Feature

For some people, Adam Schlesinger was the guy who wrote the title song for the outstanding, Tom Hanks-directed 1996 powerhouse film That Thing You Do!; for others, he was a songwriter behind the scenes, wracking up nominations for Broadway and television, most notably Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. For me, he was a producer, musician and co-leader of Jersey’s Fountains Of Wayne. The band were most known for 2003’s pop smash “Stacy’s Mom,” but on the album it came from, Welcome Interstate Managers, they crafted some of the best pop songs heard in the last 25 years. This is what Adam Schlesinger means…

So, I have to admit this feature was my idea. I’m trying to figure out if I regret that or not. I happened to mention to the DV Crack Staff that I had this playlist on [a certain Streaming Service That Shall Not Be Named] -- the 131 songs that were essential to my listening pleasure. My personal happiness. My musical jones. Why 131, you ask? Well, at the time, I was going through chemotherapy and I just didn’t have the brain power or energy to get it any lower. Now, I kind of like it. The number has character.…

Brainiac, one of the most underrated alt rock bands of the ‘90s, came to a premature end in 1997 when leader/frontman Tim Taylor was killed in a car accident. The band’s legacy and musical reputation only began to grow after bands like The Mars Volta and others began citing them as key influences. This excellent documentary chronicles the band’s rise through the indie underground to their peak and ascension, which came to a premature end weeks before the band was going to sign to a major. Interviewees including all surviving band members, Taylor’s family and numerous fans including Fred Armisen,…

In which reviewer Duke Egbert, returning from a nine-year writing hiatus, breaks all the rules previously set for these collections by including a live album and mashing an artist’s group and solo career together (sort of). 16. The Secret (2019)The Paul Dukas And Lou Gramm? Really? Album. A disjointed, flat effort, despite its star-spangled guest list. The only track worthy to be on a Project CD is the soaring, heartbreaking “I Can’t Get There From Here.” Sad, but true. 15. Vulture Culture (1985) The Where’s The Orchestra? Album. The widescreen, cinematic grandeur of the early CDs is completely gone by…

A philosophical look at the E Street Band sax man’s life, the documentary Clarence Clemons: Who Do I Think I Am? takes on a mortal tone when the Big Man is talking about himself and how others look at him. He’s basically trying to prove that he’s more than Bruce Springsteen’s sidekick and one of the most dynamic sax players that ever lived. Production on this film started before Clemons’ unfortunate passing, and while the black and white remembrances are a nice touch, it’s best to hear about the man from the man himself. It’s clear that the original intent…

If you are unfamiliar with the Anti-Nowhere League, where the hell have you been hiding? Only one of the most controversial punk bands of the second wave, they are best known for the track “So What,” which people found so horrible and shocking, they tried to have it banned. Metallica covered it in the ‘90s and made it a classic; they even performed it live on some MTV European awards show in 1998 and it was great. This film covers the band members’ less than upright childhoods before convening together because they found something in punk rock that they were…

Well, if this isn’t one of the more interesting rock docs I’ve seen lately. Stiv Bators, frontman for the Dead Boys and Lords Of The New Church, was one of the more charismatic musicians of the initial punk era before becoming a goth wannabe doing covers of Madonna songs. With this film, more focus is placed on Stiv as a person more than Stiv as a singer. Unable to fully license Dead Boys and Lords music, the film has to find another angle to make things interesting. And for the most part, it works. Drawing on interviews with Jimmy Zero…

What can be said about Weezer that hasn’t already been said in the now classic SNL skit from late 2018? Some people are ride or die for Weezer, and others like me jumped ship years ago. With their transition into a full-on pop band in the vein of Panic! At The Disco or Fun now complete, the band doesn’t even resemble the once bright new things in the ‘90s they started out as. Some people might say that’s snobbish, but we are here to dissemble why the band went in the completely opposite direction that gave us an unnecessary hit…

Legend has it that Derek Trucks bought his first guitar for five dollars at a yard sale when he was nine years old. Struggling to get his small hands to form chords on a full-size guitar neck led him to learn using a slide. A genuine child prodigy, Trucks had his first paying gig at 11, and by the time he was 13 had played alongside no less than Buddy Guy. By age 15 he had started his own group, the Derek Trucks Band, and had begun sitting in with his uncle’s band—his uncle being Butch Trucks, longtime drummer for…

While making their most recent album, Skeleton Tree, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds were filming the proceedings and making what they imagined as a little "making of" documentary to go on some sort of special edition DVD. But then Nick’s son Arthur fell to his death. Suddenly, nothing made much sense. After taking some mourning time, Nick and the band returned to the studio to finish up the record. Everything they’d done now took on a black pall that was inescapable. What we get are some interviews with Nick Cave, his wife, and band member Warren Ellis talking about…