Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
Fresh off the release of their newest album, Where Did The Night Fall, trip rock pioneers UNKLE return to San Francisco almost three years to the date of their last SF performance. Competing with Game 2 of the World Series, James Lavelle’s live band would have to pitch a strong game in order to please the divided, yet loyal audience. Would they deliver?
Continue reading “Show Review: UNKLE with Sleepy Sun at The Regency Ballroom, 10/28/10”
Spinning Platters has seen all of these bands before, more than once in fact, yet about half of the staff was at this show. Why? It is impossible to resist the chance to see three such high energy fun acts all in one night, and it was Managing Editor Dakin Hardwick’s birthday party! For both these reasons it was a very fun night full of joy and dancing. Continue reading “Show Review: Free Energy with Foxy Shazam and Hollerado at Slim’s, 10/29/10”
LIGHTS is definitely not hard on the eyes! Think Alexandra Lawn from Ra Ra Riot but edgier. She’s not exactly hard on the ears either. Synth heavy female vocals, lightly backed by a drummer, and when I say lightly I mean he could play with one arm half the time. She breaks from her elrctro-pop way mid-way through her set to play a solo acoustic song off her purely acoustic EP, and to do what I guess would be a “cover” of the YouTube video “hide your kids hide your wife,” And then she finishes out the remainder of the set like the beginning. Continue reading “Show Review: LIGHTS at Slim’s, 10/25/2010”
Check out the spooky array of shows happening around the Bay Area as pumpkin month gives way to turkey month.
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 10/28/2010-11/3/2010”
Shakira first became known to most of the world in the late 90’s as Columbia’s answer to Alanis Morissette. She was young, very pretty, yet very angsty. She even had the same hairdo as Alanis. As time went on, she has managed to move far beyond this, both visually & sonically. She is now one of those rare celebrities is recognizable in nearly every country in the world, and has pulled off what very few people can do: She has managed to become a pop music superstar. And she did it in the last decade, at a time when nobody was breaking out into this kind of territory. Even more impressive is that she’s done it as a musician, not some sort of business person that has musician as one of several hyphenates. It’s been a long time since we’ve gotten a stage show from her, in fact it’s been about 4 years since her last tour, and 7 years since she last graced Oakland with her presence.
Continue reading “Show Review: Shakira at Oracle Arena, 10/22/10”
When we arrived at The Independent I was surprised by the lack of people. Maybe I live in a bizarre universe in which Saddle Creek in the early 2000’s was the epitome of music, but I thought Azure Ray coming back would be big. Apparently I was wrong. It could have been the rainy Sunday night, or maybe it’s that slow, haunting pop songs are out of style. Nevertheless, it turned out to be a lovely, and surprisingly varied, evening of music. Continue reading “Show Review: Azure Ray with Tim Fite and Whispertown (solo) at The Independent, 10/24/10”
After the jump, check out reviews of two very different mysteries opening in Bay Area theaters today.
Continue reading “In Theaters Today: “Conviction” / “Paranormal Activity 2””
I sent out an email to everyone from Spinning Platters that went to the Treasure Island Music Festival on Sunday. I asked them to send me back something about their favorite act from the day. From some people, I got nothing, but from nearly everyone who responded, I got the same news. Belle & Sebastian was their favorite act. So you’re about to read mainly a Belle & Sebastian love-fest, and look at a whole lot of pictures of Monotonix. And other than the rainy, windy, cold conditions and some energetic sets from Surfer Blood, Superchunk and Rogue Wave, that’s my biggest takeaway, too. Continue reading “Staff Picks from Treasure Island Music Festival — Sunday 10/17/2010”
The Vaselines are a band from a very different musical era. They are a hard-to-define band from a period of time when it was difficult to find bands that you couldn’t easily market to people. They didn’t really do punk rock, they don’t really do folk music, they aren’t a new wave band, they are merely themselves. They put out a few ep’s in the 80’s, and were supposed to fade away into obscurity. That was, of course, until a young man managed to come across some imports in his local record store, became entranced by them, and ended up covering not 1, not 2, but 3 of their songs with a little rock trio that became one of the most influential bands of all time.
They officially broke up in 1990, but played a few shows in the early 90’s supporting Nirvana in Europe. Then, in 2008, they decided to reunite at the urging of another influential band from the 90’s. This time it was Belle & Sebastian urging this band back into the limelight. After all, their blend of girl group, twee, punk and lyrics that would make Luther Campbell blush is something the world will finally be ready for. And, at the Great American Music Hall, we experienced what that band sounds like today.
Treasure Island has come and gone, but the Bay Area concert schedule isn’t slowing down for anyone! This week features shows by everyone from Aziz Ansari to Joey McIntyre (not on the same stage, sadly), as well as the annual return of the A-list Bridge School Benefit concerts. Look after the jump for more.
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 10/21/2010-10/27/2010”