Aug 14, 2009 Comic Books Web Exclusive

In his first graphic novel—the result of his university thesis—Niklas Asker has created a colorless but emotionally vivid world existing somewhere between the real world and the authorial machinations of one Jess (no last name). More

Aug 14, 2009 Video Games Web Exclusive

Plenty of great video games have been made into awful movies, so could an awful movie be made into a great video game? Could the process be reversed? In the case of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, the answer is no. More

Aug 14, 2009 Music Web Exclusive

It's too bad that Dirty Projectors singer and bassist Angel Deradoorian must have wanted her debut EP, Mind Raft, to go unnoticed, as she released it only a month before the Projectors' newest LP Bitte Orca. Throughout the modest five-track set, Deradoorian (she takes just her surname for the record) often plays off of clashing harmonies and stream-of-consciousness verses that evoke the EP's title and prove her talents as a solo artist. More

Aug 13, 2009 Music Web Exclusive

An album for our Prozac-ed, Xanax-ed times, Bibio's Ambivalence Avenue, as the title suggests, doesn't reach any emotional highs or lows. It fits squarely in the middle, and seems to be just fine there. More

Aug 12, 2009 Comic Books Web Exclusive

In part one of Search For a Hero, scribe Fabian Nicieza described the pre-Batman R.I.P. Tim Drake best when he fed him an off-handed Brady Brunch joke while fighting Jason Todd. The fallen hero may be the insecure Jan Brady to Drake's precocious Cindy but the shattering events of Batman's "death" have left the best detective Batman's raised in a perpetual state of bewilderment. More

Aug 12, 2009 Music Web Exclusive

Stardeath and White Dwarfs sounds like a Spinal Tap-rejected band name. However, from The Birth's cover art image of a man in mid-scream, to singer Dennis Coyne's falsetto, it's difficult not to view them in relationship to another motley crew—The Flaming Lips. The ties run deep: Coyne is the nephew of lead Lip Wayne Coyne, while the other band members have served as Flaming Lips roadies. More

Aug 11, 2009 Live Web Exclusive

A report from day three of Lollapalooza 2009, including Lou Reed, Bat For Lashes, The Raveonettes, Neko Case, and Jane's Addiction. More

Aug 11, 2009 Music Web Exclusive

Bookended by two exciting tracks, the Jesus and Mary Chain-esque "I Wanna Kill," and the seven-plus minute builder "Young Drugs," Crocodiles' first full-length for Fat Possum shows tons of potential. More

Aug 10, 2009 Music Web Exclusive

Following in the footsteps of both The Kills and The White Stripes, Band of Skulls' debut sounds like a slicker, poppier version of The Dead Weather. This Southampton, U.K. trio is clearly talented and, with time and by taking a few more risks in terms of song structure and production, could develop into a successful project. More