EPISODE #666: FULL DEVIL
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Teenage Halloween — “666!”
The Cowsills — “The Prophecy of Daniel & John the Divine (Six-Six-Six)”
Jesus & Mary Chain — “Nineteen666”
The Natvral— “Lucifer’s Glory”
Robert Johnson — “Preachin’ Blues (Up Jumped the Devil)”
Beck — “Devil’s Haircut”
Prof. Fuzz 63 — “In the Devil’s Workshop Making Idol Hands”
John Cozz — “A Friend of the Jersey Devil”
Johnny Cash — “Devil’s Right Hand”
Advance Base — “Summon Satan”
Debby Schwartz — “Satan, You Brought Me Down”
Bewitched — “Making Out With Satan”
Future Bible Heroes — “Satan, Your Way Is a Hard One”
Love Child — “Church of Satan”
Daniel Johnston — “Devil Town”
Pernice Brothers — “The Devil and the Jinn”
Justin Townes Earle — “If I Was the Devil”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Aquarium Playlist, 11/4/25
Aquarium Playlist, 10/28/25
EPISODE #665: HALLOWEEN 2025
The Frogs — “I’m Evil, Jack” [ALTERNATE THEME]
The Dracu-Las — “Walking With a Vampire”
Renee Maskin — “Scream Queens”
Oingo Boingo — “Dead Man’s Party”
Fascinations Grand Chorus — “Terror in the Night”
The Dungeons of Horrors — “On Halloween You Can Be Anything”
The Spinanes — “Halloween Candy”
Felice Brothers — “Candy Gallows”
Seablite — “Skeleton Couch”
Veronica Falls — “Buried Alive”
Mount Eerie — “Swallowed Alive”
Southern Culture on the Skids — “Werewolf”
Drunken Prayer — “The Name of the Ghost Is Home”
Long Neck — “Last American Halloween”
Lou Reed — “Halloween Parade”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere
4 stars out of 5
I try to buy any new Springsteen album on the day of release, and it turns out I’m an opening-day guy for any Bruce biopics too. Had obviously been looking forward to this movie, after so many reports of filming days in Asbury Park, Bruce sightings on-set, etc. And I’ve enjoyed Jeremy Allen White’s work in The Bear (less so in The Iron Claw).
In case you haven’t been as invested in the making of this film as I was: It only focuses on one specific time period in Springsteen’s life, the making of his sparse landmark album Nebraska. He’s already the superstar who appeared simultaneously on the covers of Time and Newsweek, but not yet the global megastar of Born in the USA. And the songs coming to him are not obvious hit singles; they are explorations of a darkness and a solitude within.
As a result this is not a flashy, bright lights, big city movie (despite a couple of thrilling concert recreations). Like the Nebraska album itself, the film is subtle, subdued, and reflective, and goes to some dark places. It is perhaps overly respectful of the Legend of Springsteen; had writer/director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart) taken some bigger swings, he might’ve turned a very good film into an excellent one.
The superb cast provides you with a reason to believe. Jeremy Allen White inhabits the role of the personally and professionally conflicted Springsteen; it doesn’t hurt that Bruce’s insistence on perfection and his own vision but with a self-doubt linked to depression is ground White’s previously covered as Carmy. Jeremy Strong is excellent as Bruce’s ultra-supportive, nurturing manager Jon Landau. I could listen to his great near-monotone voice all day. Stephen Graham, who is having a moment, anchors the black-and-white childhood flashbacks as Bruce’s dad – frightening and distant but still a role model for a wide-eyed kid. In smaller roles, the likable Paul Walter Hauser is manning the tape deck at Bruce’s house, David Krumholtz solidifies his position as go-to nebbishy character actor with a turn as a record label exec, and a stubbly-but-no-mustache Marc Maron only gets a couple of key lines as mix-master Chuck Plotkin.
The movie never embarrasses itself, and can proudly take its place in the Bruce-adjacent canon. As a piece of entertainment: If you love Bruce, and love New Jersey, I think you’ll really enjoy this movie. Or if you’re simply Bruce-curious, you’ll learn quite a lot. But if you’re Type-A or ADHD or crave car chases, superdudes, or K-Pop anime, you can probably skip this one.
