Not since an early teenage flirtation with Dungeons & Dragons has State ever really embraced the role playing genre with anything even approaching gusto, so it's a testament to just how good Dragon Age: Origins is that we've lost sleep, been late for work and even spent time on a bus worrying about which Dwarven faction for the vacant King-ship we should align ourselves with. You play as one of the last Grey Wardens, a legendary line of dark warriors who have traditionally protected the kingdom of Ferelden from the darkspawn, a race of [...]
"Is this the in place to be? What am I doing here? Watching the girls go by..." Saturday night in Dublin and a lot has changed since The Specials were last in town. Despite our economic woes there are still plenty of people out for a night on the tiles, no doubt helped by the occasion of a reasonably important football match. Inside the historic confines of the Olympia, however, time has not progressed so radically. The place is awash with slightly portly men with short hair and Fred Berry shirts, pork pie hats and an air [...]
For Terre Thaemlitz, audio is never "innocent." From Thaemlitz's earliest ambient recordings, through a series of incredible electro-acoustic projects for the Mille Plateaux label, to a current triple-life as producer of astringently political "radio shows," deep house auteur as DJ Sprinkles and K-SHE, and writer/polemicist, Thaemlitz's project has always been to unsettle any putative audience's assumptions of what constitutes knowledge and politics. Thaemlitz is also possibly dance music's finest socio-political commentator. Not to mention her continual "queering of the pitch." With DJ Sprinkles's Midtown 120 Blues somehow managing to be one of the best dance music albums of [...]
Halloween is coming! Zombieland is in theaters! IFC just ran a 1 hour doc on movie zombies! It's that most wonderful time of the year . . . There's a zip file, walking among the undead below. Oh, and before you start bitching: I know I didn't do every single letter. Deal with it. A is for Asher Roth. Yes, that's right, the mediocre Jewish rapper who was paired, by DJ Cinema on his recent "Stimulus" mixtape, with Jadakiss, Kanye West & Big Boi on " Is He Rich Like Me? " [...]
Someone I think, once said, "cycling is suffering". It was probably someone who won an important race or two, I'd wager, but I think the phrase is a little incomplete -- by the way, if no one is quoted as saying exactly that phrase, I take full and 100% credit (patent pending) -- but I'd like to add a part deux to that that goes a little sumfin like this... "Cycling is suffering, otherwise you are just riding a bicycle..." Now, before you get yourself in a tiffy that I'm some douchebag roadie [...]
A new version of Tap Tap Revenge, the most popular game for the iPhone and iPod Touch is being released on Wednesday. Tap Tap Revenge 3 will use Apple's in-app commerce system to allow players to download game tracks from major label artists. Two track bundles are priced at $.99 and 6 tracks at $2.99. At launch there will be more than 40 bundles available from major label artists, each with a custom theme (full list after the jump). The game will come with free tracks from LMFAO, Tiësto and Stroke 9, and another 100 [...]
Under the pretext of drug control suppressive police states have been set up throughout the Western world. The precise programming of thought feeling and apparent sensory impressions by the technology outlined in bulletin 2332 enables the police states to maintain a democratic facade from behind which they loudly denounce as criminals, perverts and drug addicts anyone who opposes the control machine. Underground armies operate in the large cities enturbulating the police with false information through anonymous phone calls and letters. Police with drawn guns irrupt at the Senator's dinner party a very special dinner party too that would tie up [...]
The 2009 Emmy Awards are upon us and Neil Patrick Harris is looking pretty dapper as our host for the evening. All of the ladies and gents in attendance were dressed to the nines, with a couple of exceptions. (January Jones, I'm looking at you...is that something Betty Draper would wear?) "30 Rock" led tonight's nominations with 22, followed by "Mad Men" with 16 nods. The highlights of the evening included Neil Patrick Harris [...]
T hank God the Sony Channel isn't dubbing tonight's Emmy telecast in Spanish. When Grey Gardens 's Drew Barrymore or Jessica Lange get onstage to give their acceptance speech (and you just know that one of them will), I want to hear them speaking, not some anonymous Spanish chick. I know I'm not supposed to admit to watching -- and liking -- Two And A Half Man , but I am thrilled that Jon Cryer won Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy [...]
Accused of being a "black-caped, black-garbed, death-worshipping church" with ranks of mindless "hooded snuffoids," they believed they were visionaries warning of the coming apocalypse. In the wake of the shootings at Columbine and with cult activity on the increase, this could have been ripped from the mainstream headlines throughout 1999. But at the end of the hippie dream, these were the charges levelled at one of the most controversial cults of the Sixties: the Process Church. In 1963, two people met at the L Ron Hubbard Institute of Scientology on Fitzroy Street, London. They were both studying [...]
Recently, along with 15 others, Sidney Poitier was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama as an "agent of change," and so I went back to revisit his film canon and found an interesting surprise. Poitier's great acting career reached its peak in the turbulent yet race-defining 1960s. However, he was at an artistic crossroads, a veritable career stalemate where his role as a strong African-American who defies societal norms while personifying the decent citizen led to creative atrophy. How does one defy stereotypes, and [...]
