Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
I don’t know if it’s because we procrastinate or because we’re simply very thorough, but the editorial team at Spinning Platters has FINALLY settled on our Top 15 albums of 2025. There’s a little something for everyone, including some metal, punk, hardcore, Spanish-language avant-pop, and a whole lot of scorned women on this list, which is my favorite music genre anyways.
Without further ado, here’s the list: Continue reading “Spinning Platters’ Top 15 Records of 2025”
Review by:
Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro and Emily Anderson @emilyphotoadventure
Photos by:
Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro unless otherwise stated
Nearly one year ago, at the very end of Spinning Platters’ Aftershock 2024 review, this question was raised: “West Coast’s Biggest Rock Festival had such a stellar lineup this year, HOW are they possibly going to outdo themselves in 2025?!?!”
If one hundred people were asked if 2025 was better than 2024, there would undoubtedly be one hundred different answers and opinions. Aftershock 2024 was so exceptionally good and a heavy metal fan’s wet dream – Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Slayer, Pantera, Slipknot, Mastodon, Anthrax, Clutch, Ministry, Body Count and more! Fans of other genres of rock, punk, and loud music were still out in force, as Aftershock 2024 set an attendance record of 40,000 people per day, but may have felt neglected by the sheer amount of metal that closed every night of the festival.
For the 13th annual Aftershock in 2025, promoter Danny Wimmer Presents (DWP) altered the overall lineup to cater to the rest of those fans while still appealing to the heavy metal fans, by combining every Warped Tour, Ozzfest and Rockstar Mayhem Festival lineup, put it all in a blender, and poured it in a tall glass of Discovery Park for four days of the best rock, alt-rock, metal, 2000’s nu-metal, hardcore, and pop-punk bands, all in one place at one time in the outskirts of downtown Sacramento!
Continue reading “Show Review: Highlights of Aftershock 2025!”
Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ConcertGoingPro
According to Wikipedia, a mashup is “a creative work, usually in a form of a song, created by blending two or more pre-recorded songs, typically by superimposing the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the instrumental track of another, changing the tempo and key where necessary”. If Spinning Platters were to mashup the genres of music (as opposed to song) seen during our Memorial Day Weekend in Chicago, a new genre mashup of alt-progressive-technical-death-metal-hardcore-pop-punk would have to be created.
What started out as a photo pass for alt-metal giants Deftones and progressive-metal masters Gojira turned into an entire weekend of photographing concerts, with each of the three shows being musical opposites of the others!
Do you know what today is? You do. It’s July 5. That means that here in the Bay Area, it’s Huey Lewis’s birthday.
Speaking of the heart of rock and roll, let’s talk about this week’s concerts. Here’s what we’ve got coming up this week in the Bay Area: symphonies, troopers, and remembrances.
So, we’ll preview this now. Previewing now. Let’s preview and go ahead and preview. Preview go!
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 2017-07-05 – 2017-07-09”
Supergroups are a hard thing to review fairly. It’s difficult to be a “brand new” band without the prejudice of their prior bands. Palms is a new project featuring 3/5’s Boston based “post metal” band ISIS and Deftones’ vocalist Chino Moreno. Two bands with an established legacy that, by a twist of fate, are two of the few bands that I am not familiar with at all. So my experience with Palms was entirely fresh.
Continue reading “Show Review: Palms, Crypts at Slim’s, 7/13/13”
By The Spinning Platters Staff
Every website has a Top XX albums of the year list. This one is ours, and there is nothing by The xx on it. I mean, I really like The xx’s Coexist. There were just 20 records that came out this year that were better. Maybe you’ll find something that you missed?
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Presents The Official List of the Top 20 Albums of 2012”
The late 90s and early 2000s were an interesting time for popular metal music, when an often-bemoaned genre known as “nü-metal” clawed its way into existence, its rap-infused tendrils hot on the heels of bands like Rage Against The Machine and Faith No More, with its core still deeply rooted in groove-filled pop sensibilities that made it edgily acceptable to throw onto the radio. As the scene began dying out with the advent of metalcore and the New Wave of American Heavy Metal, groups that were still passionate about performing fought desperately to stay relevant, deigning their sound by bringing new elements into it that clashed with the original tunes that made them famous. It can be argued forever, of course, which bands did this as an attempt at creativity, and which bands did it as an attempt to appeal to more fans and listeners. The Sacramento quintet known as Deftones, however, have stood the test of time through this transition, and despite the definite traces of nü-metal within their sound, their desire to experiment and push boundaries has always remained constant.
Continue reading “Show Review: Deftones with Scars On Broadway at The Warfield, 10/10/2012”
Oh, man. Rocktober continues! This weekend in the Bay Area is completely crazy. Fleet week, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, a 49ers game, the Giants and A’s in the playoffs, Oracle Open World, Castro Street Fair … and all the shows and concerts I’m about to suggest that you do otherwise. This is the absolute best time of year to live here, so enjoy it all!
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 10/4/12-10/10/12”
Rocktober, week 2. Pretty awesome. A few living legends, a few surprises, and a lot of awesome October live music for your pleasure.
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 10/7/2010-10/13/2010”
