Noise – Spinning Platters

Show Review: Deerhoof, Christina Schneider’s Genius Grant, Mayya and the Revolutionary Hell Yeah at Teragram Ballroom, 09/22/17

Deeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrhooooooooooofff!

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I cannot start this without immediately stating my bias. I love Deerhoof. I’ve been in love with this strange quirky band since I was 16 years old in high school, and a friend of mine played the cleanest version that exists of “Gore in Crown,” though we knew it as “Gore in Beans.” They are a band that — for whatever reason — manages to attack their inspiration ceaselessly and never get redundant in doing so. Like Fugazi‘s later career, each album is new, fresh, and exciting, better than the album before it. This says nothing of their performances — of which the following is my fifth as an audience member — which always retain some of the highest energy of any show I’ve ever been to.

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Show Review: Dead Cross, Qui, Secret Chiefs 3 at El Rey, 8.21-22.17

“Nothing stops this tour!”

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Since supergroups seem to be the big deal right now, it’s hard to recognize any band who comes together in collaboration as anything but. However, it becomes crystal clear, when the band performs live, that “supergroup” is not as appropriate of a term. When talking about Dead Cross it is completely fair to say that this is a band, not another one-off album release. The self-titled album, recently released on Ipecac Records, is a blistering hardcore punk set that injects a new vitality into the genre.

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Album Review: Big Walnuts Yonder: Big Walnuts Yonder

What happens when four musicians record an album in three days? Well, as luck would have it, something amazing happens. At least, that’s the case for the debut release of Big Walnuts Yonder. Though they prefer to consider themselves an anti-supergroup—in that they consciously rebel against the cliche of bringing their known sounds to the group—when your band consists of Mike Watt (Minutemen, The Stooges), Nels Cline (Wilco, Nels Cline Singers), Greg Saunier (Deerhoof) and Nick Reinhart (Tera Melos), it is hard to resist slapping the “supergroup” label on them, but be warned, because this band is no mere supergroup, and they are full of surprises.

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Noise Pop Review: Body/Head, Horsebladder, Burmese at Rickshaw Stop, 2/26/13

When Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore split up last year, my heart broke. I always felt that they were the perfect rock couple- Moore was the pop yin to Gordon’s experimental yang. And, as expected, Moore’s post Sonic Youth output has largely been filled with guitar pop. And Gordon has been largely quiet. So, when Noise Pop announced that they were featuring her new project, Body/Head, on their opening night of Noise Pop, I was thrilled. When I learned that it was a “noise” project with east coast avant gardist Bill Nace, I had very high hopes for this performance. My favorite Sonic Youth moments have always been when Gordon vocalizes over thunderous guitar shredding. To have a band that strips them down to the just this part was practically a dream show. So, yes, I needed to be there.

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 3/22/12-3/28/12

In tribute to fun. playing The Indy this week, I googled the word "fun," and this looked like the best example of the word that I could find.

Well, I have returned from Texas ten pounds heavier, with several new calluses on my feet, and a slew of new bands for you to go see, and several old favorites. So, do yourself a favor and come see a few amazing bands this week.

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Album Review: No Age – Everything In Between

In 2008, No Age became media darlings with their sophomore release, Nouns: a fuzzed out mixture of noise, pop and punk. Two years later they’ve follow it up with Everything In-Between. The adolescent angst under riding Nouns has now been filtered into a much more mature and complex sound in Everything.

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