If there’s anything we anticipate from a Terry McCarthy album, it’s his warm strumming guitar, sharply observed lyrical details, and mildly groan-worthy titles indicating which number record this is for him: Wait, a Second!; The Charm; Go Fourth. But with his latest release, the Nutley, New Jersey-based singer/songwriter brings it all back Home. Indeed, if there’s an overarching theme to this collection, it’s that despite life’s ups and downs, there’s a hard-won comfort at home and in love.
That bright acoustic strumming matches the bright lyrics of devotion in the opening track, “A Thousand Mornings.” McCarthy’s sturdy vocals are framed by gentle piano from Bob Cannon and violin from Nicole Scorsone. Cannon also contributes a tasteful electric guitar solo. The next track, “Perfectly,” sounds like the hit single to me. It features dreamy backing vocals from Bernadette Malavarca and Catherine McGowan of Bern & the Brights. Meanwhile, throughout the record, the rhythm section of Gerry Griffin of the Porchistas on bass (he also produced the album at his Temple of Tuneage studio) and drums and percussion from Mike Shapiro and Tom Monaghan keeps things anchored.
No apology necessary for “Most Sorry” — the song was recently featured on WFUV’s New York Slice segment. It’s a jaunty tune led by Charlie Potters’ accordion, and Cannon lends a twangy guitar solo. Cannon then switches to piano for the intro to “Our Scene” in which our narrator confronts a past love, borrowing that “all the world’s a stage” simile from some old British guy. There’s some bitterness in McCarthy’s lyrics here, yet the chorus is like a gentle flashback, further cushioned by harmonies from Malavarca and McGowan.
The title track is a simple ode to the joys of home, from fresh-cut flowers to cooking smells. Ah, but there’s a touch of mystery: “They took me so far away from all of you.” Yet that robust strumming tells us everything’s OK now. Next, in “The Moment,” strum, violin, and shukka-shukka percussion set us up calmly, McCarthy repeating the refrain “And the moment was as pretty as the girl,” before we get the musical payoff: big horns from local faves the Defending Champions.
Now, I do have one criticism about this batch of tunes. I was really looking forward to a song called “Jangly Guitar.” The jangle pop of the ’80s has a very, very special place in my heart. So I press Play on track 7 and McCarthy’s playing that acoustic and I’m waiting and waiting but… no jangly guitar! Where’s my ringing Rickenbacker?? Bah strumbug!
All gripes forgiven and forgotten as the final song arrives, “Too Precious.” It slowly builds to something truly majestic, layering on violin, a Beatlesque section, and sunshiny horns courtesy of those Defending Champs. With only 8 songs in about 23 total minutes, Home may qualify as a mini-album, but that just means there’s no waste — no bloated solos or purple poetry. Terry McCarthy has crafted a concise collection of quality, intelligent folk/rock/pop material. He gives us a smile, a wistful thought, a tapping toe, and before you know it he’s gone. We didn’t even get a chance to thank him!
At some point in the past few years, I watched The Conjuring on HBO, and liked it well enough that I soon watched The Conjuring 2. I was suitably amused/creeped out by these based-on-actual-bullshit tales of real-life spook searchers Ed and Lorraine Warren (of Amityville Horror fame), plus I’m a fan of both Patrick Wilson and Vera “Norma Bates” Farmiga. I decided if they made another Conjuring flick, I’d see it in the theater. So, I can’t really say the devil made me do it.
In the pandemic meantime, I watched Conjuring Universe films Annabelle Comes Home (3 stars) and Annabelle: Creation (2 stars). If you’re not familiar with the concept of “universe” series, they’re the kind of offshoot movies where Wilson and Farmiga lean into frame in the 83rd minute and ask, “Oh hey, we were away for the weekend. Everything OK with you guys?”
And now it was time to return to the Conjuring mothership. I actually tried to see this on opening day, last Friday. But two things told me we are getting that much closer to normal: The multiplex had a full slate of daily screenings (instead of just 2 or 3 showings at night) and, annoyingly, the next two showings were sold out! I came back on $7 Tuesday.
