Oh, Food Network, how you tease me with your hip New York and Westside LA food trucks with Vietnamese tacos and wasabi ice cream and, uh, I don’t know, hot dogs. Well, as a resident of the Inland Empire, I can finally enjoy a plethora of food trucks myself at the 2011 Inland Empire Food Truck Festival, to be held today at the Citizen’s Bank Arena in Ontario, CA from 11-6, or 10 AM if you wanna get in on the early bird special.
Since food trucks are pretty much banned …
How many of you can say you took a break at work to call a porn star and have a chat? I did. It was awesome. Especially because the porn star in question is Joanna Angel, founder and CE-Hoe of BurningAngel.com, the site full of tattooed hotties doing the naughty..
Ms. Angel not only put up with my inane questions, but bet that she could give me an erection. Little does she know that she won that challenge before it was ever issued. Boioioioioioioioing.
How’s your day going?
Pretty good.
Cool, cool. Now …
Tommy Simms
Then The Archers Bowed and Broke Their Bows
8/10
Man, someone REALLY enjoyed their parents’ record collection, didn’t they? That someone was Tommy Simms, vocalist for Win Win Winter and the scruffier of the Simms siblings involved in Automatic Loveletter. His solo release separates himself from the Warped Tour crowd and finds himself much more at home at Woodstock. The original one, you know, the one with the metric tons of marijuana, topless hippies and free love. Not the one with fucking Metallica, riots and rapes.
I’ve been sitting at my computer, …
In the words of The Hoff: what a mess. Whereas I’ve long bitched about the drink prices at the House of Blues, Acergomi, the bar right next door to the Glasshouse, is easy on the wallet. Not so much on the liver. I meet up with the Original Knockoff boys after having already put a few drinks away, and they convinced me to pound a couple tall-boys before heading inside to set up for our interview with what I thought was going to be Beefcake The Mighty of GWAR.
We line …
Tim Kasher
The Game of Monogamy
Saddle Creek Records
9/10
Tim Kasher is known for his work with Cursive, the slightly chaotic indie band full of layered instrumentation and The Good Life, which releases mellower, though just as lush, tales of the horrors of romance. Well, apparently he’s ready to drop all pretense that Tim Kasher is the mastermind behind both and releases his latest, The Game of Monogamy under his own moniker.
Filled with the same sordid tales of love and lust as The Good Life’s previous releases, Monogamy will strike a chord with …
Cee Lo Green
The Lady Killer
Elektra Records
10/10
While the single “Fuck You” has been resonating with broke motherfuckers for months, Cee Lo Green’s The Lady Killer is here (well, on Nov 9th, 2010) and it’s fucking fantastic. While I am not discounting his work with Goodie Mob or with Gnarls Barkley, with The Lady Killer, Cee Lo seriously solidifies his already recognizable sound. With plenty of vocal harmonies backing up his soulful crooning, keyboards and (obviously) killer percussion work, TLK is equal parts 60’s Soul, 70’s R&B and current Pop. In other …
Casey Curry and the Remainders
Tidal Tales From The Other Side
Self-Released
8/10
It’s difficult for me to review my friends’ work, especially of a dude I’ve known for over two decades. Even more so when I like their stuff. My friends and I are NOT nice to each other. But, when you have talented friends, it’s gonna happen. After his stint in the 60’s surf-sound band The Passports, Curry has broken away from Beach Boys and gone more Nick Cave, alternating between brooding low-keys and bombastic jams with a gratuitous instrumentation, including lap …
Reconcilers
Written by Erik Jensen, art by Sheperd Hendrix
Viking Warrior Press
7/10
In a world of corporate superiority, Reconciliation is the process of settling contract negotiations…through teams of murderous mercenaries…on live TV! While it’s a bit of a tired idea, Robot Jox had a similar one first, it’s not a bad graphic novel. There’s some questions I have, like what’s up with the mutants (like grotesque monstrosities, not X-Men), what’s the deal with the “real news” versus Mad Max-like attacks on supplies, etc. But there’s only so much character development and back story …
