hardly strictly music

reviews, interviews with artists and some other music musings

Introducing: "Disintegration Loops"

An introduction to Disintegration Loops, a documentary about avant-garde composer William Basinki, through and interview with its director, David Wexler, and producer, Brad Coleman… David Wexler‘s new documentary The Disintegration Loops, a 45-minute film constructed via Zoom, draws haunting parallels between New York-based avant-garde composer William Basinki’s 9/11-inspired art and the pandemic lockdown in New York City.

Countdown to Lollapalooza 2019

You have less than ten thousand minutes until Lollapalooza 2019 — and it’s summer. Take advantage of these long days! If you haven’t noticed, we are in an explosively creative moment in music and if you can’t get yourself to Lollapalooza in Chicago next weekend then you must not deprive yourself of the music that will be hitting the stages in Grant Park and stream away. Who knows, maybe you’ll love one enough to buy it on vinyl?

Emily Wells

EMILY WELLS’ NEW ALBUM THIS WORLD IS TOO ____ FOR YOU OUT NOW ON THESIS & INSTINCT Every time I listen to any of Wells’ music, I hear something new. There’s a purpose and deceptive simplicity to each note, each combination of sounds. It reminds me of something only found in nature. There’s a liquid quality to her compositions. More choreographed than composed the notes sound like they’re dancing and swirling around the instruments. Wells is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, singe

Edie Brickell, Album release show, written by Jennifer Parker

Nothing about NYC on a chilly fall evening screams, “Go to a concert at a venue with no seats.” When it rains in the city, the streets become mini lakes, the storm drains oh after about 15 minutes of rain can’t keep up. The leaves having blown off the trees are now clogging the drains so that the average person is up to her ankles in a stew of discarded cigarette butts, dog poo and bits of trash.

Lindsey Buckingham, written by Jennifer Parker for

She broke down and let me in Made me see where I’ve been Been down one time Been down two times I’m never going back again You don’t know what it means to win Come down and see me again Been down one time Been down two times I’m never going back again Fifty-three words. For decades, the better part of half-a-century, rock-fans have practically made a sport out of deconstructing the meaning behind the lyrics of Never Going Back Again.

Bad Reputation: Film review by Jennifer Parker for At Large magazine

The first time I heard Crimson and Clover, I don’t think I liked it. Let me step that back, I didn’t like all of it. I loved parts of it. I hated others. I knew it had something to do with sex. It made me embarrassed and the mofo got stuck in my head. Over and over. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts released the song in 1982 on the I Love Rock n’ Roll album. It was January, I was in the last half of 8th grade in a school that I hated more than acne and the last thing I needed was one more thing to r

Another Brick in The Wall opera saved my summer: An opera review

Another Brick in the Wall Opera saved my summer Once again, it is muggy AF in NYC. Though Labor Day Weekend has passed, the official end of summer isn’t until the Fall Equinox. The holiday weekend brings a sense of finality. I believe no summer should end without a romantic story. I rediscovered an old friend. Wait a hot minute before you make any assumptions because this friend shapeshifted its way through my life, sometimes welcome, sometimes not, but was always there to make me think...

NATURAL BØRNS SINGER

BØRNS is my musical antidote to my hashtag fatigued, Russia Investigation, political shit show that is 2018, and friends, we have another four months to go. It isn’t so much his singing as how he uses his voice; like an instrument that scales with the confidence of an opera singer, then wraps around the lyrics with the tenderness of a lover and delights with the playfulness of a child. Then there’s his look, fans have called him a genderless being but that seems to stem from his willingness to dress in clothing that neither reads feminine nor masculine.

The King

Forty years after the death of Elvis Presley, two-time Sundance Grand Jury winner Eugene Jarecki’s new film takes the King’s 1963 Rolls-Royce on a musical road trip across America. Film still from The King Love him or hate him, Elvis Presley pioneered the cross-branded artist. As the creature of pop culture, Elvis was the recipient of all things not worth worshiping yet he sang from a depth of pain and loneliness. He married a soulful sound to a back-beat (the rock in rock-n-roll) native to hi

Rock Rubber 45s

Making a documentary like Rock Rubber 45s about Bobbito Garcia’s career in what I can only describe as a POV of freestyle by dribbling, faking and confounding the audience takes skill. The only person who has a deep enough resumé to make it is the subject himself and leave it to him to offer conflicting points of view. When it comes to labels, about the only one Bobbito Garcia AKA Bobbito the Barber, Kool Bob Love, DJ Cucumber Slice, born Robert Garcia doesn’t seem to fit is Gen-X.
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