Trip Out to 2009’s Best Unheard Music
From Trans Am’s revved jams to chilled hypnotics by Swervedriver’s Adam Franklin, there’s plenty of unfairly unheard music from 2009. Wrap your ears around a head-trip’s worth in the streams […]
journo
Metromixed! Built to Spill, Rakim, Dinosaur Jr., Gift of Gab, The Bravery
I finally wrangled some more of my musical content from 2009. Here are four of my Metromix reviews involving the smoothest rappers alive, a guitar army, and a dark dance-pop […]
Can Aspartame Kill You?
Well, let’s start wrapping up the stragglers from my year’s worth of content, shall we? Starting with this investigation of the sugar substitute aspartame, which can either kill you outright […]
Best Music of the Millennium (So Far)
What’s crazy is that few saw it coming.
Ten Ways to Screw the Screwers
From economic misery and political impotence to environmental waste and social catastrophe, American culture is overburdened by nightmares. I wrote an acidic but nevertheless educational rant for AlerNet on how […]
Attack of the Foreclosed Homeowners!
Hey, have you heard the one about the underwater homeowners who unsuccessfully tried to modify their home loans, but got even by tying two loan servicers to chairs and beating […]
Are Religious Birth Rates For Suckers?
I’ve got some great editors at AlterNet. They always keeps me on my toes with interesting topics. One of my favorite editors recently assigned me an analysis of birth rates, […]
Viggo Mortensen’s Apocalyptic Road
“Further devastation of the air, land and sea is obviously a very real possibility.”
Give Thanks For Colbert, Superman, Batman
Stephen Colbert’s nightly merge of news, hilarity, social commentary, wit and shameless plugs for everything from his painting in the Smithsonian to his marketable man-seed have fully turned the pop-culture’s self-obsessed mirror upon itself.
10 Culture Turkeys That Put 2009 to Sleep
Happy Thanksgiving, Americans! You’ve got a lot to be thankful for. This is not that.
The Prisoner: An All-Star Appreciation
Its revolutionary mix of geopolitics, sci-fi and psychedelia has influenced not just television, but also music, comics, film and more.
Reboot of Patrick McGoohan’s Spy-Fi The Prisoner Stripped of Sci-Fi
What gets lost in the remake’s dark dissection of human relationships complicated by ubiquitous surveillance and callous commodification is, simply put, ambition.
Pixies Surrealize Doolittle’s Anniversary Tour
The greatest band of the ’80s and ’90s is back to rep its crossover knockout with a full-album tour, including B-sides.
Devo Returns, This Time With Rugs!
“De-evolution seems even more a part of our daily reality than ever. There is more misinformation, humans have overrun the planet, and it is not nuclear bombs we must fear, but the human mind. Or lack of it.”
The Prisoner Inspires Dhani Harrison’s TheNewNo2 Experiment
“It’s kind of like opening up a massive can of worms.”
Margaret Atwood, Apocalyptic Optimist
When people first started writing this stuff, they didn’t call it science fiction.
The Happy Hollows Cast Spells On Me
Led by unhinged front woman Sarah Neghadari, Los Angeles power trio The Happy Hollows make deranged art-rock with one foot in alternative music’s past and another in the YouTube future. […]
Econopocalypse Derailed By Antimatter
I always love to interview the conceptual artist Jonathon Keats. His art consists in crafting up out-there propositions that make you think and laugh in equal measure. His latest is […]
Step Aside McDonald’s, Subway’s Surging
Subway has managed to carve out a lucrative niche in a perfect storm of fast food and economic recession.
Difference Engine Reboots, Recomputes
“A friend suggested the William Gibson and Bruce Sterling book title for our band name, and we immediately took to it, since it encompassed our sound, which is a blend of human and machine.”
Superman + Batman = Public Enemies
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies packs more heroes, action and political satire into a couple hours of entertainment than either icon’s animated series did in the course of several seasons.
Motion Comic Or Illustrated Film?
Comics are coming to life these days, on screens big and small. They’re pwning box offices in Hollywood and Flash-animated versions are ruling downloads in iTunes. So what to call […]
The Black Keys’ Drummer Creates Band Called Drummer With Drummer Pals
One of the most fun interviews I’ve conducted recently was with a hung-over Patrick Carney, drummer for The Black Keys and architect of the new band called …Drummer!
Cli-Fi: The Age Of Stupid Gets Smart
By the time The Age of Stupid‘s flashbacks are over and the viewer is stuck in a ravaged 2055, the urge to do something immediate is palpable and powerful.
Q-Tip Resurrects Kamaal the Abstract
A Tribe Called Quest architect Q-Tip created a hypnotic solo album that stretched hip-hop’s envelope years ago. So why did it just drop today? File this one under “Lessons the […]