Tag: 2026
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by Michael McCarthy By now, I’m sure you’ve seen the “9 albums” thing going around on social media. There’s a website called My 9 Albums where you can make an image showing nine album covers. It’s supposed to represent the nine albums that made you who you are, so to speak. For some people, that…
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by Michael McCarthy First of all, I don’t mind telling you that I’m not a particularly big Keith Urban fan. In fact, I’m generally not a big fan of modern country music. To my ears, much of it sounds more like country pop than actual country music, and something about that has always put me…
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by Michael McCarthy There aren’t many rock bands whose songs have managed to survive changing radio formats, changing lineups, changing generations and even changing ways of listening to music quite like Journey. More than five decades after the band formed, songs like “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Faithfully,” “Any Way You Want It,” “Lights” and so many…
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by Michael McCarthy Today one of the year’s best singer-songwriter pop albums has been unleashed upon the world: Catie Turner’s intoxicating Blue Alchemy. And to celebrate the album’s release, Catie has just released a rather fun new video for her song “Girls’ Girl,” a collaboration with her former roommate Sophie Holohan. It’s an irresistible earworm…
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by Michael McCarthy Ben Affleck has directed another winner with Animals, a tense new Netflix thriller in which he also stars and shares a writing credit with Connor O. McIntyre and Billy Ray. From its opening scenes to its final moments, Animals keeps tightening the screws, continually forcing its characters to make decisions where there…
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by Michael McCarthy Photos by Christian Zajicek, courtesy of Trend PR I’ve always thought of singer/songwriter Catie Turner’s music as intellectual pop. Her songs can be irresistibly catchy, but the hooks are never there to disguise empty lyrics. Turner writes about identity, insecurity, control, relationships and the complicated question of what it actually means to…
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by Michael McCarthy Miley’s new video for “Different Religion” takes religious language and imagery and deliberately turns it inside out, treating sexual desire as its own kind of faith. Miley delivers some of the song’s most provocative lines in an almost spoken cadence, while the guest vocal from Model/Actriz brings a similarly talk-sung, slightly menacing…
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by Michael McCarthy Last night I saw The Carpenters Songbook performance at Nashua Center for the Arts in Nashua, New Hampshire. I’ve been a big fan of the Carpenters for years and they obviously aren’t around anymore, since Karen Carpenter sadly died decades ago, so seeing a good tribute is the closest you’re going to…
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…AND A FEW WORDS ABOUT MONSTER: THE LIZZIE BORDEN STORY by Michael McCarthy SPOILER WARNING: This review discusses major developments in UNABOMBER, particularly involving the young Ted Kaczynski and Henry Murray storyline. If you haven’t seen the film yet and want to go in knowing as little as possible, you may want to watch it…
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by Michael McCarthy I’m getting really tired of older rock musicians taking shots at Taylor Swift—and, more broadly, acting like the success of younger pop artists is somehow evidence that music has gone to hell. The latest is Todd Rundgren, who recently called Swift the “apotheosis of mediocrity” and said there’s an argument to be…
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Today, New York City rockers Nicotine Dolls have released the new single andmusic video “Here to California,” a joyful, breezy anthem about “choosing forward motion over regret,” from their self-titled sophomore album, which will be out October 23 via BMG. The single was co-produced by frontman Sam Cieri and renowned hitmaker Marti Frederiksen (Aerosmith, Ozzy…
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by Michael McCarthy photos by Rob Loud; used with permission Last night on the 23rd of September, 2026, I finally caught a solo performance by Brandon Flowers of The Killers. The Killers are one of my favorite bands and I’ve seen them several times, but circumstances had prevented me from catching either of their two…
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by Michael McCarthy Last Friday night, September 18, 2026, my parents and I saw The Billy Joel Legacy: A Tribute Experience at Lynn Auditorium in Lynn, Massachusetts, and it was a rather invigorating show, to say the least. The set kicked off with an electrifying rendition of “My Life,” accompanied by video of an animated…
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by Michael McCarthy I recently had the opportunity to watch Unleashed Spirits: The Rise of the Hollywood Vampires, Daniel E. Catullo III’s new documentary feature about Hollywood Vampires, the supergroup featuring Alice Cooper, Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, actor/guitarist Johnny Depp and guitarist/music director Tommy Henriksen. The band’s touring lineup also includes keyboardist Buck Johnson, who…
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by Michael McCarthy Please note: I could not find any videos from last night’s show on Youtube yet so I have included a few videos from Robyn’s recent European dates. Last night I attended Robyn’s show at Agganis Arena in Boston. I had previously seen Robyn live at the House of Blues in Boston in…
