Call an Ambulance, because I’m sick with satisfaction!
Bad Bros 4 Life
Something happened at the end of Ambulance that I didn’t expect when the movie began. I cared. I cared for the characters. I haven’t cared for characters in a Michael Bay film for nearly ten years, back when Pain & Gain came out, and even that barely registered as honest emotion. I’m not going to defend Ambulance as a great film, nor a really good one. It stumbles in many of the same ways we’ve come to expect from Michael Bay’s projects, that is, in terms of story and confusing camerawork. However, as a piece of high concept escapism, Ambulance is a spectacular time at the movies.
There hasn’t been a debut rock record anticipated as hotly as Wet Leg’s debut in over 20 years. I haven’t seen this kind of prerelease hype since The Strokes’ monster debut Is This It.Continue reading “Album Review: Wet Leg / Wet Leg”
If you’re reading this on Spinning Platters, chances are this isn’t the first time you’re heard of Wet Leg. I’ll spare you the lengthy gushing and simply say that Rhian Teasdale speaks in plain terms about modern life with idiosyncratic idioms with a deceptively blasé elocution. Continue reading “Show Review: Wet Leg at Bimbo’s 365 Club, 3/29/22”
Who will – and who should – win the 94th Academy Awards
The 94th Academy Awards air tonight, Sunday, March 27th, on ABC at 5:00 pm PST. After a pandemic pause last year, I’m back this year to share my predictions — and hopes — for the major categories. The show could pique more interest this year, since the controversial decision was made to shorten the program by moving eight of the 23 categories off screen. Protests may happen, and hosts Regina Hall, Amy Schumer, and Wanda Sykes are sure to have some pointed commentary. Tune in to see how it all plays out, and to see close I (and you!) get to picking the winners.
I’ve often said that the most rebellious music is disco. Being able to dance in the face of darkness is a far bolder move than anything presenting anger and violence. “sad disco” is one of the most vivid presentations of that feeling that I’ve ever heard. Oakland’s mxmtoon is clearly ready for the next level in her career, and this song is going to be the anthem for what may be the most confusing and weird Summer of our lives.
Holy hell, it’s been a while. It’s been more than two years, in fact, since I last saw a show. For a music nerd like me who considers live music vital to her mental health, that’s saying a lot. But as things slowly seem to be moving closer and closer to what we considered “normal” pre-pandemic, I’ve been missing the whole concert experience more and more. Fortunately, the arrival of John Mayer‘s Sob Rock Tour at San Francisco’s Chase Center arrived just in time – last Friday night, to be exact… Continue reading “Show Review: John Mayer with Yebba at Chase Center, 3/18/2022”
HOLY SHIT! I said that out loud when I hit the 2nd minute of this song. It’s not so much a song as it’s a sonic journey that takes you through nearly a dozen emotions and genres in a tight 3 1/2 minutes. This song is potent and powerful. It’s “experimental” but doesn’t sacrifice emotion for being clever. Our single of the week is an adventure for the ears and the heart and even on the 100th relisten, you’ll still find something new that you missed.
“IF THERE’S NO SEAT IN THE SKY (WILL YOU FORGIVE ME???)” the first single off Saya Gray’s debut record 19 Masters, is available in all the usual places on June 2nd.
I was in a music discussion channel on a Slack I frequent and I mentioned how I had bought a ticket to see my favorite obscure Norwegian popstar in Los Angeles. To this, my Norwegian friend told me that Sigrid was anything but obscure. Yes, having discovered her while living in Europe, I’m wholly aware she’s playing arenas across the ocean, has won a Brit Award, and that this same song I’m about to talk about was just BBC Radio 1’s “Hottest Record in the World.” She remains obscure to most pop music fans in America. This is a travesty! To see what I mean, watch this filmed set of performances as it’s a total joy from start to finish.
Sigrid’s new song, which she’s been teasing for months on her social media outlets as her favorite song that she’s written, is “It Gets Dark.” It re-teams her with Emily Warren, co-writer of “Mirror” and “Sucker Punch” (as well as Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now”) and this is some alchemical magic the two of them have.
This song is cinema. It starts with a synthesizer orchestra leading into aa slow first verse which channels Sigrid’s hero, Adele, as she tells us she wants to leave the world behind to travel into space, and by the time the beat drops and the pounding, stuttering bassline kicks in, she’s there and telling us what she’s learned. By the end, as she continually repeats her discovery, “it gets dark so I can see the stars,” cosmic voices join her as she floats away into space on a bed of electric guitar. It’s a beautiful ending that I found gleefully surprising the first time I heard it.
This is the kind of music you might fly down to Los Angeles the day of the show and then fly back the next morning in time to get to work the next day, not that I know anything about that!
I accept artist submissions for Single Of The Week. All you need to do is email me at promo@spinningplatters.com. But I get literally a hundred songs sent to me a day. I can’t listen to all of them. But I listen to the ones that I can, and hopefully, I can find a story to tell with the song, so you have some reason to listen. That being said, I found “Past Lives” by kohanna during a week of listening to a LOT of new songs, and this one’s hook just stuck with me. The opening notes- what I think is an African thumb piano- kept bringing me back. This gem of an electro-folk single reminds me of the debuts from Lorde and Sylvan Esso, putting her in great company.
You can learn more about kohanna here. She has a pretty extensive YouTube archive, and you can also find “Past Lives” on all the DSPs.
