Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
Before that show, I had no idea why I enjoyed Tove Lo so much. On the surface, she looks just like another Ke$ha-inspired glitter party clone. But standing in the middle of Rickshaw Stop, somewhere between the whiskey, vaporizer smoke, and bendy straws, it hit me. Somewhere in that crowd, in all those eyes glittering in the lights coming from the stage, it all became so painfully obvious: we are all hurt. And that’s why we were there.
If you have even a passing interest in film history, you owe it to yourself to see director Steve James’s new documentary about renowned Pulitzer-prize winning Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert. While James makes a few questionable directorial choices, the film succeeds as both a compelling biopic about a truly fascinating man, and as a superb primer on the advent of modern day film criticism. Just be sure to bring some tissues, since the film also covers the weightier issues of life, disease, and death, but with exceptional candor and grace. Continue reading “Film Review: Life Itself”
Historically, July has been a dead period for big music festivals. Recently, however, we’ve seen two amazing festivals pop up. Next week is Phono del Sol. This week, however, is the positively epic Burger Boogaloo! There is going to be 50 years worth of the finest garage bands ever in Mosswood Park, near MacArthur Bart in Oakland. However, there is plenty more happening this week in addition to that: Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 7/3/14-7/9/14”
Transformers Age of Extinction, aka Transformers 4, is basically a tech demo for the IMAX 3D format. Only seconds into the nearly 3-hour movie, many in the audience were gasping with awe. Are movies supposed to look this amazing? And when they do, can we forgive basically everything else about them? Follow along as I “live blog” Transformers 4: Age of Extinction. (I’ve left out spoilers, and made up most of the times since I didn’t actually write this in the movie.) Continue reading “Film Review: Transformers Age of Extinction”
The first time you see the Electric Daisy Carnival at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway is jawdropping. You walk out to the top of the grandstands, and you look out over a sea of lights and motion that’s larger than you could have possibly imagined. The new film, Under the Electric Sky, captures this moment and many others, as it does a terrific job of showing the size and scale of the largest EDM festival going. This is what this movie is here for: it’s a 90-minute propaganda film that serves as a perfect advertisement for Insomniac Entertainment. It’ll definitely make you want to go. Continue reading “Film Review: Under the Electric Sky”
Thursday, June 26th
Veruca Salt, The Echo Friendly at The Independent
Veruca Salt released two fine pieces of fuzzy guitar pop goodness in the mid 90s. It’s been far too long since Louise Post and Nina Gordon have put collaborated on a project, but the new Veruca Salt record is another classic piece of Alternative Nation era rock goodness. Kennedy would be proud!
Southern Culture On The Skids, Aloha Screwdriver at Great American Music Hall
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 6/26/14-7/2/14”
Okay, I’ll be the first to admit my folly: I was tardy to the Gavin DeGraw party. I mean really tardy. It’s not that I’d never heard of him or didn’t enjoy his music. It’s just that, for some reason, while my friends were all obsessing over him back in 2004 when he first came on the scene, I resisted several opportunities to join them. It wasn’t until I got a chance to fall for his charming personality in 2012 on Dancing with the Stars that I finally saw the error of my ways and drank the Kool-Aid. Since then, though, I’ve been making up for lost time. Now a genuine, bona fide giant Gavin fan in my own right, I recently had my first chance to finally catch him live this past April in Napa, promoting his newest album, Make a Move. You might think that having just seen him two months ago would make me less likely to rush myself to see him again at my alma mater UC Berkeley’s Greek Theatre last Friday night when he co-headlined with the phenomenal local boy Matt Nathanson, but well… you’d be wrong. Dead wrong. Continue reading “Show Review: Matt Nathanson & Gavin DeGraw with Mary Lambert at Berkeley’s Greek Theatre, 6/20/2014”
After Coherence screened to a packed house at the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival, the film’s writer/director James Ward Byrkit (Rango, Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy), sat down with me to discuss the mind-bending thriller, its origins, its unique production, and more…
Where and when did you originally come up with the premise for Coherence?
Well, we came up with the premise in my living room, where the movie is shot. A couple years ago we were trying to think about what a good low budget, or no budget, movie would be. And, since we didn’t have any resources, I had to think of what we actually had. We had a camera. We had some actors who were pretty good, and we had a living room. So we had to find out how to make a living room feel like more than just a living room. And, that led to a whole Twilight Zone type story [laughs].
Coming off the work you’ve done — storyboarding for Pirates of the Caribbean and working on the story for Rango, how did this shift your way of thinking?
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: James Ward Byrkit, Writer/Director, “Coherence””
If you’re looking for a respite from X-Men, Spider-Man, Transformers and other big budget blockbuster men of all types, look no further than German writer/director Jan Ole Gerster’s subtle yet compelling A Coffee in Berlin, an indie about a flailing young man in modern-day Berlin who’s about as far removed from those purposeful heroic types as you can get. Geared toward the millennial set, the picture nevertheless has a universal appeal, and will resonate with those who have ever felt lost, confused, and unsure of their place in adult society. Continue reading “Film Review: A Coffee in Berlin”
Thursday, June 19th Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 6/19/14-6/25/14”