Aquarium Playlist, 10/21/26
EPISODE #664: LANDS
Bruce Springsteen — “Jungleland” [ALTERNATE THEME]
Renee Maskin — “Wonderland”
Allo Darlin’ — “Wonderland”
Frankie Cosmos — “Wonderland”
Earth, Wind & Fire — “Boogie Wonderland”
The dB’s — “Neverland”
Untamed Youth — “Rollerland”
Swansea Sound — “Dreamland”
R.E.M. — “Ignoreland”
The Clash — “Garageland”
The Birthday Party — “Swampland”
Torres — “Constant Tomorrowland”
James McMurtry — “Candyland”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: One Battle After Another
4 stars out of 5
Maybe Trump caught an early screening of this before they started sending National Guard troops against U.S. citizens. We start 16 years ago (but it might have been yesterday), when a band of revolutionaries are freeing detained immigrants. These anti-fascists include Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor (who I’ve only seen in Coming 2 America), Avon Barksdale, and my girl Alana Haim who we all loved in PTA’s previous flick, Licorice Pizza.
Teyana uses sex as a weapon against Sean Penn’s Colonel Lockjaw of the militarized police force, and he’s immediately smitten. Too bad she’s in love with Leo and they make a baby.
Cut to the present, our band of good-troublemakers have spread to the four winds. Leo has raised the baby who has grown up into Willa (young actress Chase Infiniti) and they lead a fairly normal suburban life… until Col. Lockjaw, who just can’t get Teyana off his mind, reappears to screw things up. And just when Leo thought he was out, they pull him back in.
That’s more plot than I usually share but I felt you deserved it, because the trailer really doesn’t let you know anything at all. I basically went in blind to this 2 hour, 40 minute film because I trust DiCaprio and writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson. They rewarded my faith with a fun, smart, funny, exciting movie that held my attention all the way through.
What we have here is a satire of our modern far-right police state (though there’s nothing new under the sun, as this is based on the 1990 novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon). We meet the Christmas Adventurers Club, an elite secret society of white supremacists including SNL legend Jim Downey and Kevin Tighe a.k.a. DeSoto from Emergency! Anderson also explores the overlapping of personal and professional lives. Early on, we see Leo choose family over revolution, while Teyana makes the opposite choice. Later we see Lockjaw making military decisions, and devoting vast resources, based solely on his broken heart and his desire to impress the Christmas club. It’s frightening to think how many big bad actions are taken just because somebody got dumped.
The acting is top-notch. Leo is hilarious trying to reconnect with the cloak-and-dagger world, but also shows great sweetness as the loyal dad. Benicio del Toro is fantastic as the local karate sensei who is quietly harboring immigrants. He is a born leader, unfailingly positive, and someone you always want on your side. And has Sean Penn played a nasty soldier since Casualties of War? He’s very funny here.
The movie looks great and sounds great (thanks Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood and several well-chosen popular songs), and contains I think the most action sequences we’ve seen from PTA. He’s good at it! A career in Hollywood is certainly one battle after another, but this is a decisive victory for Paul Thomas Anderson.
Aquarium Playlist, 10/14/25
EPISODE #663: SAINTS
The Moles — “Saint Jack” [ALTERNATE THEME]
Waxahatchee — “Sister Saint”
Bruce Springsteen — “It’s Hard To Be a Saint in the City”
Nicole Atkins — “St. Dymphna”
Nick Lowe — “Saint Beneath the Paint”
Felice Brothers — “Saint Stephen’s End”
Versus — “Saturday Saints”
Veronica Lake — “Saints Above”
Jason Lytle — “Young Saints”
Pixies — “St. Nazaire”
Selector Dub Narcotic — “St. George’s Cross”
Big Joanie — “Sainted”
Elliott Smith — “St. Ides Heaven”
John Wesley Harding — “A Very Sorry Saint”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: The Long Walk
4 stars out of 5
I approve of Stephen King as an author and as a human being, but as I covered in my review of IT, I’ve never read his stuff or even seen most of the movies based on it. Which made The Long Walk another total surprise for me. The trailer really drew me in: A competition in which young men go for a, uh, lengthy stroll, where the last man standing wins and presumably everybody else dies. Dang! Even in Glengarry Glen Ross there was a second prize.
Now, we have two main participants and one is the lead actor, so anyone with any basic grasp of storytelling knows there are only two possible endings. So as a viewer (and in life, IMHO), it helps to be process-oriented rather than goal-oriented. How will we reach that one conclusion instead of the other? Everyone involved in this film helps make it a compelling journey: King with the story, relative unknown JT Mollner with the script, Hunger Games vet director Francis Lawrence, and a cast of talented young actors.
Leading the way is Cooper Hoffman as Ray. How lucky we are to have Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s son in our lives for decades to come! He was excellent in Licorice Pizza and he’s even better in this, showing the full range of human emotions (which one might expect over the course of walking hundreds of miles with machine guns pointed at you).
Nearly matching Hoffman performance-wise is David Jonsson (who I liked as a robot in Alien: Romulus) as fellow walker Pete. Also of note in a smaller role is Judy Greer as Ray’s mom. In the past decade, Greer has really found her niche as a loving divorced or widowed mom. I’m not going to say who plays the hardass major, as I didn’t know till the end credits, but he’s having a blast doing his best R. Lee Ermey impression.
