P Is For Panda
Mix Tape Vol 1
Hopeless Records
7/10

Sweet lord, I am so stoked that there are at least the eight artists on this “mix tape” that sing their lyrics in a way you can…gasp!…understand what the crap they’re saying. My concern, however, is that several of these acts, such as Mike Dunn and the Kings of New England and Josh Moore, delve in to the shimmery sounds that I often associate with the nations leading Christian Adult Contemporary acts. AKA: Lame. But then you have the country-tinged Pasadena and Damien …

Lakehurst
Euan Aura
Self Released
5/10

Oh, good, I was curious what the next generation of teen romantic comedies were going to fill their coming of age soundtracks with. Found it! Whatever the next Can’t Hardly Wait is going to be, just grab a couple of these jams for the scene where the protagonist pines for the girl of his dreams and again for their inevitable realization that they belong together. And maybe one more if she dies of some kind of cancer, but they realize the time they spent together was all …

Unwritten Law
Live and Lawless CD/DVD
Suburban Noize
7/10
Growing up and growing old in the punk scenes of the ‘90s and ‘00s, I never got into Unwritten Law. That could be a good, bad or irrelevant thing, depending on who you ask. I get the general impression that, at least for the first half of their existence, Unwritten Law was, to some extent, written off.
I don’t personally know anyone who listens to them. I’ve seen them several times and never left feeling like I had seen anything special. The band has, however, …

Fiasco
Native Canadians
Impose Records
6/10

First things first, from the first measure, the recording of this sounds like high school garage band shit. But, the bitch also has the same passion and unabashed enthusiasm of a high school garage band. You know what…yea. That’s it. They sound like a spastic high school band (oh, I forgot to mention that there is no singer to be found) who listened to buttloads of At The Drive In, and went on to follow Mars Volta instead of Sparta after the break up. I may enjoy …

Emilie Simon, Sunny Levine and Lucas Hass Live
September 8th Roxy Theatre, Hollywood, CA
The Emile has landed. The out-of-this-world French songstress set up shop for a very special one-night only performance at the Roxy in West Hollywood. Not only was the show an electronic extravaganza down to its very technical detail, it introduced the beloved Parisian to a new, unsuspecting audience on American soil. The composer, singer-songwriter torn down the Sunset Strip with a smashing live set on a memorable Tuesday night.
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Before Emilie Simon took the stage, plenty of acts …

Holy Hail
Independent Pleasure Club
Kanine Records
8/10
Okay, I have to be up front. Having read the press kit that came with this disc, I absolutely wanted to hate this band. When I read “pop…and electro with an occasional country twang” the first thing that came to mind was “Cotton Eye Joe” by Swedish dance group Rednex. Holy Hail, you did not make a good first impression. I am available to write press kits, by the way.
Luckily for Cat and crew, the supposed country influence is overstated, and the disc is incredibly solid. …

Unwritten Law
House of Blues Anaheim
September 12, 2008
I’ve never claimed to have good taste in music. Well, not much anyway. There was a time in my life when all I listened to was Our Lady Peace, the Ataris, and Unwritten Law. Am I ashamed? Maybe a little, but shame will do me no good when I still listen to some of the aforementioned music. I will gladly defend Our Lady Peace and possibly even abashedly stand by the Ataris until someone brings up “Boys of Summer” and I feel silly. …

The Walkmen
The Basement in Columbus, Ohio
Monday, September 15, 2008
A Subdued Performance for a Subdued City
This past Sunday Hurricane Ike managed to strike my Midwestern home of Ohio. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it’s true. Eighty mile per hour winds sent trees crashing to the ground all over the state, causing power outages for over one million households. When I woke up Monday and power had yet to be restored, I was a little irritated. When the power company announced that it would be Wednesday before anyone was likely to …

The Modern Society
The Beat Goes On
Original Signal Recordings
8/10
This band hailing from Atlanta, Georgia was formed in 2005. The Beat Goes On is their sophomore release, following 2006’s Friends & Enemies. The songs are straightforward rock’n’roll with a tip of the hat to the classic era of rock – think the Stones or the Flamin’ Groovies. Signs of the group’s southern heritage are evident. The vocals are strong and give the album a bit more of an edge than it might otherwise possess. It’s a solid effort throughout. My favorite …

Gym Class Heroes
The Quilt
Fueled By Ramen/Decaydence
8/10

Even though they associate with people who I think represent themselves in a very pompous and overly artsy way, both times I’ve had the chance to chat it up with Travis and the boys, they have been more down to earth and legit than just about any other band I’ve interviewed. That being said, I have both praise and criticism for their new album, The Quilt.
Some of the jams , like Catch Me If You Can and Peace Sign/Index Down are fun and quirky …

Doomtree
Self Titled
Doomtree Records
9/10
It is shit like this that gives me hope for the future of rap. Fuck club anthems, fuck songs that are designed to get their three weeks of TRL rotation (well, we don’t have to worry about that much longer!) and fuck the beats that have been used more than a Sunset Strip hooker. Doomtree comes out with an album that grabs your hair and dunks you deep into pools of thought. It may be rough, but it’s good for you. Doomtree is made of five emcees and …

Star Fucking Hipsters
Until We’re Dead
Fat Wreck
8/10
This is by far Stza Crack at his most tolerable. This would have been my bible, should I once again become a 9th grade leftist, spitting out bumper stickers slogans as my beliefs and pinky swear by shit I had no clue about. But, with all the Bush-bashing and blanket statements, it really just makes me shake my head. Michael Moore is stoked. The tunes are solid and varied, with pianos, marching snare beats, and everywhere from legit singing to screaming that sounds like …

20th Annual Taste of Newport
Fashion Island, Newport Beach, CA
September 19-21, 2008
Well, shit. I, your humble awesome Emperor, was going to write a lot about the Newport Food Festival, the sights (Tommy Bahama shirts and fake breasts), the sounds (STYX, MOTHERFUCKER!!!!) and the tastes (Free Tira Misu!? I ROCKED POMPODORO’S SPINNY WHEEL!!!), but really, other that how fucking epic The Grand Illusion was live, the lovely ladies I went with pretty much covered it. OK, I really want to hammer this home: The Taste of Newport nailed the live entertainment, …

The War Nerd
Gary Brecher
Soft Skull Press
Rating: 4/10
If memoirs were the province of WWII, then blogs would have to be the defining medium of the War on Terror. Since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, several “war blogs” have popped up on the Internet, including Iraqi Salam Pax’s Where Is Raed?, JP Borda’s milblogging.com, and others. Several, like Pax’s poignant tome about the search for his missing friend, were turned into books, and many of the bloggers themselves went on to become mini-celebrities in their own right. Through …

Once upon a time, I lived in a dreary and desolate place. I lived alone in the dank and the dust in a dorm room in the worst of all Southern California cities- San Bernardino. Alone with nothing but my computer and my insomnia to guide me, I became addicted to the worst of things- web comics. Yes, I know. The nerdiest of the nerdies. What can be worse for poor social skills than reading about people with poor people skills?
Somehow, I survived, and no longer live in the …

So, many of you fine (and I mean you, girl, damn!) readers know of a recent shake up at Racket. There has been a great deal of int0rw3bz chatter about it, with lots of name-dropping, name-calling and name…comics. OK, so, here’s my account of this shit and how it went down on this end.
Our boy Aaron got a hold of the Dillinger 4 stream from Fat Wreck Chords and got overzealous with the link and password (which, as a buttload of people now know was Timberwolves!) on …