run the jewels – Spinning Platters

BottleRock Napa Valley 2021 Preview

It’s been nearly a year since the original lineup announcement for BottleRock Napa Valley 2020. It was only January, and we hardly knew anything yet about what would become of the world as we know it, especially for us live music lovers.

Fast forward to mid-May 2021, and most of us are starved for live events we might have once taken for granted. Fortunately, there’s finally a light appearing at the end of a very long and difficult tunnel.

I haven’t seen a show since January 2020. If you know me at all, you know that festivals are my favorite – especially one I can walk to from home. And finally, finally, finally, it seems like it’s about that time again. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you…

Bottle Rock Napa Valley 2021’s lineup! I’m happy to see that quite a few of those originally slated for last year’s BRNV will be playing this Labor Day when vaccinated music-lovers can convene to enjoy! This includes original headliner Stevie Nicks, plus Guns N’ Roses (!!) and returning headliners Foo Fighters. In addition to those three, I’m also looking forward to several smaller acts! Personally, I can’t wait to catch Finneas, the freaking Village People (!!), Absofacto, Atlas Genius, Miley Cyrus, Megan Thee Stallion, Brandi Carlile, Cage the Elephant, Portugal. The Man, Young the Giant, Maren Morris, Black Pumas, Jon Batiste, Digable Planets, Matt Nathanson, Mondo Cozmo, Meg Myers, among many others. Who are you most excited to see this year?

Here’s my preview playlist featuring some of my faves. Enjoy, get vaccinated, and I’ll see you in my hometown this Labor Day weekend at BottleRock Napa Valley!

BottleRock ticket info: On sale 5/20 at 10 am PST. Get yours here!

Festival Review: Adult Swim Festival 2018 (DTLA)

Adult Swim Takes Over The Row

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Coming off of a whirlwind Wasteland Weekend experience mere days before, I grabbed my camera and jumped right in to Adult Swim’s inaugural Adult Swim Festival. Taking place in DTLA’s The Row next to the now vacant American Apparel factory, the festival showcased Adult Swim’s animation and television series while musicians and comedians who have worked in some capacity with the company, performed back to back on two cat-themed stages across the long stretch of pavement from each other. The next two days were jam packed with non-stop entertainment featuring a plethora of artists that I was experiencing for the first time both sonically and visually.

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Day for Night: The reason the Bay Area is headed to Houston for the Holidays

San Francisco is one of the more prominent hubs for music festivals in the country, if not the world. Starting with Noise Pop in February and reaching peak saturation in the Summer, and early Fall, with Outside Lands, Phono del Sol, and Treasure Island Music Festival, just to name a few, seeing an influential or up-and-coming artist perform live is an easily attainable feat (and a mere Lyft ride away for most people). We’ve even coined the term “Fauxchella” in honor of the fact that most of Coachella’s top headliners flock our way, year after year, in between weekends performing in the Indio desert.

Despite this embarrassment of riches, in a few weeks, I’ll be hopping on a plane and joining a group of Bay Area natives heading to a city in Texas that isn’t Austin, known as the live music capital of the world, for an event not related to SXSW in any way.

Day for Night, set to take place Friday, December 16th, through Monday, the 19th, is offering an experience that transcends the boundaries of the traditional festival circuit. One of many examples: they’ve managed amazing feats by booking Aphex Twin, who hasn’t performed live in the US for over 8 years, and Björk, who doesn’t perform often, either, and left many an Iceland Airwaves attendee, including myself, crestfallen with her sudden cancellation last year. Add in DJ Windows 98 (Arcade Fire’s Win Butler), who’ll be spinning Ticketfly’s annual Holiday bash, the night before he’s set to appear in Houston (let’s hope he doesn’t crash, ha), and the it’s clear that Free Press Houston and New York-based creative agency Work-Order know how to curate a festival fitting for a city that is rapidly approaching the distinction of becoming the third largest in the US.

Add the likes of Squarepusher, Run the Jewels, ODESZA, Kaskade, Ariel Pink, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Liars, Washed Out, SOPHIE, and SURVIVE – the creators of the hypnotic Stranger Things theme music – and you have a stellar, unconventional, and sought after group of artists that are extremely selective about which bills they attach their name. There’s a reason for this and it transcends the musical aspect of this event. Read on to find out why you should purchase tickets and book your flight immediately.

