Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
Describing Patrick Wolf is hard. I was just asked, “what kind of music is he?” I did not have a quick answer. I hemmed and hawed. I know I like it, and I know it should make for an interesting live show, so there I was at Slim’s on a Monday night seeing the Nylon Summer Tour with headliner Patrick Wolf. Little I did know how crazy the night would actually get. Continue reading “Patrick Wolf at Slim’s, 6/8/09”
In Queensryche’s heyday, they were an awesome force of a band. Geoff Tate was an absolute beast, a singer with an incredible voice and an incredible range. The twin lead guitars of Michael Wilton and Chris Degarmo alternated heavy riffs and bright solos with the greatest of ease. And the solid, spectacular rhythm section of Eddie Jackson and Scott Rockenfield carried the whole thing forward with fierce momentum. That was 1990 or so. This is 2009. What are they like now? Continue reading “Queensryche at The Fillmore, 6/4/09”
For some reason, I thought Jens Lekman would be very serious. I’m not sure why I thought this, but I assumed he’d stand up at his microphone, quietly singing his songs by himself. So I was more than pleasantly surprised to see him dancing happily along with his 5-piece band right from the very beginning of the show. He had a smile pasted on his face the whole time, and so did I. Continue reading “Jens Lekman at Bottom of the Hill, 6/2/09”
This summer, a new festival comes to the Lake Tahoe area called the Wanderlust Festival. I’m extremely excited about this festival, and have already reserved a hotel room and picked up tickets. Now, I’m simply holding my breath and hoping they sell enough tickets for it to happen. Their marketing is poor. They’re selling the festival like this: Continue reading “Festival Preview: Wanderlust Festival in Squaw Valley, 7/24/09-7/26/09”
If you come to my apartment, you’d see walls coated with rock posters, boxes full of poster tubes, and a giant flat file under the bed with even more posters. So to kick off this feature, where Spinning Platters writers will pick six of something in music that they really like, I’m going to share a quick list of some of my favorite poster artists.
I’m not trying to make a “Best Of” list here, just sharing some of my personal favorites. I’d love to see comments about your favorites, so leave them in the comment section. That way I’ll know of more artists on which to spend my money! Continue reading “Spinning Platters Picks Six: Rock Poster Artists”
Animal Collective are one of those bands that people either love or hate. There doesn’t seem to be a middle ground with them. Yet I found myself smack dab in the middle before seeing them live. Admittedly, I don’t know their material all that well. I love some of their songs; I hate some of their songs. My favorites of their songs are ones that sound an awful lot like Conspiracy, the ridiculously obscure Yes side project that featured tons of vocal interplay. The songs I can’t stand are the ones that meander endlessly, seemingly without purpose.
So what was the live experience like? A little from column A, a little from column B. Continue reading “Animal Collective at The Fox Oakland, 5/26/09”
The Decemberists live in an exciting gray area between folk and rock, between pop and prog. How they keep playing to bigger and bigger audiences continues to amaze me. Perhaps it’s the indescribable that people like best? They came to the Fox in Oakland last night on their tour for The Hazards of Love, promising to play that new album in its entirety and then follow it up with a set of fan favorites. Continue reading “The Decemberists at The Fox Oakland, 5/20/09”
Dredg was nice enough to schedule two hometown shows on their tour with Torche and Judgement Day. Because of this, neither one sold out and I was able to go to the show at the Great American Music Hall. Hometown shows are usually great because the band will play longer and bring a lot more energy into it. So how did this one stack up? Continue reading “Dredg at Great American Music Hall, 5/19/09”
Retail Release Date: June 9, 2009
Leaky Faucet Acquisition Date: May 6, 2009
Dredg really never had a shot on the major labels. They’re a prog rock band, first and foremost. This is, of course, why I like them. For their last album, Catch Without Arms, they teamed up with a big name producer (Terry Date) and had songwriting help from Queensyche’s Chris Degarmo. That’s a high powered team, and the album that came out of it had a lot of polish and shine, but also lacked some of the musical innovation found on the band’s older releases. In a lot of ways, it made their earlier albums sound like demos.
So now Dredg is off of the major label, yet they’ve maintained the polished sound, but–and this is exciting–they’ve also thrown caution to the wind in a lot of ways. No longer worried about trying to sound like the band the majors want them to sound like, they go back to the more experimental sounds of their earlier albums, Lietmotif and El Cielo. And it’s almost a complete success. Continue reading “The Leaky Faucet: Dredg — The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion”
Retail Release Date: June 2, 2009 (digital only)
Leaky Faucet Acquision Date: May 3, 2009
I’ll start with the album cover. Patrick Wolf is posed here as an alien who’s landed in an oddly shaped spaceship tent, in some crazy cyberpunk outfit with a purple glow behind his hand, and some ancient instruments at his campsite. What is Patrick Wolf saying about this album before you even listen to it? He’s saying, “please don’t take me too seriously. I’m an utter goofball.” Continue reading “The Leaky Faucet: Patrick Wolf — The Bachelor”