Dan DeLuca

Dan DeLuca is an Inquirer pop music critic. But his "In the Mix" column in the Weekend section ventures further afield, into books, movies, TV, the Internet, graphic novels and anything you might call "popular culture."

Read Dan's blog In The Mix
Latest post: Hello, Darlins - 07/11/2009
Email Dan at ddeluca@phillynews.com

In the Mix: Top music videos
Phrequency: Highlights from the local music scene
PhillyGossip: 'Housewife' chats with Phillies in A.C.

Hello, Darlins

Before declaring himself King of Pop, he was - 06/28/2009: Dan DeLuca is The Inquirer's music critic When Elvis Presley died in 1977, back when Michael Jackson was an ambitious teenager with a bright future ahead of him, rock critic Lester Bangs famously wrote: "I can guarantee you one thing; we will never agree on anything as we agreed on Elvis."
ESSENTIAL MICHAEL - 06/27/2009: CRITIC DAN DeLUCA PICKS FIVE RELEASES, MUSIC AND VIDEO, THAT ENCAPSULATE THE JACKSON GENIUS.

The Jackson 5: The Ultimate Collection (1996) Any one of the three albums Michael recorded with his brothers Tito, Jermaine, Jackie, and Marlon in 1969-70 - Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5, ABC, and Third Album - would give a fair idea of just how fun a
'King of Pop' Is Dead - 06/26/2009: Michael Jackson, global icon, was 50

By Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Music Critic

Michael Jackson, 50, the dazzlingly talented Motown child star and pop innovator who defined the MTV era, is dead.
A singer by accident - 06/12/2009: Melody Gardot is making a name for her sophisticated music. She might never have found her voice if not for a near-fatal Philadelphia encounter with an SUV.

By Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Music Critic

NEW YORK - The lights are dimmed in Melody Gardot's Manhattan hotel room. So the sultry-voiced singer, who's been sensitive to light since she was struck by an SUV while riding her bike at Second and Callowhill Streets in 2004, is getting around without her trademark shades.
The songs of summer - 06/05/2009: Rock, pop, folk, classical and more are in season. Here's a sampling of the top acts coming here.

By Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Music Critic

The music business makes its money on tour these days, and summer is the season when everybody hits the road, fingers crossed, in hopes that with school out and the temperature rising, live music still seems like a necessary entertainment expenditure.
Hoots and Hellmouth deliver a rootsy gumbo - 05/28/2009: By Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Music Critic

If music be the food of life, then Hoots and Hellmouth is about to serve up its second helping of sustainable sounds.
Comedy, confidence, and Coldplay - 05/22/2009: Front man Chris Martin talks about Woody and Kanye, angst and doubt, and those "six notes" that led to a lawsuit.

By Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Music Critic

Chris Martin is the most well-mannered of rock stars. When the Coldplay front man calls from Los Angeles because his band is playing the Philadelphia area for the third time since last June's release of Viva La Vida, he's like a job candidate intent on asking as many questions as he's asked.
Man on the move - 05/21/2009: Folk-rocker and novelist John Wesley Harding is bringing his sophisticated storytelling to World Cafe Live - and his family to a home in Philadelphia.

By Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Music Critic

There's an Englishman who's moving to Mount Airy from Brooklyn sitting at a cafe in Manayunk, explaining the ways in which his two artistic callings are extremely different from each other, yet still very much the same.
A stronger 'Relapse' than expected - 05/19/2009: By Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Music Critic

Go ahead and call it a comeback. Eminem's new album, Relapse (Aftermath ***), is his first since his worst, Encore, which came out in 2004. And no good news came out of the Marshall Mathers camp in the interim, from the shooting death of his best friend Proof (Deshaun Holton) in 2006 to the word last year that a not-so-Slim Shady had ballooned to more than 200 pounds and was starting to actually look like an M&M.
Green Day's rock opera for '21st Century' generation - 05/15/2009: By Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Music Critic

What American Idiot first suggested, 21st Century Breakdown confirms: Billie Joe Armstrong is the Pete Townshend of the first decade of the new millennium.