James Callahan

VIDEO PREMIERE: Elvis Aron Deadly hauntingly laments ‘I Wish I Believed (In Fairy Tales)’

VIDEO PREMIERE: Elvis Aron Deadly hauntingly laments ‘I Wish I Believed (In Fairy Tales)’

Anyone who has listened to a horror punk band may assume they know what they’re going to hear next from All the Damn Vampires frontman Elvis Aron Deadly, but this freshman solo effort from the Wilkes-Barre singer, titled “I Wish I Believed (In Fairy Tales),” is a personal, revealing step away from the genre for […]

 James Callahan

VIDEO PREMIERE: Markus A. D. croons haunting doo-wop heartache over ‘Ms. Sery’

VIDEO PREMIERE: Markus A. D. croons haunting doo-wop heartache over ‘Ms. Sery’

Late last year, the Camp Rattler crew helped Wilkes-Barre singer/songwriter and Plains native Markus A. D. debut a moody little folk punk ballad called “Sharing a Breath” on this page, and today we’re back with a new emotional number called “Ms. Sery,” recorded at JL Studios in Olyphant. For the accompanying black-and-white music video, I’ll […]

 James Callahan

VIDEO PREMIERE: Old school Easton punk rockers El Destructo reignite with ‘Live That Way’

VIDEO PREMIERE: Old school Easton punk rockers El Destructo reignite with ‘Live That Way’

An Irish 17th-century folk song passed down through the centuries from campfire to campfire, later to The Dubliners, then to the Thin Lizzy boys in 1963, and eventually found “her” way to metal chieftains Metallica, quips the following: “Now some men like a fishin’ And some men like the fowlin’ And some men like to […]

 James Callahan

VIDEO PREMIERE: Folk punk rocker Markus A. D. is ‘Sharing a Breath’ with his demons on the Nicholson Bridge

“Sharing a Breath” by small town goth Markus A. D. is a moody little folk punk ballad that enters the brain slowly and then lodges itself in the heart, not unlike something sharp and cold getting stuck in and then abruptly broken off. The Wilkes-Barre singer/songwriter and Plains native claims a simple but rich life […]

 James Callahan

VIDEO PREMIERE: Alt rapper Animal Tongue and Prick Wolf make you ‘Blush’ with new NEPA sound

VIDEO PREMIERE: Alt rapper Animal Tongue and Prick Wolf make you ‘Blush’ with new NEPA sound

Greetings, Campers. This brief but strange tale sets its origins almost a decade ago, in the time of The Rattler. Coiled in Pittston, The Rattler was a rowdy, smoky rock and roll burger joint that was run by a bunch of cool kids and presided over irresponsibly by yours truly. Although it was less than […]

 James Callahan

VIDEO PREMIERE: Meet Terry Childers and kiss the industrial ‘Apocalips’ of Wilkes-Barre’s Trashbot

VIDEO PREMIERE: Meet Terry Childers and kiss the industrial ‘Apocalips’ of Wilkes-Barre’s Trashbot

Approximately 300 years ago in an alternate universe, a very long-haired and wildly asshole-ish version of myself owned and operated a cafe and venue in the badlands of Wilkes-Barre. OK, it was the early 1990s, which seems like a few centuries ago while simultaneously seeming as though it was yesterday. This slice of my and […]

 James Callahan

A Camp Rattler profile: Guitarist, Black Earth alchemist, and freemason TJ Bell

A Camp Rattler profile: Guitarist, Black Earth alchemist, and freemason TJ Bell

TJ Bell and I initially met in the winter of 2009 at a tiny “drinkers” bar called Nak’s by the Tracks in Exeter. I had just recently returned to Northeastern Pennsylvania from a New York City burnout and was, at the time, finishing the first draft of a textbook on artist management and development for […]

 James Callahan

VIDEO PREMIERE: Resilient rocker Karen Bella takes a shot of ‘Jack Honey’ in debut music video

VIDEO PREMIERE: Resilient rocker Karen Bella takes a shot of ‘Jack Honey’ in debut music video

Early in March, the gang here at Camp Rattler in West Pittston was contacted by our superstar PR agent Denise Kovalevitch of DMK Publicity, her boutique agency located in the greater Philadelphia area. Denise, who I have known since the mid-’90s, works with clients such as Blues Traveler, Candlebox, Steve Vai, Corey Glover of Living […]

 James Callahan

A Camp Rattler profile: Blues rocker Kaleigh Baker and the killer tale of the ‘Pittston Pistol’

A Camp Rattler profile: Blues rocker Kaleigh Baker and the killer tale of the ‘Pittston Pistol’

Kaleigh Baker is a Florida-based singer/songwriter that is organically and unapologetically armed to the teeth with unbridled vocal enormity. Possessing equal parts soul, blues, and rock, she weaves a tapestry of tension, beauty, and intrigue that will chill the most jaded of critics. This tidal wave of emotion smashes like a war hammer into your […]

 James Callahan

A Camp Rattler profile: Cult visionary and Noir Dark Spirits proprietor Josh Balz

A Camp Rattler profile: Cult visionary and Noir Dark Spirits proprietor Josh Balz

My initial interaction with Josh Balz began sometime after he had chosen to leave Motionless In White to pursue other endeavors and my trashy little rock bar, The Rattler in Pittston, had closed due to structural difficulties. Well… the back fell off the building. I found myself venue-less and saddled with several storage units, crammed […]