Interviews – Page 9 – Spinning Platters

Part One of the Spinning Platters Interview: Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost of The World’s End

Maybe we can get a fourth movie in this trilogy if we ask nicely.

Tomorrow sees the U.S. release of The World’s End, the third film in a so-called trilogy of films from Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of sitting around a table with a group of San Francisco film writers to talk with them for a few minutes. Those few minutes became a lot more minutes, as once they started talking, they had a lot to say. Part one of this two-part interview will touch on subjects such as traveling to England, Raising Arizona, and putting peanuts in a log. Come back tomorrow for part two of this interview, and a review of the movie as well.

You mentioned during a post-film Q&A that you wanted to show parts of England that weren’t London, but then these parts of England that aren’t London have zombies, they have murderers, they have what we see in this movie …

Edgar Wright: Which is basically saying “Don’t go to England.” Continue reading “Part One of the Spinning Platters Interview: Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost of The World’s End”

Spinning Platters Interview: Robin Finck of Nine Inch Nails

Robin Finck, bathed in green at Outside Lands Music Festival

As San Francisco’s Outside Lands Festival made a seemingly bold move by including Trent Reznor’s freshly reunited band of heavy hitters in Nine Inch Nails to its weekend roster, some wondered if this was the right decision considering a historically safe trend of artists who provide the soundtrack for having a good time in the park. It ended up working out brilliantly – Nine Inch Nails’ Saturday night closing performance will go down as one of the greatest since the festival started in 2008. Not bad for having to follow Sir Paul McCartney’s nearly three-hour rock ‘n’ roll extravaganza the previous evening. We were lucky enough to catch up with touring guitarist and longest standing live member, Robin Finck, for a few questions just before the musical onslaught. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Robin Finck of Nine Inch Nails”

Spinning Platters Interview: Laurent Brancowitz of Phoenix

It’s been a pretty amazing year so far for Phoenix. Their latest record, Bankrupt!, is receiving amazing reviews, and they are playing to the biggest crowds of their career! We had the opportunity to chat with their guitarist Laurent Brancowitz ahead of their upcoming set at Outside Lands. They are playing the Twin Peaks stage at 8:40 PM on Saturday night. Just a warning, we pretty much only talked about how much we like R Kelly.

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Spinning Platters Interview: Adam Duritz of Counting Crows

The first CD that I ever bought with my own money was August and Everything After, Counting Crows’ debut album. I listened to it to death, and still love it. So, I was pretty giddy when I scored the opportunity to interview their frontman Adam Duritz ahead of their upcoming tour with The Wallflowers. The band is playing two shows in the Bay Area this summer: Wente Vineyards in Livermore on July 17th (Tix Here!) and America’s Cup Pavilion in San Francisco on July 18th (Tix Here!). Plus, if you buy tickets on line in advance, you get a free download of their latest live record, Echoes Of The Outlaw Roadshow!

SP: You used BitTorrent to help promote Underwater Sunshine. Why did you decide to pick such a controversial method to promote the record?

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Round-Table Interview: Simon Pegg and John Cho of “Star Trek Into Darkness”

Simon Pegg and John Cho, reprising their roles as Montgomery “Scotty” Scott and Hikaru Sulu respectively in the newest chapter of the Star Trek film franchise, Star Trek Into Darkness, sat down with a few members of online press outlets to answer a few questions. Dressed in casual clothing and beaming with smiles, the two actors couldn’t be more welcoming and polite. We sat around a tiny circular table and jumped right into it…

J.J. Abrams is a huge fan of the Star Trek franchise, how does the fact that he’s such a big fan of both the Star Trek films and the original TV series translate into the fact that he’s making the new franchise…with this film especially?

Simon Pegg: I don’t think he was. I think he was more of a Star Wars fan growing up.

John Cho: Yeah.

Simon Pegg: And I think he came to Star Trek as somewhat of an outsider…

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Spinning Platters Interview: Chloe Chaidez of Kitten

Kitten at Bottom Of The Hill last June. Photo by Marie Carney

Kitten are a beast of a band. They play a furious blend of punk and new wave, while their lead singer, Chloe Chaidez, is at the tender age of 17, one of the most dynamic and aggressive front people in rock. We recently took the time out to speak Chaidez about their recently released EP, Cut It Out, the evolution of their sound and the logistics behind being in a teenage rock band. Kitten will be playing a Noise Pop Happy Hour show on Thursday, February 28th at Bender’s Bar & Grill as well as opening for Paramore at The Warfield on May 4th, and their debut full length is due to drop later this year. You’d be foolish to miss their live show.

