Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
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”
Usually the months of January and February are pretty sleepy for live shows, but this week is brutal. A lot of nights with a lot of tough decisions. Time to load up on Red Bull and not sleep for a week.
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 1/27/11-2/2/11”
There are a lot of really surprising, and really funny shows within. This is an extra special week of fun silliness, and I think that you should check it out:
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 1/20/11-1/26/11”
The attendance at this show was a little light. It might be because the show happened on a Sunday night. It might also be that few people in the west coast are aware of the genius of Dave Hill. Maybe people were just thrown off by the notion of Moby being involved in comedy. No matter how you slice or dice it, for the 2nd year straight, people really missed out on one of the best shows in Sketchfest.
Continue reading “Sketchfest Review: The Dave Hill Explosion at Cobb’s Comedy Club, 1/16/11”
Delocated is a show on Adult Swim about a family in the witness protection program that is moved to New York to appear on a reality show where they have their faces covered the entire time. Simple premise, but a difficult one to transfer to the stage. Also, the Sketchfest version of the show, which has been dubbed Delocated Witness Protection Program Variety Hour we are missing, well, most of the cast. So, the real question is, what happened on that stage?