Oct
31

My Top Five Halloween Costume Predictions

It’s Halloween. A time for candy corn, jack-o-lanterns and Halloween parties filled with completely predictable costumes. Sure, costumes may change with the times, but each year you can count on two things 1) Hundreds of Thousands of girls will spend hours thinking of ways to “slutty” up their costumes and 2) guys will pick a… Continue reading »

Oct
30

Danger Mouse Says You Should Rent Deconstructing Harry (and so do I)

“When I got to college, I saw ‘Manhattan’ and ‘Deconstructing Harry.’ I thought to myself: Why do I relate so much to this white 60-year-old Jewish guy? Why do I understand his neurosis? So I just started watching all of his movies.” -Danger Mouse, New York Times Magazine You may think the Gray Album was… Continue reading »

Oct
27

Food and Liquor: Not Actually Bad for You After All

Such is life in this strange Internet age that by the time Lupe Fiasco’s debut record, Food and Liquor dropped last month, I was already over it. But it wasn’t lack of talent that led to my apathy, it was more a combination of the dude’s ubiquitousness paired with his brash arrogant attitude, paired with… Continue reading »

Oct
26

Peter, Bjorn and John and Maybe Mary But Definitely Not Paul

I have exactly one problem with the Peter, Bjorn and John album and it doesn’t have to do with the album’s sonic quality. It has more to do with the fact that the band’s name sounds like a description of a weird Swedish orgy, rather than the name of a group that produced one of… Continue reading »

Oct
25

Beards, Blazers & Glasses: The Secret Machines or Whither Goest Stoner Rock?

These are not the salad days of stoner rock. In the 1960′s, it seems like nearly every album was made for the narcotically inclined: 13th Floor Elevators, Hendrix, The Beatles,The Dead..et al. This proud trend carried into the 70′s , with the prog-rock bombast of groups like classic Pink Floyd and King Crimson,the roots reggae… Continue reading »

Oct
24

Mark Foley Needs a Hot Boy

Over the past month, the nation has been riveted by the Mark Foley scandal, in which the former Republican congressman got himself in trouble for allegedly attempting to seduce young Congressional pages via IM. Most recently, two days ago The Washington Post reported that Foley made friends with a wide circle of teenaged House of… Continue reading »

Oct
23

Beards, Blazers & Beirut: The Best Debut of 2006

2006 has not been a kind year for rookies. Whereas 2005 featured a spate of outstanding debuts (Clap Your Hands, Wolf Parade, Bloc Party, Go! Team), this year has been a mixed bag. From disappointing (Birdmonster, Annuals) to promising (Cold War Kids, Silversun Pickups) to straight-up very good (Voxtrot, Little Ones). Yet out of 2006′s… Continue reading »

Oct
20

Beards, Blazers & Glasses: Justin Timberlake Or Fear and Loathing in Los Angeles

100 years ago, a deranged Pole with a superior command of the English language wrote: …before I could come to any conclusion it occured to me that my speech of my silence, indeed any action of mine, would be a mere futility. What did it matter what anyone knew or ignored? What did it matter… Continue reading »

Oct
19

A Tale of 2 Dreams

Just last week, The Streets released the single “Prangin’ Out” from his The Hardest Way to Make An Easy Living album that dropped earlier this year. The album wasn’t without its charms but even so, it was easily one of the most disappointing releases of the year. The Streets’ once-bleak and resonant confessionals were replaced… Continue reading »

Oct
18

Beards, Blazers & Glasses Or The Hold Steady: The Best Band in the World?

There’s a moment at every Hold Steady show when you look around to examine the crowd. And you see nothing but euphoric smiles and blurred bodies, moving in rhythm to the pulverizing crush of guitars and keyboards and hot soft lights exploding out from the stage, where a small inconspicious balding man named Craig Finn… Continue reading »

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