I’ve known the name “Maria Bamford” for years. I know her face well, and would definitely be able to pick her out in a crowd. I have very close friends that are fans. If somebody asked me if I liked her, the answer would probably be yes. However, I have never actually seen or heard her do stand up before. Not on TV, not on record.I actually didn’t know anything about her stand up style before I headed out to this show. Why did I decide to go to this? I’m not really sure. It just felt like I needed to be there. Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Maria Bamford & Nori Reed at The Castro Theater, 1/9/2020”
Jenny Lewis had an insanely productive 2019. I did not expect our first Single Of The Week in 2020 to be a new track from her, but, sure enough, I ended up opening my inbox to a fantastic new track that she did with African musician Habib Koite. It’s a gentle, contemplative number, and one of the most overly political statements she’s made since her record with Nice As Fuck in 2016.
This track is from the forthcoming compilation Let The Rhythm Lead: Haiti Song Summit Vol 1, a collection of songs written and recorded in Haiti, where popular musicians collaborated with locals. This record is due out on January 31st, and pre-saves and pre-orders can be found here!
Erinn Hayes was the star of the Adult Swim series Childrens Hospital, and is also the star of it’s upcoming offshoot series, Medical Police. She is coming to town for two SF Sketchfest appearances, first on Thursday, January 9th for a Medical Police panel and preview at Marines’ Memorial Theater, and then Friday, January 10th for an appearance as part of Porchlight at Swedish American Hall. Spinning Platters had the opportunity to have a chat with Hayes ahead of her visit. We discussed living in the Bay Area, our weird rivalry with LA, her time as a doctor on TV, and, most importantly, her work on Bill & Ted Face The Music, the upcoming Bill & Ted sequel. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Erinn Hayes of Medical Police“
Lost Puppy Forever are a bass/drums punk duo from San Francisco. They dropped their debut EP a few months ago, and I, personally, slept on it. But, it’s never too late to find your favorite new band. “Chow Nasty” is their first single and video, and this song is “thick as fuck” and really gets you in your chest. Don’t understand what that means? Put on some headphones, and play this song really loud. You’ll feel it in the center of your chest.
Noise Pop Fest is coming around the corner, and they are running a contest for bands to play! Go here to vote for your favorite band. And, by favorite band, I mean go vote for Lost Puppy Forever. Contest ends January 14th. And if you really want to support the band, head over to their Bandcamp page to pick up a digital copy of the EP!
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!
First of all… WHOA! It’s weird to write “2020” on something. Even crazier is to think that this is the 19th SF Sketchfest! That means babies born in the year of the first Sketchfest are now able to go on their mission for The Latter-Day Saints. (Or vote. Definitely, please — everyone born in 2001 MAKE SURE YOU REGISTER TO VOTE AND DO IT!) I’vebeenwritingtheNerd’sGuideforelevenyearsnow. Which means for the twentieth year of Sketchfest, you can read the eleven th anniversary of my Nerd’s Guide. I plan to go all out for that one. This year’s guide — I’m not gonna lie — I’m totally phoning it in. Which is fine, it’s like ten minutes of reading. Don’t worry, the good people of SF Sketchfest did NOT phone in the bookings this year.
Tickets and a full schedule for everything can be found here.
As Spinning Platters has managed to continue for far longer than anyone would’ve expected us to, so has this list. Here are records 11-30 from the first decade of Spinning Platters. For those looking to read #31-50, click here!
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!
Not enough people have been talking about Alice Bag’s big comeback. One of the original LA punks, she was featured prominently in the original Decline Of Western Civilization before leaving music to focus on activism. Jump to 2016 and she put out an amazing new record, and then another, and now she’s got the perfect Christmas single! For those living in England, it’s probably a really good day to blast this one as loud as you can.
Alice Bag will be sharing the stage with fellow Decline.. veterans Circle Jerks, as well as Bikini Kill, Plastic Bertrand, Carbonas, Bleached, Panty Raid, and many, many more at Burger Boogaloo in Oakland on July 10th-11th. You can still get special early bird tickets NOW! These are going fast and make great Christmas gifts. Just please don’t buy them for any Nazis.
