Festival Preview: BottleRock Napa Valley 2025

It’s that time again, music festival fans: BottleRock Napa Valley has announced the lineup for 2025’s festival, which will take place this May 23-25 near downtown Napa.

Headlining this year’s event are Noah Kahan, Green Day, and Justin Timberlake. I’ve seen Kahan once, but am happy to catch him again. I’ve never seen Green Day and can’t wait to finally get my chance! I’ve seen Timberlake many times, but it’s been nigh on two decades since then (not since 2007/ FutureSex/LoveShow days). I’m definitely curious to see how his performances have evolved over the years, as I haven’t really followed his music much (unless Trolls counts)…

Anther act I’m looking forward to checking out is Khruangbin (though I would have loved this even more if the powers-that-be had arranged it when Leon Bridges was there as well, so they could perform together a little). I’m hoping to arrange my schedule to catch some of the following artists as well: Cage the Elephant, Ice Cube, Sublime (loved them with Rome, but I’m really excited to see Jakob Nowell as the new frontman), Goose, Sofi Tukker, 4 Non Blondes, E-40, Flo Rida, Kaleo, Allen Stone, Sharon Van Etten, Two Feet, Kate Hudson, and BBY.

On top of all this fantastic music, remember you can always count on BRNV to provide an endless stream of insanely delicious food and wine choices (this is Napa, after all), plus craft beer & cocktails, shopping, BottleRock Spa, Silent Disco, the Williams-Sonoma Culinary Stage (the lineup for that will be announced as we get closer to the actual event, but it’s always a good time), and much more!

I’m ready now, but the event is still months away. To pass the time, check out this year’s BottleRock Napa Valley Preview Playlist here: I hope you enjoy listening as much as I do! If you don’t have tickets yet, you can get them here. See you in May in Napa!

Film Review: Wonder Wheel

Allen’s newest far from Wonder-ful   

Lifeguard and wanna-be writer Mickey (Justin Timberlake) has an affair with the unhappily married Ginny (Kate Winslet).

Let’s first address the elephant in the room. Yes, Wonder Wheel, writer/director Woody Allen’s newest, is about a man who finds himself falling in love with his girlfriend’s step-daughter. I suspect there are many filmgoers who have made up their minds about Allen, and so either won’t see this particular film because of its uncomfortable parallels to his real life, or because, in agreement with his daughter Dylan Farrow’s recent essay, they don’t want to support the work of an accused sexual predator. If you fall in one of those categories, you need read no further, but for those of you who still remain curious and open to Allen’s art, there is another, more pedestrian reason to avoid this picture: it’s just not very good.
Continue reading “Film Review: Wonder Wheel

Film Review: Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

Raps and riffs its way to gold, but far from platinum.

Conner is 4 real.
Conner is 4 real.

10+ years ago, “Lazy Sunday” took the internet by storm and injected the Berkeley-based comedy musical trio, The Lonely Island, into the mainstream. Since then, they’ve been responsible for countless popular SNL Digital Shorts and a handful of award-winning comedy albums. Now, their first feature-length film, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, hits theaters and brings along their superb blend of awesomely crude but catchy pop music, satirical humor, and over-the-top random ridiculousness. Popstar is great at poking fun at the pop music industry, and delivers some really raunchy humor and fantastically clever music, yet fails more often than not to produce worthy punchlines or climaxes to major scenes.

Continue reading “Film Review: Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 1/15/14-1/22/14

Anti-bunny.
Sometimes there are signs that insist on no bunny.

You need to know what concerts are coming to The Bay Area this week? You’ve come to the right place.

We’ve got folk rock, pop metal, malicious metal, the cosmic intersection of country and rock, and the most highly-weaponized pop that US dollars can purchase.

It’s a good week.

Here’s what’s coming up.

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 1/15/14-1/22/14”

Film Review: Inside Llewyn Davis

‘I am a man of COEN sorrow…’

Oscar Isaac cradling the real star.
Oscar Isaac cradling the real star of Inside Llewyn Davis.

