Single of the Week: “Escape” by Ginger Winn

I’m a sucker for a good anxiety anthem. Maybe because I experience it to a nearly debilitating amount sometimes, and struggle with getting it under control properly. And, also, have you spent any time with the news lately? Dear God… A lot to be afraid of, and it doesn’t feel like we have a path out. That being said, this song feels right. And using a wolf to represent your anxiety? No animal has felt more right there. This song is gorgeous and feels like the warm hug that says, “I don’t know if we are gonna make it out of this, but we are in this together.”

“Escape” is off of Ginger Winn’s upcoming record, Freeze Frame, coming your way June 13th. You can find all things Ginger Winn here!

Film Review: “The Surfer”

Toxic masculinity gets menacingly vibrant and sun-soaked in The Surfer

Nicolas Cage just wants to surf in ‘The Surfer’

“You can’t stop a wave. It’s pure energy.” What a great line to start a film, especially when the line is delivered with philosophical sincerity by Nicolas Cage to kickstart a gonzo psychedelic thriller. The Surfer is the new film from Lorcan Finnegan (Vivarium) and it takes its opening line to heart, stylistically and performatively. Finnegan submerges The Surfer in 1970s era orange and turquoise and utilizes Cage’s unique talent for capturing a character’s descent into madness. The result is a blistering portrayal of toxic masculinity. Continue reading “Film Review: “The Surfer””

Label 51 Recording Presents: A Showcase at Great American Music Hall

I got wind of the most magical and random mini festival happening at Great American Music Hall on Sunday, May 4th! For the low price of $25, you get a set of hits from David J’s extensive catalog, including his work with Night Crickets, Love & Rockets, and Bauhaus headlining, with support from Jefferson Starship’s Prairie Prince, Industrial pioneers Snake River Conspiracy side project Mojave Phone Booth, Paisley Underground legends Rain Parade, Bay Area Riot Grrl groundbreakers Frightwig, and Bay Area punk forefathers Screaming Bloody Marys! 

Tickets are, once again, only $25. Don’t miss this gig!  

April \m/etal show photos + reviews: Obituary, Exodus, Death Angel, and more!

Photo Galleries and Show Reviews by: Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro

Spinning Platters attended, photographed, and reviewed (not all) a dozen \m/etal shows in April! Beginning the last weekend of March and throughout April, San Francisco (and Spinning Platters!) had become very \m/etal!  Just look at the list of 60+ band names on the left column (on mobile, look near the bottom of the page), which does not happen very often around here anymore…

Continue reading “April \m/etal show photos + reviews: Obituary, Exodus, Death Angel, and more!”

Single of the Week: “Gunslinger” by Natalie Bergman

Remember Wild Belle? The brother/sister duo that played a blissful blend of psych, ’60s girl groups, and reggae that released three outstanding records in the 2010s and just disappeared? Well, the group’s sister, Natalie Bergman, went solo, signed to Third Man Records, and is pushing the sonic envelope that her old band was already making with the blissful new track, “Gunslinger.”

“Gunslinger” is the first track off My Home Is Not In This World, in stores and on servers July 18th. You can prepare for this by preordering or presaving here!

Spinning Platters Interview: Martha Wainwright

Martha Wainwright is the kid-sister scion of a Canadian-American folk music dynasty, a fact not so notable for what is to American Popular music, a particular provincial renown, but for multi-generational musical avouchment; the inescapable gravity of a family that sings its sins to the public. She grew up at the knees of Leonard Cohen, Emmilou Harris, Richard and Linda Thompson, etc. It is an inescapable and fascinating bramble of musical history.
 
I want you to watch the YouTube video of ‘Proserpina‘ from Not So Silent Night, McGarrigle & Wainwright Christmas Celebration at the Royal Albert Hall, December 9th, 2009. This is the last song written by her mother, Kate McGarrigle, and performed here by her, a month before she died of cancer far too young at 63. The recommendation menu will likely offer Martha’s haunting rendition in a sparse head-on video of the track that anchored her 2012 Album, Come Home to Mama. The song stands on its own, but the context dares you to tears. A mother twice over, Martha Wainwright is well grown up now.
 
