Our Guide to the 2012 Outside Lands Music Festival

Poor guys… Gonna have to find someplace else to play Polo next weekend.

Every year, every festival in America claims to have the “best line up ever!” Well, San Francisco’s Outside Lands Music Festival has made to its 5th year, and they really are going to have a seriously difficult time topping this year’s event. Of course, this means that there are conflicts galore! You’ve got six stages of entertainment to try to decide between at any time of day.

The schedule can be awfully intimidating. Which is why I’m here to help guide you through the complex maze that is the Outside Lands schedule. Without further ado, here is SpinningPlatters’ Official Guide to Outside Lands 2012.

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Spinning Platters Interview: William Friedkin on “Killer Joe”

William Friedkin directs Emile Hirsch and Juno Temple on the set of KILLER JOE

“Fire away. Anything. Don’t be polite.” William Friedkin is feeling pretty candid these days. Maybe it’s because after nearly six decades in the business, the Academy Award-winning director of such classics as The French Connection and The Exorcist has nothing left to prove. Maybe it’s because he’s been working on his memoirs, due next year from HarperCollins, and is still in confessional mode. Or maybe he’s just well past the age where you stop giving a fuck what anyone thinks about you (he turns 77 this month). The night before our conversation, Spinning Platters attended a screening of his gleefully sadistic new movie, the NC-17-rated Killer Joe, followed by a moderated Q&A with Friedkin that quickly turned into a rowdy one-man show. Refusing to be seated, Friedkin stood in front of the jam-packed theater for nearly an hour and pontificated at length about his career, the controversy over Killer Joe, and anything the audience wanted to talk about. He even volunteered questions he figured we were too sheepish to ask (“Who wants to hear how I discovered Linda Blair?”). When he was informed that the theater needed him to wrap up, he was unfazed. “Why, what are they gonna play? Isn’t it too late to start a movie?”

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Show Review: The Dirty Projectors, Wye Oak at The Fox Theater, 7/28/12

All Photos by Dakin Hardwick

No Two Doves. They didn’t play Two Doves! Two years ago my compadre (from here on out known as The Editor) tried to convince me to see Dirty Projectors at the Fillmore. I bailed on him for Vampire Weekend, Beach House, and The Very Best at the Greek (I don’t think that was a complete fail, one band with harmonies and African beats for another. And fun fact! According to Wikipedia, Ezra once played sax for Dirty Projectors!). The point of this rambling intro being that my only knowledge of Dirty Projectors was their song Two Doves, a lovely but slow emotional song. Not something I’d want to spend all night listening to. In other words, I was an idiot.

So this time, after some more research, I accepted El Editoro’s invitation to see the band at The Fox Theater in Oakland. After all they serve some tasty nachos at the Fox.

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10 Quick Questions with Scott Aukerman

Scott Aukerman first came onto the national radar as a writer and occasional performer on Mr Show. In the year’s since Mr Show’s cancellation, he’s probably most famous for his Comedy Death Ray show, which later evolved into the excellent podcast Comedy Bang Bang. He also has created his own network of podcasts under the banner Earwolf.com. Recently, IFC has opted to pick up Comedy Bang Bang as a TV show. He is also bringing Comedy Bang Bang on the road, and he will be doing the show with guests Paul F Thomkins, James Adomian, and opener Kurt Braunohler at The Herbst Theater in San Francisco on August 3rd. Tickets are available here!