Early on, there’s a blatant visual nod to The Exorcist (#re2pect) and the initial “Out, cursed demon!” sequence involving an 8-year-old boy is genuinely thrilling and scary. But uh-oh, the evil spirit jumps into the kid’s older sister’s boyfriend Arne (got that?). As we delve deeper into the unexplained, we also wonder why Arne’s 1981 haircut looks significantly more modern. Ooooh that’s scary stuff, kids!
Speaking of appearances: OK, fine, the Warrens were real people. But if there was one element in this entire series where filmmakers insisted on strictly adhering to the The Truth, did it have to be Lorraine’s godawful sense of style? The lovely, sexy Farmiga is saddled with ghastly frilly tops and an absurd 1940s school-marm hairdo. Not a good look, my friends!
No spoilers but Arne does a bad, bad thing and the Warrens set out to prove that… the devil made him do it. But here’s the rub: Placed against the backdrop of the legal system, this Conjuring mumbo-jumbo really starts to seem terribly silly. It doesn’t help that the script, um, demonizes Satan worshippers; it felt like ’80s fuddy-duddies blaming Judas Priest and Ozzy for dirtweed teens acting out.
We do get a pretty exciting drawn-out climax. And, it’s nice to see our old pals from the Conjuring Universe: Same actors return as the weary priest, the videographer, and the Warren daughter (who only gets a couple of lines). The Conjuring 3 is a decent enough entry in the series. And I will admit to coming home and loading up Universe title The Nun on my on-demand. Taissa Farmiga is in it. I do love me some Farmigas.
Have you been back to the movies? Talk about a quiet place! As we crawl back to some semblance of normalcy, I noticed this was the first flick since before-times to have multiple afternoon showings. Like, a regular schedule! However, we’re quickly reminded that things have been a little “off” when a pre-movie video has John Krasinski earnestly thanking us for coming to the theater. Desperate much, Hollywood?
Still, I was excited to see this, as the original film was my No. 6 best movie of 2018. It was SCARY with a capital S and the other letters too, but a smart kind of scary. One nice thing about that film is that it started right in the middle of the action and we were all “w-w-wait why do they all hafta be quiet? What the hell is happening here?” Almost to reward us — and also to give Krasinski some screen time — the sequel begins in flashback to Day 1. It’s a genuinely thrilling sequence that also serves to introduce us to the family’s neighbor, Cillian Murphy, who is looking more and more like Grant Goodeve.
And then we’re back at Day 400-and-something, and Emily Blunt and the two kids, wait three because of THE BABY (shhhh!!! stop crying!!!!! they’ll hear us!!!) pack up the wrecked homestead and head to a flame in the distance which turns out to be Cillian’s survival compound. The cast is pretty solid: Blunt remains the dedicated, frantic-but-trying-to-hold-it-together mom who would literally do anything for her kids. Young Millicent Simmonds continues to ooze soulfulness; I truly hope there are more quality roles ahead for this terrific deaf actress. Young Noah Jupe basically cries and looks shocked the whole time, but he looks like a young Krasinski so points for that. And Cillian pulls off a solid American accent and is believable as a weary dad whose world has crumbled.
So, the pieces are in (a quiet) place, but, like oh so many sequels, it just ain’t as good as the first one. There is tension and scares but maybe not as many? I was on the edge of my seat for the entirety of Part I and that was unfortunately not the case here. Blame must fall squarely on Mr. Krasinski. He directed both movies, and the moviemaking is fine — we’re clearly in the same world as we were before. But while the first film was written by three people, this time Kras went it alone. Jim Halpert’s TV background betrays itself with a sitcommy plot outline: Millicent and Cillian head out for one story and Blunt and Jupe stay behind for another. And Jupe’s character arc is too simplistic: Will this really nervous kid maybe stop being so nervous?
All that said, it’s an entertaining movie that will occasionally make you say AHHHH! and if you loved A Quiet Place, you might as well see part II. I mean, what are you gonna do, stay at home another 15 months?
