Spinning Platters Picks Six (plus three) Music Nerd Gadgets from CES 2010

This product puts the nerd in music nerd.

In case you got too caught up by Polaroid announcing that Lady Gaga was going to be their new Artistic Director, and missed all the actual music gadgets that came out in Sin City this week, well then Spinning Platters is here to help in your misguided priorities! We at Spinning Platters love our conventions especially when it’s a “convention of nerds.” See, they’re our people, and we of course love all the amazing toys that get announced there, and just in general love Las Vegas. So, here are the top six nine gadgets to come out of CES 2010. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Picks Six (plus three) Music Nerd Gadgets from CES 2010”

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide To Bay Area Concerts: January 13th-January 19th

I like to put funny photo that spoofs the band name. But, when your band is Styx, and you look like this, I have to just put up a picture of Styx.

This week is the beginning of Sketchfest. We already have that covered, so how about some music? Eh? How about Styx? Did you know Styx were playing? I think it’s awesome that you will get to see Styx.

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Album Review: Spoon – Transference

Amoeba Records always has been and always will be my favorite store to purchase music. Obviously, I’ve joined the legions of savvy music aficionados online and freely choose to spend an inordinate amount of time on the likes of lala.com, The Hype Machine, and Pandora…to name a few. Yet part of me still loves the feeling of vinyl (actually, who doesn’t) and, yes, the occasional CD in my hands. I have been told time and again that I am one of the few people anyone knows that still buys CDs. So what? I don’t claim to be all that cool. Therefore, when Amoeba recently announced they were having a “clearance CD blowout,” I immediately headed to the Berkeley location after work and rummaged through the thousands of marked down discs. Continue reading “Album Review: Spoon — Transference”

A Music Nerd’s Guide To SF Sketchfest 2010

Music and Sketches? Get It? Ha Ha Ha!

As San Franciscans, we love festivals. We also love music and laughs, and it seems that line is blurring between the two worlds more & more everyday. And, although our music festivals have been littered with comedians quite a bit lately, especially with Tenacious D functioning as headliner at least year’s Outside Lands Festival, the music leaking in to the comedy festivals has been a bit subtler. That’s why we’re here to guide you through the music of San Francisco’s Sketchfest. There is lot going on, and a lot of very special things that will pique the interest of any music nerd.

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Album Review: Fucked Up – Couple Tracks: Singles 2002-2009

The band Fucked Up are. No one can live the punk rock dream anymore in 2010, right? Whatever. This odds and sods two-disc compilation details the swath that this group has cut across North America from their Canadian base.

Fucked Up sound like heavy rock and roll. Buzzsaw guitar hooks whir like electric razors, danceable drumbeats, and size-of-a-small-bear frontman Pink Eyes’ winsome RRRARRRR-GARRRRGH riding gleefully atop the mix like a dolphin frolicking in a ship’s wake.

With b-side cuts, import singles, kinda sorta cast-off cover tunes, Couple Tracks shows the breadth of how far Fucked Up have gone and how far they’re willing to go.

The band Fucked Up are. No one can live the punk rock dream anymore in 2010, right? Whatever. This odds and sods two-disc compilation details the swath that this group has cut across North America, sweeping south out of Canada and wreaking havoc in the form of raucous, sweaty live shows.

Fucked Up sound like heavy rock and roll. Buzzsaw guitar hooks whir like electric razors, drumbeats compel you to jump about, and their size-of-a-small-bear frontman Pink Eyes’ winsome RRRARRRR-GARRRRGH rides gleefully atop the mix like a dolphin frolicking in a ship’s wake.

With b-side cuts, import singles, kinda sorta cast-off cover tunes, Couple Tracks shows the breadth of how far Fucked Up have gone and how far they’re willing to go. Continue reading “Album Review: Fucked Up – Couple Tracks: Singles 2002-2009”

Book Review: A Heartbeat And A Guitar: Johnny Cash The Making Of Bitter Tears by Antoninio D’Ambrosio

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Johnny Cash might be the most chronicled musician in pop music history. There are literally hundreds of biographies, authorized and unauthorized. The best, of course, is Cash by Johnny Cash. This book is not a biography of Johnny Cash. It’s the story of a record, one of the greatest records ever made.

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Album Review: Vampire Weekend – Contra

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been impatiently waiting for this album to leak for months.  The teasing release of “Horchata” made me super excited (it is still available as a free download on the band’s website).  Then, the next leak brought “White Sky” which made me stop and wonder if I really would like the album, or if Vampire Weekend would take it too far from their roots of mixing indie rock with beautifully complex afro-beats.  After 24 hours of listening pleasure I can tell you that Contra is everything you wanted whether you knew it consciously or not.  Somehow Vampire Weekend took 2008’s indie-juggernaut Vampire Weekend and ran it through a strainer, taking it apart and putting it back together with a controlled modern twist giving us a record that is smart and fresh, while still sounding like the band we know and love.  There’s a heavy hand with the production polish, but that is what makes Contra different enough to keep it exciting and new. Continue reading “Album Review: Vampire Weekend — Contra”

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide To Bay Area Concerts: January 6th-January 12th

Opening for Devildriver.

Next week brings us Sketchfest, where some pretty amazing musicians will be in town to accompany some pretty amazing comedians. Then we have the Winter Music Festival, which will be followed by Noise Pop, which will be followed by a series of bands making there way through on their way to SXSW, and then Coachella, then it’s summer. So, please enjoy your last week of regular programming before summer.

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Show Review: Hunx and His Punx, Brilliant Colors and Gun Outfit at Hemlock Tavern, 1/3/10

I miss the days when the Hemlock looked like this.

I was such a good little soldier. I took notes on my cell phone, but I was so cheap that I didn’t email them to myself because my data plan is a bit limited, and not in a good way like the 38L is. I figured I would just read them when I got into work the next day. But then the battery died. So my phone is at home, charging and watching Drew Carey butcher The Price Is Right. Good thing Brilliant Colors played, because I don’t need notes to talk about them and their heavenly sound. (Did you see what I did there?)

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Spinning Platters Guide To Important Musicians That Passed Away In 2009

This is a list of musicians of import that passed away in 2009. There will be many that are missed. You will be upset about some that I may have passed over. (I’m looking at you, Man In The Mirror) So, get ready to pour one down for:

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