy Ortiz at The Fillmore, 9/20/18

The year is 1995. I’m a 15 year-old that was just starting to figure out my musical tastes. I learned that MTV had a two hour-long program at midnight early Monday mornings, that aired “underground” music videos. (Underground is in quotes because, as a grown up, I’m aware that you couldn’t be that far underground to be shown on corporate television). Due to school getting in the way, I would set the VCR to record these videos to watch later. The music from these programs became the primary thing that encoded my tastes for the rest of my life. Two videos that I would rewind and re-watch incessantly, were Liz Phair’s “Never Said” and “Supernova.” 23 years later, I am finally fulfilling that dream of getting to experience this musician, who’s had such an intense effect on my development, perform a full-length concert. Continue reading “Show Review: Liz Phair, Speedy Ortiz at The Fillmore, 9/20/18”

Outside Lands 2018: 27 Instant Gig Reviews

Ate a lot of food. Got a lot of steps. But it was mostly Janet Jackson.

All photos by Dakin Hardwick unless otherwise noted

Outside Lands reached its 11th birthday this year. I’ve been to ten of those eleven installments. This year, the folks booking the festival decided it was time to take some risks… They added an extra stage for acoustic sets and magic, called “Cocktail Magic.” They added a whole pot awareness area (not that folks at a music festival need to be *more* aware of weed). Continue reading “Outside Lands 2018: 27 Instant Gig Reviews”

Spinning Platters Interview: Rae Livingston and David Owen of Outside Lands, Pt 2

Rae Livingston and David Owen both help book the Barbary at Outside Lands, and have for several years now. This, is course, means they have a lot to talk about. So we split the interview in two, because we here at Spinning Platters understand that your time is precious. In this one, we talk about the bookings that they are most excited about this year, as well as some favorite memories of passed years.

If you missed part one, it’s right here! And if you still haven’t purchased tickets yet, what are you waiting for? You can find those right here!

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Rae Livingston and David Owen of Outside Lands, Pt 2”

Spinning Platters Interview: Rae Livingston and David Owen of Outside Lands, Pt 1

Outside Lands generally does quite well with the music lineup. However, I have always thought that the real gold at the festival has been the bookings for the Barbary. This year, we finally found time in their busy schedule to talk to some of the people behind those amazing bookings: Rae Livingston of Another Planet and David Owen of SF Sketchfest. We got to spend a little time with them to discuss the history of the stage, the booking process and their careers, and for a bit, we just got to nerd out about comedy.

Limited 3 Day and single day tickets to Outside Lands are still available! You can also check the full Barbary schedule!

SPINNING PLATTERS: So you’ve got Another Planet and SF Sketchfest, both doing that booking. How does that collaboration work? Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Rae Livingston and David Owen of Outside Lands, Pt 1”

Outside Lands 2018: Top 10 from the Bottom Half of the Poster

As we head into the 11th year of Outside Lands, it’s also important to commemorate the fact that this is the 5th year in a row that I’ve been encouraging you to show up early and check out the smaller stages. I am well aware of the fact that my first one of these, in 2013, managed to guide you to several amazing bands, but missed the fact that a little bass and drums duo on Fueled By Ramen called Twenty One Pilots was playing. This also proves my point that you should get there early, because you never know when you are gonna stumble across a band that’s gonna be selling out arenas in just a couple years. Other passed “bottom-halfers” included The Black Keys, Courtney Barnett, Portugal. The Man, Janelle Monae, Father John Misty, Foster The People, and others that moved on to be massive stars.

So, here are my top 10 favorite acts from the bottom half of the 2018 Outside Lands line-up. Continue reading “Outside Lands 2018: Top 10 from the Bottom Half of the Poster”