Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
The Detroit Cobras and Girl In A Coma played a sold-out show to a party-seeking crowd at The Independent on Friday night. And that crowd came to the right place, as the femme-fronted combination of GIAC’s sweaty Texas rock and the Cobras’ swaggering garage soul made for one hell of a Friday night party.
Continue reading “Show Review: The Detroit Cobras with Girl In A Coma at The Independent, 6/10/2011”
starring: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic
written and directed by: Mike Mills
MPAA: Rated R for language and some sexual content.
This week, you are treated to two youtube clips that I make brief appearances in… I think the loyal reader will be happy about that. Are you? Anyways, it’s a pretty good week for shows. Read on:
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 6/9/11-6/15/11”
starring: Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning, Ron Eldard, Noah Emmerich, Joel Courtney, Ryan Lee, Zach Mills, Ryan Griffiths, Gabriel Basso, AJ Michalka
written and directed by: J.J. Abrams
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, language and some drug use.
This is the first time I can remember Club BFD being better than original BFD. First off, there’s the lineup which has more melody in four bands than there’d be in 11 hours on Sunday. Then there’s the Mezzanine, which welcomes its visitors with a high-res screen featuring sharp animations about tonight’s show and future events. At “real BFD,” there’s a static monitor. And in a club that holds somewhere in the 1000-person range, there’s a multi-camera shoot being projected on walls throughout the venue; at big BFD, there were no screens inside the amphitheater at all. I’m not even going to discuss the drink price competition. So the Mezzanine is all class, we know that. But how were the bands? Continue reading “Show Review: Club BFD with Surfer Blood, Innerpartysystem, The Vaccines and Geographer at Mezzanine, 6/4/2011”
The Wombats’ new album This Modern Glitchhas quickly become my favorite of the year, overtaking all the others on my iPod until it spent two weeks as the only thing I listen to. So on a Friday night after a long week I had high hopes that this would be the perfect night. Continue reading “Show Review: The Wombats with The Tender Box and Wild Party at The Rickshaw, 6/3/11”
Architecture in Helsinki is an unfortunately named band. Whenever I tell people about them, the response I hear has something to do with traveling in Europe. I have to explain that, no, they’re a fun, synth heavy band from Australia. Or more recently, since I’m going to Finland this summer, they’ll think I’m mentioning the architecture in Helsinki, for real. I can’t imagine what they go through. Apart from answering questions about their band name (which they’ve had for years — get over it already), they also come to San Francisco to play shows, including this week at Great American Music Hall.
starring: Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, Sean Penn, Hunter McCracken, Laramie Eppler, Tye Sheridan, Fiona Shaw
written and directed by: Terrence Malick
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for some thematic material.
starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, January Jones, Kevin Bacon, Lucas Till, Caleb Landry Jones, Zoe Kravitz, Oliver Platt, Jason Flemyng, Alex Gonzalez
written by: Ashley Miller, Zack Stentz, Jane Goldman, and Matthew Vaughn
directed by: Matthew Vaughn
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence, some sexual content including brief partial nudity, and language.
