Zola Jesus – Spinning Platters

Festival Review: Adult Swim Festival 2018 (DTLA)

Adult Swim Takes Over The Row

Rick-1

Coming off of a whirlwind Wasteland Weekend experience mere days before, I grabbed my camera and jumped right in to Adult Swim’s inaugural Adult Swim Festival. Taking place in DTLA’s The Row next to the now vacant American Apparel factory, the festival showcased Adult Swim’s animation and television series while musicians and comedians who have worked in some capacity with the company, performed back to back on two cat-themed stages across the long stretch of pavement from each other. The next two days were jam packed with non-stop entertainment featuring a plethora of artists that I was experiencing for the first time both sonically and visually.

Continue reading “Festival Review: Adult Swim Festival 2018 (DTLA)”

Show Review: Zola Jesus with JG Thirwell and Magik*Magik String Quartet at Palace Of Fine Arts, 9/26/13

I distinctly remember my first experience with Zola Jesus. She was a side effect of my obsession with trying to see every Canadian band. It was July of 2010, and I was set to enjoy Wolf Parade, not knowing that they would be splitting not long later. Zola Jesus was the first of two support acts, and a most surprising one before a rock band. Zola Jesus, the nom de plumb of Nika Roza Danilova, was the most unassuming frontperson. She was backed by a pair of synth players, and simply stood their and let her voice handle all of her performance duties. It was fantastic and beautiful, and very brave. I enjoyed the set immensely, and, somehow, forgot about her a few months later.

Continue reading “Show Review: Zola Jesus with JG Thirwell and Magik*Magik String Quartet at Palace Of Fine Arts, 9/26/13”

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 3/1/12-3/7/12

reptar_by_contrapposto-d32ptcs — Appearing tonight at Rickshaw Stop

As we near SXSW, we find that the quality of touring acts increases dramatically. This week is full of difficult decisions, and even a farewell tour by one of the most underrated and innovative bands of all time.

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 3/1/12-3/7/12”

Show Review: The xx with Warpaint and Zola Jesus at The Fox Oakland, 9/23/2010

Welcome, they said welcome to the floor / It's been a while (Photo by Carla Deasy)

How often do you find yourself enthralled with an opening band? For most of us, the answer would usually be “not very often”, and in a fairly large sum of concertgoers, “hardly ever”. What, then, do you say when you find yourself attending a headlining show of that same band? Do you bite your tongue and feel a hypocrite, or do you revel in the fact that you are experiencing them again, and this time in a fuller, more realized capacity? It was, most likely, these sorts of thoughts and sensations going through the heads of many members of the crowd inside the Fox Theater tonight, for the band that had returned to Oakland for their second performance at this historic venue were doing just that: headlining. The xx were the opening act for the electronic masterminds of Hot Chip back in April; this time around, the dark, haunting-yet-danceable London rockers were the ringleaders of the show, which apparently sold out even faster than their previous Fox Theater show from 5 months ago.

Continue reading “Show Review: The xx with Warpaint and Zola Jesus at The Fox Oakland, 9/23/2010”

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”

Show Review: Wolf Parade with Moools and Zola Jesus at The Fox Theater, 7/28/2010

Friday night at The Fox Theater in Oakland, the Bay Area had Wolf Parade back in town for the tour for their 3rd album, Expo 86 ,which came out last month. The guys in the band are made up from quite a few other successful bands such as The Handsome Furs, Sunset Rubdown, and Hot Hot Heat. There’s an Arcade Fire song under their belt, among others projects as well. That’s some major Canadian indie rock street cred. Continue reading “Show Review: Wolf Parade with Moools and Zola Jesus at The Fox Theater, 7/28/2010”

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 7/29/10-8/4/10

Wine girl — Look how much your girlfriend is enjoying herself at The Mountain Winery in Saratoga. So many concerts! So much wine!

As July transitions into August, The Mountain Winery continues to generally kick the ass of every other Bay Area concert venue this week—and it’s actually kind of an off-week for them. Nobody likes a showoff, Mountain Winery! Other highlights this week include Joanna Newsom, a free concert by Rickie Lee Jones, and the final performance by local favorites Make Me before they take an indefinite hiatus. All that and more, after the jump…

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 7/29/10-8/4/10”

New Release Round Up 3/9/2010 – 38 Instant Album Reviews

Does Pouria think that this guy delivers?

There was a lot of boring crap for most of my listens. A few fun gems in there like Prizzy Prizzy Please and Via Audio’s Animalore. Continue reading “New Release Round Up 3/9/2010 — 38 Instant Album Reviews”