Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
If I could sum up this week’s biggest live Bay Area events in one nonsensical fake-Spanish declaration, it would be this: ¡YO LA COCO! Over the next few days we’ll have multiple live performances from both Conan O’Brien and Yo La Tengo, as well as an exhaustingly awesome array of other rad shows. Check out some of our favorites after the jump.
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 4/21/10-4/27/10”
La Roux performed their third San Francisco concert in less than a year last night at The Fillmore, and it was a roof-shaking culmination of everything that’s been hinted at by their smaller-scale previous appearances.
Continue reading “Show Review: La Roux at The Fillmore, 4/14/10”
Heaven and Hell. Sin and redemption. The pointlessness of our earthly pursuits. Clinging desperately to faith in something good, despite the soul-crushing emptiness of life in a broken world. These were some of the themes of last night’s concert. And by Patty Griffin standards, it was a fairly lighthearted evening.
Continue reading “Show Review: Patty Griffin and Buddy Miller at Zellerbach Hall, 4/5/10”
“This isn’t about women’s lib,” crows Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon) in The Runaways, the feature-length debut from renowned music video director Floria Sigismondi. “This is about women’s libidos.” See what he did there? But this quote gets to the paradoxical high-wire act at the heart of this film: lib or libido? Empowerment or exploitation? A film that opens with a close-up of Dakota Fanning’s first drops of menstrual blood hitting the L.A. pavement could go either way.
This week is a bit of a limbo for Bay Area concerts, since pretty much everyone is at SXSW. But there are still a few awesome shows, and things kick into high gear toward the end of the week. And from there, they just keep getting cooler the closer we get to our annual Coachella cash-in. Huzzah!
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 3/17/10-3/23/10”
Following the release of their 2007 album, Icky Thump, Jack and Meg White prepared for two simultaneous landmarks in their storied career: their tenth anniversary as a band, and their first extensive promotional tour of Canada’s many provinces and territories. They invited acclaimed music video director Emmett Malloy to accompany them on this excursion, capturing every moment along the way. The ensuing hybrid of aww-shucks Canadian culture shocks and feverish self-aggrandizement comprises The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights.
Continue reading “Film Review — The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights”
A Tegan and Sara show is pretty much a sure thing. The Canadian pop-punk-folk duo’s songs are so tightly and energetically structured, so immediately accessible and entertaining, that a good time is basically guaranteed. Tegan Quin + Sara Quin + fans = party time. And at last night’s sold-out show in Oakland, that was certainly true. The Quins’ formula is so airtight that even if the girls seem bored (which they did), or if belligerent fans nearly bring the show to a halt with their bullshit (which they did), everyone will still hop and dance themselves crazy.
Continue reading “Show Review: Tegan and Sara with Holly Miranda at The Fox Theater, 3/5/10”
Marianne Faithfull is my absolute favorite singer of all time. I should just admit that right now. This review is not by an apathetic novice or a casual fan of some familiarity with Marianne and her material. This review is by a certifiable megafan who sat in his booth and scarily mouthed the words to every single song throughout the evening, audibly gasping whenever she played a song I hadn’t heard live before. Despite my immense fandom, this was only my second time seeing her in concert. The first time nearly killed me. So, how did show #2 stack up?
Continue reading “Show Review: Marianne Faithfull at Yoshi’s Oakland, 3/4/10”
“We are aiming for sincere energy, not professionalism or fluid transitions.” Those were the words of Thao Nguyen, of Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, halfway through her immensely crowd-pleasing collaborative performance with Mirah last night at Swedish American as part of Noise Pop 2010. And while Ms. Nguyen may have felt the need to defend herself with this disclaimer, there didn’t appear to be a single fan in attendance who wasn’t in complete ecstasy for the duration of the evening.
Charlotte Gainsbourg is just so effortlessly cool. The daughter of French music legend Serge Gainsbourg and his beautiful British muse, Jane Birkin, Gainsbourg has been singing and acting professionally for over 25 years. Her music has been critically well-received, and she’s worked with such celebrated directors as Franco Zeffirelli, Michel Gondry, Todd Haynes, and perhaps most notoriously, Lars Von Trier for Antichrist, for which she won the Best Actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival. But in an incredibly successful and diverse artistic career, IRM may stand as her greatest triumph.