Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
This is our last report from the 2010 edition of San Francisco’s Sketchfest festival, and this one might be the most impressive show of the festival. I showed up before the doors opened, only to find the longest line that I have ever seen at Mezzanine before a show. I made my way to the front, only to glimpse that Dave Eggers was on the guest list.
Every now and then you encounter something so weird and wonderful that you have to write about it. Today I’m reviewing an album that it’s hard to really classify as “good” but it’s just a joy to listen to.
Everybody Was In The French Resistance…Now!!! is Eddie Argos from Art Brut and Dyan Valdés from The Blood Arm. This is album of response songs, humorous, often speak-sung responses to well known tracks. To quote an analysis I read on www.allsounds.com:
“Avril Lavigne is a bitch. When she’s not gloating about her totally undeserved success or berating and sneering at young mothers, she is attempting to steal men from loving happy relationships.” and Everybody Was In…. attempts to fix this and a number of other pop injustices. Continue reading “Album Review: Everybody Was in the French Resistance…Now!!! — Fixing The Charts Volume 1”
From the opening notes of The Magnetic Fields’ new record Realism you feel at home. There’s the familiar jangly acoustic instruments and Stephin Merritt’s low drone of a voice mixing with Claudia Gonson’s sweeter one. The lyrics are clever and the longest song comes in at 3:26. This isn’t the strange distorted Magnetic Fields of their last record; this is more like 69 Love Songs revisited, sweet and expected. At first it feels too similar to their previous work to be anything interesting enough to keep you coming back. I struggled with this idea, then realized that I’d been listening to the album almost constantly for a week letting the words and notes seep into every part of my mind, like subtle magic. Continue reading “Album Review: The Magnetic Fields — Realism”
Kidz Bop is really awful and weird and I swear it was on American Idol last night. Not that I watch that or anything. Continue reading “New Release Round Up, 1/26/10 — 26 Instant Album Reviews”
According to the song that opened their winning 90-minute set, comedian Julia Sweeney (best known for her 1990-1994 run on Saturday Night Live) and musician Jill Sobule (best known for singing “I Kissed A Girl” first and so much better) met randomly at the Monterey Bay Aquarium one lucky day not long ago. Sobule cautiously approached Sweeney to express her admiration, but then Sweeney spotted Sobule and pounced her. Their mutual admiration society has led to an ongoing story-song collaboration called “The Jill and Julia Show,” which made its first Bay Area stop last night as part of the 2010 SF Sketchfest.
Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: The Jill and Julia Show at Yoshi’s San Francisco, 1/27/10”
This weekend finally sees the first music festival of the season, the young but promising Winter Music Festival, popping up at venues all over town. Check out at least one of those shows this week so that SF Indie and Talking House Records feel your love. Plus, you’ll be supporting local music more than once a year, and that should make you feel warm all over. As to which shows to see? Read on, music lovers! Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 1/27/10-2/2/10”
Many reviewers, when they attend a show, tend to do a lot of research about the performers. They watch videos, read biographical information, and so forth. I don’t believe in this. I like to be surprised. I had no idea as to who Dave Hill was before tonight. I am not so oblivious as to not know who Dick Cavett is, nor Gordon Gano, but I didn’t know who the headliner was. Judging by the size of the crowd, neither did many of the attendees of Sketchfest. In fact, the balcony was closed and the main floor was only about half full. I went in (relatively) blindly. It was a good decision.
The Webb Sisters performed their first of two partially seated shows at Café Du Nord last night. Not many get two consecutive nights to perform at Du Nord, but who doesn’t love a sister act? However, given how many there are, it can be difficult differentiating The Webb Sisters from such similar acts as The Watson Twins, The Chapin Sisters, or their clearest musical inspirations, t.A.T.u. But in this instance, it’s simple: these are the sisters who scored the once-in-a-lifetime gig of singing harmony for Leonard Cohen on his enthusiastically acclaimed recent tour. And it was very clear that the majority of those in attendance at Du Nord last night were hoping for more of the same. But is that what they got? (Also, just kidding about t.A.T.u.)
Continue reading “Show Review: The Webb Sisters at Café Du Nord, 1/25/10”
Peter Gabriel’s new covers album Scratch My Back is the beginning of a “song exchange” project. This means that every artist covered on this album is being asked to cover one of Peter Gabriel’s songs in exchange. This collection will then be released under the title …And I’ll Scratch Yours. That’s the intention. Whether or not the second part ends up happening seems to be up in the air so far, but Stephin Merrit has already recorded “Not One of Us” as a b-side to Peter Gabriel’s Magnetic Fields cover,”Book of Love,” so the project has begun. Continue reading “Album Review: Peter Gabriel — Scratch My Back”
Listening to the music of Basia Bulat is an unabashedly heart-hugging delight. The 26-year-old Canadian singer/songwriter first established herself as one of the brightest young talents in the folk-rock scene with her insanely lovable debut LP, Oh, My Darling (2007), and makes overwhelmingly good on that early potential with her sophomore release, Heart of My Own.
Continue reading “Album Review: Basia Bulat — Heart of My Own”