Eric Farwell

Oct 16, 2024 | thebeliever.net | Eric Farwell

SPELLLING, the professional identity of musician Tia Cabral, was born of Cabral’s desire to create safe and transportive spaces for Black and queer people. As SPELLLING, Cabral works with her band to blend string and brass instruments with sci-fi concepts and spiritual considerations. She also provides the vocals; her voice is capable of real range and transformational power, not unlike Whitney Houston’s or Mya’s.

Oct 14, 2024 | thehardtimes.net | Eric Farwell

Former cover band and current heist team, Joe G. Whiz and the Egg Heads, are saying they’ll release every hostage in this PNC Bank if they can name each founding member of pop-punk group Bowling For Soup, and correctly identify if they’re alive or dead without looking it up. I don’t know if we’re going to make it out of here alive.

Aug 17, 2024 | ew.com | Eric Farwell |Chris Bellamy

Darlene Love was a backup singer for years, supporting acts who were the kind of stars she should have been, too. This Oscar-winning documentary features interviews with dozens of backup singers about their experience standing behind artists who got to be the face of their music rather than being edged out of the spotlight. The archival footage in 20 Feet From Stardom is particularly harrowing, capturing how essential these unknown singers were to the songs that captivated the world.

Jul 29, 2024 | pastemagazine.com | Eric Farwell

In productions about New Jersey, from The Sopranos to Clerks, the idea of passing time is romanticized as a grand thing of quiet beauty, often shot in an elegant if obvious way to suggest a depth of dignity in simplistic life that doesn’t exist. Garden State is perhaps the only New Jersey film to turn the lack of options to succeed into something frightening and sadly hedonistic.

May 13, 2024 | pastemagazine.com | Eric Farwell

Genius is a lot like Supreme Court Associate Justice Potter Stewart’s line on pornography: you know it when you see it. It is a unique frequency that doesn’t dismiss the viewer, but rather gives them something to chase and yearn for in their own work. To see Brittany Carney perform is to see someone attuned to their own perspective so fully that it expands what’s possible not just in her stand-up, but in everyone else’s.