Album Review: Hole – “Nobody’s Daughter”

I have always considered myself a big Courtney Love fan. I know that sounds bizarre to many, but I’ve followed her long, strange career like some follow their favorite sports teams (or so I’m told). It just so happens that Courtney is like one of those sports teams that has far more failures than triumphs, and tends to flunk random drug tests. But she usually comes through when it counts, and no matter how much her reputation has suffered over the years, I have never been capable of anything less than total love and adoration of her. Sadly, Nobody’s Daughter is just the latest challenge to that love.

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Show Review: Everybody Was In The French Resistance… Now! with A B and the Sea and Carletta Sue Kay at Bottom of the Hill, 4/27/10

Eddie and Dyan, in real life black and white, from a different show. Thanks to Aurelien for sharing.

Fellow Spinning Platters writer Marie Carney and I decided to take a different approach to writing a review of last night’s show from Everybody Was In The French Resistance… Now! at Bottom of the Hill. Taking a cue from singer Eddie Argos, best known from the band Art Brut where he also tends to speak-sing the lyrics, we decided to write a show review in conversation. I hope we would make Eddie proud. Continue reading “Show Review: Everybody Was In The French Resistance… Now! with A B and the Sea and Carletta Sue Kay at Bottom of the Hill, 4/27/10”

SFIFF Film Review: “Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky”

Anna Mouglalis and Mads Mikkelsen are quite believable as this iconoclastic pair

“Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky” twists the worlds of fashion, art, music and society together.  It screams about the new-ness inherent in the early 20th century: in music, in fashion, and in people’s relationships.  The film depicts the couple’s passionate affair along with what is billed (by the film) as each of their greatest works:  Stravinsky’s ballet “The Rite of Sping” or “Le Sacre du Printemps” and Coco Chanel’s iconic fragrance Chanel No. 5.  In this day and age where music and fashion are so intertwined the film successfully takes you into the world of 1920’s Paris where this was far from the truth.  Coco Chanel is the unlikely patron here, bringing Igor Stravinsky into her world with money, and with that relationship forged, the pair change each other’s art and direction. Continue reading “SFIFF Film Review: “Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky””

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 4/28/10-5/4/10

Hello, I'm opening up for Lupe Fiasco. How are you?

Thank, Jason LeRoy, for stepping in last week with the list. I hope you all were kept entertained. As for this week, well, here’s what I want you to do: Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 4/28/10-5/4/10”

Show Review: Keith Emerson and Greg Lake at The Regency Ballroom, 4/26/10

The most photographed keyboard setup in the history of the world?

Before the show even started, and long after it ended, fans were gathered around the stage to take photographs of the famous synthesizer on stage at The Regency Ballroom on Monday night. This is the actual synthesizer that was used on “Lucky Man,” the classic track by Emerson Lake & Palmer that both kicked off their career and ended this concert. That prog nerds (like me; I was taking a photo, too) worship equipment is well known, but what about the people playing it? What about Emerson Lake & … well … nobody?

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Show Review: Jennifer Knapp at Red Devil Lounge, 4/25/10

Jennifer Knapp performing at Club Café in Pittsburgh last month. Photo by Marcia Furman.

After a seven-year hiatus, bestselling Christian singer/songwriter Jennifer Knapp —who always stood apart from her contemporaries in terms of her musical grit and unadorned emotional ferocity; who created some of the most iconic songs of her genre and generation, such as “Undo Me” and “A Little More,”  — came back with two big announcements: (1) she’s returning to music; and (2) she’s a lesbian. Predictably, the latter has eclipsed the former. But Knapp is first and foremost a musician, as she demonstrated last night at Red Devil Lounge (I can only imagine what her horrified conservative fans think about their disgraced idol playing at a San Francisco bar named after Satan, which: bonus!).

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Show Review: The Bloody Beetroots (Live) at The Independent, 4/22/10

The Bloody Beetroots own the stage.

For the longest time I have been looking for an electronic DJ to bridge the gap from DJing and samples to actually playing tracks live. The Bloody Beetroots seem to have done it. Not only have they done it, but they did it in a way that demands you to rethink electronic music! Continue reading “Show Review: The Bloody Beetroots (Live) at The Independent, 4/22/10”

SFIFF Film Review: “Rejoice and Shout”

Rejoice and Shout, the latest music documentary from director Don McGlynn (The Howlin’ Wolf Story, Somewhere Over The Rainbow: Harold Arlen, and many more) is the most thoroughly researched and exhaustive film about African-American gospel music ever committed to film. In telling the story of gospel in America, it simultaneously mirrors the entire narrative of the African-American experience, beginning with slavery and ending with the election of the nation’s first black president. It is an ambitious undertaking, and for the most part, it is successful.

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Theatre Review: Girlfriend at Berkeley Rep, 4/24/10

I hear you need somebody, I hear your looking for someone to love...
I hear you need somebody, I hear you're looking for someone to love...

In the last decade or so, the musical theater world has been inundated with shows that use pre-existing popular music instead of original works. Well many of these have been very successful, such as Mamma Mia!, Jersey Boys and the recent American Idiot, others have been critical and commercial failures, like Footloose and a proposed Radiohead musical.

While the success rate may vary on these, the one thing that they all have in common is the fact that every one of these shows uses music that the masses are very familiar with. There is a built-in audience for the show because of the fans. This show is a little bit different, though. It shows that the good people at Berkeley Rep are willing to take a risk. They are brave enough to chance a musical based on a relatively obscure power-pop record from the early ’90s, Matthew Sweet’s Girlfriend.

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Show Review: Dr. Dog with Sean Bones at the Great American Music Hall, 4/24/2010

Dr. Dog from another night. Thanks to Dena Flows for believing in Creative Commons, too.

Openers. As a general rule of thumb they tend to be doomed. The crowd isn’t usually there to see them and this can lead to feelings of impatience amongst the audience. This was not the case last night at the Great American.  I had never heard of or seen Sean Bones prior to last nights show. A quick Google image search led me to assume that this was going to be a Brooklyn based indie band with stupid instruments. This also, thankfully, was not the case. Continue reading “Show Review: Dr. Dog with Sean Bones at the Great American Music Hall, 4/24/2010”