New Jersey
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 […]
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: &’s by Higgins
4 stars out of 5 Click to listen or purchase Allow them to reintroduce themselves, their name is H to the I to the double-G, I to the N to the S. It’s been five years since Higgins’ last release, Straight A’s. Now, the duo of Kevin P. Fish and drummer Brian Kantor has returned […]
Movie Review: Chuck
3.5 stars out of 5 No, there isn’t a big-screen version of the old NBC spy-comedy that I never watched. Here, the titular Chuck refers to the real-life Chuck Wepner who maybe inspired the fictional Rocky Balboa. As I’ve lived in Hoboken, Wepner has been in my consciousness for over two decades. My initial exposure […]
Frank Sinatra Walking Tour in Hoboken
These brown bucks were made for walking, so that’s just what I did. In honor of Frank Sinatra’s upcoming 100th birthday, I took the Hoboken Historical Museum’s self-guided Sinatra walking tour. And, shockingly enough, I wrote up my humorous observations for the December issue of hMAG.
Movie Review: Freeheld
4 stars out of 5 First things first: Yes, the movie is set in New Jersey, but no, it is not set in the town of Freehold. And the second thing: If you are unfamiliar with the case of Laurel Hester and you have an interest in justice and equality, you really need to see […]
Meet Eddie Clemens of the Agency Group
Here’s an interview I conducted for the September/October issue of hMAG. Was interesting to talk with someone involved in booking concert tours at a level far above the indie shows I obsessively attend.
Bakery Door Haiku
Benny, left message on the machine about rolls and where to get them One-syllable edit. Dom’s Bakery Grand, 506 Grand St., Hoboken, NJ, 4/26/15
Jack Silbert, curator