Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
As Spinning Platters has managed to continue for far longer than anyone would’ve expected us to, so has this list. Here are records 11-30 from the first decade of Spinning Platters. For those looking to read #31-50, click here!
Continue reading “Spinning Platters’ Top 50 Records from our First Decade: 11-30”
Kate Nash is somebody that too many people have forgotten about. She put out Made Of Bricks, a massive, brilliant record of bright, yet jaded, pop nearly 16 years ago. The kind of album Elvis Costello could have done if he had been a teenage girl. Her follow up, My Best Friend Is You, recast her as a garage punk heroine. She put away the piano, picked up the guitar, and managed to put out an even better record than her first one. It was such a departure from the first album that few fans followed, and with her name tied to the unfairly mocked “pop” genre, few fans of garage rock followed. This is OK, because this gave her the freedom to follow that with the riot grrrl flavored, lo-fi masterpiece, Girl Talk. And, just this last week, she followed up Girl Talk with yet another reinvention. Yesterday Was Forever is another lo-fi treat, with her signature sharp, biting lyric writing, fuzzy guitars, and adding in analog drum machine beats and trap-influenced syncopation, making a very surprising and highly listenable record. Continue reading “Show Review: Kate Nash and Miya Folick at The Fillmore, 4/9/18”
If there’s one thing Spinning Platters does differently, and especially nerd-ish, it is our Album of the Year list. All the contributors get to nominate their favorite albums of the year (there were 53 nominees this year) then a grueling listening/voting process starts until we have it narrowed down to the top ten. While not everyone may agree with the final list, it is democratic and popular opinion that must rule. So without further ado, here is our top ten!
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Presents The Official List of the Top 10 Albums of 2013”
Oh great music philosophers, Sorockcrates and Rufus (yes dudes, I went there), I beseech thee. Is there ever a good answer to the following question? Do you want your favorite artists to evolve or stay the same?
Unless you move to a desert island accompanied by your top ten albums of all time, there probably is no good answer. But like anything, we must realize, no matter how much you want your adorable puppy to stay that adorable puppy, it’s going to grow up. Being “excellent to each other” requires room for growth. Without growth, the chance for something even greater might as well be stuck in a phone booth stuck traveling through time. So unless you’re one of those people who go to great lengths to breed puppy versions of dogs (I’m looking at you desert island folk), I implore you to keep an open mind.
Continue reading “Show Review: Kate Nash, Emmy The Great at The Fillmore 11/22/13”
Part of this fantastic week of music includes show presented by yours truly… Come join us for Social Studies, Ash Reiter, and The She’s at Brick & Mortar Music Hall on the 25th! You can win tickets, too, if you enter here by November 22nd at 6 PM!
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 11/20/13-11/26/13”
Remember the year 2007? It was the year that gave us Lily Allen, a bratty pop singer that was going to change the world. From the same city we also got to meet Kate Nash, a timid 20 year old singer / songwriter that played piano and wrote catchy songs primed for radio and play on british teen soaps. Here we are, six years later, and Lily Allen has essentially fallen out of view, and Kate Nash is a world away from the Kate Nash that we knew and loved in 2007. The piano has long been put away, and it has been replaced by loud, fuzzed out guitars. The question is- will the sold out crowd at The Chapel be willing to embrace this new Kate Nash?
Continue reading “Show Review: Kate Nash with Peach Kelli Pop at The Chapel, 5/11/13”
While the majority of the bands playing in the Bay Area this week are up at Bottle Rock in Napa, which, yes, in an amazing looking festival, it isn’t quite the Bay Area. The following shows (with one exception) are all easily accessible via BART. So enjoy your rock n roll, and remember not to drink & drive!
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 5/9/13-5/15/13”
by The Spinning Platters Staff
Unlike last year, we spent more than a month at the Spinning Platters offices (our homes) passing albums around to try to determine a staff list of the Top abums of 2010. We were going for “Top 10 and ties,” and that ended up at exactly 10. There was a nomination step, a finalist selection step, a final voting step, and then we had a list. No list is perfect, but ours is not only pretty darned good, it also manages to represent the wide variety of musical tastes among our team here (i.e. some of us hate some of these albums). Now, read and enjoy our Top 10 for 2010. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Presents the Official List of the Top 10 Albums of 2010”
Check out the spooky array of shows happening around the Bay Area as pumpkin month gives way to turkey month.
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 10/28/2010-11/3/2010”
If you’ve listened to the new Kate Nash album, My Best Friend is You, you wouldn’t have been surprised by what you heard last night at Bottom of the Hill. Unfortunately it seemed most of the audience hadn’t. Kate Nash played mostly new songs and while I was looking forward to dancing around with the crowd to those songs, I guess nobody else was. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Continue reading “Show Review: Kate Nash with Supercute! at Bottom of the Hill, 5/8/10”