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hardly strictly music

reviews, interviews with artists and some other music musings

Across the Margin •

The Dare & The Groove

In celebration of The Dare’s latest release, a danceable track with a hint of griminess that has the ability within it to tap into the cultural zeitgeist…

by: Jennifer Parker

On August 7, 2024, singer / songwriter / producer Harrison Patrick Smith, who musically goes with the moniker The Dare, revealed a new song, “You’re Invited,” alongside a video directed by Jake Lazovick (listen here and watch here). It’s a track that is emphatically danceable with a hint of griminess that has the ability...
Across the Margin •

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.
At Large Magazine •

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?
At Large Magazine •

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
At Large Magazine •

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.
At Large Magazine •

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.
At Large Magazine •

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
At Large Magazine •

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...
At Large Magazine •

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.
At Large Magazine •

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
At Large Magazine •

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.
At Large Magazine •

Breath

People keep asking me if I’ve seen the new Simon Baker surfing movie, Breath. It occurs to me that the people asking haven’t seen the movie. If they have, they would know it is not a surfing movie. It has a few tropes of surfing movies It has some really hot looking actors or some who will be in a few years (oh don’t #metoo me, I know what I’m saying) there’s the big wave that tests the moxie of the leading man err in this case adolescent young man...
http://www.fjordsreview.com •

May It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers A Film Review by: Jennifer Parker

“A Breathing Time Machine”

May It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers—


Folk rock is kind of the “not otherwise specified” exception diagnosis for those of us who can’t quite stomach the idea of identifying with anything to do with country music. There’s a few artists who fall into this category. The greats include Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Tracey Chapman and Leonard Cohen. Then there’s the slightly “twangier” but still cool, Indigo Girls and Bonnie Raitt...