Of her father, louche folk singer, Loudon Wainwright III, she has said, “For most of my childhood Loudon talked to me in song, which is a bit of a shitty thing to do, especially as he always makes himself come across as funny and charming while the rest of us seem like whining victims, and we can’t tell our side of the story. As a result he has a daughter who smokes and drinks too much and writes songs with titles like ‘Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole’.” That song was the hand grenade she smuggled into her eponymous first album twenty years ago. The current tour is built on this anniversary. But it is also a tour of her recent memoir, ‘Stories I Might Regret Telling You,‘ from which she reads some of that bramble at each show.
 
Martha was kind enough to grant me some of her time between the tour’s first and second leg.
 

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Martha Wainwright”

Film Feature: 68th SFFILM Festival Preview #3

The 68th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM) is underway with screenings at various theaters around San Francisco and the East Bay.

For a full view of special awards, spotlights, and centerpiece films, check out the complete festival guide. Tickets can be purchased here. 

Below is a preview of a few remaining features and the Shorts 6: Family Films program with upcoming showtimes:

1.) SHORTS 6: FAMILY FILMS
(Various, 2024-2025. 66 min.)

HOOFS ON SKATES
(Lithuania. 13 min.)

Hoofs on Skates is a delightful tale about two friends, a pig and a cow, who enjoy skating on a frozen lake, only to be scared away by a giant fish. Eventually, the duo discovers where their assumptions and reality may be vastly differing. The stop-motion animation is cute, simplistic, and charming, and eases wordlessly (except for adorable animal-sound exchanges) into a positive message for kids.

Continue reading “Film Feature: 68th SFFILM Festival Preview #3”

Big Ears 2025 Festival Diary

Big Ears doesn’t need you; you need Big Ears. You might think “but wait, I already have ears and I don’t need them to be too big!!” but that is only because you don’t know I’m talking about the annual Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee which took place March 27th—30th for the 11th time since it was founded in 2009 by the Knoxville born and bred Ashley Capps, the founder of Nashville’s Bonnaroo. I have known the outstanding lineups since 2010, when Terry Riley was Artist in Residence and Bryce Dessner of The National was guest curator. Continue reading “Big Ears 2025 Festival Diary”

Movie Review: Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke) 4K Remaster

There are some movies where, at a certain point in my watching them for the first time, I’ve already decided that I’m going to purchase a copy for myself. In the last year, I had just that experience with the movies Paris, Texas, and the 1977 Japanese horror/fantasy film House. Over the years, many different movies have had this effect on me, but the first one that comes to mind is Princess Mononoke. When I was about 20 years old in 2000, I visited my parents’ home, and my then-just-teenaged brother took me aside and told me that I needed to “watch 10 minutes of this movie”. At the time, I wasn’t watching a lot of movies, and I was painfully judgmental of his interest in anime. It was mainly just giant robots fighting monsters, and my focus was elsewhere. He knew this and still fought uphill against my instincts, convincing me to sit and watch. Ten minutes into the film, I told him to turn it off because I already knew that I was going to go buy it the next day.

Continue reading “Movie Review: Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke) 4K Remaster”

Show Review: Beth Gibbons with Cass McCombs at The Warfield, 4/15/25

On October 21st, 2011, I impulsively bought a ticket to see Portishead at The Greek Theater that night. My familiarity with the band was effectively “I know the singles” and not much more, but I had lots of friends attending, and nothing else was going on. When I did show up, I couldn’t find my friends, and eventually found a friend that I hadn’t seen in years, and enjoyed reconnecting. Then the music started, and I was profoundly transfixed for nearly two hours. It was emotionally turbulent and a genuine catharsis. Nothing happened as planned, and it may have been all the better for it. 

Continue reading “Show Review: Beth Gibbons with Cass McCombs at The Warfield, 4/15/25”