I’ve known my share of douchebag gutter punks who yell “anarchy” while wearing a uniform consisting of torn pants with the ass-bib patch, a number of patches on their jacket and a thick layer of patchouli and natural muskiness. I hate these fucks. Being smelly and living off of stolen 7-11 hot dogs and Icees does nothing to combat the socio-economic problems that your idols are screaming about. Shut up. Go take a shower.Every now and again, I hear of someone who reminds me why I give a shit about …

Max Brooks & Ibraim Roberson
The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks
Three Rivers Press
9/10
Max Brooks rules pretty good. If you’re not hip to the most authoritative voice in contemporary zombie-awareness training, stay away from me should the undead start popping up. Between the Zombie Survival Guide and the tales included in World War Z lies all the knowledge one could use to fend off the zombie hordes. Headshots, crowbars (all the bashing power of a bat, PLUS the added bonus of being able to pry open doors), supply lists and more are …

FRIDAY
I’ve always considered Chicago to be America’s storage for cold, wind and uhhh, The Cubs. So, what could possibly make me go endure temperatures that I have only read about in books (the low 30’s!)? Screeching Fucking Weasel.
That’s right, Ben Weasel’s wily ass got back up to bat, and you’re damned right I traveled 2,000 miles simply for the chance that I would be able to scream along to “My Right” with one of my childhood heroes. Yes, yes, I know he’s been an asshole lately, but like a spouse …

CoCoComa
Things Are Not Alright
Goner Records
7/10
When you drink, the words you THINK are the lyrics rarely are. CoCoComa has found out that when you have this weird rockabilly-esque vibrato to your voice, it makes the lyrics less clear and I will be singing along with the wrong words. For example, “Suspicious” became “Surf Ninjas” very quickly. To make matters worse, me and this Johnnie Walker think we have the better lyrics.
However, wrong lyrics aside, this thing is exceptionally catchy. I am bouncing around and I am fucking tired and not so …

10. The Metal Mullet- The combination of the two single greatest hairstyles ever invented. It’s metal in the front and a trailer party in the back. They say the hair picks the man, and not the other way around. This sleek and slender cut was made famous by Jason Newsted of Metallica, and there’s no question that this stylish hair-doo helped him fill Cliff’s shoes.
9. Long and Straight- Aerodynamically perfect for pulling off a symmetrical head windmill all the while performing a simultaneous sweep on your Jackson flying V. A …

Grunge
Photos by Michael Lavine, Text by Thurston Moore
Abrams Image
7/10
At 27, I am old enough to have owned a Nirvana album while Kurt Cobain was still alive, but young enough to have never had the chance to see them on anything but MTV Unplugged. The grunge scene was one that appealed to me just as much as punk had; people who didn’t really feel that they belonged anywhere, dressed a step up from the homeless and knew how to make a guitar screech. Yes, I liked Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and …

All the way from “Oz”, St Leonards are the newest players on the Hollywood Sunset Strip. Named after their hometown, the independently run trio from Australia is charming, sincere, and stocking up on frequent flier miles. They are currently on a West Coast US tour starting and ending in Los Angeles.The beginnings of St Leonards started off as a solo project of front man, Shane Fritsch. Secretly funky bassist, Chris Koelma, and never ceasing to rock drummer, Jeff Doukakis, soon joined the St Leonards troupe. They recorded their eponymous debut …

Men Who Stare At Goats
Overture Films
8/10
Nearly every time I have seen George Clooney in a film, I think one of two things: “He was the WORST Batman” or “I wonder how E.R. ended.” Now was not one of those times. In Men Who Stare At Goats, Clooney and an accent-less Ewen MacGregor take a surreal journey through the borderlands of the U.S. military and the paranormal. I know, it’s fucking weird. However, with the help of a very despicable Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges being Dude-like once more, they pull …

Ill Mondo
Neal Rames!
Ill Mondo Records
7/10
It’s always good to get a Hip Hop record that cares more about lyricism and expression than creating dance cuts and “getting that dolla”. Ill Mondo’s production, coupled with Neal Rames’ fluid vocals wind their way through a variety of tempos and styles. While it may not be making them booties shake, it sure as fuck will find it’s way onto my party mixes, especially the track Natalie Moore, which has just the right amount of head-swaying drive without screaming for attention.
I’ve listened to this a …

Ludo
W/ Meese, Ha Ha Tonka and Without a Face
The Glasshouse, Pomona, CA
Last time I saw Ludo, they opened for Presidents of the United States of America and riding the high tide of their Love Me Dead single, now they were about to headline the night, and I have to tell you, I was pumped. So pumped I even watched ALL the opening bands.
First up was a tiny kid from Texas going by the moniker Without A Face. Clever, if not goofy, songs. Think Dashboard Confessional at the beginning and a …

  Femme fatales, bad girls, pistol packin’ mamas.  We all know who they are, what they are, their voluptuous figures and hard faces thrust in our eyes in television, movies, even video games.   Their names are etched in our brains.
  Sarah Connor.  Lara Croft.  Jill Valentine.   The list goes on and on, and stretches as far back as the earliest days of cinema, and even further still considering the volume of dime novel westerns published in the late 19th …

The Dear Hunter
W/ Thursday, Fall Of Troy, Touche Amore
Forget the music for a moment. I have never seen so many beards on stage. Then again, I’ve never seen Bon Iver live. Beneath all the hair, The Dear Hunter was undeniably rocking the Glass House for a grand total of thirty minutes. The last time I remember thirty minutes go by so fast was when I got my first decent facial seven years ago. (No, that is not what she said.) Fortunately The Dear Hunter has a handful of dates with …

Ahhh, free shit. You love it, I love it, EVERYONE loves it. With all the pirating and downloading and other shit that people claim to be the downfall of the record industry, it’s kind of amazing that a variety of labels and artists said “Eh, fuck it, give our shit away. For FREE!”
But, here you are, a compilation download with sweet artwork, a solid array of genres and actual effort put into it. Christine Curry did the artwork (ChristineCurry.com), Racket’s own Kateri Lirio mastered the thing and I, uh, drank …

The Road
Dimension Films
(In theaters Nov. 25th)

The Road, the new film based on Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel,  played on November 4th at a Gala as part of AFI’s Tribute to Viggo Mortensen. The film was preceded by a Q&A session with the actor who has been a star in such films as A History of Violence, Eastern Promises, and Lord of the Rings.
The Road follows the journey of a man and his son as they make their way across a stark wasteland after an unnamed global apocalypse as they …

Roya Butler: You’re an accomplished artist; what inspires your artwork?
Jeff Tremaine: The artwork I do is mainly paintings.  Inspiration… yeah, I don’t know how to answer that, it’s just something that I’ve always done…that’s a tough question.
RB: What ignited your passion for art?
JT:  Well, at an early age, I could always draw better than my peers, so it’s something that I always pursued.  I took classes, and it was just something that I was always interested in.  In my junior year of high school, I met up with a …

Converge
Axe to Fall
Epitaph Records
8/10
This isn’t really up my alley, but I gotta say, these guys shred. The drummer is a beast and the guitars keep up with some insane picking and fingerwork.  Like most hardcore/metal, I have no clue what vocalist Jacob Bannon is singing…er, I mean screaming, but that’s no big deal. Opener “Dark Horse” is my favorite on the album, which blows through its first four songs at a blistering pace, but things slow down for “Worms Will Feed.” “Wishing Well” has a killer intro with drums that …