flaming lips – Spinning Platters

A Letter From The Editor: Let’s Make Sure Live Music Stays Alive

So, as you may have noticed that this site has been quiet for a few weeks. That’s not so much because a lack of content, but, to be totally frank with you, this whole COVID-19 thing has left me feeling, well, really depressed. In a way where I just didn’t want to touch the site at all, because I didn’t want there to be a long stretch of “this is how we are going to handle things in the COVID-19 era” content with livestreams and think pieces and weird, meandering posts about whether or not the live event industry can overcome this without any real knowledge of when this will end. It all became more real when I lost my day job as Venue Success Specialist at Eventbrite, because, well, nobody can put on events pretty much anywhere in the world right now. Continue reading “A Letter From The Editor: Let’s Make Sure Live Music Stays Alive”

Let’s Go Crazy With The Best Albums of 1999!

Are we gonna let the elevator bring us down?

All conversations converged to one singular point at the close of 1999: The End of the World, and because of it, every possible best list of the century. Whether it was about greatest album, or greatest toenail clipper, a list was compiled by the fanciest per-milenium robots. Now the singular list missing from the cornucopia of lists was: The Music of 1999. Everyone, consumed in their chicken little theories of Y2K and end of the world were too mad to see what was really happening. The end of music as we knew it! In reality it seemed to set the youth of America back about twenty years. (If you take a look at the top record sales for 1999, trust me, you’ll want to cry). I’m as easy going as the next guy, but the Grinch himself would have shuddered at the sound of pop music sung by teen queens, boy bands, and all the music to come out of the entire state of Florida. They all belonged on the naughty list, and should have been banished to the island of misfit albums.

Luckily I was able to see through the doomsday smoke, and find some albums to balance out the slew of trash on radio airwaves or Total Request Live. Continue reading “Let’s Go Crazy With The Best Albums of 1999!”

BottleRock 2013 Review: Napa’s Inaugural Music, Wine, and Food Festival

A brand new festival just outside my front door.

When rumors about the first ever BottleRock Napa festival began to circulate, they were impressive: early flyers listed Dave Matthews Band and Pearl Jam as headliners (neither was ever confirmed). Still, the festival had the attention of the Napa Valley and surrounding music lovers long ago.

Once the final lineup had been released and tickets purchased, however, it was time to finally see what all the hype had been about. Because my home is in such a central location within “Napa proper,” as we all call the city of Napa (so as not to confuse it with the rest of “the Valley”), I didn’t actually experience the crazy traffic so many locals worried about. And while I did hear on one of the first few days (Weds or Thurs, though I’m not 100% certain which) that it took someone approximately 90 minutes to reach the Napa Expo from Fairfield (normally a 25-30 minute drive), I know for sure that the traffic relaxed and was relatively comparable to any other holiday weekend. (Which is to say, not insane as predicted.) The parking situation was the same as it usually is, I know for sure. The first three days, I arrived well before noon. As such, I beat the crowds and was able to find nearby parking with such ease that I chalked that up to my knowledge of the neighborhood, vs. all those who were coming in from out of area who didn’t know where to look (and as a result, were paying $25-40 to park much farther away). Continue reading “BottleRock 2013 Review: Napa’s Inaugural Music, Wine, and Food Festival”

Spinning Platters Guide To Noise Pop 2012

For the last 20 years, the good folks of Noise Pop have turned a single show at Kennel Club (now known as The Independent) into a huge, weeklong festival that causes Bay Area music nerds to clear their calendar every year. In recent years, the fest has expanded beyond music- we have movies, craft fairs, and literary events in addition to one of the best programmed music fests you will ever go to. Go to 2012.noisepop.com for a full listing, but if you want to know what I think you should go to, follow the jump!

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Guide To Noise Pop 2012”

New Release Round Up 1/12/10 – 42 Instant Album Reviews

Here are 42 reviews that cover three weeks. Lots of stuff has happened in the past three days. Most notably, a couple of musician deaths and the whole mass crisis thing in Haiti. I think Heidi Montag’s album may have brought upon these tragedies, sort of like a precursor to the apocalypse. Continue reading “New Release Round Up 1/12/10 — 42 Instant Album Reviews”

Show Review (Treasure Island Music Festival 10/18/09): The Flaming Lips, A Letter of Appreciation

Flaming Lips

Dear Kliph, Stephen, Michael, and Wayne,

This letter has been over a decade in the making. I can pinpoint the moment that started my love affair with your band to a precise moment in time. The date was October 28th, 1997, exactly one day after my 18th birthday. I was entering in to adulthood, and learned of a band that I only had a fleeting familiarity from adolescence via the video tapes of Alternative Nation that I cherished so dearly. This band that I had forgotten about had released the most amazing records I have ever read about. 4 cds, all designed to be played simultaneously. This record is called Zaireeka, and it was an experience that I have only enjoyed on a handful of occasions, primarily because of the difficulty in staging a listening. From this point on, I knew you were a band that I needed to know, and as I learned how to be a grown-up, you were there for me the entirety of the journey thus far, and I have no intention of losing you.

Continue reading “Show Review (Treasure Island Music Festival 10/18/09): The Flaming Lips, A Letter of Appreciation”