Avenged Sevenfold, Live In The LBC Trailer

Get ready to find out exactly what is really wrong with rock and roll these days. — Ryan Allen

If you were a fan of Sub Pop, Canadian rock music, Sonic Youth, or lo-fi albums that sounded like they were recorded with a four-track held together by some rubber bands and a couple of pipe-cleaners, then 90s-alt-punk band Eric’s Trip should not be unfamiliar to you. If you were busy listening to Smashmouth and Sugar Ray, however, let’s get you up to speed: Formed in 1990 in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, Eric’s Trip (who took their moniker from the Sonic Youth song of the same name) flourished under a haze of purple and blue colored lo-fi fuzz, and — like a lot of bands in the 90s — released tons of records, singles, and EPs for the likes of Sub Pop, Sonic Unyon, and Sloan’s Murderecords. What set them apart from the pack of plastic-y alternative bands aiming for buzz-bin gold, however, was their attempt to combine punk and metal’s scuzzy sludge with harmonizing male and female voices that sounded as sweet and precious as a newborn baby. Plus, the band didn’t need the hi-fi gloss; songs like “In The Garage,” “View Master” and “Girlfriend” — and classic albums like Love Tara, Forever Again, and Purple Blue — stood on their own without some Butch Vig-type mucking things up with a professional sheen. If you ask us, all these new bands now championing the lo-fi aesthetic — including No Age, the Thermals, and Times New Viking, to name but a few — would be nowhere without the influence of the almighty Eric’s (more…)

Holy shit does Oliver Stone have some fucking balls. Check this amazingly accurate portrait of our president coming to a theater near you.

Um, WTF? This very timely and poignant movie starring good ol’ K. Costner actually looks amazing.

Motherfucking Watchmen. The Dark Knight got us moist but this flick is going to stick it in sideways.

While this guy was busy jacking off to the trailer, we scooped up this exclusive image of the new Entertainment Weekly cover due out this week. And if you were busy hitchhiking your way to Comic Con and missed the trailer, here it is in all its Quicktime splendor…

- Brandon W.

Chasing a dream is one thing, but living alone with a full animatronic band of bears and wolves is something else all together. The Rock-afire Explosion follows Chris Thrash as he tries to fulfill his lifelong quest to own and cuddle with the Rock-afire Explosion band (of Showbiz Pizza fame). The tiny indie production company Window Pictures is putting out the doc later this year. Add this to the pile of films attempting to demystify the 80’s nerd culture. All we have to say is: keep trying, that shit goes deep. Thank God this dude isn’t obsessed with The Hall of Presidents. No one wants to wake up to Lincoln malfunctioning.

Rock-afire Explosion doing “Conquest” by the White Stripes after the jump… (more…)

Jason Statham is the new Vin Diesel. In flick after flick, Statham looks like Statham looks like Statham who can never look as cool as Tango or truly kick ass like Cash. Dude never changes. Whether he’s in prison, kicking some dudes soul from his face or fucking some chick, he looks, sounds, acts and struts exactly the same. Is a fucking wig too much to ask? A beard? I vote for him being billed as himself from now on.

The trailer provides the makings for a scrumptious shit sandwich: two cups Spy Hunter , one dash of Speed and a sprinkle of Tango & Cash buddy/prison action campiness. I’d rather eat Speed 2. (more…)

A case of mistaken identity. A series of anonymous phone calls. Interrogation by a stern, fifty-ish CIA/FBI/ATF official. Young people running from their wannabe captors, jumping out of windows, ducking from explosions. White people in sleek, sterile offices tracking and watching and toying with cool gadgets. And the obligatory passport; someone always has to look at a passport. Welcome to the world of the Hollywood technological thriller. Don’t know about you, but we’re over this shit. It all looks the same; Hackers meets Untraceable meets 88 Minutes. Fifty bucks if you can name the voice on the cell phone…

– Harry Caul

Defiance (Edward Zwick, 2008)

Edward Zwick’s follow-up to the better-than-it-looked Blood Diamond isn’t slated for release until at least the end of this year. But from this teaser trailer for Defiance, its story of three Jewish brothers who escaped the Nazis in their native Poland and became (more…)