Tea Tornado marks the reclusive Marmoset 's second effort since parting ways with Secretly Canadian, and first since the passing of member LonPaul Ellrich. Perhaps these tertiary factors have contributed to a different sounding Marmoset, one that has a newfound obsession with pastries (three songs are titled after items you'd find in a bakery). Or perhaps Tea Tornado is the result of a band simply trying new things. On the surface, Tea Tornado is absolutely still Marmoset - the deadpan, sarcastic, haunting vocals of Jorma Whittaker, their trademark utilization of sonic space, and the [...]
My youngest is, as I write this, watching the first X-Men movie again (for the 5th time?). Such a great film. And lately, I've been ripping through Joss Whedon's astonishing run on Astonishing X-Men (the best X-book of all time, hands down) and the pretty nifty Ultimate X-Men bound volumes (Mark Millar is becoming one of my favorite writers, and I really dig Kubert's art as well). Add to that list the current Deadpool books, Wolverine First Class, Claremont's pretty-good-but-too-soon-to-te ll return to the X-Men, and you've got a renaissance for X-books. So, being a list fan . . [...]
PDX Pop Now! is like Oregon's muse about the weather: "If you don't like it, wait 30 minutes and it'll change." Here it's the music that's switching unpredictably and the heat that's stuck on a constant high. Yes indeed, musical diversity - more than any other festival PDX Pop Now! delivers variety - spanning Noise, Rock, Jazz and even Fear No Music 's classical quintet, the event has long outgrown it's 'Pop' label. The mix means that we all get to hear things that we wouldn't hear otherwise - this is the event's [...]
30 rock gets 22 nominations! Big success for 30 rock, which will be looking to retain the "Best comedy" award it has won for the last 2 years, and the best comedy actor/actress awards won by Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey last year. I have watched season 1 over the past few weeks and it is the best US comedy made for a long time. Lost did well, gaining 6 nominations, including outstanding drama series. Jermaine also got nommed for best comedy actor!! Heroes notably lacked any major nominations, and despite its revival Scrubs was also largely ignored. Read the [...]
SAOSIN FIND HIGHER GROUND ON SOPHOMORE ALBUM 'IN SEARCH OF SOLID GROUND' SET FOR SEPTEMBER 8TH RELEASE ON VIRGIN RECORDS SAOSIN Play Warped Tour's Hurley Stage Through August; Multi-Platform Pre-Release Download Promo Partnering With Alternative Press Bracingly crunchy and soaringly melodic, vibrating with all-out rocking ensemble work and emotional urgency, the second album release In Search of Higher Ground by Orange County, CA-based rock quintet SAOSIN has been set for release September 8, 2009, following a barnstorming summer playing this year's Vans Warped Tour. Maintaining a hair-raising energy level throughout, the album, [...]
SAOSIN FIND HIGHER GROUND ON SOPHOMORE ALBUM 'IN SEARCH OF SOLID GROUND' SET FOR SEPTEMBER 8TH RELEASE ON VIRGIN RECORDS SAOSIN Play Warped Tour's Hurley Stage Through August; Multi-Platform Pre-Release Download Promo Partnering With Alternative Press Bracingly crunchy and soaringly melodic, vibrating with all-out rocking ensemble work and emotional urgency, the second album release In Search of Higher Ground by Orange County, CA-based rock quintet SAOSIN has been set for release September 8, 2009, following a barnstorming summer playing this year's Vans Warped Tour. Maintaining a hair-raising energy level throughout, the album, IN SEARCH OF SOLID [...]
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen When we last left our favourite robots in disguise, the evil Megatron was powerless at the bottom of the ocean; Starscream was running away; and Optimus Prime was looking towards a peaceful co-existence with the human race. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen pretty much picks up were the original left off. The Autobots are working with the US army to track down the remaining Decepticons hiding around the globe. The Decpticons are secret looking for any remnants from the [...]
Early last year I wrote : "Her debut album is going to drop soon and then we'll all know for sure. Don't sleep. The name is Laura Izibor." I was wrong. Soon was supposed to be like in six months or so. That was February. It's now June and Let The Truth Be Told, Laura's debut has just dropped. Four years in the making. She wrote one of the songs when she was 15. She finished the recording when she was 20. In celebration of the long awaited debut I've put together this little mixtape [...]
I really enjoyed Dr. Lawyer Indian Chief's (of FreeDarko ) guest post on Straight Bangin' on the state of hip-hop last week. Joey had asked him to come up with his favorite rap albums of the century (this century) and he only came up with six (Ghostface's Supreme Clientele , Prodigy's Return of the Mac , MF Doom's Operation Doomsday , Dre's 2001 , Sacred Hoop's Sleep Over and El-P's Fantastic Damage ). Dr. LIC laid out his argument with six bullet points as to "Why Hip-Hop [...]
Vampire Weekend - Cousins
WKND PLYLST!! This has nothing to do with NEW MOON!
Bobby B's Top 50 Albums Of The Decade (#25-21)
HOT CHIP TAKE another crack at IT and I’m IN
Tila Tequila NSFW UStream Freak Out (Video)
