All posts by Adrian Spinelli

Music. Food. Sports. Chill.
Bay Area, Music

Green Ova South Drops Two New Tracks

We just got the first taste of music from hip-hop supergroup Green Ova South’s new album today.  Squadda B of Oakland’s Main Attrakionz and Little Rock rapper Pepper Boy flow over beats from Young God (of Blue Sky Black Death) on the “Tears In My Eyes”/”I Miss Them Days” split-single.

Fans of Blue Sky Black Death will immediately sink into Young God’s beat on “Tears In My Eyes”, as it’s the same type of comfortably spaced-out effects with rolling bass and layered drum hits that BSBD did so well for a decade. 

“I Miss Them Days” has a floating beat, smooth key samples and a sick hook. Pepper Boy comes across with a more tongue-in-cheek Southern style, where Squadda establishes a sage-like delivery. All of it builds the excitement for Green Ova South’s upcoming Kome Ryde Wits Us LP on Mishka Records. Check it:

 

Albums of the Year, Music

The Top 50 Albums of 2015

Here it is….Everything Ecstatic’s 9th Annual Best Albums of the Year List. Shouts out to everyone who’s followed along over the years and I’m excited to share the spoils of another year in music witchas. This year, I had to abandon the one album a day for 20-30 days format of the past few years, cause there just weren’t enough hours in the days leading up to this post.  But you can still see all of the archives from ’06 to ’13 here and 2014’s entries beginning here.

At any rate, this year’s list is 50 albums in one post, straight up. Each entry is brief, with some scattered notable videos, links and I made a playlist of all the albums at the bottom. Props to Abhi/Dijon, Drake and Bob Moses, who put out quality releases in 2015, but were the last 3 albums cut from the Top 50. Also, you won’t find D’Angelo on this list as Black Messiah was released on December 15th, 2014. I know some outlets are ranking it this year, but release dates are the only definitive indicator of what year an album belongs to. But ultimately, Black Messiah doesn’t need to be placed on an arbitrary list to validate it’s beauty and importance far beyond a musical context. You can read more of my thoughts on the first performance from D’Angelo’s renaissance here, and know that if it was a 2015 album, it’d be sitting at #2 on this list. With that, let us begin the annual ritual. Enjoy!

Continue reading The Top 50 Albums of 2015 →

Bay Area, Live Music, Music

PHOTOS: Empress Of at Rickshaw Stop

I had the pleasure of seeing Empress Of this past Tuesday at Rickshaw Stop here in SF. It was one of those shows when you’ve been listening to an artist and an album so much lately, that it just felt like a special occasion that they’d happen to be coming through town at the same time. There was a memorable opening set from electro R&B up and comer ABRA and Trails and Ways’ Keith Brower-Brown dropped a super sweet DJ set at the start of and end of the night that kept the vibes going long after Rodriguez left the stage. (Also, I must’ve watched this 10-second clip of Empress Of’s enchanting, “Threat”, twenty times before I hit the hay that night.)

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Bay Area, Music

Jay Stone and Monster Rally Drop Video for “Recollection”

One of our favorite hip-hop projects of 2015 has been Oakland rapper Jay Stone’s & LA producer Monster Rally’s Foreign Pedestrians EP. Stone’s complex and zany rhymes pair smoothly with Monster Rally’s psych-tropical beats, that at their core, are still forged in hip-hop.

Continue reading Jay Stone and Monster Rally Drop Video for “Recollection” →

Music

It’s Not Too Late For Despot To Take Over The World

Queens MC Despot has been a bit of a hip-hop punchline for quite some time. Dude has flow for days, but he’s never put out an album. But that’s ok, cause as the title of this post says, I’m here to tell you that “It’s Not Too Late For Despot To Take Over The World.”

If today’s cool new video for “House of Bricks” is any indication, biding his time looks like it can work in his favor. Despot works in a strange corner of art/nerd rap and there’s a massive void in the post-Das Racist era of that sphere. He’s co-signed by some well-accomplished friends (El-P, Dev Hynes, Vampire Weekend) and if he continues to actually put out music, the formula is in place for when his album finally arrives, for it to be slapped with the coveted red BNM tag from Pitchfork. 

Continue reading It’s Not Too Late For Despot To Take Over The World →

Music

Baio’s “Sister Of Pearl” Video

The solo project of Vampire Weekend bassist Chris Baio (Baio) is materializing into something far more accessible for indie rock heads than his first two predominantly electro/dance EP’s. “Sister of Pearl,” the first single from his upcoming album, The Names (out 9/18 on Glassnote Records), is one of the most interesting and downright infectious tracks of the first half of 2015.

Continue reading Baio’s “Sister Of Pearl” Video →

Bay Area, The Bold Italic Archives

THE BAY AREA’S BEST CRAFT DISTILLERIES

This post originally appeared in The Bold Italic on 01/09/15.

THE BAY AREA’S BEST CRAFT DISTILLERIES

by ADRIAN SPINELLI
Jan 09 at 6am

There’s a world-class craft spirits scene in the Bay Area, one founded on both tradition and innovation. On one end of the spectrum, there’s a traditional distiller who’s been in the business for over 30 years, and on the other, there’s a young company making whiskey distilled from beer. The grain-to-glass movement is picking up steam and there’s much to discover throughout the Bay.

While only a few of these distilleries have an operating tour and tasting room, their bottles are available at hundreds of bottle shops and bars throughout the area. This is our way of enlightening you to what’s happening right here in your backyard: Fine single-malt American whiskeys, craft vodka and liqueurs, some of the best gin in the world, and we’ve even included cocktail recipes to get you in the mood. Cheers!

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Drinks, The Bold Italic Archives

LA’s South Bay Beer Crawl

This post originally appeared in The Bold Italic on 01/23/14.

GO ON THIS SOUTH BAY BEER CRAWL NOW

by ADRIAN SPINELLI
Jan 23 at 10am

Who knew that Torrance would become such a beer mecca? Tap rooms in office parks? Somehow, it totally works and there are four up-and-coming breweries in close enough proximity to each other that you can forge a lovely little South Bay beer crawl on a Saturday, Sunday or gasp… a weekday?! So designate your drivers and here’s how it’s done (keep in mind that this jaunt is reversible.)

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Bay Area, Sports, The Bold Italic Archives

A Hater’s Guide To Levi’s Stadium

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This post originally appeared in The Bold Italic on 9/3/14 (and crazy at it may seem…STILL rings true more than a year later)

A HATER’S GUIDE TO LEVI’S STADIUM

by ADRIAN SPINELLI
Sep 03, 2014 at 12pm

Two years after construction started, the 49ers new Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara is ready to go for the 2014–15 NFL season. Excitement from 49ers fans has been met with equal skepticism, largely because well … the San Francisco 49ers aren’t based out of San Francisco anymore! But money talks and Bay Area fans are going to have to get used to trips down to Silicon Valley for football games.

Continue reading A Hater’s Guide To Levi’s Stadium →