Review of ‘The Good, The Tough & The Deadly’ at Starburst Magazine

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When David J. Moore’s The Good, The Tough, and The Deadly:Action Movies & Stars 1960s-Present showed up, we could hear the sound of it dropping onto the stoop from the other side of the building. It’s a veritable tome — much like Moore’s prior book, World Gone Wild: A Survivor’s Guide to Post-Apocalyptic Movies, this is the size and heft of a college textbook.

Read the complete review at Starburst Magazine. Published 8/19/16

Review of ‘Start Your Own Fucking Show Space’ compilation at Modern Vinyl

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The idea of putting out a triple LP of bands playing live at Brooklyn’s Death By Audio is a pretty great one. But the truly historic thing about Start Your Own Fucking Show Space is it’s filled with performances recorded only during November of last year, their last month of existence. 1

Thankfully, the venue packed that last month with some astonishing performances. While definitely heavy on the lo-fi, fuzzy garage end of the rock ‘n’ roll spectrum — with the likes of Parquet Courts, Ty Segall, and Metz, there’s also furious avant-punk from Downtown Boys, Shellshag and Screaming Females, along with electronic experimentation from Dan Deacon.

Read the complete review at Modern Vinyl. Published 8/19/16

Appearance on the Pilot Study podcast

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We kick off our “Unaired” theme month with the previously lost pilot for Clerks, the sitcom (+ laugh track) adaptation of the Kevin Smith film. Jim Breuer makes a pre-SNL appearance, the writers can’t use Jay or Silent Bob and Keri Russell even makes an appearance as typical ’90s bimbo.

Listen to the entire episode at Modern Vinyl.

Q&A with Mikey Erg at Modern Vinyl

Ever since the breakup of beloved pop-punk trio the Ergs in 2008, drummer and singer Mikey Erg (né Mike Yannich) has been busy…insanely busy. He’s played drums for nearly every pop-punk act on the East Coast, he’s toured constantly, and all the while he’s been the drummer for the LLC, the house band for Fusion’s The Chris Gethard Show.

However, musical output focusing solely on Yannich’s distinctive songwriting has been frustratingly scarce. While he’s been making music pretty constantly, hearing that voice has been limited to less than a handful of singles and splits. That thankfully came to an end with the release of his debut solo LP, Tentative Decisions, on Don Giovanni at the end of June.

Read the complete interview at Modern Vinyl. Published 8/17/16

Q&A with the Sadies’ Mike Belitsky at the Pitch

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It’s tempting to call the Sadies’ music Americana, but that label just doesn’t feel right. First, the Sadies are from Toronto. Second, the quartet’s music incorporates all things twang: country, surf, rock, rockabilly.

The Sadies recently finished recording a yet-to-be-titled 11th album (more, if you count collaborations with Neko Case, John Doe, Jon Langford and Andre Williams), which is slated for a November release. The Pitch caught up with drummer Mike Belitsky about the band’s music as he was driving his son to his first Blue Jays game.

Read the complete interview at the Pitch. Published 8/16/16

Heart / Joan Jett / Cheap Trick concert review at the Pitch

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Three bands, all Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame inductees of recent vintage, and of the rare talent undamaged by the ravages of time. Despite necessary reductions in range, last night’s triple bill proved that there’s at least three acts that can still kick it after three decades or more.

Of the three, Heart might as well have stepped out of a time warp. While Ann Wilson said “times have changed,” one would never know it from her band’s performance. They might as well have come straight from recording “These Dreams” — although, I’m pretty certain the original wasn’t played with mandolin on lead as it was at Starlight, as nice a touch as it was.

Read the complete review at the Pitch. Published on 8/16/116

Interview with Tito Larriva at From & Inspired By

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Singer and guitarist Tito Larriva has had a healthy musical life in both the early days of the L.A. punk scene, as well as having his music featured in quite a few films. The first cinematic appearance of Larriva’s music came as part of the iconic cult film, Repo Man, directed by Alex Cox in 1984, with his band the Plugz supplying both songs for the soundtrack and composing the score.

Read the complete interview at From & Inspired By. Published 8/11/16

Review of ‘Out Run’ soundtrack at Starburst Magazine

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Since the Out Run soundtrack showed up last week, we’ve been getting so much more accomplished. The music, released to vinyl in celebration of the driving game’s 30th anniversary, is absolutely infectious and suitable for motivating you to get anything done — be it driving, racing, cruising, or otherwise, this is vigorously energetic music. If you’re familiar with Out Run, you’ll know that it’s held up as the platonic ideal of driving games, and a large portion of the game’s success is the music by Hiroshi “Hiro” Kawaguchi, Masayoshi Ishi, Manabu Namiki, and Jane-Evelyn Nisperos.

Read the complete review at Starburst Magazine. Published on 8/9/16

Review of J Blake Fichera’s ‘Scored to Death’ at Starburst Magazine

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As author J. Blake Fichera states in his introduction to Scored to Death: Conversations with Some of Horror’s Greatest Composers (out now from Silman-James Press), there have been interview-based books of interviews with film composers, and compilations of essays about horror film scores, but because the twain haven’t met, he wrote Scored to Death, which is the first collection of horror film composer interviews.

Read the complete review at Starburst Magazine. Published 8/9/16

Podcast with J Blake Fichera at From & Inspired By

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On this episode, we speak with J Blake Fichera, musician and author of the new book, Scored to Death: Conversations with Some of Horror’s Greatest Composers, out now from Silman James.

In Scored to Death, the author spoke with 14 different composers of music for horror films. Be it the greats like Harry Manfredini, John Carpenter, and members of Goblin, or newcomers like Jeff Grace and Joseph Bishara, Fichera asks great questions and gets inside the creative processes of these amazing musicians. Scored to Death is the sort of book which appeals to newcomers to film score fandom, as well as deep-digging heads.

Listen to the podcast at From & Inspired By. Published on 8/8/16