Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
It feels like SXSW just ended yesterday… I still haven’t quite caught up on my sleep, and my SXSars has kicked in pretty brutally, but nonetheless, I can’t stay away from the live rock n roll for very long… Check this week out! It’s pretty amazing!
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 3/24/11 – 3/30/11”
Another SXSW has passed, and this year, I intended on doing a daily diary, but the internet kind of sucked in our hotel, and I also really wanted to sleep, so instead you get this: a big, huge list of everything awesome at SXSW, including some amazing day parties thrown by our friends at Terrorbird, Force Field PR, Ticketfly, SPIN, NPR, and MOG (thanks!), leaving me pretty tired and delirious. For those of you that don’t want to read, I’ll sum it up: Best bands that I’ve never heard of before were Attic Ted, The Death Set, and DOM. The Kills did not kill, but TV On The Radio, Death From Above 1979, and The Dead Milkmen all played great comeback sets. Now, sit back, relax, have a Shiner Bock and read on:
Continue reading “Dakin’s SXSW Journal: 47 Instant SXSW Gig Reviews”
SXSW is a great place for a band to go to generate buzz at the beginning of their career. It’s also a great place for a band that was once on the top of the universe, but isn’t anymore, and is looking for a career resurgence. Many of these bands at one point in time were “icons,” some may have even qualified as teen idols. This is a guide to some of my favorite former rock stars gracing the SXSW stages:
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Picks Six: Former Teen Idols Playing SXSW”
I know that you thought that Noise Pop ending means that you can take some time off… But that was before you learned that Stryper were coming to town. STRYPER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 3/3/11 – 3/9/11”
One of the best parts of Noise Pop is when they come up with something especially unique. This collaboration might be one of the most surprising, if you don’t follow either Kimya Dawson or Aesop Rock on Twitter. But if you did, you would know that they’ve been recording together for several months now. To find out what happened at this show, you will have to follow the jump:
As we all know, tackling a festival like Noise Pop can be tough… There’s a lot if different things to do, and you know that they are all awesome, but how do we know which events are most awesomest of all? Well, since I am of great personal taste, you should simply obey my guidelines, and then you can do no wrong.
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Guide To Noise Pop 2011”
You know what’s awesome about February? It’s one step closer to Noise Pop, Fauxchella, and SXSW. It may be a little slow, but there are plenty of reasons not to go to bed early this week.
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 2/3/11-2/9/11”
At The Eureka Theater last Saturday night, there was a definite air of nostalgia. I often consider Viva Variety! to be the forgotten middle child. It wasn’t nearly as popular as it’s predecessor, The State, nor did it have the longevity of Reno 911. It was a fun program, the fictitious variety show from Europe featuring Thomas Lennon as Mr Meredith Laupin, Kerri Kenney (Silver) as The Former Mrs. Agatha Laupin, and Michael Ian Black as Johnny Blue Jeans, their announcer. But, it never comes up. When you search for the program on YouTube, you will find all of about 4 clips. Where you can find almost anything ever on the internet, the 13 episodes of this show are merely a fading memory.
I don’t think anybody ever expected this reunion. It may be because of the success Sketchfest had with The State in 2009 and Reno 911 in 2010, but the masses snatched up tickets to this show faster than any other gig this year, including Murphy Brown and Saturday Night Live reunions that were far more popular in it’s day, and have lasted in syndication.
Continue reading “Sketchfest Review: Viva Variety! at Eureka Theater, 1/29/11”
One of my favorite pastimes is looking up whatever happened to some of my favorite 90’s icons. I mean, almost everyone knows what happened to some of the lesser known folks in 90’s TV programs. Like Six from Blossom is apparently a struggling country singer, and Rayanne from My So Called Life is married to a lord. But, my absolute favorite show from the 90’s was The State. It was simply the only TV program of it’s time that I felt emulated my brain functions. With the program now streaming on Netflix, I was reminded of two of my favorite sketches: the mailman that only delivered tacos and the Jew, the Italian, and the Red-Headed Gay. Hence me feeling the need to learn about Kevin Allison, one of the “forgotten” members of The State. Much to my surprise, he has a genius podcast called Risk!, where famous people talk about embarrassing situations they’ve been in. And it’s pretty awesome to say the least. Even better was getting to see it done live at the legendary Purple Onion as part of Sketchfest this year!
Continue reading “Sketchfest Review: Risk! with Kevin Allison at The Purple Onion, 1/28/11”