Electric Six
Heartbeats & Brainwaves
Metropolis Records
8/10

With Electric Six’s Heartbeats & Brainwaves—the disco-punk-metal’s eighth album in nine years—the Detroit-based sextet may not break any new ground, but therein lays their charm. Arguably the most prolific band in existence right now, singer Dick Valentine and his five cohorts are content to crank out their brand of earnest inanity, and they aren’t all that interested in changing up their formula for broader appeal; one gets the impression their flirtation with the mainstream at the outset of their career was enough for them. They’re something …

They say that skateboard videos are dying.
In the late ‘90s, my baggy pants, butt cut, chain wallet early skateboarding days, videos were the trick-by-trick estimation by which professionals were measured.  Each new video brought me, or whichever one of my grubby little friends could scrounge up 20 bucks, down to the local shop to make the eager purchase.  As we gathered around my parents’ 13-inch TV and watched Jamie Thomas switch lipslide into the Venice sunset to the crashes of “Baba O’Riley,” I swore, at 15, that I had found …

Gabe and Dennis toss their salads. I know. I know.

This year’s E3 involved a whole lot of flailing around as everyone made a mad dash to grab their slice of the motion game controller market pie. There was one question on everyone’s collective minds- “Who’s going to pay for that broken lamp?”. Racket’s hot tip: Invest in living room furniture. Ikea is going to make a killing.

Tom Cruise prevents Kinect related accidents before they even happen.

Kinect- The most potential for  collateral damage of any motion controlled gaming device yet. Sure, getting to hand-wave through menus …

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 …