On the surface, it looks like beloved young scuzz-rocker John Cozz has it all: He runs his own boutique Cozz Coffee roasting company; he co-runs the upstart Pizza Bagel Records label; he’s in a loving relationship with one of north Jersey’s most in-demand hair stylists, the saucy Sam Bolognese; and John still somehow finds time to fall off his skateboard. But like any true blue Jersey guy, there’s still plenty of agita in Cozz-akhstan. And John Cozz and the Rippers let it all hang out on the terrific new EP Relish on the Good Times, upping his quotient of both melody and (gasp!) maturity.
Oh, don’t worry, Cozz hasn’t transformed into a mopey singer-songwriter. This is is still a drunken punk rock party, well represented by the hilarious Rutt’s-ian cover art (by Sam Cardelfe) and the hot-dog pun title (which IMHO should’ve just been Relish the Good Times but hey, nobody asked me). But there’s more structure and concision than before to John’s songs, powerfully played by his loyal band the Rippers (the kid likes hot dogs, ok?): Max Rauch (of LKFFCT) on lead guitar, Nick Nucci on bass, and Kevin Donnelly (also of LKFFCT) on drums.
Lead track “Step In, Yer In” chronicles suburban splendor being rudely interrupted by dog urine, annoying neighbors, and an unresponsive landlord. Musically, it’s highlighted by a bright power-pop chorus and an insidious earworm main riff by Rauch which is sort of a modified “Peter Gunn Theme.”
Our narrator simply cannot catch a break. In “Take a Walk Duuuude” he’s hassled in the men’s room and then kicked out of the bar for no good reason, all set to fuzzy guitar and a Johnny Cash boom-chicka-boom beat. OK, but here’s that mature stuff I was talking about: He realizes he was having a better time at home with Sam. (Oh wait i get it the narrator is JOHN COZZ.) His head starts spinning, Rauch unleashes a wild solo, and the music veers off into Cozzadelic glory.
The alienation reaches its peak in “Italian Meats,”with the riff from “Step In” flipped on its ear creating a sense of heightening paranoia. Cozz paints a Springsteen-esque scene, a ghost town of QuickChek parking lots and blank teens on Xanax. His vocals sound like he’s losing his shit. He’s gotta get outta this place, if it’s the last thing he ever does. Tramps like Cozz, baby they were born to run.
But not without his woman. The bus-ride finale of “Greyhound” — a hit single in a fair world — is not the existential angst Paul Simon described in “America.” Instead it’s a happy ending for our hero, comfort and peace with his lover. Two against the world, shelter from the storm. Plus an absolute killer chorus! Check out the EP, it’s a real good Cozz.
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME] Justin Townes Earle — “Call Ya Momma” Pale Lights — “Mother Cries” The Shirelles — “Mama Said” Sarah Shook & the Disarmers — “Make It Up to Mama” Elliott Smith — “Wouldn’t Mama Be Proud” A Nero — “Moms (Hysterical Fiction)” Tommy Keene — “My Mother Looked Like Marilyn Monroe” Paul Simon — “That Was Your Mother” Low — “Mother” Sir Douglas Quintet — “I Wanna Be Your Mama Again” Guided by Voices — “How I Met My Mother” Courtney Barnett — “I’m Not Your Mother, I’m Not Your Bitch” The Magnetic Fields — “’75: My Mama Ain’t” The Maddox Brothers & Rose — “Mama Says It’s Naughty” Sun Kil Moon — “I Can’t Live Without My Mother’s Love” Hank Williams — “I’ve Just Told Mama Goodbye”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, New Jersey.
