Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 2017-07-12 – 2017-07-16

Superchunk as The Misfits
Some of the very best band photos of Superchunk are the ones where they are dressed up as The Misfits. That’s the birthday guy on the far right with the devilock.

Do you know what today is? You do. It’s July 12. That means that over in North Carolina, it’s Mac McCaughan’s birthday. Who? Yes. Mac McCaughan of the long-running pogo-producing indie-rocker band Superchunk, as well as his own semi-solo project Portastatic, as well as one of the founders of the stalwart Merge Records. Cheers to Mac.

Speaking of pogo-inducing rock and roll, let’s talk about this week’s concerts. Here’s what we’ve got coming up this week in the Bay Area: things with animals, things from the past, and things near to college.

So, let’s get this preview started. Previewing now. Pre. View. Preview is starting and let’s go preview now.

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 2017-07-12 – 2017-07-16”

Film Review: Spider-Man: Homecoming

The ultimate movie-by-committee goes for spectacular, but is less than amazing

Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) gives fatherly advice to young Peter Parker (Tom Holland) in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Sometimes a movie has a story to tell, and sometimes it doesn’t. This movie doesn’t. It has a purpose, for sure. It has a goal in mind and it competently makes every effort to get there, and objectively, it does. Unfortunately, the goal was not to make a meaningful movie; it was simply to check all the boxes on what makes an “entertaining” one. This is a bland, corporate product that goes down easy, but is forgettable from beginning to end.

Continue reading “Film Review: Spider-Man: Homecoming“

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 2017-07-05 – 2017-07-09

Sports!
Sports!

Do you know what today is? You do. It’s July 5. That means that here in the Bay Area, it’s Huey Lewis’s birthday.

Speaking of the heart of rock and roll, let’s talk about this week’s concerts. Here’s what we’ve got coming up this week in the Bay Area: symphonies, troopers, and remembrances.

So, we’ll preview this now. Previewing now. Let’s preview and go ahead and preview. Preview go!

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 2017-07-05 – 2017-07-09”

Show Review: Shobaleader One (Squarepusher) at the UC Theatre, 6/27/2017

Tom Jenkinson (Squarepusher) of Shobaleader One
Tom Jenkinson (Squarepusher) of Shobaleader One

A big issue I’ve taken up many times with electronic music is the fact that many top-selling, well-known acts are able to craft their musical set — and perform it — with incredibly little effort, sometimes less than a single button press. Many circles of music fans mock massively popular DJs for this “just push play” approach to touring, and I’m among them; I appreciate a great live show as much as anyone, but there should be a balance of performance and spectacle. In addition, it’s easy to bury the lack-of-complexity in a lot of pop-centered dance sets under piles and piles of dazzling lights, psychedelic projections, and spiffy lasers. If any of these sound like your own pet peeves with music that has mostly been composed with the aid of a machine, then you’ll want to make a point to see Shobaleader One, the latest project helmed by IDM artist Tom Jenkinson, best known for his work as Squarepusher. Theirs is a live performance bereft of automated tracks, flashy lights, or colorful costumes; instead, it’s a tour-de-force of stunningly-complex grooves played at dizzying tempos — the sort of thing that would appeal to electronic, jazz, and progressive fans alike.

Continue reading “Show Review: Shobaleader One (Squarepusher) at the UC Theatre, 6/27/2017”

Film Review: The Beguiled

Coppola returns to form with seductive Southern gothic drama 

Union soldier John (Colin Farrell) and Edwina (Kirsten Dunst) find a moment alone. 

In its 70-year history, the Cannes Film Festival has only awarded its Best Director prize to a female director twice; the first was in 1961 (to Soviet filmmaker Yuliya Solntseva for Chronicle of Flaming Years, a tale of Nazi resistance in the Soviet Union), and the second was this May, to writer/director Sofia Coppola for The Beguiled. While the Festival sadly took some 50 years before bestowing this honor on another woman, this year’s award hopefully signals a real shift toward providing opportunities for, and recognizing the accomplishments of, women in film. That said, the concern of this review, of course, is the film itself: are Coppola and her new film worthy of the prize? The answer, thankfully, is a resounding yes.
Continue reading “Film Review: The Beguiled“

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 2017-06-28 – 2017-07-02

It’s the week between Pride Weekend and the Fourth of July Weekend. A chance to catch your breath.

Speaking of catching things, let’s talk about what you can catch in this week’s shows. What we’ve got coming up this week in the Bay Area includes: ogres, lifers, (sc)avengers, The Dude and The Iguana.

So, we’re going to do the preview now. Doing the preview now. Preview is go and now we go do the preview now. Previewwww.

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 2017-06-28 – 2017-07-02”

Film Review: Okja

Welcome to the animal funny farm

Okja (left) and Mija (An Seo Hyun) share a moment.

She has eyes the color of sunlit amber. She has a face that always reflects your best mood. Just being near her, feeling the warmth of her body as you wake up from an afternoon nap, sends waves of serenity through you. Sometimes, when you’re not sure where she is, and you call after her, the moments before her reply can seem like small eternities. Continue reading “Film Review: Okja“

Film Feature: A Few Minutes with Edgar Wright and Ansel Elgort from Baby Driver

           Edgar Wright on set directing Ansel Elgort in the marvelous new film Baby Driver.

Edgar Wright’s newest film, Baby Driver, is a labor of love, many years in the making. The film would be a typical action crime drama were it not made by Wright, who is anything but typical. Instead, we get a creatively inspired film that takes this oft repeated form and adds a magical twist, which is that nearly every scene, from a romantic conversation in a laundromat to a brisk foot chase with guns blazing, is not only accompanied by inspired musical choices, but is also choreographed to the songs. The result crackles with life and bristles with energy. We were overjoyed to be able to spend a few minutes discussing the music and choreography with director Edgar Wright and budding superstar Ansel Elgort.

Continue reading “Film Feature: A Few Minutes with Edgar Wright and Ansel Elgort from Baby Driver“

Festival Preview: FYF Fest

2017 seems to be the year of the music festival.  With new festivals like Desert Daze and Burger Boogaloo gaining traction, the stalwarts have upped the ante on their lineups, boasting unique and eclectic selections of damn fine music. FYF Fest has come a long way from its meager Echo Park beginnings and from July 21st to 23rd it will once again take over Exposition Park in Los Angeles this year and damn if they haven’t booked one hell of a lineup.

Continue reading “Festival Preview: FYF Fest”

Film Review: Transformers: The Last Knight

This movie goes for Big Dumb Fun, and is certainly big and dumb

             Sir Anthony Hopkins about to chew some scenery in Transformers: The Last Knight

A few years back, I wrote a “live blog” of Transformers 4: I Can’t Remember the Subtitle, the first in the Michael Bay x Hasbro series of films to star Mark Wahlberg. It was a pretty silly movie, but looked amazing in IMAX 3-D, as many scenes were shot natively with IMAX 3-D cameras. This time around, nearly every shot in the final film comes from IMAX 3-D cameras, so of course I had to head out to the theater to provide another Transformers live blog!

Continue reading “Film Review: Transformers: The Last Knight“