Ashe Announces A Return To The Road!

As a Bay Area music blog, we are always excited when one of our own overcomes something big. San Jose Native Ashe had to cancel the tour for her brilliant album Raye last year to deal with mental health issues. I honestly thought she was moving away from music in general. Instead, she gifted us with an amazing new record, Willson, and is doing a tour supporting her three most recent albums, making up for lost time while still touring the brilliant new record. 

Tour Dates are below, and everything goes on sale 11/1/24 at 10 am local time:

May 28—Variety Playhouse—Atlanta, GA
May 30—9:30 Club—Washington, DC
May 31—Royale—Boston, MA
June 3—Brooklyn Steel—Brooklyn, NY
June 5—Danforth Music Hall—Toronto, ON
June 6—Saint Andrew’s Hall—Detroit, MI
June 8—Metro—Chicago, IL
June 11—First Avenue—Minneapolis, MN
June 13—Ogden Theatre—Denver, CO
June 14—The Depot—Salt Lake City, UT
June 16—The Showbox—Seattle, WA
June 17—Revolution Hall—Portland, OR
June 19—The UC Theatre—Berkeley, CA
June 20—The Bellwether—Los Angeles, CA

“In The Living Room”: New Maggie Rogers Single Ahead Of Arena Tour

Maggie Rogers will kick off her first-ever arena tour tomorrow night in Austin. To prepare for bringing a party to the biggest crowds of her career, she’s giving us… a haunting, tearjerker of a ballad that will force the entire arena into mutual tears! BRILLIANT! “In The Living Room” is an excellent addition to her canon, and I can’t wait to experience shared catharsis in a room with 30,000 other people.  

Tickets still available for *some* of her fall tour. You can find those here! It’s fitting that she’s giving us a song about lamenting those we lost while playing SF on Dia De Los Muertos

Heart’s Royal Flush Tour has been rescheduled!

I was GUTTED when I found out that Heart had to cancel their Fall 2024 tour for vocalist/flutist Ann Wilson to receive and recover from cancer treatment. I was worried that this was the end. Happily, Wilson looks like she’s recovered and is ready to go! I will note that I’m gutted that their SF show at Chase Center isn’t happening on this round, although it’s making me speculate wildly about Bottlerock 2025. 

Dates begin February 28th in Las Vegas, and tickets can be purchased here on all dates! Tour dates after the jump, along with a ferocious recent rendition of the best rock song of the 70s below the jump: Continue reading “Heart’s Royal Flush Tour has been rescheduled!”

Bikini Kill Tour Starts Next Month!

Kathleen Hanna is so busy these days that it’s hard to keep track of which project is doing what and when. Last year was a Le Tigre-heavy year, and so far, Hanna has been focusing on her excellent book, Rebel Girl. But Bikini Kill *just* made their network TV debut (after 34 years!) on The Late Show Wait Stephen Colbert, and they are crossing North America starting in LA at The Wiltern on August 15th-16th, coming to The Warfield (a venue that figures prominently in the aforementioned book) August 18th-19th, and wrapping up Baltimore on September 12th. And, as she hinted at her City Arts & Lectures appearance back in May, there are no future Bikini Kill plans currently, so it would be wise to hit up one of these. 

Full Tour Dates Below: Continue reading “Bikini Kill Tour Starts Next Month!”

STOP THE PRESSES!!! NEW SLEATER-KINNEY SINGLE!!!! TOUR DATES!!! ALBUM ANNOUNCEMENT!!! HAPPINESS!!!

Good news! The *actual* greatest rock band in America has gifted us a new single, “Hell,” and it’s a cathartic piece of anxious psychedelic darkness. This is probably the biggest song to come from Sleater-Kinney- in a short 3:22, we are taken on a cinematic roller coaster that builds and releases and contracts and I haven’t even started on the video. Miranda July is making her third appearance in a Sleater-Kinney video, and, really, she is so good at expressing a wide array of emotions with just her eyes. Brilliant. 

