Press
Vulture
“With wit and vigor, Dead Outlaw investigates a country obsessed with liberty and heroism, where the free market smiles darkly over it all, hinting that most of us are probably worth more dead than alive.”
The New York Times
“This is lean-in storytelling, performed by eight actors conjuring several dozen characters. With a high-energy onstage band conducted by Rebekah Bruce and including Della Penna on guitar, banjo, vocals and wailing lap steel, the score hopscotches from country to rock to jazz.”
Theater Mania
“I’ve never seen a leading man so stiff. And that’s a compliment when it comes to Dead Outlaw, the jaw-dropping new musical by David Yazbek (music and lyrics), Erik Della Penna (music and lyrics), and Itamar Moses (book)… It’s a doozy of a debut.”
New York Stage Review
“Dead Outlaw is one of those unthinkably unwieldy-sounding ideas that turns out—in the right hands—to make a rip-roarin’ bullseye of a new-style musical.”
DC Theater Arts
“A blockbuster cast of eight and a powerhouse five-piece band deliver it with full-blown mastery and full-out commitment, with not a single weak link among them, as they transition fluidly from scene to scene, character to character, gallows humor to tragic pathos, sensitive ballad to psychobilly and country-western to Vegas lounge-act musical stylings.”
Roots World
“Though Hazmat Modine’s nominal ancestry is based on folk traditions, careful listening shows that the band’s music is a thoughtful refinement of that global heritage. Schuman and company are not folk musicians—no blacksmith cum fiddler here—they are artists channeling the egalitarian heart of roots music for everyday folks.”
Music Tap
“There’s no doubt this is brilliant material – those who doubt that need to take a listen close – and it’s kinda fun to revisit it, fresh and out of context.”
New York Music Daily
“Retro charm and devilish levels of detail in this New York-themed collection of originals and reinvented swing tunes from the iconic accordionist/chanteuse and the subtly slashing, brilliant Kill Henry Sugar guitarist/frontman.”
Relix
“Stop worrying about who these cats are—OK, they’re led by this eccentric multi-instrumentalist named Wade Schuman and a whiz of a guitarist, Erik Della Penna, who co-write the tunes—or where they came from, and just let its multitude of sonic miracles sweep you away.”
American Songwriter
Sometimes, Kill Henry Sugar can sound like the inheritor of the Mississippi Delta Blues, a folk-blues band scattering its notes and hooks and frighteningly memorable melodies like unpolished gems at the floor near your feet. At other times, they sound like a post-rock act covering Johnny Cash; all the emotion and swagger is still there but the notes are stripped bare, each fragile and set in perfect place.
The Washington Post
“But when left to their own devices, the duo, going under the name Kill Henry Sugar, prefers to keep things in a minor key, sparsely arranging Della Penna's curious tales, quietly accenting his hushed tenor voice and leaving listeners to connect the dots.”
Roots World
“While Hazmat Modine has evolved across its five albums and 20-plus years, it continues to create music that is richly textured, pleasantly surprises and maintains listeners' interest over the long haul.”
Paste Magazine
“The lo-fi recordings prove surprisingly nuanced and evocative, providing the sonic ballast for songs exploring the lighter side of one’s darker feelings without sliding into farce or novelty. These are really sad songs, disguised as something else entirely.”
American Songwriter
“This is a collection of spare, stirring and emotive numbers that are raw and beautiful, like unpolished gems freshly pulled from the soil beneath your feet.”
All About Jazz
“But the style, typically deemed ‘unclassifiable,’ is more that of a swarm—beautiful in its intricacy, multiple in its sources and overwhelming in its effect”.