Eric R. Danton
@erdanton.bsky.social
Writer of Freak Scene, about music in #WesternMass and CT. Bylines in the Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, Paste and more. IWWFJU. Ex-Hartford Courant. Knows it's only rock 'n' roll, but likes it.
https://buttondown.email/freakscene
https://buttondown.email/freakscene
Reposted by Eric R. Danton
Rounded up my favorite music from 2025 in this week’s Freak Scene newsletter:
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
Freak Scene #98: My Favorite Albums of 2025
Many of the albums I listened to most this year had a maximalist theme
buttondown.com
December 26, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Rounded up my favorite music from 2025 in this week’s Freak Scene newsletter:
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
Rounded up my favorite music from 2025 in this week’s Freak Scene newsletter:
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
Freak Scene #98: My Favorite Albums of 2025
Many of the albums I listened to most this year had a maximalist theme
buttondown.com
December 26, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Rounded up my favorite music from 2025 in this week’s Freak Scene newsletter:
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
Merry Christmas! @bostonglobe.com posted its 2025 best-albums list. I contributed three blurbs, including one about @golddust.bandcamp.com:
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/24/a...
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/24/a...
From Geese to Karol G, these are the 30 best albums of 2025 - The Boston Globe
We checked in with Globe critics over the summer to find out which albums had already impressed them this year. Here are 30 more from 2025 you won’t want to miss.
www.bostonglobe.com
December 25, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Merry Christmas! @bostonglobe.com posted its 2025 best-albums list. I contributed three blurbs, including one about @golddust.bandcamp.com:
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/24/a...
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/24/a...
Think I'll need to see the family tree
If immigrating from England makes you a "heritage American" then I guess I'm one too.
December 20, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Think I'll need to see the family tree
Good for "Earnest," and eff these grifters who are making it harder for legit critical voices
A writer publishing under the byline “Earnest Graham” fabricated a restaurant to ask food influencers about how much they charge for posts they purport to be honest reviews. Twenty-four influencers took the bait.
thehunger.substack.com/p/eat-pay-love
thehunger.substack.com/p/eat-pay-love
Eat, Pay, Love!
A story of how food influencers are committing legal fraud
thehunger.substack.com
December 19, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Good for "Earnest," and eff these grifters who are making it harder for legit critical voices
This week in Freak Scene, we hear the latest from "alt-Irish" band Dicey Riley, plus there's a Northampton rapper who goes by the name Dome Lettuce. Check it out:
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
Freak Scene #97: Dicey Riley Blend Old and New on 'The Curse'
Plus, Northampton rapper Dome Lettuce is amassing quite a discography
buttondown.com
December 19, 2025 at 6:35 PM
This week in Freak Scene, we hear the latest from "alt-Irish" band Dicey Riley, plus there's a Northampton rapper who goes by the name Dome Lettuce. Check it out:
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
Great, when do these dinners start actually informing his columns?
The NYT imperiously declined to provide details, just declaring their op-ed columnists must of course attend dinners with "noted and important business leaders". But it's not hard to find. The Silicon Valley pantheon was there: Musk, Bezos, Brin, Mayer, Wojcicki, Mundie & Myhrvold of Microsoft... 3/
December 18, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Great, when do these dinners start actually informing his columns?
Reposted by Eric R. Danton
2025 has been a year of devastating disinvestment across arts and culture criticism. Join us in calling for $1/word as the minimum rate for book critics. nwu.org/join
Illustration by @colleentie.bsky.social
Illustration by @colleentie.bsky.social
December 15, 2025 at 9:56 PM
2025 has been a year of devastating disinvestment across arts and culture criticism. Join us in calling for $1/word as the minimum rate for book critics. nwu.org/join
Illustration by @colleentie.bsky.social
Illustration by @colleentie.bsky.social
Yearly holiday grift from the local newspaper delivery person, who usually manages to show up four out of six days each week, rarely before 8:30 a.m.: "I have enjoyed bringing your newspaper to you every morning."
