iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Eric R. Danton

Perennial @perennialtheband.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Including us, Perennial!

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Finally listened to "Choosin' Texas" and of course Miranda Lambert co-wrote that (complimentary)

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Had an assignment to review Ed Sheeran tonight at Gillette Stadium. Guessing the decision to cancel wasn't a particularly tough one, given the context, but am OK not having to drive home in the torrential rain that's predicted

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Reposted by Eric R. Danton

Henning @henningo.com · 25/09/2026

A really lovely review of our new album by Eric Danton.

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

This week in Freak Scene, Wallace Field shows off her strong voice on a new five-song EP, and Gentle Hen are back with their eighth album: buttondown.com/freakscene/a...

buttondown.com

#137: Wallace Field's 'Fantasy' EP

Plus, Gentle Hen's music is a version of what it sounds like to make a life in Western Mass.

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Reposted by Eric R. Danton

Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 23/09/2026

This month's @motherjones.com cover is astounding. Reposted with alt text:

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Assumed for a second that "You Can See Everything" was a Lauren Boebert biopic

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

While I feel for the people stranded at a hotel in Reykjavik without luggage after their flight got diverted, who packs their toiletries — like toothpaste and a toothbrush — in their checked bags? This is a subskeet

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Hear bells pealing on the Smith campus just now and hoped for The Best, but it’s probably just Mountain Day

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Real Madrid losing to Atlético and then squabbling with the facha president of La Liga seems like a wonderful way to start the international break www.nytimes.com/athletic/762...

nytimes.com

Real Madrid 'living in another galaxy' over officiating, club calls on La Liga boss to resign

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

This just keeps going and going

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Nice shout-outs for Turn It Up and Northampton!

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

New in Freak Scene, Ciarra Fragale goes in an unexpected direction on her new album "Digital Bath," and the good folks in Perennial are back with their splendid third LP: buttondown.com/freakscene/a...

buttondown.com

#136 Ciarra Fragale Takes a 'Digital Bath'

Plus, Perennial are back with their third LP, and the first Flo Fest is ready to go

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Death Cab for Cutie are booked at Mohegan Sun Arena April 9 next spring, and that seems like such a drab place to see them

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Never much got into System of a Down, but Tom Morello's song with Serj Tankian, "Adjourn It" (with Roman Morello on guitar) slaps: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSmA...

youtube.com

Tom Morello - “ADJOURN IT”

YouTube video by Tom Morello

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

PR pitch for “artists most likely to put you to sleep” means it in a different way than I do

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Love the emails from middle school teachers that have way more detail on their attendance policies than what they're going to teach. Do I have to get oppositional with you this soon?

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

It's only tangentially connected to what I'm working on, but someone who knows a lot about copyright law could write a fascinating* account of "Haywire Mac" McClintock's attempts to copyright a bunch of folk songs he didn't write *Fascinating to me, anyway

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Reposted by Eric R. Danton

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

New: Macklemore says Robert Kraft — who owns Gillette Stadium, where Macklemore & Ed Sheeran were to perform later this month — called Sheeran. Kraft rallied other owners together behind an ultimatum for Sheeran: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you won't be allowed in our venues.

I'm not sure how to start this. So I'm going to speak from the heart and share the truth. Ed Sheeran and his team have made the decision to remove me from The Loop tour.
But before I get into it, I want to say something that should be obvious. In this moment I think it matters. I am not a victim. Ed Sheeran is not a victim. Pink is not a victim. We have careers, money, opportunities, safety and audiences around the world. Whatever consequences any of us face for what we say, we get to go home to our families.

The victims are the Palestinian people. The men, women and children who have been killed, starved, displaced and forced to live through unimaginable violence. More than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza alone. People are being killed today, and people will be killed tomorrow. I want to make sure that as I tell this story, we don't lose sight of that.

Ed is my friend. I've known him for 13 years. We've shared late nights, studio sessions and stages. He has this infectious magic about him that I've grown to love. I consider him a brother. And because of that, we've had some difficult conversations this past week. The type of talks rooted in love and respect for one another that still end in a place of fundamental disagreement. Nothing I'm writing here is out of spite or because I want to tear down his character. But as I told Ed multiple times on the phone, our friendship can't change my responsibility to tell the truth about what happened.

Last Monday, in the middle of all the media attention surrounding Pink and what I said at MetLife, Ed told me that Robert Kraft called him. We were scheduled to play Gillette Stadium later this month, which is owned by the Kraft Group. Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium. Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other
stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.

Ed was in …

What I said at MetLife I have been saying on stages around the world for almost three years. So why is it an issue now? Because now I'm sharing a stage with one of the biggest artists in the world, in some of the biggest stadiums in America. At a certain level of exposure, "Free Palestine" becomes too much of a risk. If I kept doing the shows, saying Free Palestine, with Ed implicitly supporting it, the crowd getting loud and showing undeniable support for Palestinian liberation, what artist might speak out next? The stage becomes resistance. Maybe that's why this time it became so important to silence me.

