Feb 09, 2010 Music Issue #29 - Year End 2009 - Best of the Decade

How quickly they grow up. On their sophomore full-length, Fullerton, CA band Cold War Kids embraced their dance-rock side, shrieking for all who would hear, "something is not right with me." Now, two years later, the wrongs have been righted and the "kids" are busy making their bid for VH1 immortality. More

Feb 02, 2010 Comic Books Web Exclusive

These days, Geoff Johns' work for Green Lantern (vol. 4) is almost beyond reproach in comcidom and even eclipses DC's Batman and Superman series. Agent Orange is no exception. It stopgap miniseries further illustrates the blockbuster scribe's adeptness for the comic medium after successful runs for 52, Infinite Crisis, Justice Society of America, and Teen Titans. And even as a prelude to the still continuing Blackest Night tentpole event, it is well written and expertly visualized space opera of the emotional spectrum. More

Feb 01, 2010 Music Issue #29 - Year End 2009 - Best of the Decade

A timeless pop song never goes out of fashion. From The Beatles, to R.E.M., to The Shins, a simple three-chord track that raises goose bumps is perhaps the most alchemical device in music. Florida's Surfer Blood are acutely aware of these possibilities, and on their debut Astro Coast, they shimmy and sway through 10 tracks copiously laden with chill-inducing hooks. More

Jan 30, 2010 Cinema Issue #29 - Year End 2009 - Best of the Decade

First-time actress Katie Jarvis delivers a wonderfully expressive and nuanced lead performance as Mia, an aimless Essex teen in English writer/director Andrea Arnold's superb second feature, Fish Tank. Mia, a foul-mouthed 15-year-old loner with a nose for trouble, lives in a council flat with her single mom (Kierston Wareing) and tween sister (Rebecca Griffiths). More

Jan 28, 2010 Live

The Wiltern—it should be noted—has excellent pretzels. The sound mixing however? Suspect at best. As the night wore on and Cold War Kids took the stage it improved, but sadly the brunt of the bad sound fell on dynamic opener Alec Ounsworth. Despite having a fantastic hat and compelling stage persona, he couldn't quite rise above the truly crappy conditions. More

Jan 28, 2010 Music Issue #29 - Year End 2009 - Best of the Decade

If Los Campesinos!' first album, Hold on Now, Youngster, was the sound of worked-up adolescents pining for easy sex, and its rush-released follow up, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, the sound of crushed young adults learning there's no such thing, the group's latest, Romance is Boring, is the inevitable realization that even stable relationships don't make sex any less elusive. More

Jan 27, 2010 DVDs Web Exclusive

The Decemberists' 2009 album The Hazards of Love now has an animated album-length video companion, one that brings to mind those '60s and '70s rock 'n' roll films that were often watched with chemical enhancement. More

Jan 27, 2010 Music Issue #29 - Year End 2009 - Best of the Decade

As an actress, Charlotte Gainsbourg has made a career by placing herself in the hands of collaborators. In 2006, she took that theory into the studio for the first time in 20 years, working with Air, Jarvis Cocker, and Neil Hannon to create dreamy sophomore album 5:55. Now, four years later, Gainsbourg is back with a little help from a friend—this time, Beck. More

Jan 26, 2010 Comic Books Web Exclusive

In the debut issue of Joe the Barbarian we meet Joe Manson. His mother constantly berates him to get his head out of the fantasy world of his sketchbook, and like many geeky adolescent boys he gets bullied at school. More