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Robert Plant, Grace Jones, and more make up the best of 2015 concert photos

Grace Jones at Fox Theatre Oakland — Grace Jones is an icon in her own right. Her sold out show in Oakland, this past September, exceeded my wildest expectations.

Like many people contributing to Spinning Platters, 2015 was a full and busy year to the point where I didn’t have the time to write and share as much as I would’ve liked. I didn’t go out often and chose to prioritize client work (and a burgeoning drone hobby) over excessive concert-going.

However, quality of the subjects trumped the quantity of shows I attended – especially compared to years past (apologies for the over-used analogy, my mind is on Holiday break). Legendary acts, big names, and a combination of both crossed my lens in the pit this year alongside some up-and-comers that should be on your radar if they’re not already.

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Preview: Pitchfork Music Festival, 2015

This Friday, July 17th, through Sunday, the 19th, 45+ bands will descend upon Chicago’s Union Park to perform at the 10th annual Pitchfork Music Festival. Tickets are officially sold out and that’s hardly a surprise. The stellar line-up consisting of the most iconic underground acts includes Wilco, Run the Jewels, Sleater-Kinney, Jamie XX, Future Islands, Perfume Genius, The Julie Ruin, Caribou, and Shamir.

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SXSW 2015: Cool? Yeah, Cool

Charles Bradley Shows us How it's Done — Charles Bradley Shows us How it’s Done

Chris Farley is my spirit animal. Not in a tears of a clown kind-of-way, or a Patrick Swayze dance-off kind-of-way. But in the way where I would be the perfect sidekick to Chris in “The Chris Farley Show”. I’d agree with him and all his qualifiers – yes, when Sir Paul McCartney was in the Beatles, that was definitely “cool.” I could have taken the show on the road with Chris, maybe even done some local interviews:

“Remember that time that you played Treasure Island. And it was, like, really cold?”

“Remember that time you brought that guy on stage to rap ‘Protect Yo Neck? Yeah. That was cool”. Continue reading “SXSW 2015: Cool? Yeah, Cool”

90+ albums to look forward to in 2015

Is it too early to call it? Sleater-Kinney's latest may be 2015's best. — Is it too early to call it? Sleater-Kinney’s latest may be 2015’s best.

Don’t call it a comeback. It’s just worth acknowledging that years have passed since the forecast for upcoming releases has been this bright. Here’s hoping it doesn’t amount to an audio equivalent of the anticipation and subsequent let down one might experience on New Year’s Eve. Giorgio Moroder (who really made Daft Punk’s latest album a worthwhile listen), The Juliana Hatfield Three, and Sleater-Kinney are just a few of the sorely-missed acts making triumphant, long-awaited returns in 2015.

This list may have grown by twenty additional albums compared to last year, but that doesn’t mean every last major release was included. Sorry to inform you, in advance, that you won’t find the likes of Papa Roach, Marilyn Manson, Fall Out Boy, Fergie Ferg, or Canada’s *pride*/current Calvin Klein cover boy, Justin Bieber listed. Even Mumford & Sons will not be mentioned beyond this sentence. That’s just Spinning Platters allowing me and my subjective musical tastes to run amok. However, there is something here for every musical taste imaginable and as I mentioned at the conclusion, if there was something we must all know about that was overlooked, let it be known in the comments.

Read on, discover some new gems, and get an overview of what to expect this coming year. I’ve even included links to lead-off tracks where they’re available and, of course, my own witless banter when absolutely necessary. Happy New Year of listening.

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The Official List of the Best Albums of 2014

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Picking a list of our Top 10 albums has become quite the task here at Spinning Platters. Every year, we share a gigantic playlist with each other, made up of albums nominated by our entire staff. For 4-6 weeks, it’s the only thing I listen to. Sometimes we find a new favorite album, and other times we find ones we actively root against. But in the end, the votes are tallied up, and we get our Official List. We’ll start this one off with number 10. Continue reading “The Official List of the Best Albums of 2014”

Outside Lands Journal: Day 1, 8/8/14

Thus begins my daunting task of compressing the highlights of 35 hours worth of music, comedy, and food into a mere three posts. It’s not easy, as this was definitely one of my favorite Outside Lands experiences ever, with the most even distribution of wonderful things to do that I’ve ever enjoyed from this shindig. Here’s how it all started:

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