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 …

  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 …

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 …

This week started off with the fall heard around the world…Brad Pitt, Father of the Year, took a spill on his motorcycle when he was trying to maneuver between cars at a red light in LA. I think all of his facial hair is weighing him down and throwing off his balance.
Lisa Rinna and her husband, Harry Hamlin owe a Los Angeles shopping center $635,083.73 in unpaid rent. They signed a ten year lease in 2005, but closed down shop 6 years too early. They obviously need to start saving …

I am human and I need to be loved, just like everybody else does
In part 4 of the “Deck” series, we explored the impact of the hipster culture on Black America. Now we explore a topic that is near and dear to hipsters everywhere: the dating game. Online, in the bar, it’s all the same- only the contest has gotten cheaper, financially and otherwise, with sometimes humorous results.
Since time immemorial, men and woman have gone to extraordinary lengths in order to woo …

So it’s Halloween weekend. For some of you, that means another lame party with cliche costumes galore. Zombies, nurses, vampires, oh my! But if you’ve got any sense about you, it means you’re making the trek to Gainesville for the best party of the year, and Halloween’s got next to nothing to do with it.
Don’t believe it’s the best? How do you think they get away with simply calling it The Fest? But I digress! For those of you making the trip for the first time, Racket presents a list …

The AFI Film Festival 2009 is returning to Hollywood Oct 30-Nov. 7th with a selection of fantastic programs and films. Highly anticipated titles like THE ROAD and Heath Ledger’s last film to be shot before his death THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS are being screened here first before their theatrical releases, as well a variety of shorts and fantastic not-to-be-seen anywhere else movies you may never have the opportunity to catch ever again. Other events worth dropping in to catch are the always popular AFI Digifest, this year’s twist …

As many of you know, it’s been just about 10 months since Polaroid left behind their “instant film” line for the digital camera market. Ten months since Polaroid made the biggest mistake of their damned life.
As I have two of their instant film cameras and having used them for everything from my old day job of busting perps (mug shots!), a date in San Diego (she was hot), to a visit from an out-of-town friend (www.facebook.com/joshcomics), I would consider myself pretty familiar with that line of products. I’ve always enjoyed …

Who doesn’t love the smell of silicone in the morning? Celebrities definitely do. For your reading pleasure, a collection of the top ten worst celebrity plastic surgeries.
10. Tara Reid- confirmed to have body contouring/liposuction and breast implants. Of course it’s confirmed, we all saw the scars when her dress “accidentally” fell off her shoulder.  Please. That was no accident and we all know it. Go back to Taradise.
9. Brittany Murphy- rumored to have lip injections. Inject all the fat into your lips that you want, Brittany. You’re still going to …

Fewer things encapsulate the desires of this here Emperor better than Lucha Va Voom. Seriously, Monsters, violence, hot chicks dancing around mostly naked and beer. If there were some robot characters in the mix, we’d be GOLDEN.
Returning to the Mayan Theatre in LA once again comes more violencia in the form of the Chubacabra’s newest hatchlings, set to face off against Los Crazy Chickens with their pal Lil’ Chicken. In between the Lucha matches featuring the likes of Dirty Sanchez and the ever-so-fabulous Cassandro, …

So I’ve been writing for Racket for a little over a year now. I hadn’t really stopped to think about that before, but that’s kind of kickass. I live on the other side of the country from my two “bosses,” but I just flew out to their coast recently to meet up and put a face to the jerks that cut all my good lines about mass murder. Alas, that’s another story. The point is that just about a year ago I went to Riotfest in Chicago to cover …

Ahhh, the stereotypical gift guides. While everyone’s going on about what YOU should give to other people for Christmas, I’m going to tell you what I, a 27 year old nerdy music snob with leftist leanings and a penchant for Thai food, would LOVE for my 28th birthday, this October 21st. Gimme gimme.
The PSPGo: I love gadgets. Mostly ones that allow me to dick off. I kept my first cell phone, an old Nokia 3310, for 2 and a half years after I changed plans simply so I could play …

We’ve all seen their faces splashed on the TV sets smiling and smirking as though taunting us inferiors about our bourgeois desire to drive their Bentleys, live in their $20 million dollar mansions, and sleep with whoever we please- which is why there is nothing funnier than a celebrity getting their mug taken by the boys in blue. The following photos are courtesy of mugshot.com without which this article would not be possible. Without further ado, here are the top ten celebrity mug shot photos.
10) Brad Renfro …

As much we love Maynard James Keenan, move over, Tool.
Enigmatic and beautiful, English-originated band, Porcupine Tree pushes artistry in music to an even more psychedelic and progressive level. They often collaborate with graphic artist Lasse Hoile via sonic and visual stimulation experienced during their live shows. Formed and led by the self-taught producer and songwriter, Steven Wilson challenges himself and the band with each album release. Even though their style has evolved since 1987, their tenth and most recent album release, The Incident is influenced by ‘70s rock music. According …

Disclaimer: Sorry for the delay. We’ve had a hard time finding people to talk to for our fourth installment of “Deck.” However we did find a trio o hipster-ish folks who opened their mouths- and their hearts- to us, touching on one of the biggest controversies in hipster culture right now: that of the so-called “blipsters.” Consider this one of the more educational writings we’ve done.

For hipsters, the man known to the rest of the world as Colonel K is hardly a radical in the ink-and-barrel sense. …

By all accounts, Joel Allen Schroeder has few vices. Besides his love of filmmaking- a pursuit which has landed the Minnesota resident in Hollywood after a stint at the University of Southern California- and Priuses, the Milwaukee-born director and producer is atypically average for H-Wood. He doesn’t drive fancy cars. Nor does he carry a Rolodex of names in a Blackberry somewhere. To outside eyes, he is the very definition of milquetoast. Yet behind the façade lies a secret life few have glimpsed, until now.
For Joel …