As with every April, it’s a really full week of shows. Enjoy!
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 4/10/14-4/16/14”
Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 4/10/14-4/16/14
Instant Reactions to the 2014 Outside Lands Lineup
I took to the internet this morning to start discussing the Outside Lands headliners and lineup with the Bay Area music nerds, and to get some instant reactions from the Spinning Platters staffers. The 2014 Outside Lands lineup doesn’t look like every other festival lineup happening this summer, and that’s no surprise. We’ve always been able to count on the festival to provide different headliners from every other festival. How else can you stand out when everyone else is booking the same ten bands? Continue reading “Instant Reactions to the 2014 Outside Lands Lineup”
Film Review: The Raid 2
The action stuff works so incredibly well, you’ll want a fan edit removing everything else.
Gareth Evans knows how to shoot an action scene. This is a high compliment coming from me, because it’s so rare. He knows not to do too many quick cuts, he knows where to put the cameras, and he knows to show the performers doing the stunts. The way he designs action sequences to make brutal physical violence seem both balletic and funny is beyond what anyone else is doing in cinema these days. The action stuff is so good and so fun, it’s a shame it has to be inside of a story, because the story itself drags down the final product. Continue reading “Film Review: The Raid 2”
Film Review: Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Captain America is in a post-Avengers world.
The surprise 2011 hit, Captain America: The First Avenger, succeeded because the iconic yet campy superhero received a modern injection of cinematic energy and solid storytelling. The main reason for the Captain’s successful re-emergence into mainstream pop culture was the charisma and multi-generational appeal of actor Chris Evans. Evans returns in his third stint as the star-spangled rescuer in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a film with another solid plot extracted from the Marvel universe, a fantastic grip on character arcs and relationships, and an epic sense of scale that, obviously, takes place in a post-Avengers universe.
Continue reading “Film Review: Captain America: The Winter Soldier”
Film Review: Nymphomaniac: Vol. II
Now on the beaten path.
(Warning: ‘Volume I’ spoilers immediately ahead.)
Last we left Joe, she had just been broken down with the tragic realization that she couldn’t feel anything. Her years of sexual escapades and experimentation had left her suddenly numb, cold, distant, and depressed…and this is the new Joe that we get to follow in Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac: Volume II, the second half of his sexual cinematic odyssey. Needless to say, this sequel of sorts doesn’t live up to the emotional gravitas and observational humor of Volume I, instead settling for a few interesting thoughts but mostly von Trier’s penchant for gratuitous sexual violence and plenty of shock value.
Film Review: On My Way
Deneuve’s compelling performance salvages run-of-the-mill French dramedy
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Catherine Deneuve’s Bettie and Nemo Schiffman’s Charly share a tranquil moment in On My Way.
With her new film On My Way, French writer/director Emmanuelle Bercot has made a fairly standard finding-yourself-late-in-life picture (see About Schmidt and Something’s Gotta Give, among others), with the saving grace that the inestimable Catherine Deneuve is its star. Deneuve elevates what could have been a dime-a-dozen quirky French dramedy into a picture worth watching, if only for her performance. Continue reading “Film Review: On My Way”
Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 4/3/14-4/9/14
The week is the first official week of Fauxchella. There is plenty to look forward to, including a healthy dose of Coachella bands that you can see without the threat of sunburn, and only limited threat of somebody on Ecstasy deciding that you have the prettiest hair in the world and they need to pet it for 45 minutes while you watch The Cult.
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 4/3/14-4/9/14”
Spinning Platters Monthly Guide to Bay Area Comedy – April 2014
I’m really bad at this. REEEEALLY bad. “Would you like to cover comedy on the site,” asked Dakin. “Sure!” says I. Two months after SF Sketchfest, a big pile of nothing! Apologies for underserving and under-performing. I aim to rectify the dearth with a slew of silly pictures and impassioned descriptions. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Monthly Guide to Bay Area Comedy – April 2014”
Album Review: Liars – Mess
Rating: Silver
Seven albums in and Liars are still one of the most notorious and formidable bands around. From their debut They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top to this year’s Mess, they’ve continued to defy expectations and challenge listeners. With each release the stacks have been raised and Liars have met these expectations by taking their music in a completely different direction. From their dance punk origins through the post punk and even noise offerings of Drums Not Dead to the more subdued but darker Sisterworld they’ve refused to stay true to one identity and in turn their identity has become protean and malleable. This can be an admirable trait in an artist but it can also be a hindrance as the artist’s allegiances begin to shift with the changing trends their artistic integrity is challenged. This is the quagmire that Liars finds themselves in with Mess.
Continue reading “Album Review: Liars — Mess“
Album Review: Damaged Bug – Hubba Bubba
Rating: Silver
Somehow, in-between putting Thee Oh Sees on hiatus, relocating to Southern California, and preparing to release another Thee Oh Sees album, John Dwyer has found time for another solo project. Hubba Bubba, his debut album as Damaged Bug, has Dwyer abandoning his fuzzy guitars for an even fuzzier synthesizer. But this foray into electronica isn’t Dwyer’s attempt at making a Depeche Mode album. Hubba Bubba sounds much more like a marijuana influenced Suicide album than an 80’s new wave rehash like so many artist are doing right now. The emphasis is placed on minimalist synth riffs behind Dwyer’s robotic vocals.