December 13, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Yearly holiday grift from the local newspaper delivery person, who usually manages to show up four out of six days each week, rarely before 8:30 a.m.: "I have enjoyed bringing your newspaper to you every morning."
Reposted by Eric R. Danton
New Freak Scene newsletter! This week, Matt Silberstein, a key presence on the Western Mass. music scene, reemerges as December Boy on a new album:
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
Freak Scene #96: December Boy Explores Grief on Self-Titled LP
Plus, catching up on the Western Mass. 'country-gaze' Silvie's Okay and their song 'Whiplash'
buttondown.com
December 12, 2025 at 1:16 PM
New Freak Scene newsletter! This week, Matt Silberstein, a key presence on the Western Mass. music scene, reemerges as December Boy on a new album:
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
New Freak Scene newsletter! This week, Matt Silberstein, a key presence on the Western Mass. music scene, reemerges as December Boy on a new album:
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
Freak Scene #96: December Boy Explores Grief on Self-Titled LP
Plus, catching up on the Western Mass. 'country-gaze' Silvie's Okay and their song 'Whiplash'
buttondown.com
December 12, 2025 at 1:16 PM
New Freak Scene newsletter! This week, Matt Silberstein, a key presence on the Western Mass. music scene, reemerges as December Boy on a new album:
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
Wrote about Juliana Hatfield, my new Western Mass. neighbor (kind of), and her latest album, "Lightning Might Strike," for the @bostonglobe.com:
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/11/a...
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/11/a...
When everything is going awry, Juliana Hatfield still believes ‘Lightning Might Strike’ - The Boston Globe
The Massachusetts singer-songwriter emerges from a period of loss and upheaval with a new album that's unmistakably Hatfield.
www.bostonglobe.com
December 11, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Wrote about Juliana Hatfield, my new Western Mass. neighbor (kind of), and her latest album, "Lightning Might Strike," for the @bostonglobe.com:
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/11/a...
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/11/a...
The tell is that he doesn't use it himself
NEW: Sen. Ron Johnson has a history of spreading vaccine misinformation.
Now he's giving credence to assertions about the therapeutic powers of chlorine dioxide, a disinfectant and deodorizer.
“It is all lunacy," one expert said.
Now he's giving credence to assertions about the therapeutic powers of chlorine dioxide, a disinfectant and deodorizer.
“It is all lunacy," one expert said.
Sen. Ron Johnson Endorses Book Touting Chlorine Dioxide's Unproven Health Benefits
Wisconsin's Ron Johnson has a history of spreading vaccine misinformation. Now he's giving credence to assertions about the therapeutic powers of chlorine dioxide, a disinfectant and deodorizer. “It i...
www.propublica.org
December 11, 2025 at 2:02 PM
The tell is that he doesn't use it himself
Here's one bright spot already for 2026: Ber releases her first full-length album in April. Strong early contender for smartest, wittiest pop album of next year
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipDW...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipDW...
Ber- Book Cover (Official Lyric Video)
YouTube video by ber
www.youtube.com
December 11, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Here's one bright spot already for 2026: Ber releases her first full-length album in April. Strong early contender for smartest, wittiest pop album of next year
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipDW...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipDW...
Apart from Villarreal losing, all the Spanish teams playing in the Champions League this week achieved the correct results
December 10, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Apart from Villarreal losing, all the Spanish teams playing in the Champions League this week achieved the correct results
Well, well: the amphitheater in Hartford is dropping the corporate branding and returning to its original name, the Meadows Music Theatre. At least, until some other corporation coughs up a bundle of cash.
December 10, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Well, well: the amphitheater in Hartford is dropping the corporate branding and returning to its original name, the Meadows Music Theatre. At least, until some other corporation coughs up a bundle of cash.
After (many) years of writing newspaper features, I'm the subject of one, about my Freak Scene newsletter, in the UMass Daily Collegian. Big thanks to Seamus Kelley for taking the time:
dailycollegian.com/2025/12/frea...
dailycollegian.com/2025/12/frea...