And one of the most effective ways to enforce that silence has been to weaponize the accusation of antisemitism. Antisemitism is real. And that is exactly why the word matters too much to be used as a shield against criticism of the Israeli state. When criticizing Israel, opposing Zionism or saying "Free Palestine" gets conflated with hatred of Jewish people, it doesn't protect Jewish people. It protects Israel from accountability.

I hope this isn't the end of my relationship with Ed.
Thirteen years of friendship doesn't disappear because of one painful disagreement. I hope we both continue listening, studying what is happening in Palestine and wrestling with what neutrality means in a moment like this. My door will always be open to continuing that conversation.

When my brother Omar was doing the subtitles for the video I posted from MetLife, I thanked him. He told me there's a phrase in Arabic:
لا شكر على واجب
"La shukra ala wajeb." There is no thanks for a duty.
That stayed with me. Because that's what this has become for me and millions of others around the world. A duty. Not something deserving of praise or gratitude. Not brave. Human.

Who is winning the internet, who is getting canceled, who gets to play the stadium and who doesn't, all of it becomes so small when held against what we are actually witnessing in Gaza and the West Bank. An entire people be…

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Reposted by Eric R. Danton

Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

New this week in Freak Scene: Stafford Springs has a band, Calendula, and they're very good. (I spent a year way back when covering Stafford for the Hartford Courant, and there was nothing like this then). buttondown.com/freakscene/a...

buttondown.com

#135: Calendula Are Introspective on Self-Titled LP

Plus, ska band Be Decent, featuring a rhythm section from Manchester (the CT one), release their first album next week

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Are people just sleeping on "Emma Peel" or what? This song has everything you could possible want, in just 73 seconds www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH9u...

youtube.com

Emma Peel

YouTube video by Perennial - Topic

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

buttondown.com

#135: Calendula Are Introspective on Self-Titled LP

Plus, ska band Be Decent, featuring a rhythm section from Manchester (the CT one), release their first album next week

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Franco had to wait three years to ban it, though, because it was published just after the Spanish Civil War had begun

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Reposted by Eric R. Danton

lys @bedsores.rest · 10/09/2026

nice writeup of gatheringdust on freak scene. there's a relief in someone just putting an "i get it" out there about something you've made. yup you got it! buttondown.com/freakscene/a...

buttondown.com

#134: Alyssa Kai Lets Go on 'gatheringdust'

Plus, Connecticut folk-pop duo Carlyle release their debut single

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Guy at the school band instrument pickup wearing a GBV hoodie and a Jack White t-shirt

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

But you'd better get ready, 'cause it's coming either way

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Shout-out to the guy at the cafe wearing pajama pants and a sport coat

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Found a 1967 letter from IWW historian Fred Thompson responding to the always puffed-up Irwin Silber, of Sing Out!, on the topic of labor songs, in which Thompson promises to get acquainted with Sing Out! "despite an incapacity to relish most folk singing"

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

New in Freak Scene, Greenfield singer Alyssa Kai has a new solo album after a decade, while new CT folk-pop duo Carlyle make a promising debut: buttondown.com/freakscene/a...

buttondown.com

#134: Alyssa Kai Lets Go on 'gatheringdust'

Plus, Connecticut folk-pop duo Carlyle release their debut single

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Wife once embarked on a years-long bureaucratic odyssey to get a place name corrected on a GNIS map that had a simple spelling error, so the whole idea that one dipshit in a fit of pique can by fiat rename entire international bodies of water should maybe be more closely examined

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Has Wirecutter done Best Non-White Supremacist Password Keeper?

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

"Is the antichrist in the room right now?"

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Retrospectives and commemorations of 9/11 almost always get me, but this one hits extra hard

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Ffs, can we just have one useful thing that doesn't have fascist overtones?

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Reposted by Eric R. Danton

Perennial @perennialtheband.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

The newest edition of The Perennial Sound is here! Run it up Perennial fans! orcd.co/emmapeel

orcd.co

Perennial - Emma Peel

Choose your preferred music service

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Weird to learn by chance through social media that someone I've been writing for since the early 2010s has left the publication I was contributing to. Have I aged out of some portion of the music-writer freelance grind?

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Just not into a "genre-bending take" on the Byrds album "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" ...

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

I would contribute to a fund to tear down and replace the ballroom with something tasteful

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Always comforting to see spelling and or/grammatical errors in the messages that come home from middle school

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Reposted by Eric R. Danton

Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

"Seven Wonders" by Fleetwood Mac and "Deacon Blues" by Steely Dan are the same song. "I'll learn to work the saxophone / I'll make a path to the rainbow's end"

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Eric R. Danton @erdanton.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

This week in my Freak Scene newsletter, new singles from Cloudbelly and the New Haven pop-punk quartet Dagwood: buttondown.com/freakscene/a...

buttondown.com

#133: Cloudbelly and Dagwood Release Singles

The Western Mass. and New Haven bands each have new albums on the way

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