Valerie June – Spinning Platters

Spinning Platters Interview: Jim Welte, Executive Director of the Mill Valley Music Festival

Executive Director of Mill Valley Music Festival, seen here with his trusty bodyguard.

Here at Spinning Platters, we are REALLY excited about the second year of the Mill Valley Music Festival. We are getting the return of Northern California legends Cake, alongside SP favorites Tank & The Bangas, Adrian Belew & Jerry Harrison doing a Talking Heads set, Durand Jones, Valerie June, Black Joe Lewis, and many more. The party is NEXT WEEKEND- May 13th and 14th. Tickets and more info here. We had a chance to chat with their Executive Director, Jim Welte about this year’s event, and here’s a bit of our conversation:

I’ve just got a couple of questions to ask you about this insane endeavor you’re pulling off in one of the hardest cities in the Bay Area to get to, which prompts my first question, what made you pick Mill Valley? Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Jim Welte, Executive Director of the Mill Valley Music Festival”

Top 10 Outside Lands 2014 Acts From the Bottom Half of the Poster

There are a lot of great reasons to show up early to Outside Lands. It’s rather beautiful to walk around at noon, seeing the empty festival and taking in the peace before the chaos. It’s also a great time to explore the various different food vendors, especially the much more popular establishments. Instead of waiting 20 minutes in line to enjoy Farmer Brown’s amazing Chicken & Waffles, you’ll get your food in under 5, plus you can pretty much guarantee a seat at a picnic table while you get to enjoy some of the lesser known acts on the bill. This year has plenty of acts that are well worth crawling out of bed early to enjoy. (Also, the N Judah and 5 Fulton at 11am is way nicer than at 2:00, when most people show up.)

The full schedule has been released, but here are my personal Top 10 acts from the lower part of the bill. Trust me, you’ll be happy you came out and had breakfast in the park.

Continue reading “Top 10 Outside Lands 2014 Acts From the Bottom Half of the Poster”