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In 1984, I was a grade schooler with a brown bag lunch and an awareness of music criticism that was pretty limited. Still, I knew there was a debate going on about the best album of the year. In one corner, there was Bruce Springsteen’s Born In The U.S.A., a big, powerful, poetic set on […]

everybody’s favorite topic. especially in an election year.  for the essential nj arts, i interviewed the lambertville, nj painter gwenn seemel, who has been responding to crude pro-trump graffiti in a public park with some unauthorized art of her own. in a conversation that might be called freewheeling, we talked about the line between vandalism and constructive […]

this weekend, we’ll have a closing reception for return to the mothership, the 111 first street-themed show that i curated for proarts.  i’ll be at 150 bay street from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m. on sunday, march 24.  then we’ll say goodbye.  please come see the show if you haven’t.  if you have — or if […]

Not content to let any single one of their writers hog all the embarrassment, Pitchfork convened a critics’ roundtable to declare that 2023 contained no Song of the Summer. At the time of their summit meeting, Morgan Wallen had held the top spot on the Billboard 100 for weeks, and he’d go on to hold […]

Belle & Sebastian is my favorite band.  But when I make these annual lists, Belle & Sebastian doesn’t do as well as you’d expect a favorite band to do. Late Developers, their most recent album, is their best in a long time. I still decided that at least twenty other sets were better.  I might have reason […]

if it’s february in the garden state, that means excellent shows related to black history month.  did i go see them?  you betcha. for nj arts, i wrote about the masterful tenjin ikeda linocut exhibition at the 1978 arts center in maplewood.  curated by nette forne thomas, who had her own hallucinatory, symbol-rich show at […]

Some people wait a lunchtime for a moment like this. Friends, the 2023 Pop Music Abstract has arrived: http://trismccall.net/pop-music-abstract-2023/ Forty-one thousand words on one hundred and eighty-seven records. A record for excess; Tales From Topographic Me. After a year of writing constructive, wholesome things, I committed a few nights to a thoroughly corrosive and irresponsible […]

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8 El Michels Affair & Black Thought — Glorious Games The Reds, Pinks & Purples — The Town That Cursed Your Name SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9 Belle & Sebastian — Late Developers Olivia Rodrigo — Guts SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10 Avalon Emerson — & The Charm Juan Wauters — Wandering Rebel MONDAY, DECEMBER 11 Travis […]

another links page! i’m mainly doing this because instagram doesn’t play well with outgoing links. also, instagram irritates me. i know: social media is a professional responsibility. still, i’d much rather have you come here. i am my own social network. anyway.  the calendar is about to turn to october, and the studio tour is […]