“Ice Cream Piano” begins with a healthy dose of guitar feedback and pronounced strumming, and then the first few lines of the album soothingly unfold, “‘Fuck the world’ / You said it quiet / No one could hear you / No one but me / Cynical, you can’t deny it.” It’s a surprising, but no less strong, sequence of phrases on which to launch Vampire Weekend’s fifth studio album, Only God Was Above Us. The album explores the status quo, including international conflicts, generational attitudes, and society’s unrelenting grip on historical traumas. And yet, Only God Was Above Us, named after a headline quote in the Daily News from a real-life Aloha Airlines flight incident in 1988, is not overtly political. Rather, it’s a musical commentary about fatalism and disillusionment, punctuated by an ultimate yearning for hope and progress. It’s the most cohesively inspired Vampire Weekend album yet, with the band diving head-first into a (mostly) New York City urban soundscape of grunge and grit (see the album cover image above) while not abandoning their gleeful chamber pop origins. Continue reading “Album Review: Vampire Weekend, “Only God Was Above Us””
Tag: Vampire Weekend
Outside Lands Daily Lineups & Single Day Tickets
I’m forever grateful that the good folks of Another Planet and Superfly are working hard to make Outside Lands happen this year. And I know many of you loyal readers are sad that they missed out on buying 3-Day passes. Or didn’t buy them because they were waiting for the daily lineups to see if they can cancel their usual Halloween plans for this.
Well, cancel those Halloween plans because Outside Lands announced their single-day lineups, and, well, Tame Impala, Brittany Howard, Kehlani, and freaking Nelly are playing on Halloween! Also, whoever decided to book Neal Francis and Neil Frances for the same day deserves a prize. The rest are below the jump. Single Day Tickets are on sale Thursday, April 29th at 10 am! Continue reading “Outside Lands Daily Lineups & Single Day Tickets”
Outside Lands 2021 has been moved to Halloween!
The news that we’ve been expecting for quite some time has finally dropped… Sadly, it looks like it’s not quite feasible for Outside Lands to happen in August this year. The good news? We get to party together in Golden Gate Park for HALLOWEEN!!! Yes, Outside Lands 2021 has been moved to October 29-31. Does this mean that we may get a replay of Tame Impala’s Halloween 2013 show when they performed as The Spice Girls? Dear God, I really hope so.
More good news: in addition to the already stacked lineup with Lizzo, The Strokes, Tyler, The Creator, Hinds, Vampire Weekend, Kehlani, and more, we’ve got a bunch of new names! We have the first black performer ever to win an electronic music Grammy, Kaytranada. We also have Glass Animals, Lord Huron, Flo Milli, and 24kGoldn all coming to the park for a massive Halloween bash. And, of course, there is still more to come! We haven’t even thought about The Barbary, Heneiken Dome, or Gastromagic stages yet!
Tickets are available NOW! Including payment plans, if you can’t do it all at once. If you can’t make the new date, you can request a refund until April 17th. But, really, why would you not want to spend Halloween at Outside Lands?
Spinning Platters’ Top 50 Records from our First Decade: 11-30
As Spinning Platters has managed to continue for far longer than anyone would’ve expected us to, so has this list. Here are records 11-30 from the first decade of Spinning Platters. For those looking to read #31-50, click here!
Continue reading “Spinning Platters’ Top 50 Records from our First Decade: 11-30”
Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 12/4/13-12/10/13
Wednesday, December 4th
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 12/4/13-12/10/13”
Outside Lands 2013 Journal, Day 3: Sunday, August 11th
Sunday. The sabbath. And, of course, I believe in the church of rock n roll. And I believe that I kept the day as holy as could be. Of course, since Hall & Oates showed up, it really couldn’t happen any other way.
Continue reading “Outside Lands 2013 Journal, Day 3: Sunday, August 11th”
Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 4/11/13-4/17/13
Concerts! Shows! Performances! And this week in the Bay Area, they’re extra-beardy!
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 4/11/13-4/17/13”
Spinning Platters Presents the Official List of the Top 10 Albums of 2010
by The Spinning Platters Staff
Unlike last year, we spent more than a month at the Spinning Platters offices (our homes) passing albums around to try to determine a staff list of the Top abums of 2010. We were going for “Top 10 and ties,” and that ended up at exactly 10. There was a nomination step, a finalist selection step, a final voting step, and then we had a list. No list is perfect, but ours is not only pretty darned good, it also manages to represent the wide variety of musical tastes among our team here (i.e. some of us hate some of these albums). Now, read and enjoy our Top 10 for 2010. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Presents the Official List of the Top 10 Albums of 2010”
Show Review: Vampire Weekend with Beach House and The Very Best at The Greek Theater, 9/25/10
It was a beautiful night at the Greek Theater, warm and clear, something that hardly ever happens in my experience. For my fourth time seeing Vampire Weekend this year, it was yet to be seen if this show would be something different, or more of the same. Either way I was sure to not be disappointed. Continue reading “Show Review: Vampire Weekend with Beach House and The Very Best at The Greek Theater, 9/25/10”
Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 9/23/2010-9/29/2010
Instead of a quick, witty thing to say, I just want you to figure out which band playing this week is being spoofed with the photograph above. Winner gets a note from me telling you that you won!
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 9/23/2010-9/29/2010”