The most jaw-dropping news of the week concerns Miley Cyrus. Apparently, someone likes her enough to stalk her. I am just completely perplexed by this. Someone can actually enjoy listening to her voice that much? Her stalker, 53 year-old Mark McLeod was arrested at his home in Georgia…oh that explains it. I guess his cousin already got married.
Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan are hanging out again. There goes Britney’s undies and Lindsay’s sobriety. It was nice knowing you.
Paris Hilton and Doug Reinhardt are back together. I guess they figured …

Vera Ramone King
Poisoned Heart: I Married Dee Dee Ramone (The Ramones Years)
Phoenix Books
6/10
Vera Ramone King’s Poisoned Heart recounts the story of the author’s tumultuous relationship with the Ramones’ core songwriter, Dee Dee Ramone. While the book has some unique and interesting insights into life behind the scenes in the lives of its subjects, it is plagued by repetitive passages and clichés.
I heard the book portrayed Dee Dee Ramone in such a negative light that his estate tried to prevent its release. This fact probably built more hype around …

22 year old. College student. New Jerseyite. Significant other.
Adora is all these things.
She is also a nude model.
“I have been modeling since February 2009,” Adora- better known as Adora the Great to family, friends and fans- admits in an email interview.
Although the self-described burlesque pick up artist’s career has just started, the cherry-haired, leggy beauty has managed to create a reputation as one of the most-in demand pin-ups in internet porn, gracing some of the most popular sites on the Web to date. As …

To complement the international uprising of Harry Potter fandom is the incomparable genre of “Wizard Rock”- the underground music movement birthed by Potter fans. The July 17th release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth installment of J.K. Rowling’s literary brainchild, has sparked interest in wannabe wizards and robed rock stars that obviously like to read.
Although…this is not completely true. Despite its seemingly embarrassing geeky nature, I figured that there must be more to Wizard Rock than dressing up like Hogwarts students and having musicians pretending to be …

Incubus
Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, CA
July 13, 2009

So-called “semi-celebrity” Candice Brown and I each shelled out eighty bucks for this Incubus show, so naturally, my expectations were high. Anticipation hit during one of the stuffy shuttle rides en route to the venue. I had seen Incubus perform a few years ago at the Wiltern after the release of Light Grenades, so I had no idea what to expect of the overall experience at such a big venue like the Hollywood Bowl.
Apparently Incubus didn’t either. This was their first time playing, as …

John Wayne Gacy’s paintings. Ed Gein’s Ghoul Car. Serial killer memorabilia is nothing new- nor are the legion of men and women who ply them, dating back to carnival shows in the 1940s and 1950s. But in the age of eBay and Pay Pal, access- to say nothing of the thousands upon millions raked from the enterprise- has made them more visible, even if the general public disapproves of them and the entrepreneurs who sell them.
Meet James Gilks. The part owner and proprietor of the Serial Killer …

Formed in 2005, Gallows are an English hardcore punk band from Hertfordshire, England. Guitarist Laurent Barnard united with bassist Stuart Gili-Ross, and with the rest of their band mates released their debut album, Orchestra of Wolves. The album caught the attention of Bad Religion’s Brett Gurewitz, who released it in the US on independent label Epitaph Records with new tracks including a cover of Black Flag’s “Nervous Breakdown.” In an interview, Gurewitz named Orchestra of Wolves as one of his favorite albums of 2007, praising it as being the best …

(500) Days of Summer
Fox Searchlight Pictures
9/10
(500) Days of Summer is that rare kind of film that transcends its genre and the stereotypes that follow. The film is, for lack of a better categorization, a romantic comedy, but it really works on so many more levels. Forget its indie marketing scheme, forget its little Sundance blurbs, and forget the trailer’s claims that “this isn’t a love story.” Sure the indie claims are backed up by the inclusion of numerous hipster-approved references, sure it was a hit at Sundance, and no, it …

Disclaimer: For the second installment of “Deck” we initially contacted Will Braun of Geez Magazine–the young guy we referenced in the post script to “Capes and Jeans”. But he wasn’t able to speak with us. We did contact his business partner Aiden Enns though. Enjoy.
At first glance, Aiden Enns does not seem like a disciple of cool. 44, bald, and sporting a gray goatee–according to a 2006 profile on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s website, (he’s 48 now) he seems every bit as un-with it as …

Kava Kava
Forwards
Midnight Swimming
6/10
Hmm…Kava Kava. Not quite sure what to make of this. For one thing, although they feature a full band this is a largely electronic release, so in terms of artists you might lump alongside them think Basement Jaxx, Daft Punk, Crystal Method and the like. However, there is something to keep in mind here. Namely: studio releases from electronic acts are often sub par and unlistenable. Music created for a dance floor doesn’t often translate well on a stereo, let alone an iPod or computer. …

Sing it Loud grew out of a friendship between cousins vocalist Pat Brown and guitarist Kieren Smith, who founded the group together and added members whom they met locally in the Minneapolis music scene. The band was offered a contract with Epitaph Records after playing only seven shows together. Their debut release for Epitaph was an EP produced by Josh Cain of Motion City Soundtrack, released in March 2008.
They released a full-length album, Come Around in September 2008, which hit #44 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart.
Roya Butler sat down during …

Elizabeth Wight, writer and creatively-driven mind, is the do-it-yourself front woman for the electro driven band, Love Grenades. She started developing her brainchild two years ago as a side project, which eventually became her full-time gig. Wight was heavily influenced by dance-punk band Le Tigre in forming the sound of Love Grenades. She writes, records, and arranges all the music by herself on her Pro Tools set up at home…Daniel Bedingfield style. From here, she began to share her music with others, attracting collaborators and producers such as electro producer, …

Jones Street Station
In Verses
Smith Street Records
7/10
Brooklyn band Jones Street Station does have a few things going for them. Their fusion of country and popular music makes them an interesting group to reach out to fans of both genres. In Verses, according to the band, is their debut album…Again. Including their drummer, newest addition Sam Rockwell, to the mix gives the group harder, mainstream rock grooves that would be absent otherwise in traditional country-folk music. And each player has his own strength. Bassist and singer Walt Wells holds it down. Keyboard …

In honor of Fair Month I have taken it upon myself to compile for you a guide for the helpful identification, avoidance, and outwitting of the creature known commonly to man as “The Carney”. The Carney or “Carnival Folk” are a nasty and thieving bunch with malice in their hearts and pasts darker than the thickest brambles, who roam the countryside snaring unsuspecting prey in their cotton candied traps. Carnies are one rung away on the evolutionary ladder from their cousin- the Circus Freak. Like them, they are …

Since taking the world- or at least Portland, Oregon- by storm with her debut album Do Not Stare eight years ago, Rachel Taylor Brown has inspired plenty of kudos from fans and confusion among critics struggling to define her nonconformist sound. Nearly eight years later, the self-described introvert and comic book geek is back at it again with Susan Storm’s Ugly Sister and Other Saints and Superheroes, a sprawling album depicting the dark, inner lives (and sometimes deaths) of heroes both imaginary and real. I caught up with Brown …

Mohsin Hamid
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Harcourt, Inc.
8/10
Some of you who have read the interview with Rachel Taylor Brown may have picked up on a reference to one or two major books. The Reluctant Fundamentalist is one of them. Written by a Pakistani émigré living in London, the novel is widely considered to be one of the first post-9/11 novels written from a Muslim point of view. It is also one of the more painfully honest works written since the Twin Towers collapsed (Towelhead by Alicia Erian, is another). …