interview – Page 5 – Spinning Platters

10 Quick Questions: an Interview with Sara Benincasa

Sara Benincasa is one of my absolute favorite comedians that I have never seen live. She has one of the finest YouTube channels, filled with brilliant characters, excellent political humor, and two great vodcasts: Advice Time, where you get actual advice about issues you may be going through and Gettin’ Wet, where Benincasa interviews important cultural figures from her bathtub! Her Twitter (@sarajbenincasa) feed is pretty on point, too. She probably doesn’t remember this, but her Twitter introduced me to Die Antwoord many years ago. She’s currently working on her second book, and will be performing this weekend all over Sketchfest! She will be performing as part of The SF Sketchfest Dozen with Jonah Ray and Dave Thomasan Friday, February 1st at 8 PM and Saturday, February 2nd at 9:15 PM. She will also be doing You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes alongside Kumail Nanjiani at a special matinee show on Saturday, February 2nd at 1 PM. We had a few minutes to chat with her ahead of these shows, and this is what we talked about!

Continue reading “10 Quick Questions: an Interview with Sara Benincasa”

Spinning Platters Interview: Andrew Holmgren of Sylvan Productions

Andrew Holmgren is a local comic that hosts a monthly show at Dirty Trix Saloon called Get Yucked Up. He is also a member local comedy crew Sylvan Productions, who put on high quality comedy shows all throughout the bay area. He will be doing Get Yucked Up as part of SF Sketchfest at Cincecave at Lost Weekend Video on Friday, January 25th and as part of the Comedy Happy Hour at Cafe Royale on Monday, January 28th. On New Year’s Day, we got together at a coffee shop in downtown SF to talk about his career and comedy culture in San Francisco in general.

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Andrew Holmgren of Sylvan Productions”

SpinningPlatters Interview: Penelope Houston of The Avengers

Penelope Houston is a rock legend. She is the lead singer of seminal San Francisco punk rock band The Avengers, and actively performs with both The Avengers, and releases solo albums. She recently released a fine new record called On Market Street, as well as a 2-disc edition of the band’s 1983 debut full length, self titled release, often referred to as “The Pink Album.” The Avengers will be performing at The New Parish on Friday, May 25th. SpinningPlatters had the opportunity to sit down with Penelope to discuss her career and her writing process.

How do you feel about people constantly asking you questions about the Avengers?

Continue reading “SpinningPlatters Interview: Penelope Houston of The Avengers”

Spinning Platters Interview: Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim on “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie”

Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie is a play on precision and expectation. Ricocheting, hazy-vision precision, and constantly fragmenting expectation. The movie stars Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim as actors/directors facing unmitigated evil after wasting a billion dollars. Their solution: revitalize a mall. Such wonkiness is the epidermis of a diseased body containing awkward, obtuse, and hilariously horrible circumstances. Here is an interview elaborating on said horribleness. Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie is now available in theaters and VOD. Enjoy. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim on “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie””

Spinning Platters Interview: David Owen, Janet Varney, and Cole Stratton: Founders of SF Sketchfest

In 2002, three Bay Area comics organized a festival featuring some of their favorite local sketch groups. They dubbed it Sketchfest, and it was a success. The next year, comedy legend Fred Willard joined the event, and every year subsequent year, the event became bigger and bigger. This year’s festival has grown to 2 1/2 weeks long, and features the biggest line up yet, featuring the likes of Eddie Izzard, Amy Poehler, Wil Wheaton, Barry Bostwick, and scores of other people so famous that even your grandparents know who they are. (You may need to ask your grandparents who Barry Bostwick is)

SpinningPlatters had the opportunity to chat with founders David Owen, Janet Varney, and Cole Stratton about the evolution of the festival, the struggles of putting it on every year, where to grab a burrito, and a whole ton of hypothetical situations that were good fun to ask. Be sure to go to SFSketchfest.com to check out the line-up and purchase tickets.

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: David Owen, Janet Varney, and Cole Stratton: Founders of SF Sketchfest”

Spinning Platters Interview: Lisa Hannigan

Lisa Hannigan is a wonderfully warm Irish Singer Songwriter who just released her second full length album Passenger which was written while she was on her last tour for her first release Sea Sew. Prior to her solo work, she worked with Damien Rice, as part of his band. When I called Lisa, she was in Southern California, having just played San Diego and Los Angeles, heading north to play in Santa Barbara the next night.

Leading into the first question, in her newest video for “Knots,” the entire time paint is thrown on Lisa while she is trying to sing the song. And in 2009 Lisa did an ad for Fair Trade Chocolate where chocolate was poured onto her.

I have to ask, though I think I might know the answer, was it more fun having paint or chocolate splattered all over?

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Lisa Hannigan”

Spinning Platters Interview: Peter Hook

peterjackbatesandypoole — Peter Hook performs at Mezzanine in San Francisco last year. Photo by Jonathan Pirro

A few weeks ago, Spinning Platters had the pleasure of chatting with Peter Hook, the legendary bass player for Joy Division, New Order and Monaco, as he prepares for his upcoming North American tour. (He is coming to Mezzanine in San Francisco on Saturday, September 17th) This conversation happened about a week before it was revealed that New Order were recording and touring again without Hook. Instead, Hook is bringing his ace band The Light around the states to perform the classic Joy Divison record Closer in it’s entirety, as well as other key tracks. We did get to discuss the tour, the general response to the gigs from people close to Ian Curtis, the Joy Divison vocalist that passed away 21 years ago, and about other projects in his plate.

Now that you have been doing Joy Division songs (with The Light) for about a year, have audiences responded differently?

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Peter Hook”

10 Quick Questions with Robert and David Perlick-Molinari of French Horn Rebellion

French Horn Rebellion are an electronic music duo from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They consist of brothers Robert and David Perlick-Molinari, and, yes, they do actually incorporate the french horn into their mix of disco, pop, and a whole slew of other sounds. This Thursday, May 19th, we’ve got two opportunities to enjoy these guys live. They are opening for Yelle at The Regency Ballroom at 8 PM, and then running over to Rickshaw Stop for a Popscene DJ set right afterwards. Spinning Platters had a chance to talk to the brothers about the creative process, the french horn, and so on.

How do you treat the french horn on your records? The instrument is there, but rarely sounds like a french horn…
Continue reading “10 Quick Questions with Robert and David Perlick-Molinari of French Horn Rebellion”

Spinning Platters Interview: MC Zumbi of Zion I

Fresh off the huge success of their most recent release, Atomic Clock, local hip-hop legends Zion I play to a hometown crowd at The New Parish in Oakland this Friday night. Spinning Platters caught up with a busy MC Zumbi for a couple of questions…

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: MC Zumbi of Zion I”

Spinning Platters Interview: Brandon Young of Delta Spirit

Delta Spirit, one of my personal favorite bands, is coming to the Bay Area in December. Their breakthrough album Ode to Sunshine was packed with such raw, personable authenticity that it was shocking to find out they had emerged from my hometown of San Diego (land of the cultural brain fart). This band came together organically. Through the music you can hear the enjoyment of their jamming together and the shit-talking session that ensues, which is at the core of what makes it work. Their music is intimate, free and unapologetic like a good drunken conversation. I can’t wait to hear what they’ve come out the recording cabin with this time. They have a steady track record of releasing an album every two years and then touring like, well, like dedicated musicians. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Brandon Young of Delta Spirit”