Two Gentlemen of Lebowski
Adam Bertocci
Simon & Schuster
10/10
Remember when you had to read Shakespeare in high school? It sucked balls, didn’t it? High school English teachers, hear me! Ditch the Bard! Give your students this instead. You get to keep your sense of Olde English superiority with a tale that the kids already know. Adam Bertocci shows that he’s a little achiever and wrote this not as a joke, not under a contract but just because. Just because, man. That lack of dependency allowed Bertocci to craft this tale with plenty …
I am well on my way to being a grumpy old man. I shake my head at new fashion trends, new music genres and whatever it is that passes for a haircut these days. When I see a scrawny little shit in a metal-core shirt and skinny jeans, I just wonder what would REALLY happen if I gave him a wedgie. But, at the 2007 Warped Tour is when I began to notice something; amongst the pseudo-carnies peddling $9 burritos and $4 Gatorade, there were booths, tents and even Truth.com’s …
Trick or treat, kids. While Halloween isn’t here quite yet, I still have some audio candy for you: Killer Sharks 6! We are now offering a half dozen CD-length compilations featuring big names and no names, major label artists and no-label artists. And, as we’ve done for the previous 5 Killer Sharks albums, we tack on some hand-done artwork to accompany it, this time around provided by Lisa Thompson, our very own British person. Seriously, she lives in England and everything.
Well, by now, you should know the drill, so make …
“If you’re going through hell, keep going”
- Winston Churchill
Lately, I’ve felt like sticking my head into a big pot of boiling water until the wealth of the gay-90s magically returns. Like many recent college grads my degree has failed to manifest itself into a well-paying (or anything-paying) job. In fact, all my poli-sci education has basically enabled me to do is tell you the entire history and inner workings of the European Union (it exists), quote Tocqueville and participate in juicy pillow talk about Ben Franklin. Shockingly, these are skills …
Racket gets a LOT of albums to review, but we got shit to do, mang. We all have day jobs, significant others, families and beer to drink. Or any combination thereof. Either way, sometimes we get behind and, to catch up, we bust out these haikus. If it passes for 10th grade poetry, it can pass for journalism, right?
Henry And Glenn Forever
Igloo Tornado
Cantankerous Titles
10/10
A visual representation of a fantasy held by gay punks and queer-bashing (and probably queer themselves) conservatives alike, Henry and Glenn Forever show “how it could have been,” should two of the punk scene’s most muscle-y (read: cuddly) frontmen have opened their beefy hearts to each other. Igloo Tornado, the artist collective with a band name better than most band names, bring you a variety of sketches, awkward moments and super-cutesy imagery featuring these two lunkheads.
It doesn’t hurt that Hall & Oates are represented as …
Big Money Rustlas
Psychopathic
3/10 or 8/10, I can’t tell.
Big Money Rustlas is, get this, a WESTERN, starring INSANE CLOWN POSSE…in full on CLOWN MAKE-UP. Let that sit for a second. Savor it.
The king Juggalos, ICP, star in what could have been a 70’s B Movie, but instead stands as a testament to the weirdness that non-Juggalos see in everything that is Psychopathic Records. The obsession with Faygo, stoner humor and, well, the fucking make-up are all well-represented, but along with the basics, you have what could actually pass for a plot …
Eli “Paperboy” Reed
Come and Get It
Capitol Records
9/10
Eli “Paperboy” Reed is a musical oddity. In a music scene dominated by auto-tuned techno-pop and skinny-jeaned screamers, it’s a soulful expression of the game of love. Warnings to girls whose loins would stray, longings for the missing pieces and subtle sexual innuendos are all expertly delivered with hoots and hollers that would get even your grandparents up and dancing. Horns, piano, a bombastic rhythm section and shimmery guitars pair perfectly with Reed’s voice.
While the opener, “Young Girl,” Reed lays down the style early, …
