The Donnas – Spinning Platters

Record Store Day 2023 – My Guide to the Most and Least Essential Releases

For as long as I can remember, independent record stores across the world have celebrated Record Store Day. At first a small initiative to get people to shop at their local record stores, it’s now an excuse for thousands of people to join hours-long queues at record shops across the world to buy one (or several) of the several hundred special releases made for that day that will only ever be sold in stores, and for which pre-orders are not allowed to be taken. As the list of releases has grown, the quality of those releases has diverged. While some of the announced records are long-awaited reissues of rare and important material, others are obvious cash grabs meant to appeal to the completist nature of a certain type of collector. Now, I’ll sort some of these in buckets for you, starting with the most essential and ending with the least essential.

I’ve focused on the U.S. list for this post as this is where we are and will be waiting in line.
Continue reading “Record Store Day 2023 — My Guide to the Most and Least Essential Releases”

Spinning Platters presents “How Did I Get Here?” Season 2, Episode 6 with Chris Appelgren

In this episode I got to talk with Bay Area music legend Chris Appelgren. We talked about many of his bands, including Bumblescrump (sadly not getting into exactly what this word means), The Potatomen, and The Peechees. We also discussed his rising through the ranks at Lookout Records, and even talked about its inevitable decline. And, of course, we talked about his time at Noise Pop, Bold Italic, and Ticketfly, as well as his return to the record business by helping Once And Future Band release their 2020 album Deleted Scenes.

Listen Here:

Listen to the music mentioned here:

Vinyl Reissue Spotlight: Spend The Night and Gold Medal by The Donnas

The Donnas have been on hiatus since 2012. As quickly as they disbanded, their catalog seemed to disappear nearly entirely. Their CDs and records had all quietly fallen out of print, and their Lookout Records-era catalog, which amounted to the bulk of the band’s output, never made it to streaming. Interviews with band members have shown that they really don’t have any interest in looking back on this project, so I started to think this Palo Alto-based hard rock powerhouse was going to remain a memory for the folks that got to experience them during their tenure. Continue reading “Vinyl Reissue Spotlight: Spend The Night and Gold Medal by The Donnas”

Spinning Platters Weekly Tip Sheet: July 21st-27th

This is Zoey, and she would like to see La Roux at Cafe du Nord with me tomorrow night, but she doesn't like loud noises, and I think they have a no cats policy. Who wants to take her place? At the show, not my home...

Another week, another installment of our continuing series of me telling you what to do. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Tip Sheet: July 21st-27th”