Kara Murphy – Page 5 – Spinning Platters

Show Review: The National at Fox Oakland, 5/26/10

High Violet, the fifth full-length album from Cincinnati-bred, Brooklyn-based band The National, has defied the Law of Diminishing Returns for me: each and every subsequent listen of an individual track increases my level of aural pleasure not to mention obsession with dissecting every lyric, note, and hidden meaning behind the combination of both.

Lead singer Mike Berninger has flat out admitted to the fact that he’s incapable of scribing a song that isn’t melancholy in nature. Yet, there’s something beautifully uplifting in the tortured tales interwoven into the band’s signature blend of Americana, Britpop, and slight twinge of country-rock. Continue reading “Show Review: The National at Fox Oakland, 5/26/10”

Review of Music Hackday in San Francisco, 5/15/10 – 5/16/10

This past weekend, over 110 hackers and music enthusiasts from San Francisco and various locations around the world gathered at Automattic’s office space, located at Pier 38, to help create the next generation of music applications. Continue reading “Review of Music Hackday in San Francisco, 5/15/10 — 5/16/10”

Album Review: AM – Future Sons & Daughters

Chances are, if you’re a music aficionado, you’ve already heard of AM. If not directly from a friend or by way of online channels such as Lala and thesixtyone, where he currently enjoys a strong presence, then you’ve most likely been exposed through a more traditional medium.

This is due to the fact that every single track off of his 2006 full-length debut, Troubled Times, has appeared in either a film or TV show. Thus far, the Tulsa-born, New Orleans-bred singer-songwriter has been savvy enough to capitalize on the momentum of such a promising start. AIR has asked him to open for them on their North American tour and when that concludes, he’ll embark on a stint with none other than Charlotte Gainsbourg as she also treks through the U.S. and Canada.

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Show Review: The Album Leaf at Great American Music Hall, 2/12/10

The Album Leaf performed to a sold-out crowd in San Francisco on Friday, February 12th.

There’s something unmistakably unique about the music created by San Diego-based multi-instrumentalist Jimmy LaValle. It penetrates your soul and lingers long after you’ve stopped listening to the electronically-tinged indie rock melodies that reel you in with inviting, ambient choruses. I got hooked after discovering “The Light” on The Hype Machine from their 2006 breakthrough masterpiece, Into the Blue, a year back. Continue reading “Show Review: The Album Leaf at Great American Music Hall, 2/12/10”

What You Need to Know from the San Francisco Musician and Promoter Workshop

Zambaleta on 19th and Florida in the Mission, SF

I’ll be the first to admit that I was a bit dubious when I initially heard about the first installment, via Twitter, of this San Francisco-based event back in November. How many seminars, workshops, and online tutorials are already out there promoting their take on the best practices in social media for musicians and managers? However, a closer look at the list of instructors, not to mention the partners including SonicLiving and the premier music technology event in the Bay Area, SF MusicTech Summit, revealed that the San Francisco Musician & Promoter Workshop promised to transcend your atypical music industry-related gathering.

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Album Review: Spoon – Transference

Amoeba Records always has been and always will be my favorite store to purchase music. Obviously, I’ve joined the legions of savvy music aficionados online and freely choose to spend an inordinate amount of time on the likes of lala.com, The Hype Machine, and Pandora…to name a few. Yet part of me still loves the feeling of vinyl (actually, who doesn’t) and, yes, the occasional CD in my hands. I have been told time and again that I am one of the few people anyone knows that still buys CDs. So what? I don’t claim to be all that cool. Therefore, when Amoeba recently announced they were having a “clearance CD blowout,” I immediately headed to the Berkeley location after work and rummaged through the thousands of marked down discs. Continue reading “Album Review: Spoon — Transference”

Looking Forward: My Twenty Most Anticipated Albums for 2010

‘Tis the season to be bombarded with more requisite year-end “Best of” and “Top Album” lists than one person could ever possibly absorb. MOG took notice and created a list culled from over eight hundred blogs that are affiliated with their network. On the other hand, Pitchfork found it necessary to add in a section titled “Honorable Mention” on top of their “Top 50 Albums” roundup. To top it all off, as the first decade of the 21st century comes to a close, we have a whole new beast to contend with: The “Best of the Decade” lists. Do not get me started with how completely and totally out of touch Billboard magazine is with the current musical landscape. Nickelback is not the ‘band of the decade.’

Instead, I’d like to take this opportunity to look towards, not to mention forward, to the future. From what I’ve heard throughout the musical blogosphere of strategically leaked singles, 2010 is going to be an incredible year for releases from some of my favorite artists. This revelation alone has inspired me to share a list of my twenty most anticipated albums that will be legally available in the first few months of next year. One honorable mention goes to a band I personally don’t care for too much but most everyone else seems to go crazy over. Without further ado, here we go….

Continue reading “Looking Forward: My Twenty Most Anticipated Albums for 2010”