Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
I had only a passing familiarity with School of Seven Bells before it was suggested I would like them. I believe I was told, “If you like Murder By Death, you should check out School of Seven Bells.” That’s a poor “RIYL,” but it turned out fine in the end. Still, this is a band that needs my help to take their show to the next level. I hope they’re listening. Continue reading “Show Review: School of Seven Bells, Warpaint and Phantogram at Slim’s 10/6/09”
Gary Houston of Voodoo Catbox has been doing great rock posters for many years now. The first two rock posters I ever bought were from Voodoo Catbox: a diamond-shaped Foo Fighters than you can see on my wall when you come visit, and a Bad Religion poster made to look like an E.C. Comics cover. Gary designed the TRPS poster that you may have seen in our sidebar for the last couple of weeks, and I caught up with him this week for an email interview.
Spinning Platters: What was the first work of art you did for money? Continue reading “10 Quick Questions with Gary Houston of Voodoo Catbox”
This weekend brings the TRPS Festival of Rock Posters in Golden Gate Park. To celebrate, I’ll be going as both a journalist and a customer, bringing back interviews with artists, photos of the proceedings, and more posters to add to my flat file. To kick off our coverage, I caught up with local artist Gregg Gordon who goes professionally by GIGART. I first met him at the Ledson Winery when he was walking around with his portfolio, showing off some of his earlier work, and I’ve been following his career ever since. Thanks to Gregg for answering our questions.
Spinning Platters: What was the first work of art you did for money? Continue reading “10 Quick Questions with Gregg Gordon of GIGART”
This week at Spinning Platters was the Kylie Minogue show. In one day, she took over our #1 all-time most-read post as well as giving us the busiest day in our site’s history. Cheers to Kylie! I hope you enjoy your time in America as much as we are. So who won the battle for second place? Continue reading “Week in Review: Top 5 Posts for Sept 25 — Oct 1”
Expressions by Music Go Music releases on Secretly Canadian on October 6, 2009
Music Go Music are a recent discovery of mine. When I saw them open for Little Boots at The Independent a couple of weeks ago, I made remarks about how they’re well on their way to being my favorite band. Since then, I’d been waiting to get my hands on their debut album, Expressions. I finally did yesterday, and I’ve been spending all day long listening to it and finding out interesting facts about the band. If I told you that I ordered the vinyl from Insound twenty minutes ago, would you think I might like the album? Continue reading “Album Review: Music Go Music — Expressions”
First off, a spoiler warning. Although usually seen in movie reviews, I think one applies here. If you don’t want to know what songs she played, how many costume changes there were, and how she reworked some of her classic songs, then read no further. If, on the other hand, you want to know what’s coming soon, or you aren’t going to have a chance to see for yourself, jump on board, take a ride, yeah. Continue reading “Show Review: Kylie Minogue at The Fox Oakland, 9/30/09”
It will be a bit surprising to regular readers of this site that last night was my first ever visit to Hotel Utah, but I finally made it over there to see The Postmarks and Brookville for an early Tuesday night show. When I arrived, a sign announced that Brookville’s lead singer had a family emergency, and instead, the other members of the band would be performing as Saturday Club. Having never heard Brookville before, I found myself unable to be too disappointed, although I had been hoping to check them out as well. Continue reading “Show Review: The Postmarks and Saturday Club at Hotel Utah, 9/29/09”
Getting my first tape deck was an amazing event in my life. I went from constantly living on the whim of the DJ to being able to program my own little radio station of my favorite songs. The one recorded-from-radio mixtape I listened to most often before it met its sad and sudden end at some point in the early 90s was a 60-minute cassette of songs recorded in 1985 off of a radio show called The British Top 30. This show was amazing because it played songs by bands I’d never heard of, and surely never would. And then some songs from bands I had heard of, but new songs! How exciting! Imagine being able to hear songs that magically appear from all the way around the world! Continue reading “Spinning Platters Picks Six: Gems from My British Top 30 Tape”
Seeing Living Colour and Fishbone on the same bill is my 1991 fever dream. Put Primus on there, too, and I may have passed out from excitement. As it is, I was pretty darned excited to be seeing these bands together. While I’d seen Living Colour a couple of times recently, I hadn’t checked in on Fishbone for more than a dozen years. I was ready for a loud funky night in the city. Continue reading “Show Review: Living Colour and Fishbone at The Regency Center, 9/25/09”
Last week on our podcast, I mentioned that I am really enjoying The Postmarks, my “favorite Scottish band from Florida.” It turns out that they are either fans of the Spinning Platters podcast or they search for themselves online, because the next thing I knew, I was emailing them 10 Quick Questions. I also plan to check them out this Tuesday night the 29th at Hotel Utah, and hope to see you all there. But first, on to the questions and answers from lead singer Tim Yehezkely:
Spinning Platters: How would you describe your music to a friend who hasn’t heard you yet? Continue reading “10 Quick Questions with The Postmarks”