Show Review: Anamanaguchi with Starscream, Knife City and Crash Faster at Slim’s, 10/30/2011

Returning to San Francisco to shake the OTHER venue on 11th Street
Returning to San Francisco to shake the OTHER venue on 11th Street

With access to thousands upon thousands of songs of every solidly-defined or unclassified musical archetype that exists on this great planet of ours, rock music has entered a new world of sonic exploration that was only experimented with in years past. The concept of “fusion” and the blending of genres has been a staple of pushing the envelope in music, but for many years it was still almost taboo to mix certain instruments, compositional methods, or even the fans that followed these musical movements. Today, with ancient horn sections bellowing their way into foggy punk rock and string sections going toe-to-toe with electronica, it isn’t hard to understand why the Brooklyn chiptune-punk quartet Anamanaguchi is successful enough to come to the Bay Area twice in one year and sell out two of the most popular clubs in the SoMa district of San Francisco.

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Show Review: Shpongle Live Halloween Ball at the Fox Oakland, 10/29/2011

We can take this huge universe and put it inside a very tiny head
Simon Posford and his band of psychedelic freaks and phantasms

October 29th, 2011. Possibly one of the biggest party nights of the year, thanks to the world-recognized holiday celebrating the bizarre, the underworldly, and the otherwordly, just around its corner. We’re speaking, of course, of Halloween, and in addition to being a fantastic occasion for costumes, candy, and chaotic parties, it’s also one of the best opportunities for live shows, allowing artists to come out in a blaze of style and passion with something unique and special for the night when spirits walk and demons dance. The Fox Theater in Oakland is no stranger to guests of many colors, persuasions, and strangeness, and with stiff competition to draw in concertgoers tonight — with deadmau5 taking residence at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, Primus rocking the streets of Berkeley at the Greek Theater, and the Damned keeping the San Francisco punks packed to the gills in Slim’s — it seemed only fitting for them to play host to one of the most anticipated acts of the entire year: Shpongle Live, the full-band-plus-dancers-and-more ensemble to masterfully color the otherworldly psybient music of UK psytrance masters Simon Posford and Raja Ram.

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Show Review: Jonny Lang with the Michael Williams Band at the Uptown Theatre Napa, 10/28/2011

Jonny Lang. Genius at work.

Up until last week, it would have shocked me to learn how few people in my life have heard of the young blues guitar genius Jonny Lang. Because I’ve witnessed Jonny’s musical evolution (from 15-year-old phenom to critical darling to gospel musician) since the late 90s, it seems absurd to me that there would be anyone that’s not yet heard of this man. Alas, it’s true: we Jonny Lang fans seem to be much more of a minority than I knew. Happily, this weekend found me among nearly a thousand like-minded individuals at Friday night’s performance at downtown Napa’s tiny Uptown Theatre. Continue reading “Show Review: Jonny Lang with the Michael Williams Band at the Uptown Theatre Napa, 10/28/2011”

Show Review: Julieta Venegas, Ximena Sarinana at The Fox Theater – Oakland, 10/23/11

Historically speaking, the vast majority of popular music consumed in the world is in English. In countries where they don’t speak English, they still primarily listen to music with English language vocals. I believe that the majority of this has to do with America’s overwhelming cultural influence on the world, so maybe it’s time for the United States to start embracing musicians that perform in a language that they don’t speak in. The Fox Theater in Oakland hosted an evening with two artists from Mexico City, who largely perform in their native tongue.

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Spinning Platters Interview: Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek on “Puss in Boots” (and “The Skin I Live In”)

Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek at the San Francisco premiere of PUSS IN BOOTS. Photo by Eric Lawson.

Antonio Banderas is out on a very polarized and complicated press tour at the moment. While it is not uncommon for an actor to have several projects opening at the same time, there have perhaps never been two more diametrically opposed films opening together than Puss in Boots, a feature-length spinoff of Banderas’ scene-stealing feline fan favorite from the Shrek films, and The Skin I Live In, a shockingly perverse psychological drama that reunites Banderas, now 51, with the great Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar, who first introduced Banderas in such ’80s world cinema classics as Law of Desire and Women on the Verge of Nervous Breakdown. And so, when Banderas and his frequent collaborator/Puss in Boots co-star Salma Hayek came to San Francisco for a red carpet premiere of their film, we were supposed to be talking about the family-friendly Puss in Boots. But, inevitably, the conversation kept working its way back to his other, considerably more lurid project – whether he liked it or not.

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Spinning Platters Interview: Elizabeth Olsen and Sean Durkin on “Martha Marcy May Marlene”

John Hawkes, Elizabeth Olsen, Louisa Krause and Christopher Abbott in MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE

Every year at the Sundance Film Festival, there are inevitably a crop of star-is-born moments where little-known or unknown actors and filmmakers are suddenly catapulted to fame and acclaim thanks to a particularly well-received film. But surely one of the most surprising Sundance discoveries in recent memory is Elizabeth Olsen, 22, younger sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. After growing up on the sets of her sisters’ projects, Olsen studied acting at NYU (she recently graduated), and is now making her feature-film debut in Martha Marcy May Marlene, a tense character study that also marks the incredibly promising feature-length debut of writer/director Sean Durkin.

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Show Review: Portishead with Thought Forms at The Greek Theatre, 10/21/11

The ecstatic crowd, bathed in light.

Portishead.  14 years since their last Bay Area appearance, the legendary experimental trio have returned.  The majority thought this day would never come, but after long anticipation, it finally did.  Would these sojourned pioneers be able to successfully transfer their art live? Continue reading “Show Review: Portishead with Thought Forms at The Greek Theatre, 10/21/11”

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 10/20/11-10/26/11

PORTIS Hat & Coat Rack from IKEA. $29.99. Current average price of Portishead tickets on Stubhub? $150.00

This is another week where you just have to feel lucky living in the bay… It’s a great combination of living legends and awesome low profile gigs, so I hope you have some money and sick time, because this one is gonna be busy!

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Festival Diary: The 2011 Treasure Island Music Festival, Day 1

The glamtastic Saturday headliners

The details of the Treasure Island Music Festival are well known to Bay Area music regulars. I’ll go over them briefly.

The setting is beautiful, on an island in the middle of San Francisco Bay. There are only two stages that alternate acts, so there’s never any clashes. There are two days: Saturday leans toward dance music, and Sunday is for indie rock. It’s small so you can easily get close to the stage whenever you want, without having to park yourself in the front row all day long. Those are the basics — everything else changes year to year. In fact, the organizers — Noise Pop and Another Planet — intend to never repeat a band. So here’s a quick look at this year’s collection of talent.

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