Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
METALLICA! And nothing else matters…
Day 2 of any festival is a little rough. Your energy is a little bit zapped from the day before. You can’t seem to drink enough water or coffee. Your legs are sore. So when you finally get there, you need something to kick yourself into gear. And I managed to stumble across that band at 12:00 on the dot. Continue reading “Outside Lands Journal: Day 2, 8/12/17”
Celebrating 10 years of walking through the park
My 10th Outside Lands began by listening to Hundred Waters close out their set on the Lands End stage. For a set at noon on Friday, the crowd was massive. They were warm and bright, perfect for getting warmed up for a day of music. These folks also curate the FORM festival in Acrosanti, AZ, one of the most intimate music festivals in America. So intimate that, historically, you needed to be invited to attend. Continue reading “Outside Lands Journal: Day 1, 8/11/17”
Do you know what today is? It’s been a long time, and I’ll tell you why: it’s August 11.
The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar began on August 11 in 3114 BC. Been a long time. And it feels like it’s been that long that we’ve been waiting for the Bay Area’s own Jawbreaker to get back together.
Jawbreaker made achingly smart punch-yourself-in-the-face and brush-your-teeth-until-your-gums-bleed rock music in the 1990s. Their music and words and actions touched a lot of people who have enough inside them to feel things, and then, after one major-label release, the band burned out like a candle.
And now they’re back. By my count it’s been a long time, and we are lucky enough to be alive to see it happening.
Speaking of waiting for things, let’s talk about this week’s concerts. Here’s what we’ve got coming up this week in the Bay Area: genius-level skills, classically-styled skills, and sports skills.
So now, yes, let’s preview this week’s concerts now. Start the preview and the preview is starting. Let’s start this preview now and here we go. Preview time goooo.
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 2017-08-11 – 2017-08-13”
The word “serviceable’ gets bandied about quite a bit in director Marc Webb’s new film about a young writer, which is ironic, since The Only Living Boy in New York is anything but. In fact, serviceable is actually far too kind a word for this hackneyed, derivative embarrassment.
Continue reading “Film Review: The Only Living Boy in New York“
If you watch Saturday Night Live regularly, you know that cast member Kyle Mooney seems like the kind of smart-but-nerdy guy who probably spent his middle school years making goofy action-figure based short films with his friends. Fast forward some 20 years later, and not much has changed, though the results are no doubt exceedingly more polished than his junior high efforts. Mooney, along with his 7th grade buddies Dave McCary and Kevin Costello, has made his first feature film, and, fittingly, Brigsby Bear is a charmer that celebrates the healing power of both art and family.
Continue reading “Film Review: Brigsby Bear“
The best thing about a festival is tripping over your new favorite band, not hearing The Who do “My Generation” for the 4,000th time. So, I present to you here are your ten new favorite acts… all pulled from the bottom half of the Outside Lands poster. Still haven’t bought tickets? Well, there’s still time. Just click here!
Continue reading “Outside Lands 2017: Top 10 Acts from The Bottom Half of The Poster”
The 37th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, showcasing over 60 films from more than a dozen countries, opened on July 20th, and runs until next Sunday, August 6th. This year, the Festival boasts over 15 West Coast premiers, and more than 40% of its films are directed by women, including both its opening and closing night films.
With a full week left to go, there is still plenty of time to catch some great new films. Below we spotlight four Fest titles (two documentaries and two features) that you may want to check out. Complete schedule, tickets, and more information are available here. Continue reading “SFJFF37 Spotlights: The Boy Downstairs / Mr. Predictable / A Classy Broad / Bombshell“
Take a world nearing collapse, a main character with oodles of bitchy beauty, add some cold-war cloak and dagger spycraft, throw in some “fluid sexuality,” lots of fight scenes, and just a pinch of back story. Good so far? Not so fast. Take away the script. Take away the music. Take away much of the acting. Not so great? Ok, so put one truly fantastic fight scene back in, and you’re served Atomic Blonde, the Charlize Theron vehicle opening wide today.
First time helmer David Leitch, a former stunt man with co-directing credits on John Wick has taken the graphic novel series The Coldest City and turned it into a mostly a muddled mish-mash that owes much of its existence to Luc Bresson’s La Femme Nikita and Leon: The Professional, as well founding father Doug Limon’s The Bourne Identity.
Continue reading “Film Review: Atomic Blonde“
“It’s hard to believe this could happen in America,” a character says in Detroit, director Kathryn Bigelow’s grim but brilliantly effective new film about the 1967 Detroit riots and their aftermath. But for those of us watching exactly 50 years later, such believing is all too easy — and that’s perhaps the most disheartening take away from Bigelow’s gut-punch of a film.
Continue reading “Film Review: Detroit“
This year marks the 10th year of the Outside Lands Music Festival. It feels like the first one was just yesterday, and it also feels like it’s been happening since the beginning of time. It’s been a fantastic August tradition that I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy nearly every year. (I did miss the one that Kings Of Leon headlined. I’m sure other people wish they missed that one.) I think it’s time to look back on this recent San Francisco tradition. Continue reading “10 Years of Outside Lands: A Look Back”