Elise Trouw has proved her chops as a musician many times over. She can sing, and she plays every instrument under the sun. Her YouTube page is littered with fun and inventive videos, both original tracks and covers, where she loops herself. “The Perfect Girl” proves that Trouw is more than an abundance of technical skill- she is a brilliant songwriter. This track is a witty play on incel culture, and I bloody love it.
“The Perfect Girl” is the second single off her upcoming record, The Diary Of Elon Lust, which is coming out on February 13th. Presave here, with physical preorders coming soon from Buy Before You Stream. Her Spring tour went onsale today, and tickets are available here!
Our dear friends at SF Sketchfest have, once again, given us reason to look forward to the January doldrums. They’ve put out a bonkers lineup that I’ve barely scratched the surface of. (As an esteemed member of the press, I did get this a day early, which might not have been enough time to digest this.)
As usual, you’ll get my full “Nerd’s Guide.” My early nerd view reveals a few amazing bits. Like, are you a fan of both The State and melodramatic singers from the 80’s? GOOD NEWS! You have your choice of Ken Marino & David Wain & Friends doing the music of Billy Joel, OR Thomas Lennon & Friends doing the music of Morrissey & The Smiths. Like your music legends more subversive? Devo legend Mark Mothersbaugh is taking us on a tour of his film score work with the excellent Red Room Orchestra.
A few other surprises include “The Women of SNL,” which, in addition to Sketchfest regular, Laraine Newman, we have rare appearances by Ellen Cleghorne (!), Julia Sweeney (!), Robin Duke (!), Cheri Oteri (!), Rachel Dratch (!), and Ana Gasteyer (!) sharing a stage which, really, is just warming my Gen-X, TV addicted heart. Panels with the creators of Doug and Futurama, as well as Smoke Show with Jodie Sweetin (A beauty pagent for comedians?), will do that, too.
Anyways… I can go on forever. However, I digress – take a few hours to review the schedule here. Tickets go on sale for EVERYTHING this Sunday, November 16th, at 10:00 a.m. PST.
Ben Richards (Glen Powell) is escorted to set in ‘The Running Man.’
The fifth and final Stephen King adaptation of 2025 is about to hit theaters. After The Monkey in April, The Life of Chuck in June, The Long Walk in September, and the HBO series IT: Welcome to Derry, the list comes to an explosive close with a new adaptation of King’s 1982 thriller The Running Man (originally published under King’s pseudonym, Richard Bachman). The 1987 version of The Running Man starring Arnold Schwarzenegger has become a cult classic, commended for its critical depiction of a dystopian American pop culture-obsessed society, as well as for its campy villains and one-liners. The new film is co-written and directed by Edgar Wright (Baby Driver; Hot Fuzz), and sticks much closer to King’s source material than the 1987 film. The new film has many parts that work, and many parts that don’t. The Running Man’s ultimate success lies in some slick action and standout performances, but an indecipherable tone and confounding editing keep the film from achieving blockbuster greatness.Continue reading “Film Review: “The Running Man””
Sweeney, Foster deliver knockout performances in affecting boxing biopic
Christy (Sydney Sweeney) contemplates her next move in the ring.
If you’re not a boxing fan, you may not have heard of Christy Martin, a super welterweight champion of women’s professional boxing. Netflix covered her personal and professional life story in its excellent sports documentary series Untold back in 2021’s “Deal with the Devil” episode, and Hollywood obviously found the material worthy of dramatic spin. Hence the release of Christy today, with actress Sydney Sweeney portraying the resilient boxing champ in an absorbing and well-acted biopic. Continue reading “Film Review: “Christy””
We love Black Belt Eagle Scout here at Spinning Platters. She’s released 3 albums that balance between the gentle and the loud in ways that would do Neil Young very proud. She’s unafraid to push boundaries as an artist, but “Leftovers” was probably the last thing I was expecting. It’s a bright and sunny song that borders on reggae. It’s a hopeful, joyful piece. Her collaborator on this song, Mato Wayuhi, and effortless singing/rapping interplay work nicely with BBES’ delicate tones.
Black Belt Eagle Scout is hitting the road, doing a short run of West Coast shows alongside the legendary Julie Doiron, before heading East with Wayuhi. Tickets and the schedule can be found here.
I was planning on taking my 15-year-old daughter to see Alex G. She’s the reason I got into him six years ago. She discovered him on YouTube, and over time she grew increasingly irritated by the hordes on TikTok who butchered his lyrics and turned his shows into screaming matches over mis heard refrains. Continue reading “Show Review: Alex G at The Fox Theater — Oakland, 9/23 & 24”
The Predator franchise hunts for a wild team-up adventure, and finds it
Thia (Elle Fanning) and Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) team up in ‘Predator: Badlands.’
