Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
SXSW is a great place for a band to go to generate buzz at the beginning of their career. It’s also a great place for a band that was once on the top of the universe, but isn’t anymore, and is looking for a career resurgence. Many of these bands at one point in time were “icons,” some may have even qualified as teen idols. This is a guide to some of my favorite former rock stars gracing the SXSW stages:
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Picks Six: Former Teen Idols Playing SXSW”
This show was, to some degree, the after party for the big YOKO ONO PLASTIC ONO BAND on Tuesday night. It was just quite a bit later, but every member of the Plastic Ono Band was onstage, aside from the very famous lead singer. In fact, only one person appeared on stage tonight that didn’t appear at the previous evening’s show. It also consisted almost entirely of music that isn’t yet available in recorded form, which helped even out the familiarity playing field, but based on the turnout, it had little effect on ticket sales. It was a rare show that all in attendance came based on the reputations of the performers. Of course, when you have the son of a Beatle, leaders of two of the most innovative and influential acts ever to come out of japan, and the go-to girl for session violin of the alternative rock era, you’ve got a pretty set to work from.
I have spent a lot of time defending different artists in my day. Usually this is because, well, my tastes are difficult to define, to say the least. (Case in point: two of my early reviews, which happened one right after the other were this and this) But, the one single artist that I come to the defense of more than any other is Yoko Ono. Everyone has an opinion about her, and generally speaking, this opinion is pretty negative. The primary cause of this is most likely either a.) they blame her for the break up of The Beatles (I still think that this was Linda’s fault) or b.) they blame her for the widespread acceptance of the avant garde. I personally don’t hold her responsible for either of these things. I also think people either don’t take her seriously enough, or take her far too seriously.
I must give a respectful shout-out to the good people of Noise Pop for making this show happen. They took a chance at booking such a divisive figure for their opening night show, and it paid off pretty nicely.
On the newest episode of the Spinning Platters Podcast, we welcome Dawson Ludwig from Noise Pop to talk about the upcoming 2010 Noise Pop Festival. Join us as we discuss our highlights of the festival, wonder about the history of the festival, talk about what we’ve been listening to, and go off in a million different directions. You can subscribe by clicking the giant button to the left, or listen below. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Podcast — Episode 17: Noise Pop 2010”