unsolicited criticism
Album Review: ‘333’ by Sputnik
Earlier this month, I did an extremely rare reading of my poetry at a words-and-music event at Hoboken’s Issyra Gallery. Also on the bill was the band Sputnik. Years ago, I used to see their debut CD at my local record store, Tunes. But I’d never seen them live! I was really impressed, and thrilled […]
What I’ve Been Watching: Edition XV
So sometimes your personal life changes and you fall behind on your shows but then maybe your personal life changes again so you catch up on your shows. Anyhoo, this is what I’ve been watching recently. LOVED The Joel McHale Show With Joel McHale (Netflix) Back in the day, Talk Soup was my jam. Kinnear, […]
EP Review: ‘Gross Dominance’ by Resounding No
4.5 stars out of 5 Click to sample or purchase I never got the chance to see Sarah C.’s previous group, the Soft Maybes. But it gave me a big smile when I learned that the bassist’s new band was called Resounding No. And now I’m smiling even more widely, because the trio has delivered […]
Album Review: ‘Great & Solemn Wild’ by Marybeth D’Amico
4 stars out of 5 Click to listen or purchase Word on the street was that Pat Byrne was releasing an album. Yet it wasn’t from his rocking band They Live!, nor was it selections from his fondly remembered WFMU comedy show Prove It All Night. Rather, Byrne had produced and was releasing a […]
My Highly Subjective List of the Best Movies of 2017
In my first talk with Joe Reda, the prosthetist at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in Saddle Brook, New Jersey, he asked about my goals. One of very few that I mentioned, back in December 2016, was regaining the ability to walk to my local movie theater. I achieved that goal by the spring, and […]
What I’ve Been Watching: Edition XIV
I am “all in” on traditional TV. Bought a new set. Got a new cable box. Even got new eyeglasses. And yet I’ve been watching an awful lot of Netflix shows, go figure. LOVED Big Mouth (Netflix) This animated series got better and better as it went along. Nick Kroll and John Mulaney, our pals […]
Song Review: “Blood (Coming Out of Her Whatever)” by psych-O-positive
The mostly-Hoboken supergroup psych-O-positive released their debut single today. I wrote a review for hMAG.com.
Song Review: “Black Moon” by Screaming Females
Despite the “unsolicited criticism” category on this post, the Screaming Females Fan Club solicited me to write a review of the band’s new single.
Album Review: ‘Total Hell’ by Joy Cleaner
4.5 stars out of 5 Click to listen or purchase Many will claim to have been there, but I genuinely was: the debut performance by Joy Cleaner at Newark, New Jersey’s Index Art Center on February 27, 2016. That in less than a year and a half, the trio has put together such an […]
Album Review: ‘In the Darkness of My Night’ by Sunshine & the Rain
4.5 stars out of 5 Click to listen or purchase When I first saw Sunshine & the Rain in 2015, they looked pretty familiar. Just a year earlier, I’d attended the final concert by the previous band the duo had played in, the Black Hollies. But this was something new and energizing: a stripped-down, […]
Jack Silbert, curator