Creedence Clearwater Revival – Spinning Platters

Top 10 60’s Bands From The Bay Area That Were More Influential Than The Grateful Dead

Even this band was way better than The Grateful Dead.

Unless you are living under a rock, you’ve heard that The Grateful Dead are playing a pair of “farewell shows” in Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. There is an obscene amount of hype over these shows, and they’ve sold about 8 trillion tickets for them. Not bad for a band that NOBODY knows any songs by unless you are a fan. The Dead were a huge cult band, but really didn’t do much to change popular music has a whole. The 60’s were a great time for music in the Bay Area, and there were a lot of bands that were way more important, in my own humble opinion. Feel free to get angry, but here’s a list of 10 undeniably talented bands from the Bay in the 60’s.

Continue reading “Top 10 60’s Bands From The Bay Area That Were More Influential Than The Grateful Dead”

Show Review: John Fogerty at Berkeley’s Greek Theatre, 10/12/2013

Is it me, or is the music your parents listened to when you were growing up really polarizing? I either love it or I hate it! Thankfully, when it comes to the tunes of Creedence Clearwater Revival, my dad and I never disagree. In fact, the first time he showed me the photo of lead singer John Fogerty and the crowd from inside his vinyl copy of CCR’s Pendulum album, it took me less than thirty seconds to find his face near the front of the crowd. Naturally, when I heard that Fogerty was playing all his best at UC Berkeley’s Greek Theatre, I could think of no one I’d enjoy the evening with more than my dad. And tonight, that’s exactly what we did. Continue reading “Show Review: John Fogerty at Berkeley’s Greek Theatre, 10/12/2013”

Spinning Platters Interview: The Henry Clay People

When I called The Henry Clay People for an interview, lead singer and lyricist Joey Siara was driving the band through Oregon, on their way to another gig with Silversun Pickups and Against Me. I did my day job proud and made sure Joey was wearing a headset before continuing with the interview, making this Joey’s first interview given while driving, dialing up the degree of difficulty a bit. While we later got into detail on the life of an opening band, I started where a lot of interviews start: with the name.

About the name of the band, named after 19th century politician Henry Clay. Of all the obscure 19th century politicians, why him?

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: The Henry Clay People”