Sometimes, the deeper a film franchise explores its lore, the more the lack of mystery renders new entries as overwritten, overexplained, and uninteresting (see Maleficent, Star Wars, Halloween, Alien, etc.). Every bit of old and new intellectual property is vulnerable to this type of universe-building, since there’s a lot of money to be made in juicing a franchise for all its worth. Not all of lore-exploring is bad, however. There are many exceptions, and after 2018’s disappointing Shane Black vehicle, The Predator, the Predator franchise has been successfully growing its cinematic universe since 2022 under the helm of writer/director Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane, Prey, Predator: Killer of Killers). Predator: Badlands is the most adventurous and (intentionally) funny entry in the series, and it’s also the most distinct departure from the adult-oriented, extremely violent nature of its predecessors. Badlands stretches the tonal scope of what a Predator movie can include and feel like. With 2022’s Prey maintaining the franchise’s grittiness and simple setups (albeit taking place on the Great Plains in the early 1700s), and this year’s animated Predator: Killer of Killers expanding the Predator narrative pallet in inventive and ultra-gory ways, Badlands is an additional and promising franchise track: a character-oriented Star Wars-esque adventure.Continue reading “Film Review: “Predator: Badlands””
I’ve never been to a concert in Ventura, CA. I’ve also never seen Cannibal Corpse live. So, when given the opportunity to head out to The Majestic Ventura Theatre, a theatre that has seen countless bands over its lifetime, to see one of the progenitors of goregrind death metal, I simply had to take it. Mind you, this was a 50-mile trek for me, but it was a Friday, so I hit that fuck it button, cranked the throttle on my motorcycle, and zoomed off straight from work.
Opening the evening was an Italian death metal group paying homage, not only in name, to the great Lucio Fulci. Fulci was everything a horror movie-obsessed death metal fan could have wanted. In addition to bone-crushing songwriting, they brought awesome visuals directly pulled from or inspired by one of my absolute favorite directors of classic Italian genre cinema. They were relentless, tight, and loud as fuck. I loved it.
Following Fulci was a four-person wrecking crew who went off like a fucking bomb. Full of Hell were insanely high-energy, blending death metal, sludge, grindcore, and powerviolence into quite the unique concoction. Singer Dylan Walker never stops moving, save for a few moments between songs, which are at breakneck speeds and absolutely destructive. I felt a lot like how I felt the first time I had ever heard The Locust, and I say that as a huge compliment!
Municipal Waste is the main “coheadliner” of the tour, and goddamn are they fun. Within 30 seconds, I got hit by flying beer drops. These guys take old school trash and blend it with a no fucks given party attitude. They rile up the crowd and get ’em moving, jeering that whatever city they played before this one had more crowd surfers. Throughout the night, a guy in a banana costume was constantly being heckled into starting circle pits, and he sure did oblige!
As it turned out, this evening’s show was bass player Philip Hall’s birthday, and as such, singer Tony Foresta dedicated “The Art of Partying” circle pit to him. They also took a moment to recognize the passing of At The Gates’ Tomas Lindberg, dedicating the final circle pit to him before launching into “Born To Party.”
As I stated before, I’ve never managed to see Cannibal Corpse live. Partially because it took me a minute to come around to them in my younger, less enlightened, days, but by the time I did, I was absolutely hooked. So when they came out on stage and George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher almost immediately started headbanging, the night was officially ON. These guys rip, and they’re so ridiculously fast while also headbanging and windmilling throughout!
It seemed like Corpsegrinder was having some monitor trouble at first, but they got it figured out by the time he dedicated “Disposal of the Body” to Phil for his birthday. Allow me to say, the meme of “Respect The Neck,” in regards to Corpsegrinder’s inhuman ability to windmill and headbang harder and faster than anyone alive, is well deserved. It’s honestly mesmerizing at times, because I have no idea how he doesn’t give himself whiplash. All said and done, it was a hell of a night, and I’m glad I made the trek!
Emotions are an afterthought in this timely but surface-level historical dramatization
Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe) is on trial in ‘Nuremberg.’
The biggest challenge facing Nuremberg, the historical drama about the post-World War II Nazi trials, is that audiences can take a brief glimpse into today’s newspaper and read about an abundance of unchecked war crimes still taking place across the globe. Despite the precedent of individual accountability that the trials established, history tends to repeat itself. The second biggest issue facing Nuremberg is the script’s lack of emotional sincerity. Attempts at clever scene transitions and a tone aiming for a suspenseful courtroom dramafeel excruciatingly inappropriate. Despite a strong performance from Russell Crowe and the film’s timely release, Nuremberg fails to capture the tragedy, the sensitivity, and the momentousness of its subject matter.Continue reading “Film Review: “Nuremberg””
NICE! It’s been a bit since the last Noname track graced our eardrums. And the song she gave us? “Hundred Acres” is the kind of immediate head-nodder track that could be your guiding light through the dark winter ahead. An infectious piano riff, effortless delivery, complex rhyme schemes, a hook that rings in your head, and it’s just plain a killer track.
“Hundred Acres” is the first release from Noname’s upcoming album, Cartoon Radio, which I’m eagerly anticipating. Until then, why not join Noname’s book club?