In a dimly lit smoky bar, an unshaven, slightly disheveled, solo male singer leans into a mic and begins gently singing, ‘Hang me / Oh hang me / I’ll be dead and gone.’ For the next three or so minutes, we are up close and personal to this singer, watching his calm disposition as he sings out the entirety of the song, not even once looking up at the quiet audience wrapped up in the beautiful melody, drinks, and cigarettes. This is how Inside Llewyn Davis begins, the extraordinary and immaculately conceived new film by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, or as we know them, the Coen brothers. This singer is, of course, Llewyn Davis, and these opening lyrics are deliberately chosen to open the story — they set the tone and capture the somber outlook of the title character. Based on a pivotal moment in our nation’s cultural history, and using a fictionalized version of folk musician Dave Van Ronk to capture the experience of many lost artists of that time period, Inside Llewyn Davis is a pointedly dark and comical drama that serves as an allegorical tale and a cinematic exposé of the unfortunate “futility” of many talented artists.

Continue reading “Film Review: Inside Llewyn Davis”

Spinning Platters Interview with T-Bone Burnett and Oscar Isaac from ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’

The towering, imposing, and yet, gentle-voiced T-Bone Burnett strolled into the room occupied by a few eager journalists.  Oscar Isaac, quiet and kind, followed close behind.  The two artists, one a musician who has been inching closer and closer to becoming a household name for three award-winning decades, the other an actor who is sharply on the rise, not wholly but in part due to his incredible performance as the lead role in the Coen brother’s newest masterpiece, Inside Llewyn Davis, sit down at the table.  Without pause, we jumped into conversation…and it wasn’t hard to get T-Bone going…

What are your five favorite film soundtracks?

T-Bone Burnett: God, I don’t know.  I can’t even think of any.

Oscar Isaac: The Mission.  Ennio Morricone.

T-Bone:  Yeah, that was a good one.  I like My Fair Lady.  Even though I think that Dr. Strangelove is a much more strange and subversive film and should’ve won the Academy Award…I’m talking like a Hollywood insider, like a movie person <<laughter>>… but I loved that musical.  You know the song, “I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face”?  I can barely make it through that song, it’s just so beautiful.  And “On the Street Where You Live,” It’s just beautiful songwriting and one beautiful melody after another.  It beat Dr. Strangelove, which is one of the most important movies ever.

So, one of the reasons why I called the Coen brothers was because I had become a fan of theirs after their first movie, Blood Simple, because it just had so much of my home (Texas) about it and there was a style of storytelling that I thought was really great.  And their next movie came out, Raising Arizona, that just had this insane soundtrack — “Ode to Joy” on the banjo with whistling and yodeling.  And every joke of it landed for me.  And one thing about the Coens is that there’s history in every shot.  Isn’t that right?

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview with T-Bone Burnett and Oscar Isaac from ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’”

SXSW Review: The Best & Worst of SXSW 2013

All photos by Michelle Viray
All photos by Michelle Viray

Now that we’ve all had time to recover from a week’s worth of sun damage, get our voices back, and forget about the hours spent driving through the lonely west Texas desert, it’s time to reflect upon another year of SXSW. While everyone’s experience is different under the Austin sun, these are my recollections as to the best and worst of SXSW 2013.

Continue reading “SXSW Review: The Best & Worst of SXSW 2013”

Film Review: “Trouble with the Curve”

“An empty chair? What were you thinking?” Amy Adams and Clint Eastwood in TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE

starring: Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams, Justin Timberlake, John Goodman, Matthew Lillard, Robert Patrick

written by: Randy Brown

directed by: Robert Lorenz

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for language, sexual references, some thematic material and smoking

Continue reading “Film Review: “Trouble with the Curve””

Film Review: “Friends With Benefits”

Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake in FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS

starring: Justin Timberlake, Mila Kunis, Patricia Clarkson, Woody Harrelson, Richard Jenkins, Jenna Elfman, Nolan Gould, Bryan Greenberg, Andy Samberg, Emma Stone

written by: Keith Merryman, David A. Newman, Will Gluck, Harley Peyton

directed by: Will Gluck

MPAA: rated R for sexual content and language.

Continue reading “Film Review: “Friends With Benefits””

Film Review: “Bad Teacher”

Jason Segel, Kaitlyn Dever, and Cameron Diaz in BAD TEACHER

starring: Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, Jason Segel, Lucy Punch, Phyllis Smith, John Michael Higgins, Thomas Lennon, Eric Stonestreet, Molly Shannon

written by: Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg

directed by: Jake Kasdan

MPAA: Rated R for sexual content, nudity, language and some drug use.

Continue reading “Film Review: “Bad Teacher””