John Moore, Freelance Journalist Profile

Articles

Album Review: Ben Kweller - Cover The Mirrors – New Noise Magazine

1 week ago | newnoisemagazine.com | John Moore

Album Reviews, Review John Moore May 29, 2025 RATING:  4/5 Ben Kweller’s latest, Cover The Mirrors, is an emotional wrecking ball, coming after the tragic loss of his teen son. It’s expectedly sad, but also revelatory at times, as Kweller reflects not only on the brutal reality of losing a child, but through grieving looks at the larger picture of life. “It’s a full-circle type of album,” Kweller says. “There’s a lot of reflecting—not only reflecting on the loss of Dorian. I’m also...
Book Review: Tearing Down The Orange Curtain: How Punk Rock Brought Orange County To the World

2 weeks ago | newnoisemagazine.com | John Moore

While most quickly pivot to Los Angeles when talking about the classic West Coast punk rock scene, Orange County—just 40 miles north of the city—put its own stamp on the genre. LA’s take on punk was pretty broad, encompassing everyone from The Germs and The Go-Go’s to X and Bad Religion. The first wave of Orange County punk was a more abrasive, hardcore sound building off bands like Black Flag and the Circle Jerks.
Album Review: Translator - Beyond Today: Live At The Farm San Francisco 1986

2 weeks ago | newnoisemagazine.com | John Moore

Album Reviews, Review John Moore May 19, 2025 RATING:  3.5/5 If you knew about the band Translator, it’s likely because you had a cool older sibling in the ‘80s who knew about alternative music that never really got played on radio or MTV … or if you were that cool older sibling. Only around initially from 1979 to 1986 (before finally reuniting sporadically starting in 2006), Translator played a puzzling mix of psychedelia, Laurel Canyon folk, early punk, and new wave, all coming from...
Album Review: The Vicious Cycles – Get Wrecked – New Noise Magazine

1 month ago | newnoisemagazine.com | John Moore

Album Reviews, Review John Moore April 29, 2025 RATING:  4.0/5 Across 14 tracks that blast out in less than 30 minutes, Vancouver’s The Vicious Cycle careen through a brilliant mix of punk and dirty garage rock that hits fast and hard, leaving you with a “what the fuck just happened?” expression before you flip the record back over, drop the needle, and experience it all over again. Don’t let the rapid-fire drums and fast distorted guitars fool you though, the band stack their songs with...
Album Review: The Drowns – View From the Bottom – New Noise Magazine

Mar 7, 2025 | newnoisemagazine.com | John Moore

Album Reviews, Review John Moore March 7, 2025 RATING:  3/5 The Drowns’ 2018 debut, View From the Bottom, was a snarling, frenetic mix of loud guitars, barked vocals, and late-70’s street punk bands like Cock Sparrer distilled through modern experiences. Pirate Press, home to The Drowns for the past five years, are re-releasing the hard-to-find record. Remastered by Seattle legend Jack Endino (Nirvana, Soundgarden, among many, many more), the record is a little rougher than its follow...
Album Review: The Vapors - Wasp In A Jar – New Noise Magazine

Mar 5, 2025 | newnoisemagazine.com | John Moore

Album Reviews, Review John Moore March 5, 2025 RATING:  3.5/5 Not content to simply coast off their one hit wonder status until the end of time, The Vapors—known for the perennial new wave/power pop classic “Turning Japanese”—have just turned in their second full-length album since reforming nearly 10 years ago. The 14-track Wasp In A Jar manages to be a solid mix of nostalgic new wave pop with a timelessness that keeps it from sounding dated and is easily their best record yet. The band...
Flashback to December 8, 1987: Anthrax, Celtic Frost and Exodus at Mid-Hudson Civic Center

Dec 7, 2024 | nysmusic.com | John Moore

Nineteen eighty-seven was undoubtedly “the year of the Anthrax.” The Queens thrash metal band released their third album, Among The Living, which elevated them from underground thrash metal heroes to wider acclaim. The first show of that tour was at a club in Rochester, in May 1987. In Albany they played a half-filled Palace Theatre that same month and then toured both nationally and internationally for the rest of the year.
John Moore: Picturing grace

Dec 5, 2024 | marshallnewsmessenger.com | John Moore

When I was a child, there was a painting that hung on my grandmother’s kitchen wall. It portrayed a man who was praying over a meal of bread and what appeared to be a bowl of soup. Near the man was a book, which I always assumed was a Bible, and a pair of spectacles. From my earliest recollections until my dad’s mother passed, I remember looking at this painting while we ate in her home and wondering many things. Who was the man in the painting?
Moore: If you build it

Nov 14, 2024 | starlocalmedia.com | John Moore

The Beatles had a song called, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” The line, “… It was 20 years ago today …” reminded me of something that happened not 20 years ago, but 50 years ago. My father dragging me outside to put a storage building together. It was Thanksgiving Day 1974. Dad bought a kit from Sears. For the new building, he had a concrete slab poured next to our driveway on Locust Street in Ashdown, Arkansas. kAm(96?
Moore: If you build it

Nov 14, 2024 | kdhnews.com | John Moore

The Beatles had a song called, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” The line, “… It was 20 years ago today …” reminded me of something that happened not 20 years ago, but 50 years ago. My father dragging me outside to put a storage building together. It was Thanksgiving Day 1974. Dad bought a kit from Sears. For the new building, he had a concrete slab poured next to our driveway on Locust Street in Ashdown, Arkansas. When you’re 12, Thanksgiving was time off from school.