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Album Review: St Vincent – St Vincent

Rating: Gold

I don’t know who first used the modifier “angular” to describe a guitar style, but it’s been the most over used adjective for post punk guitar for at least 30 years now. Perhaps it means the sharp edges that you get from the syncopated and dissonant chord changes or maybe even the “stiff, awkward, and ungainly” feel the music gives you. Either way, the message that “angular” communicates is “inhuman” and “inhospitable.” From Marry Me to Actor to Strange Mercy and now St. Vincent, Annie Clark’s music has toed this line between human and inhuman, between hospitable and inhospitable, but inevitably has sided with the human. This has always been her great accomplishment as a songwriter. Her hair has gotten whiter, her clothing more plastic and her guitar playing more…angular, but she’s never lost touch with that humanity and with St. Vincent, Annie Clark is at her peak as a songwriter, guitarist and artist.

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From Beck to The Boss, here are 70+ albums to look forward to in 2014

If there was one thing the contributing writers, and staff, of Spinning Platters agreed on during our annual gathering to determine the best albums of the year, it was that 2013 was a bit underwhelming for music. The silver lining in what was mostly a mundane, forgettable time for music was that a lot of women broke through and achieved some well-deserved recognition. Daft Punk and Deltron 3030 returned after a near-decade hiatus and did not disappoint. Still, the fact that Miley’s antics garnered any attention, whatsoever, and were even considered “interesting” didn’t exactly bode well for collective musical output.

It’s time to move forward and hope for a better turnout these next 350-plus days (some of us are still recovering/getting acclimated, thank you). If you’ve noticed a pattern in titles such as “50 must-hear albums coming your way in 2014,” with an emphasis on the staggering figure, from other publications, it’s because, well, there are already that many hotly-anticipated releases to look forward to in the coming year. Of course, there are more to be found here because we’re delightfully (right?) exhaustive (in case you haven’t noticed our other, alternative best-of-2013 round-ups).

This list offers an alternate variation on what has already been published by the likes of SPIN and Consequence of Sound; but if there’s one thing we can all agree on, we’re stoked for the return of Beck. Not included: soundtracks, EPs, reissues, and live recordings. Special thanks goes out to Pause & Play, a wonderful, consistently updated resource for new album releases on the horizon. Without further ado, here are the anticipated links – some with videos, links to singles, and even full album streams. Enjoy.

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Show Review: David Byrne & St. Vincent at the Orpheum Theatre, 10/15/2012

David Byrne, St. Vincent, and accompaniment

The term “supergroup” is often used to refer to a set of musicians who are best known in association with their respective bands — musicians who haven’t necessarily operated as solitary acts in their own right, and are culled together to see what their individual untapped energies will create when synthesized. By contrast, when speaking of a pair of artists that write and perform together, each possessing their own prolific solo careers, the relationship is usually defined — accurately, but less overtly bombastically — as a “collaboration” between them. It should be preemptively stated, therefore, that the “collaboration” between David Byrne, former founder and frontman of world-famous new-wave-art-rockers Talking Heads, and Annie Clark, better known as the gorgeously cacophonous St. Vincent, possesses all of the grandeur and might that the term “supergroup” conjures the image of. Backed by a seven-piece horn section, sampling engineer, and percussionist, Byrne and Clark have birthed one of the most unusual but compelling albums of 2012, a 45-minute opus titled Love This Giant, and the Orpheum Theatre, best known as a host of many musicals and plays from all eras and countries, offered its stage to the pair for the San Francisco stop on their tour.

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Show Review: St. Vincent and tUnE-yArDs with Kapowski at The Fox Oakland, 4/24/2012

If you asked someone what their favorite record by a female singer in 2011 was, odds are you would have gotten a reply that fit one of two options: 21 by Adele, or Ceremonials by Florence and the Machine. Both topped charts, and the former swept the Grammys, taking home the coveted Album Of The Year award, among others. Sadly, out of the spotlight (and off the radar for many a casual music fan) were a pair of records that rounded out Spinning Platters’ 2nd and 3rd place winners for our Album Picks of 2011, both by extraordinary women who have been captivating audiences all over the country, perhaps even the world, with their otherworldly but gorgeously eclectic brand of experimental indie rock. To pair the two together is a feat in and of itself, as the two have very different backgrounds — both in their own respective songwriting and in their own performing history — but it was, no doubt, an effective combination, as evidenced by the near sold-out crowd that arrived at Oakland’s Fox Theater on Tuesday night. The pair had skipped briefly across the country, even between two weekends at Coachella, and now were coming to the end of their trip: the Oklahoma-born, Manhattan-based Annie Clark, better known by her stage name St. Vincent, and Oakland’s own Merrill Garbus, more well known under the zanily-punctuated pseudonym of tUnE-yArDs.

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Spinning Platters Presents The Official List of the Top 10 Albums of 2011

brandt-brauer-frick-ensemble-mr.-machine-review-e1318885673689 — Finished 11th, but I really like it.

While other magazines, blogs and newspapers release their Best Albums of the Year super early, obviously before they’ve even heard some of the albums on their list, we wait until the last possible minute, sharing dozens of nominations with each other while participating in an overly complicated voting process that leads to a Top 10 that looks completely different from anyone else’s. It’s rewarding and fun, and we always find room for small albums that usually get ignored. One person’s favorite gets a real chance to get heard in our system as it becomes the favorite of many. So know, dear reader, that the albums you’re about to see listed have passed a multi-level test of quality. And now, I end my introduction by asking you to click the more tag and see our Official List of the Top 10 Albums of 2011.

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