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10 Quick Questions with Dawson Ludwig: Marketing Director for Noise Pop

The only time a Dave Matthews Band picture will be featured in a Noise Pop Preview

Noise Pop is having it’s 20th birthday this year, and it’s bigger than ever! What started out as a small, one night mini-festival at The Kennel Club (now The Independent), has evolved into a week long event that takes over nearly every venue in San Francisco. In addition, it’s organizers have also created Treasure Island Music Festival (aka The Best Music Fest in America in my opinion) and opened do415, a site to help music fans find shows. SpinningPlatters got the opportunity to talk with Noise Pop’s Marketing Director, Dawson Ludwig, to learn a bit about this year’s festival and his own evolution as a music listener.

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Spinning Platters Interview: Alden Ehrenreich and Alice Englert on Beautiful Creatures [VIDEO]

Alden Ehrenreich and Alice Englert in BEAUTIFUL CREATURES

On paper, Beautiful Creatures may look like just another film adaptation of a bestselling YA series about a supernatural romance. Alden Ehrenreich stars as Ethan, a restless high schooler in podunk Gatlin, South Carolina, who yearns to break free from the oppressive small-mindedness and cultural atrophy of his hometown. Ethan is charming enough to seem like a standard-issue popular guy, but in private his tastes lean toward the cerebral (he is a voracious reader of banned books) and he dreams of the day he’ll leave Gatlin for good. Ethan’s thirst for something different is what attracts him to new girl Lena (Alice Englert), the quiet and witchy-looking descendent of one of Gatlin’s most notorious families. Lena is immediately targeted as a dangerous freak by the town’s many gossipy Bible-thumpers, and while Ethan rushes to defend her from their attacks, it turns out that Lena does present a very real threat: she comes from a family of Casters (read: Southern witches), and on her rapidly-approaching 16th birthday, she will be “claimed” for either good or evil – with potentially catastrophic consequences.

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10 Quick Questions: an Interview with Garfunkel & Oates

Garfunkel & Oates are Riki Lindhome and Kate Miccuci. On their own, they are both well respected actresses, musicians, and writers. Of course, when they work together, it’s pure magic. No matter who you are, somebody has posted one of their videos on your Facebook wall. They are bringing their live show to Rickshaw Stop on Saturday, February 10th to close out this year’s installment of Sketchfest. We had a few moments to talk to both Garfunkel and Oates. Since you weren’t there with me, I’ll let you read about it:

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Spinning Platters Interview: Dave Franco, Analeigh Tipton & Jonathan Levine on Warm Bodies

2013 is off to a pleasantly promising start when it comes to genre films. Just a few weeks after the soulfully spooky Mama, we are now treated to Jonathan Levine’s thoroughly delightful adaptation of Isaac Marion’s beloved novel Warm Bodies. A hilariously self-aware and surprisingly sweet reimagining of the overly familiar “love transforms a monster” trope, Warm Bodies tells the story of a zombie named R (Nicholas Hoult), who narrates much of the film from his very unique point-of-view. Although zombiedom has robbed R of his ability to express himself verbally, his thoughts are as articulately human as ever; the film mines quite a bit of humor from this cognitive disconnect.

R spends his days staggering around an abandoned airport with a familiar lineup of other zombies, grunting and pondering what these people were like in life. But R is roused from his undead existential crisis when he meets Julie (Teresa Palmer), the daughter of one of mankind’s last great protectors, Grigio (John Malkovich). Julie enters zombie territory on an armed mission along with her boyfriend Perry (Dave Franco) and best friend Nora (Analeigh Tipton); it’s love at first sight for R despite the fact that Julie is trying to kill him. When the mission goes haywire and Julie is left behind, R devises a plan to keep her safe from the other zombies in the hopes that she’ll fall in love with him in spite of their, uh, differences.

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