Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
There was a lot more competition for the top posts of the week this week. Bands that start with the letter P have positively proven to be particularly popular posts at Spinning Platters. I don’t know why that is, but because of this, we’re hoping you’ll come back to read our reviews of Pountain Goats, Pem Crooked Vultures, and the Piery Purances. But now for this week’s top 5. Continue reading “Week in Review: Top 5 Posts from Nov 6 — Nov 12”
The Electric Six burst onto the scene in 2003 with my personal favorite album of the year, Fire. I wrote back then:
Here it is, the greatest walking album ever created, and it is a concept album. The concept is dancing while on fire. It equates dancing with war, nuclear war in fact. The orders are given by a dance commander in the song of the same title that contains the lyric “It would be awesome if we could dance-uh.” Every song on here is incredibly fun and silly and danceable and singable and just downright brilliant. This is just quality disco rock and roll, and well … it is without precedent. I have never heard an album quite like this, and hope I don’t ever hear another like it. I don’t want this band to try and do this concept again. It would be like The Who doing Tommy 2.
Six years later, without anything remotely resembling follow-up success (even though their album I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me From Being the Master has one of the all-time great titles), the band is still filling up the Independent on a Thursday night with their brand of cocky dance rock. Continue reading “Show Review: Electric Six, The Gay Blades & Millions of Brazilians at The Independent, 11/12/09”
Leaving early is both what I did, and what the subjects of our conversation did. Join us as we discuss what happens when a lead singer leaves a band. Do they get better? Worse? Stay the same? As always, you can subscribe by pressing the giant button with headphones on it, or you can listen below. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Podcast Episode 8 — Leaving Early”
Monday night was supposed to be a night off for me. I was simply going to sit and relax at the Warfield, enjoying a quiet evening of acoustic Jethro Tull songs. I’d chat with my friend, drink some bourbon, and rock out to killer cuts from the Jethro Tull catalog. But something amazing happened that I wasn’t expecting, and I just had to share it with you. Continue reading “Show Review: Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull at The Warfield, 11/9/2009”
When Vampire Weekend announced they were playing an all-California tour, and that tour would include the Town Hall Theater in Lafayette, CA, I immediately went to look up what this theater was. What I found was that it was a 200-seat local theater company’s home venue, and I knew right away that this show would sell out fast. Well thanks to my years of typing practice, I managed to get tickets when they went on sale a couple of months back. (There’s no magical press passes tonight — we had to sweat it out like the rest of you.) Imagine my surprise when we arrived to the theater to find that it was an all-seated show. Sit down for Vampire Weekend? Oh oh. Continue reading “Show Review: Vampire Weekend at The Town Hall Theater in Lafayette, 11/7/09”
This week was pretty much dominated by Puscifer, the traveling musical carnival and brainchild of Maynard James Keenan. A simple little tweet gave us a record traffic day on Friday, so there’s no surprise what will be at #1 on this week’s busiest posts. But why stop reading at number one when numbers two through five are also chock full of valuable musical information? Continue reading “Week in Review: Top 5 Posts from 10/30-11/5”
Pouria is in Korea for the next couple of weeks. He’s been studying the Pimsleur Korean tapes to prepare himself for this trip, so when I asked him if he was going to have time to do his new release column before he left, he muttered something in Korean that I’m assuming was a polite no. As a reaction, I decided to write the longest New Release Round Up yet! And glad I did, because buried near the bottom is my favorite album of the week. Continue reading “New Release Round Up, 11/3/09 — 38 Instant Album Reviews”
When Art Brut comes to town, I get excited. Not only do I love the band, I also see them as the kind of band that tends to quit on the U.S. They blast onto the scene with the exceptional album Bang Bang Rock & Roll, and I saw them touring to promote that album four or five times. Their second album, It’s a Bit Complicated, was a relative disappointment. I’ve seen this happen with other British bands: their second album doesn’t perform well over here, and then I only get to hear about UK and European tours, sadly waiting for the one day they might return to our shores. Instead, Art Brut teamed up with producer Frank Black for the phenomenal Art Brut vs. Satan, and they have continued their attack on America. Continue reading “Show Review: Art Brut with Princeton at Cafe Du Nord, 10/30/09 (Late Show)”
The Dodos are a band that seem on the cusp of something big right now. Getting Phil Ek, my favorite indie rock producer of all time, on board for their newest record is a sign of big things to come. That record, Time to Die, is heavily focused on soothing vocals melodies and crazy guitar playing from Meric Long, accompanied by strong rhythms from drummer Logan Kroeber. What could this sound like in a live setting? Continue reading “Show Review: The Dodos with Ruby Suns at Bimbo’s 365 Club, 10/29/09”
When Amy Millan steps away from one of her band projects (Stars, Broken Social Scene), she morphs from indie chanteuse into a roadhouse country singer. There’s plenty of lyrics about drinking, loneliness and hitting the road. I knew right away that this would be a pretty mellow show, and I was definitely proven right by the end of the night. Continue reading “Show Review: Amy Millan and Bahamas at Cafe Du Nord, 10/28/09”