The Cantina Cast has published a piece of mine on two of my favorite Star Wars "background" characters. This is a complete history of Doctor Cornelius Evazan and his mate Ponda Baba. These characters are the subjects of Bantha Fodder's...
John Mayer has been teasing his return to pop music for some time, most notably through his Instagram. Of late, he’s been touring with The Grateful Dead as a member of their band.
Following the closure of Under The Gun Review in 2016, the site's longstanding tradition of Halloween adoration and criticism continued on at Substream with another round of 31 Days Of Halloween. This year, I contributed a piece on Halloweentown, a...
The folks at Modern Vinyl [http://modern-vinyl.com/2016/02/01/perfect-lp-mansions/] asked me to write about Mansions some more, so I did. A few thousand words spewed out over the course of 7 hours and 10 loads of laundry....
“I think I’m going to shotgun a Redbull. They don’t affect me like they used to,” said Lydia guitarist Justin Camacho as I walked into the green room of Musica, Akron’s coziest music venue. “Damn, you got...
As is tradition, I lent my love of horror and science fiction to Under The Gun's 31 Days Of Halloween. My piece on Alien 3 was published this week. This year's series is dedicated to the memory of our late...
This piece was published at AltPress [https://www.altpress.com/features/bands_need_mentors/] on September 15, 2015 as part of my short-lived column on morality and creativity in the music industry. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The day job: a time-consuming soul sucker...
PropertyOfZack will cease to update after this weekend. It's a sad thing, but not a bad thing. POZ has done a lot for the scene. It's nice to read and contribute [https://propertyofzack.com/post/126046808881/i-am-not-a-blogger] so many words...
This piece was published at AltPress [https://www.altpress.com/features/bands_need_mentors/] on July 15, 2015 as part of my short-lived column on morality and creativity in the music industry. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A few weeks ago, a tweet by...
Art by Alexis HowickThis piece was published at AltPress [https://www.altpress.com/features/bands_need_mentors/] on June 19, 2015 as part of my short-lived column on morality and creativity in the music industry. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm frustrated, and the...
This piece was published at AltPress [https://www.altpress.com/features/bands_need_mentors/] on June 04, 2015 as part of my short-lived column on morality and creativity in the music industry. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Growing up, those who support you most...
In which I introduce Zack to Star Wars. I’ve known him for over half of a decade and this is my first piece [http://propertyofzack.com/post/118128997351/start-today-star-wars] on his site. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is this? Star Wars is...
My late friend [https://jacobtender.net/blog/rip-justin-proper/] Justin Proper of Under The Gun Review [http://underthegunreview.net/] had a running column for several years called “For The Love Of Film.” He once asked me to fill in for him...
My second entry in the 31 Days series, a follow-up to last year's column on Ridley Scott's Alien. This was originally posted on Under The Gun Review. Of all the holidays celebrated worldwide, no single day is more loved by...
Unlike the Beartooth Story, this one was planned out in advance. Like the story about Caleb and his wife Fleur, this story centered around Ryan Key and his wife Alyona. It got very personal and I felt quite honored to...
I love Star Wars. I’d go so far as to say that I always have. I was shown Star Wars when I was still in my single digits and received my first lightsaber when I was probably about 6....
This was my first cover story for any magazine. The opportunity came up last minute, but I'm pleased with how it came out. I wrote more about how I got the story here [https://jacobtender.net/archived/beartooth-cover/]. This story...
This was a big one for me. As a long-time Bayside fan, getting to sit one-on-one with Anthony in the Grog Shop green room was really cool. We got coffee after. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In December, I had a last-minute opportunity to...
This review was originally published by Under The Gun Review.
This interview comes with a little background story. At the time, I had recently started talking to a girl who had a few mutual friends. She liked music, so I though it would be cool to take her to a...
This year, I wrote two entries for 31 Days of Halloween. In addition to my love letter to Alien, I also wrote about one of my favorite home invasion flicks, You're Next. Of all the holidays celebrated worldwide, no single...
This was my first entry in the 31 Days of Halloween canon. Because I didn't write anything for the series in 2012, I contributed a second piece on You're Next as well. Of all the holidays celebrated worldwide, no single...
This review was originally published [http://underthegunreview.net/2013/08/31/review-the-1975-the-1975/] on Under The Gun Review. Artist: The 1975 [http://underthegunreview/tag/The-1975] Label: Dirty Hit/Polydor Records (UK) Vagrant Records (USA) Genre: Pop, Rock, Indie Talkhouse, Drive Like...
This review was originally published [http://underthegunreview.net/2013/08/21/review-parachute-overnight/] on Under The Gun Review. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Artist: Parachute Album: Overnight Genre: Pop, Rock RIYL: The Cab, A Rocket To The Moon, The Summer Set In 2009, a band...
This review was originally published [http://underthegunreview.net/2013/07/02/review-late-in-the-playoffs-alive-on-your-own/] by Under The Gun Review. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Artist: Late In The Playoffs Album: Alive and On Your Own Genre: Pop-punk Label: Unsigned Late In The Playoffs’ new album, Alive...
This review was originally published [http://www.underthegunreview.net/2013/06/18/single-review-john-mayer-paper-doll/] by Under The Gun Review. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today, John Mayer [http://underthegunreview.net/tag/John-Mayer] did an odd thing. That is to say, John Mayer did something I...
I remember this as my first remote interview, recorded over a frightening array of wires from first iPhone to my 2004 Dell desktop running Audacity. This was also the first time I got the personal cell number of an artist...
This review was originally published on Under The Gun Review. Artist: Fall Out Boy Album: Save Rock and Roll Genre: Pop/Rock Label: Island/Decaydance “We’re definitely writing all the time, so we’re not going to try to...
This review was originally published on Mind Equals Blown. What is “good” is totally subjective. I stand by that with a firm resolve. I write reviews with apprehension because of this fact. What is deemed quality by one can easily...
This review was originally published [http://underthegunreview.net/2013/02/23/review-coheed-and-cambria-the-afterman-descension/] on Under The Gun Review. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Artist: Coheed and Cambria Album: The Afterman: Descension Genre: Progressive Rock Label: Hundred Handed/Everything Evil It seems strange to write an...
This review was originally published on Under The Gun Review. Yesterday, one of the most influential bands in my life made a huge return to music after a 4 year hiatus. Fall Out Boy came back, sending my Internet world...
This was the first and only interview that I ever conducted twice. After having a really great conversation with Joe about his work, I realized that I had not properly set up Audio Hijack to record the Skype session. Luckily...
Writing for WhatCulture was a mistake. Apart from having my work chopped up into slide-based listacles, there is no longer any attribution on my pieces there. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Last week, Facebook introduced [https://web.archive.org/web/20130117114625/http://newsroom.fb....
Writing for WhatCulture was a mistake. Apart from having my work chopped up into slide-based listacles, there is no longer any attribution on my pieces there. Trying to recover the now-dead images for the post yielded the thumbnails you see...
This review was originally published [http://underthegunreview.net/2012/09/07/review-blaqk-audio-bright-black-heaven/] on Under The Gun Review. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Artist: Blaqk Audio Album: Bright Black Heaven Genre: Electronic Label: Big Death / Superball Music It has been a long wait for a...