The film’s long-walk format – unlike anything I’ve seen before, really — allows backstory and character development to come out bit by bit, very naturally. The exception to this is for some of the supporting actors, who briefly get the spotlight, deliver a little soliloquy about their rough upbringing, and then fall back in the pack. But at least for Hoffman, Jonsson, and a few of the walkers they bond with, we really see a realistic progression of friendship and trust.
Because story information is delivered piecemeal, we don’t know the era (young men walking through idyllic country landscapes actually called to mind the King adaptation Stand by Me and feels and looks old-timey, yet they have digital pedometers). We know there’s been a war but not who fought who or why or when or who won. (Does not look like we did, though.) But then we get a quick flashback showing that “subversive” books and music have been outlawed and that U.S. troops are policing our own citizens, and this dystopian tale written in 1979 felt current and real and terrifying.
Thankfully, through the young men’s conversations, we also hear a lot about love, religion, regret, appreciation, greed, ambition, hope, fear, desperation – the whole gamut of the human experience. So take a short drive or long walk to the multiplex and catch this one while it’s still around.
Aquarium Playlist, 10/7/25
EPISODE #662: TREMBLING
Joey Ramone — “Makes Me Tremble” [ALTERNATE THEME]
The Decoys — “Not the Trembling Kind”
Flaming Lips — “Silver Trembling Hands”
Elf Power — “Twitching in Time”
Bobby Hendricks — “Itchy Twitchy Feeling”
The Blasters — “I’m Shakin’”
Blaire Alise & the Bombshells — “Shakin’”
Los Lobos — “Shakin’ Shakin’ Shakes”
Big Maybelle — “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Goin’ On”
Maddox Brothers & Rose — “Shimmy Shakin’ Daddy”
The Temptations — “Shakey Ground”
The Plimsouls — “Shaky City”
Del Fuegos — “Nervous and Shakey”
The Who — “Mary Anne With the Shakey Hand” [alternate version]
Little Jerry WIlliams — “Let’s Do the Wobble”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Aquarium Playlist, 9/30/25
EPISODE #661: SINS
Traveling Wilburys — “7 Deadly Sins” [ALTERNATE THEME]
John Cozz & Ken De Poto — “Oh What a Sin”
Sidney Gish — “Sin Triangle”
Bruce Springsteen — “Wages of Sin”
Nina Simone — “Sinnerman”
Dream Syndicate — “Loving the Sinner, Hating the Sin”
Sweet Nobody — “Sinner at Gatherings”
Pet Shop Boys — “It’s a Sin”
Tony Bennett — “Sing You Sinners”
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers — “Sins of my Youth”
George Usher — “Unforgivable Sin”
Rare Books — “Sinner”
John Prine — “The Sins of Mephisto”
Health & Happiness Show — “Sinner’s Lullaby”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: Spinal Tap II — The End Continues
3.5 stars out of 5
Upon re-watching 1984’s This Is Spinal Tap early in the pandemic, I rated it 10 out of 10 on IMDb, and if the scale allowed me, would’ve gone to 11. I was 15 years old when the movie first came out and it was a perfect blend of smart and stupid, mocking the Heavy Duty Rock and Roll that was then such a big part of my life. Next, Nigel Tufnel a.k.a. Christopher Guest took that mockumentary format and ran with it, creating some of my very favorite films (Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind). If I couldn’t quote from all these movies, I’d likely have a lot less to say.
So there was no chance I wasn’t going to see Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. No, it is not as non-stop hilarious and brilliant as the original. But I smiled all the way through, laughed quite a lot, and am liking it even more as days pass since the screening. Staging a contractually-obligated reunion concert is an ideal conceit for this film; we aging rock fans have certainly witnessed our fair share of “getting the band back together” while members struggle to overlook whatever conflicts split them up in the first place.
Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, and Guest slip back into their old characters with ease (likely aided by the fact they’ve dusted them off a number of times in the past four decades). Of course Rob Reiner is here as the real-life director and as fictional director Marty DiBergi. Cameos round out the cast including a few This Is Spinal Tap vets who are great to see, a couple of ringers from Guest’s stable of talent (John Michael Higgins and Don Lake), and a ton of music stars, including a parade of famous drummers understandably hesitant to occupy the Tap’s drum stool. You’ve likely seen Paul McCartney and Elton John in the ads, and their scenes are particularly terrific.
I imagine that improvising comedy doesn’t come as naturally with age, and some exchanges here do fall flat. But there’s more than enough good stuff, all leading up to a laugh-out-loud ending. Ultimately, I am so appreciative that the boys are back in town.
Jack Silbert, curator