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME] Jon Langford’s Four Lost Souls — “Waste” The Lodger — “Wasting My Time With You” Marshall Crenshaw — “You’re My Favorite Waste of Time” Freedy Johnston — “Waste Your Time” Jarvis Cocker — “Don’t Let Him Waste Your Time” Best Coast — “Wasted Time” The Libertines — “What a Waster” Black Flag — “Wasted” Dum Dum Girls — “Wasted Away” Rare Books — “Waste Away” The Muffs — “Don’t Waste Another Day” Sir Douglas Quintet — “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” Bob Dylan — “Long and Wasted Years” Sonic Youth — “What a Waste” The Lost Crusaders — “Wasted on the Wind”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Peter Tosh — “Legalize It” [ALTERNATE THEME] Wavves — “Weed Demon” Temples — “You’re Either on Something” The Clean — “Are You Really on Drugs” A Giant Dog — “Get With You and Get High” Karl Hendricks Trio — “Naked and High on Drugs” The Magnetic Fields — “Take Ecstasy With Me” East River Pipe — “When You Were Doing Cocaine” The Fall — “Mr. Pharmacist” The Velvet Underground — “Heroin” Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers — “Chinese Rocks” Franklin Bruno — “Clean Needle” Neil Young — “The Needle and the Damage Done” Bert Jansch — “Needle of Death” The Modern Lovers — “I’m Straight”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Of the pandemic-era theatrical releases I’ve attended, Godzilla vs. Kong is the first one that really needs to be seen on a big screen. Too bad, then, that it’s not a better movie.
Which is not to say it’s awful. The vaguely intertwined Godzilla and Kong films from 2014 on have been generally pretty good. I even thought the most recent one, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, was very good. But, as they say, one Tokyo-crushing-step forward, two steps back.
We don’t even get Tokyo — it’s Florida (which, let’s face it, sort of deserves a Titan thrashing) and then Hong Kong. The basic plot: Last movie, we thought Godzilla was a good guy, so why is he being such a jerk now? They bring King Kong over from Skull Island to fight him. Well, that would have been an easy-to-follow plot. But what actually happens is they take Kong away from his home to Antarctica to find a secret power source in the hollow middle of Earth, which is mind-bogglingly stupid. And just wait till you find out what evil Apex Cybernetics, run by evil Demián Bichir (Marco Ruiz on The Bridge and he also starred in the Montefiore Health System adverfilm Corazón), plans to do with the secret power source!
Coach Taylor and daughter Maddie (Millie Bobby Brown) are back from King of the Monsters. Unfortunately, Kyle Chandler has nothing to do here except be an extremely inattentive dad. Which allows Maddie to yet again sneak off and evade ridiculously lax corporate security. This time she’s accompanied by talented actor Brian Tyree Henry (who had about 3 lines in Joker) as a giant-monster conspiracy podcaster. [Note to Hollywood: Please don’t portray conspiracy theorists as the good guys.] David Strathairn, who was in the last two Godzilla flicks, is MIA. On the Kong side, no actors are back from Skull Island because that was a period piece, kinda KK84. So we get the lovely and talented Rebecca Hall and a sign-language-wielding kid who has a special relationship with the big monkey. Blah! Also, these movies like to cast a token “elite” actor and this time it’s Alexander Skarsgård. But instead of raising up the material, he lowers his performance to it.
Luckily, the movie frequently lives up to its title, and the fight scenes are awesome. Genuinely thrilling! That’s why you wore a mask to the multiplex and used a self-checkout machine even to order popcorn, and they make it worth your while. Two sequences made me laugh out loud with glee. A third made me laugh with mockery but who cares! The action raises this movie from garbage to, you know, pretty good. You drive me ape, you big gorilla!
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME] Kermit the Frog — “Rainbow Connection” The Rolling Stones — “She’s a Rainbow” James Lindsey featuring Cicily Bullard — “Rainbows” Ernest Tubb — “Rainbow at Midnight” World Party — “When the Rainbow Comes” Calvin Johnson — “Bubbles, Clouds, and Rainbows” Luna — “Rainbow Babe” Built to Spill — “Bloody Rainbow” Talulah Gosh — “Looking for a Rainbow” The Ramones — “She Talks to Rainbows” Dolly Mixture — “Rainbow Valley” The Box Tops — “Neon Rainbow” Frank Sinatra — “Over the Rainbow” The Flaming Lips — “I Was Zapped by the Lucky Super Rainbow”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Jack Silbert, curator