Show Review: The Velvet Teen with Silian Rail at Bottom of the Hill, 1/7/11

Fierce energy from The Velvet Teen
The Velvet Teen is a force of indie-noise-pop-rock to be reckoned with that everyone should know about.  This is something I spent years of my youth slowly convincing all my friends of, and now, finally, this show proved that people have been listening.  Bottom of the Hill was packed before the first band even started playing and the energy in the room was palpable.  There was no question that something great was about to be heard. Continue reading “Show Review: The Velvet Teen with Silian Rail at Bottom of the Hill, 1/7/11”

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 1/6/11-1/12/11

Welcome to the first Spinning Platters Bay Area concert guide of 2011! Admittedly, it will be a brief one; the new year is getting off to an exceptionally slow start for shows. But if the photo above of this week’s featured performer hasn’t already sent you running for a bag of Funyuns, look after the jump for some highlights.

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Show Review: The Dresden Dolls with Pomplamoose at The Warfield, 12/31/2010

Amanda Palmer surveys the crowd
Amanda Palmer surveys the crowd

Forget what you thought you knew about how to celebrate for the beginning of a new year. Forget what you thought could happen with two Bostonians, a collective of YouTube musicians, a pile of balloons, two cannons of confetti, and two thousand lovers of punk cabaret. If you were not one of the aforementioned fans that filled San Francisco’s Warfield Theater to nigh-overflowing to see the triumphant Bay Area return of the Dresden Dolls, you missed one of the greatest shows in the band’s career, and one of the best shows of 2010, and, quite likely, 2011 as well.

Continue reading “Show Review: The Dresden Dolls with Pomplamoose at The Warfield, 12/31/2010”

Spinning Platters Staff’s Individual Picks: The Best Albums of 2010

True believers, indeed! Looks like Donald Glover netted himself a place on someone's list.

After fighting over voting on our site’s top albums, I gave everyone the opportunity to send in an individual list of their favorite records without rules as to how many albums could be on there. While the initial turnout was poor, I know that posting this will have our writers turning up in droves to add their list. And through the power of the Internet, I can add those lists! But without further rambling, let’s go to our first list, from Dakin Hardwick. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Staff’s Individual Picks: The Best Albums of 2010”

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Spinning Platters Guide To New Year’s Eve 2011 In The San Francisco Bay Area

It’s scary how quickly New Year’s Eve is approaching. It’s almost 2011, and if you are like me, you haven’t figured out what you are going to do. Well, here are a few tips shows that you can still decide to head out to!

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Show Review: X-Mas with X (An Evening With) and Ray Manzarek at Slim’s, 12/28/2010

John Doe of X and Ray Manzarek of The Doors
John Doe of X and Ray Manzarek of The Doors

As 2010 comes to a glorious end, it’s once again that time of year for annual traditions. While the New Years’ Eve shows will be gigantic and exciting, and the late November / early December weeks are filled with last-minute surprise gigs, it’s good to have a few things that can always be counted on to keep up that holiday spirit. Of course, this is not to say that said traditions can’t be spiced up with a few new flavors added to the recipe, and the Los Angeles punk quartet known as X returned to Slim’s this year to prove it.

Continue reading “Show Review: X-Mas with X (An Evening With) and Ray Manzarek at Slim’s, 12/28/2010”

Show Review: Bell Biv Devoe at Yoshi’s SF, 12/23/2010

This is what they looked like. No idea who the smiling guy in the hat is.

When I thought about what to expect out of a Bell Biv Devoe show at a jazz club in 2010, I thought this: a 12-minute version of “Poison,” a 10-minute version of “Do Me!”, an instrumental jam by the band and a medley of everything else. “What about New Edition? I bet they do a lot of that,” remarked one friend. What about them? What does a Bell Biv Devoe show look like in 2010? The short answer: it looks like MTV in 1990. The long answer? Continue reading “Show Review: Bell Biv Devoe at Yoshi’s SF, 12/23/2010”

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 12/23/10-12/29/10

The Tenderlions are at Popscene tonight.

Hey folks… Sorry, but this is a short list this week. Even musicians and club owners need to take a holiday! But, if you really can’t deal with it anymore, here are a few outings you can make:

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 12/23/10-12/29/10”

Spinning Platters Presents the Official List of the Top 10 Albums of 2010

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No, it's not an album, but what you see here sure helped one album make our list.

by The Spinning Platters Staff

Unlike last year, we spent more than a month at the Spinning Platters offices (our homes) passing albums around to try to determine a staff list of the Top abums of 2010. We were going for “Top 10 and ties,” and that ended up at exactly 10. There was a nomination step, a finalist selection step, a final voting step, and then we had a list. No list is perfect, but ours is not only pretty darned good, it also manages to represent the wide variety of  musical tastes among our team here (i.e. some of us hate some of these albums). Now, read and enjoy our Top 10 for 2010. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Presents the Official List of the Top 10 Albums of 2010”

Film Review: “True Grit”

Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld in TRUE GRIT.

starring: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Hailee Steinfeld, Barry Pepper

directed by: Joel & Ethan Coen

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of western violence including disturbing images.

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