Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
This week at Spinning Platters was the Kylie Minogue show. In one day, she took over our #1 all-time most-read post as well as giving us the busiest day in our site’s history. Cheers to Kylie! I hope you enjoy your time in America as much as we are. So who won the battle for second place? Continue reading “Week in Review: Top 5 Posts for Sept 25 — Oct 1”
I’ve been putting a lot of thought into how to approach this review. It’s not that Why There Are Mountains from Cymbals Eat Guitars is a particularly bad album; there are some real good things about it. But listening to it is like being in a bad relationship, let me explain. Continue reading “Album Review: Cymbals Eat Guitars — Why There Are Mountains”
Kylie Minogue. The sound of her name conjures images of bubbly goodness. As my memory serves, I celebrated my 9th birthday at Round Table Pizza, and insisted that we put “The Locomotion” on the jukebox. It’s the song with the dance in the lyrics that I have always wanted to see performed. I kept waiting for her to play a concert. This was 1988.
In 1998, I decided to look up Kylie Minogue. Since I am an American, she hadn’t had a song on the radio in a decade. That’s when I learned that she plays stadiums in the rest of the world, and is a huge star still. I also learned that she was in “Bio-Dome”. So I watched it and pretended that I’m nine again. In 2002, she has some hits in America. I decide that I’m going to see Kylie when she comes around. Doesn’t happen. Rumors of American tours pop up on the Internet for the bulk of the decade. And finally, in 2009, it happens. I finally see Kylie Minogue. I buy a ticket right away, only not fast enough. I miss the first show in America. I bought a ticket for the second. Tonight, I finally learn how to do The Locomotion.
Continue reading “Show Review: Kylie Minogue at The Fox Oakland, 10/01/09”
Expressions by Music Go Music releases on Secretly Canadian on October 6, 2009
Music Go Music are a recent discovery of mine. When I saw them open for Little Boots at The Independent a couple of weeks ago, I made remarks about how they’re well on their way to being my favorite band. Since then, I’d been waiting to get my hands on their debut album, Expressions. I finally did yesterday, and I’ve been spending all day long listening to it and finding out interesting facts about the band. If I told you that I ordered the vinyl from Insound twenty minutes ago, would you think I might like the album? Continue reading “Album Review: Music Go Music — Expressions”
First off, a spoiler warning. Although usually seen in movie reviews, I think one applies here. If you don’t want to know what songs she played, how many costume changes there were, and how she reworked some of her classic songs, then read no further. If, on the other hand, you want to know what’s coming soon, or you aren’t going to have a chance to see for yourself, jump on board, take a ride, yeah. Continue reading “Show Review: Kylie Minogue at The Fox Oakland, 9/30/09”
This week had some particularly bad, boring albums. Eventually when I got to some good music I stopped wondering why I do this column. Continue reading “New Release Round Up, 9/29/09 — 34 Instant Album Reviews”
It will be a bit surprising to regular readers of this site that last night was my first ever visit to Hotel Utah, but I finally made it over there to see The Postmarks and Brookville for an early Tuesday night show. When I arrived, a sign announced that Brookville’s lead singer had a family emergency, and instead, the other members of the band would be performing as Saturday Club. Having never heard Brookville before, I found myself unable to be too disappointed, although I had been hoping to check them out as well. Continue reading “Show Review: The Postmarks and Saturday Club at Hotel Utah, 9/29/09”
Last night David Byrne hosted an event for the “29th Annual Literary Events Series Benefiting the 826 Valencia College Scholarship Program” on “Cities, Bicycles and the Future of Getting Around.” Also on the forum was Mike Teitz, a Senior Fellow and former Director of Research at the Public Policy Institute of California, David Chiu, the President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and Leah Shahum, the Director of the San Francisco Bike Coalition. I came not having read his book, Bicycle Diaries, or ever having ridden a bicycle in San Francisco. So, I felt like a bit of an outsider. But I don’t have a car and I am as big a supporter of bicycles as anyone who hasn’t owned a bike in ten years. Also, I like David Byrne and I am interested enough in what he has to say, on most subjects, to come out on a weeknight. Continue reading “David Byrne Talks About Bicycles, Herbst Theater, 9/29/09”
When TV On The Radio announced that they were going to “take a break for a year or so,” every music critic on earth wept. Mostly because we are going to go through 2009 and 2010 without a bona-fide record of the year. Yes, TVotR released the best records of 2004, 2006, and 2008. (All apologies to 2002’s OK Calculator- you were still finding your footing.) But I believe that after all that hard work and genius deserves a vacation. I’d rather the band take a break now than break up completely later.
It seems that these guys don’t take vacationing very well. David Sitek has been taking on many extra production assignments, and vocalist Tunde Adebimpe is working on a record with Mike Patton. Despite all this, the prize for the quickest end to the vacation goes to guitarist/harmony vocalist Kyp Malone. Merely five weeks after the announcement of the break, Malone released a solo album called Rain Machine and quickly assembled a four-piece backup band to take it on the road. This show at The Independent marks the fourth performance of this band with an audience.
Continue reading “Show Review: Rain Machine, Diane Cluck at The Independent, 9/28/09”
Getting my first tape deck was an amazing event in my life. I went from constantly living on the whim of the DJ to being able to program my own little radio station of my favorite songs. The one recorded-from-radio mixtape I listened to most often before it met its sad and sudden end at some point in the early 90s was a 60-minute cassette of songs recorded in 1985 off of a radio show called The British Top 30. This show was amazing because it played songs by bands I’d never heard of, and surely never would. And then some songs from bands I had heard of, but new songs! How exciting! Imagine being able to hear songs that magically appear from all the way around the world! Continue reading “Spinning Platters Picks Six: Gems from My British Top 30 Tape”