Freak Scene sheds light on the Valley’s underexposed music
Through the newsletter ‘Freak Scene,’ rock critic Eric R. Danton has worked to act as a guide for all the music the Pioneer Valley has to offer.
dailycollegian.com
December 9, 2025 at 6:12 PM
After (many) years of writing newspaper features, I'm the subject of one, about my Freak Scene newsletter, in the UMass Daily Collegian. Big thanks to Seamus Kelley for taking the time:
dailycollegian.com/2025/12/frea...
dailycollegian.com/2025/12/frea...
I know bands like Suede London and the Frames DC (and Dinosaur Jr!) have done this, but looking ideally for bands who part of their local/regional scene
Are you in a band that discovered you have the same name as another band? What did you do about it? Might have something interesting in the works here.
December 9, 2025 at 1:08 PM
I know bands like Suede London and the Frames DC (and Dinosaur Jr!) have done this, but looking ideally for bands who part of their local/regional scene
Are you in a band that discovered you have the same name as another band? What did you do about it? Might have something interesting in the works here.
December 8, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Are you in a band that discovered you have the same name as another band? What did you do about it? Might have something interesting in the works here.
This has me wondering: anybody else know of bands who changed their name after discovering other acts with the same name on Bandcamp or Spotify or elsewhere on social media?
Today in Outro adjacent news: our drummer, the Lucky Noam Schatz, changes his band's name to The Unlucky Shots, and still makes ridiculously good songs. We are in negotiations with the Indonesian band Outro to share global profits from our respective empires.
This week in Freak Scene, Hadley native Joshua David Thayer tells us about his new album, "So Little, Close to Nothing," and the Lucky Shots have become Unlucky through a turn of events:
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
December 8, 2025 at 3:03 PM
This has me wondering: anybody else know of bands who changed their name after discovering other acts with the same name on Bandcamp or Spotify or elsewhere on social media?
One of the quirks of overseas correspondence is OOO messages like the one I just got from someone in Italy who took a long weekend to celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
(I worked hard here not to write "to observe the Immaculate Conception" ...)
(I worked hard here not to write "to observe the Immaculate Conception" ...)
December 8, 2025 at 1:53 PM
One of the quirks of overseas correspondence is OOO messages like the one I just got from someone in Italy who took a long weekend to celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
(I worked hard here not to write "to observe the Immaculate Conception" ...)
(I worked hard here not to write "to observe the Immaculate Conception" ...)
Reposted by Eric R. Danton
This week in Freak Scene, Hadley native Joshua David Thayer tells us about his new album, "So Little, Close to Nothing," and the Lucky Shots have become Unlucky through a turn of events:
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
Freak Scene #95: Joshua David Thayer Finds His Voice
Plus, Northampton band the Lucky Shots have changed their name after their luck took a turn
buttondown.com
December 5, 2025 at 12:42 PM
This week in Freak Scene, Hadley native Joshua David Thayer tells us about his new album, "So Little, Close to Nothing," and the Lucky Shots have become Unlucky through a turn of events:
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
buttondown.com/freakscene/a...
Reposted by Eric R. Danton
Long, weird story here, but does anyone know how to trace fake FB profiles back to the person who created them? In this case, it wouldn't be a sophisticated operation. @craigsilverman.bsky.social?
December 5, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Long, weird story here, but does anyone know how to trace fake FB profiles back to the person who created them? In this case, it wouldn't be a sophisticated operation. @craigsilverman.bsky.social?
Long, weird story here, but does anyone know how to trace fake FB profiles back to the person who created them? In this case, it wouldn't be a sophisticated operation. @craigsilverman.bsky.social?
December 5, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Long, weird story here, but does anyone know how to trace fake FB profiles back to the person who created them? In this case, it wouldn't be a sophisticated operation. @craigsilverman.bsky.social?
Must have been an oversight: Northampton's weekly newsletter made no mention of the DPW's disastrous response to the snow Tuesday, or the mayor's plans for making sure it doesn't happen again.
December 5, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Must have been an oversight: Northampton's weekly newsletter made no mention of the DPW's disastrous response to the snow Tuesday, or the mayor's plans for making sure it doesn't happen again.