SpinningPlatters had the opportunity to ask Mr Aukerman a few questions about his career, his future, and learning that he might not remember every minute bit of every sketch he’s ever written. Continue reading “10 Quick Questions with Scott Aukerman”

Show Review: Spoek Mathambo with Pegasus Warning, Duckwrth and Armani Cooper at Brick & Mortar Music Hall, 7/23/2012

Nthato Mokgata aka Spoek Mathambo
Nthato Mokgata aka Spoek Mathambo

The death, rebirth, and re-death of hip hop music is a continuing cycle that has been foretold, discussed, and beaten into the ground so often that it seems to be a career staple for any artist that will willingly embrace the label. The genre itself seems to be in a constant struggle to maintain relevance as an art form, and as a powerful method of expression, while also battling to remain incredibly popular and appealing to fans of all creeds and backgrounds. There is a constant race to be the next big MC, the next hot producer, or to do something wholly original with your performance that eschews established “rules” of hip hop in favor of something fresh, but also accessible. Adding a set of live instruments, and a thunderous stage presence during his delivery, are two key elements that South African hip hop newcomer Spoek Mathambo (pronounced “Spook Mah-tem-bo,” real name Nthato Mokgata) is using to shatter such conventional stylings, and bring startlingly bright life into the world of beats and rhymes.

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 8/2/12 – 8/8/12

Coming to Shoreline Amphitheater on August 3rd

The final week before Outside Lands, and we have a whole lot on our docket. We’ve got no less than 8 bona fide rock legends coming to town, as well as 3 of SpinningPlatters’ all time favorite acts. Consider this your warm up for Golden Gate Park.

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Spinning Platters Interview: Cillian Murphy and Rodrigo Cortés on “Red Lights”

Cillian Murphy in RED LIGHTS

In the dramatic thriller Red Lights, Cillian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver star as the world’s foremost investigators of paranormal phenomena. Professional skeptics, they have debunked dozens of fraudulent mind readers, ghost hunters, and faith healers by detecting “red lights”, subtle clues to the trickery behind each of these “supernatural” occurrences. But when a world-renowned psychic (Robert De Niro) suddenly resurfaces after a lengthy exile — and the death of his biggest critic — they begin to investigate him, despite increasingly bizarre and dangerous incidents the closer they get. Co-starring Elizabeth Olsen and Joely Richardson, Red Lights is the second English-language film by Spanish writer/director Rodrigo Cortés, who previously created the acclaimed Ryan Reynolds thriller Buried. Below, Spinning Platters talks with Murphy and Cortés about manipulating the human brain, Murphy’s reflections on 28 Days Later and Inception, and how profoundly unamused he is by my phone’s autocorrect.

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Spinning Platters Interview: Todd Solondz on “Dark Horse”

Jordan Gelber and Selma Blair in DARK HORSE

Ever since his 1995 breakout Welcome to the Dollhouse, writer/director Todd Solondz, 52, has continued to plumb the depths of soul-sick suburban alienation with equal parts open-hearted compassion and satirical ruthlessness. While he is prone to subjecting his characters to the most profoundly unsettling social and psychological horrors imaginable (this arguably reached its nadir with his notorious 1998 epic Happiness and its wrenching pedophile protagonist), it is always clear that he loves and embraces them in all their sad, desperate flailing for love and validation. And while Solondz’s protagonists have always been underdogs, his latest film both deconstructs and transcends that familiar archetype. It is titled, appropriately, Dark Horse.

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 7/26/12 – 7/31/12

Coming to Brick & Mortar!

This week is heavy on the world music… Maybe it’s time that you took a leap and tried something completely new? It will be quite good for you.

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Show Review: Cody ChesnuTT at Yoshi’s – SF, 7/12/12

I find it hard to believe that 2002 was 10 years ago. This was the last time that we heard from Cody ChesnuTT. He released a brilliant record called The Headphone Masterpiece. It was a two CD set, recorded at home, and was one of the most refreshing R&B records of it’s time. He managed to balance out the fine line between neo soul and indie rock in a truly inventive way. Both The Roots and Miranda July sang his praises, but it didn’t seem to be enough, and nearly as soon as he burst onto the scene, he was gone. I genuinely thought that this was going to be his sole artistic contribution to the world. Then, as I often do, I found myself scrolling through the listings of local venues, and found ChesnuTT playing a show. Of course, that meant that I was going to the show.

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