The 18th Annual Newark LGBTQ—Lesbian Gay Bi Trans Queer—Pride Festival will take place next month at a variety of downtown locations. The music will be loud. The feeling will be proud.

The compilation album ‘Tell Everybody! 20th Century Juke Joint Blues’ won’t be released until August 11 but Easy Eye Sound has rush-released a hot number, “Daughter Of Zion,” by Glenn Schwartz, produced by Dan Auerbach, as a teaser.

In 2023, the plight of a fictional Jersey Girl won five Tony Awards. ‘Kimberly Akimbo’—set in Bergen County—is the odd story of a teenager in a dysfunctional New Jersey family with a rare genetic condition that causes her to age prematurely. So despite being 16, she looks 72.

The previously available only-on-cassette sounds of 2022’s ‘From Catnip To Coma’ and this year’s exquisitely chill ‘From Coma To Catharsis’ have been melded into one satisfying listen plus new track “New South Wales” and will be released August 4.

Patriarchs In Black—former Type O Negative drummer Johnny Kelly and founding Hades/Non-Fiction guitarist-composer Dan Lorenzo—have released their second Zep cover this year. “Immigrant Song” has the Paramus riff-master Lorenzo churning out that familiar riff.

Author Warren Zanes will be talking Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska’ and the book he wrote documenting its creation. The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music at Monmouth University will host the event at the Clinch Gallery in Asbury Park this Thursday June 15.

Continuing the recent spate of Steely Dan re-releases, July 28 is the date that Geffen/UMe will release ‘Pretzel Logic’ on vinyl again for the first time in 35 years.

The Cape May Convention Hall will host its 2023 Summer Concert Series with Jersey Shore Pops (July 3), The British Invasion Years (July 7), The Lettermen (July 9), The Association (July 16), Jay & The Americans (July 23), Herman’s Hermits starring Peter Noone (July 30), The Drifters (August 6), The Hit Men (August 13) and Capestock (August 18, 19, 20).

Yo La Tengo—one of the defining bands of “The Hoboken Sound”—went to Citi Field in Queens to watch the Mets beat the Phillies. Singer-songwriter-guitarist Ira Kaplan took the mound to throw out the ceremonial First Pitch. Met rookie third baseman Mark Vientos caught the ball.

It’s been almost 20 years since Hoboken mainstays The Cucumbers released new music. The jangly guitars, bright pop melodies and brisk backbeat of their Power Pop—key to their national success—are all still evident.

At first, we didn’t think it was the same guy from Hades, Non-Fiction, Cass King and Patriarchs In Black on new single “I’m One Again.” But hell yeah, with horns upraised, it’s guitarist/songwriter Dan Lorenzo, our favorite metal dude from Paramus. So we asked him to explain.

Perhaps the most famous recording facility in all of jazz, Rudy Van Gelder’s studio, first in Hackensack, then in Englewood Cliffs, is the birthplace of seminal albums by the likes of Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Ray Charles, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and hundreds of others. The newest gem to emanate from these hallowed halls is the self-titled debut of The Heavy Hitters.

On Nils Lofgren’s new single, “Nothin’s Easy (for Amy),” that’s Neil Young warbling away on backing vocals. The song is for Lofgren’s producer wife. It’s the second single from Lofgren’s upcoming Mountains solo album due July 21. The first single was “Ain’t The Truth Enough” with Ringo Starr on drums.

Out Montclair will present its free Montclair Pride celebration again June 1-10 and The South Orange Performing Arts Center—in partnership with North Jersey Pride—will present its inaugural Pride weekend celebrating the LGBTQIA community starting June 9 with a series of shows starring LGBTQIA performers.

He swore he wouldn’t but Bergen County heavy metal hero Glenn Danzig, 67, is back out on the road and this time he’s got Behemoth, Twin Temple & Midnight with him.

Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist Albert Castiglia is on tour with St. Louis Guitar Hero Mike Zito on Zito’s Gulf Coast Records supporting their Blood Brothers album, a bona-fide classic of hard rockin’ blues.

From Phish and Oysterhead to Ghosts Of The Forest and The Trey Anastasio Band, this renaissance man has performed, recorded and written in rock, classical and theatrical circles. He’s collaborated with Dave Matthews, Herbie Hancock, Grateful Dead, Santana and BB King. His compositions have been performed by symphony orchestras. Now he’s on tour.

The beautiful sounds of jazz and classical will be presented once again this summer outside the Morris Museum on Normandy Heights Road in Morristown—the state’s second largest museum—in the back deck parking area.

The Camden County FREE 2023 Summer Parks Concert Series will inhabit 2,700+ acres of total greenery at Wiggins Waterfront Park in Camden, the McLaughlin Norcross Memorial Dell at Haddon Lake Park in Haddon Heights and Cooper River Park in Pennsauken, all with nationally known acts.

Hoboken’s Tammy Faye Starlite will return to Joe’s Pub in New York City July 24 as the legendary ‘60s chanteuse Nico [1938-1988] with songs by Lou Reed, The Doors, Jackson Browne, David Bowie, Rogers & Hart, Gordon Lightfoot and Bob Dylan.