UP-CLOSE: Multi-Band Multi-Genre Grab Bang
Reaction to last month’s new “Up Close” format has been fast and furious. Previously an interview section, we opened it up to our readers in April and the flood of entries ever since has been profound. Thus, we continue for this space to be a forum for the bubbling cauldron of multi-genre talent that New Jersey harbors. Let’s stay inter-active!
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We’ve been keeping our ears open for anything new from New York State’s The Half/Cubes ever since their terrific Found Pearls album on Jem Records last year. Now comes their revitalization of “Bend Me Shape Me” by The American Breed—which hit #5 in 1968—with Irvington-born Glenn Burtnik on lead vocals. He used to be in Styx.
We’re All Like YEAH! (Lump’N’Loaf Records) is the new album from A Halo Called Fred. They describe their sound as “geeky indie folk-rock.”
The vintage pop of duo FGC has resulted in “Chroma Eyes.” It’s the follow-up to last year’s “Static Heartbreak” and 2024’s Summer Love EP—a far cry from their 2022 slasher-obsessed Terror In The Night album.
She never fails. Each and every single she’s released has been the epitome of perfection. That’s why we love her. Whether it was “Exhale” for World Mental Health Day in 2024 or last year’s “Bent”, Rhonette Smith nails it. Now comes “Maybe,” “very reminiscent,” as she says, “of 2000s pop-punk, which was influential to me growing up.”
They were born to be ready for a fight. At least that’s what their new single—“Born Ready” (Bongo Boy Records)—screams. Co-written by undiscovered showman Wayne Olivieri, it’s off their Endless Drool album, recorded in Monmouth County.
Inspired by Oasis and Coldplay, Wesley David toured west for years becoming the kind of barroom Piano Man Billy Joel once sang about. Now, though, he’s a singer-songwriter with alt-pop and prog-rock smarts.
Marty Scott has ears. He’s the head of Jem Records and when he makes a musical suggestion, we listen. So when we got the new single from The Cynz—a cover of Tom Petty’s “You Wreck Me” from the band’s terrific Confess album—we turned up the volume, opened all the windows, and made sure the neighbors heard every note. Soon there was dancing in the street.
Chantell Van Erbe is a contemporary mixed-media artist who—like Yoko Ono—explores the space between reality and perception. Her artwork has been exhibited in museums and galleries including the Louvre in Paris. Her work, which has been called otherworldly, is in the running for Johnny Depp Presents The People’s Artist, a nationwide visual art competition and fundraising initiative benefitting The Art of Elysium.
We loved this trio’s 2024 collaboration with Anna Clemente, a professor of harpsichord at a music conservatory in Italy. Now comes A Small Accident wherein they expand into an octet for a five-song EP of John Baumgartner’s originals. They’ve been at it since the 1980s with an amalgam of influences as disparate as Broadway, Baroque, Indie-Rock, Alt-Pop, Cosmic Folk and Classical.
This guy is SO cool. We covered his “Chocolate Jesus” last June and his reggae version of the classic “Spoonful” blues last March. Skuller can do Tom Waits like nobody we ever heard. That’s why we’re super-excited to hear his take on the terrific Tom tune “Downtown Train,” landing on May 15. He’ll do it live May 16 at a sold-out show in Hoboken at the 503 Social Club.