2024 marks the 30th Anniversary of the band’s first release, “You Ain’t It.” To mark this momentous occasion, they are releasing their 11th studio album, Little Rope, on January 19th. And, of course, they are going on a Spring North American tour! Dates are here, and tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. local time on October 6th! 

New Music Videos from Blondshell and Dream Wife

Remember when Tuesdays were the “New Release Day” for music? Those days were special. Although I think moving it to Friday is a little more fun. That being said, two videos dropped today from two of my favorite finds of the year! 

Going in alphabetical order out of fairness… 

Continue reading “New Music Videos from Blondshell and Dream Wife”

BONUS Single Of The Week: “Orbit” by Dream Wife

Remember in 2021 when I kept posting Wet Leg singles, and they ended up becoming the biggest thing in 2022? Well, every single off Dream Wife’s third record, Social Lubrication (Out June 9th), has been incredible, and I think there is a reasonable chance that 2023 will be the year of Dream Wife. “Orbit” is a dance-punk piece of infectiousness that you will listen to on repeat until the next single drops. 

Also, they dropped a small assortment of US dates that you can see below. And if you happen to be visiting the UK from the Bay Area in June and can pick me up a copy of this version of Social LubricationI’ll pay you back when you return to the States. 

September 15 – Brooklyn, NY, USA @ Brooklyn Made

September 17 – Portland, OR, USA @ Mississippi Studios

September 18 – Seattle, WA, USA @ Barboza

September 20 – San Francisco, CA, USA @ Bottom Of The Hill

September 21 – Los Angeles, CA, USA @ Zebulon

Single of the Week: “All Comes Crashing” by Metric

There are few songwriters that really understand how to convey the feelings of anxiety, desperation, and fear quite like Emily Haines. I’ve been waiting eagerly for the first pandemic-era release from Metric, because I was pretty sure we would get a track that would clearly validate the feelings of being stuck in a madness that’s out of our control. and they delivered tenfold. “All Comes Crashing” in a lot ways is classic Metric- pure, emotive vocals, post-punk guitars appearing out of nowhere beneath warm synths, and danceable beats to help ease the burden of the anxiety and provide just a little bit of optimism. 

All Comes Crashing” is the first single off their upcoming release, Formentera, which is due to be in your hands and ears July 8th. Preorder details coming soon. Also, there are few nights more cathartic than a Metric concert, and their 2022 North American Tour goes on sale TODAY at 10am local time. Check tour dates out here

EP Preview: “Nice Try” by Habibi AND TOUR DATES

 

Habibi was one of like five bands to get to complete their 2020 tour before the world shut down. And their good fortune did not end there… Anywhere But Here landed the band on a slew of year-end lists, enough to get the attention of the legendary label Kill Rock Stars, which is AMAZING news because there were six years between the band’s self-titled debut and second record!

While the band is in the studio working on LP #3, they have treated us with an EP of cover songs from some of their favorite performers. The first single is a cover of the Kleenex classic “Nice,” translated into Farsi by lead singer Rahill Jamalifard. The EP, called Nice Try, will be ready for your ears very soon. You can watch this countdown clock with bated breath like I have to know the minute it’s read! And they are also going on tour! Check out the dates below: Continue reading “EP Preview: “Nice Try” by Habibi AND TOUR DATES”

10 Quick Questions with The Postmarks

Postmarks

Last week on our podcast, I mentioned that I am really enjoying The Postmarks, my “favorite Scottish band from Florida.”  It turns out that they are either fans of the Spinning Platters podcast or they search for themselves online, because the next thing I knew, I was emailing them 10 Quick Questions.  I also plan to check them out this Tuesday night the 29th at Hotel Utah, and hope to see you all there.  But first, on to the questions and answers from lead singer Tim Yehezkely:

Spinning Platters:  How would you describe your music to a friend who hasn’t heard you yet? Continue reading “10 Quick Questions with The Postmarks”