Spinning Platters – Page 319 – Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds

Album Review: Monsters of Folk – Monsters of Folk

Monsters_of_Folk_Album_Cover

I’m not sure what I was expecting from this “supergroup” of modern indie/folk but it is not what I got. The album opens with a drum machine, some sort of harp imitation, and Jim James’ ethereal falsetto. My carpool-mate responded to this by saying, “What is this? The slow jam from a Backstreet Boys album!?!” Not what is expected from a group called Monsters of Folk. I don’t know about the folk part, but the members of the band: Jim James (My Morning Jacket), M. Ward, Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes) are monsters of the indie scene. The question remains: when they come together, do you get something better than the sum of its parts? Continue reading “Album Review: Monsters of Folk — Monsters of Folk”

Album Review: Lou Barlow – Goodnight Unknown

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Lou Barlow was a founding member of Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh. Dinosaur Jr. is another of those seminal US bands that I missed out on by growing up over the pond and my only real exposure to them has been through the songs they have on Rock Band games. Sebadoh is unknown to me, but I have some experience as a casual listener to Barlow’s previous lo- and lower-fi releases. Goodnight Unknown is approximately, depending on what you count, Barlow’s eleventh release. A pioneer of the lo-fi sound is back with fourteen new songs on Goodnight Unknown. Continue reading “Album Review: Lou Barlow — Goodnight Unknown”

Show Review: Living Colour and Fishbone at The Regency Center, 9/25/09

Corey Glover is dressed like a serial killer because he murdered it.

Seeing Living Colour and Fishbone on the same bill is my 1991 fever dream. Put Primus on there, too, and I may have passed out from excitement. As it is, I was pretty darned excited to be seeing these bands together. While I’d seen Living Colour a couple of times recently, I hadn’t checked in on Fishbone for more than a dozen years. I was ready for a loud funky night in the city. Continue reading “Show Review: Living Colour and Fishbone at The Regency Center, 9/25/09”

10 Quick Questions with The Postmarks

Postmarks

Last week on our podcast, I mentioned that I am really enjoying The Postmarks, my “favorite Scottish band from Florida.” It turns out that they are either fans of the Spinning Platters podcast or they search for themselves online, because the next thing I knew, I was emailing them 10 Quick Questions. I also plan to check them out this Tuesday night the 29th at Hotel Utah, and hope to see you all there. But first, on to the questions and answers from lead singer Tim Yehezkely:

Spinning Platters: How would you describe your music to a friend who hasn’t heard you yet? Continue reading “10 Quick Questions with The Postmarks”

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide To Bay Area Concerts: September 29th-October 5th

Opening for Paramore at The Warfield on Friday Night

This week is the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in Golden Gate Park. It’s the best thing that ever happens in this town. You will go to this, but there are a few things going on at night that are pretty good, too. Check them out:

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide To Bay Area Concerts: September 29th-October 5th”

Reseñar de concierto: Paulina Rubio en teatro de Fox – Oakland, 9/26/09

How does she keep her legs looking so toned? Double Dutch, of course! — ¿Cómo ella guarda sus piernas así que entonó? ¡Brincando soga, por supuesto!:How does she keep her legs so toned? Double Dutch, of course!

Una de las mejores cosas sobre viviendo en los Estados Unidos es el hecho que todos quieren ser el crossover aquí. Esto significa que conseguimos a las estrellas arena-clasificadas de los países extranjeros que aquí tocan pequeños lugares a las pequeñas audiencias. Incluso si usted no conoce el trabajo del artista, todavía recomiendo enteramente ver uno de estos conciertos. Es una experiencia bastante asombrosa para conseguir un espectáculo grande en un pequeño lugar.

One of the greatest things about living in America is the fact that everyone wants to crossover here. This means that we often get arena-sized stars from foreign countries playing small venues to small audiences here. Even if you are unfamiliar with the artist’s work, I still wholly recommend seeing one of these shows. It’s a pretty amazing experience to get a big spectacle in a small place.

Continue reading “Reseñar de concierto: Paulina Rubio en teatro de Fox — Oakland, 9/26/09”

Week in Review: Top 5 Posts for Sept 18-24

Steven Wilson wants you to check out the top posts of the week.

This week at Spinning Platters, we reviewed lots of shows, plenty of albums, and made some lists. For our new week in review feature, I’ll let you in on what our Top 5 most trafficked new posts were, and invite you to check them out if you haven’t already. Come back this weekend for review of Living Colour with Fishbone, and follow us at @SpinnPlatt for plenty of giddy drunken remarks live from The Zoopy Show. Now, click through to see our busiest posts of the week. Continue reading “Week in Review: Top 5 Posts for Sept 18-24”

Show Review: Manic Street Preachers and Nico Vega at The Fillmore, 9/24/09

I’m wholly unqualified to a review a Manic Street Preachers show. This is because I’m an American. The Manics (as I’ll refer to them for the rest of our time together) never did have any hits stateside. They were always a cult band here, and I was never part of that cult. If I were to make a ranked list of all the Britpop bands that I like (as opposed to ones I’m either ambivalent about or dislike), the Manics would be at the bottom of that list. They’d make the list, for sure, but they’d be right below Ash, and apologies to Kula Shaker. That said, I’m going to review it anyway. Continue reading “Show Review: Manic Street Preachers and Nico Vega at The Fillmore, 9/24/09”

New Release Round Up 9/22/09 – 29 Instant Album Reviews

This band is not made up of girls. Didn't they learn their lesson from Barenaked Ladies?

When Pouria started writing this weekly column, he said there might be weeks where he was too busy to listen to 30-or-so albums. I said, “no problem, we can get a guest columnist on those weeks.” So when he told me this week that he was too busy doing stuff like seeing Bon Iver to write this week’s column, I said “wait, you were serious about that?” Since I hadn’t arranged a guest, I’m doing it myself. Let’s just say that doing this is a lot harder than Pouria makes it look. Now, on to the mini-reviews. Continue reading “New Release Round Up 9/22/09 — 29 Instant Album Reviews”

Show Review: Pet Shop Boys at The Warfield, 9/23/09

Pet Shop Boys concerts exist in their own universe. A universe of abstract expressionism, interpretative dance, avant-garde fashion, modular sets and (for this tour anyway) Adidas sports wear. They are such elaborate productions that the Pet Shop Boys themselves are almost accessories in their own shows. But that’s how it should be. From the very beginning they knew their minimalistic style couldn’t carry an entire concert. So they hired world class dancers and set designers to produce dazzling abstract synthpoperas. Continue reading “Show Review: Pet Shop Boys at The Warfield, 9/23/09”