AltWeeklies Wire
Pop Wizard Kyle Andrews' Excellent New Album Turns Up the Volumenew

The DIY maestro's second full-length is a marvel: crisp, quirky, studio-quality pop recorded using little more than a laptop. Meet the future of the music industry.
Nashville Scene |
Lee Stabert |
07-25-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Kyle Andrews, Real Blasty
E3 Summit: The Business of Beautiful Killing Gamesnew
Faster, Dracula! Kill! Kill! Bloodthirsty peeks at the latest versions of Flock, BioShock, Borderlands, WolfQuest and Castlevania, plus Konami designer Koji Igarashi.
L.A. Weekly |
Gendy Alimurung |
07-25-2008 |
Video Games
The Plush Life of Food: A Collector's Storynew

Collecting is a disease. After you own something, you have to take care of it. In a way, Sarah Jo Marks believes, it owns you. Like her plush food collection.
L.A. Weekly |
Gendy Alimurung |
07-25-2008 |
Culture
Miss Mulder and Scully? Watch the Re-runsnew

The truth is still out there, like an unsold lawn chair at a garage sale, in this just plain lousy second big-screen outing for erstwhile FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
07-25-2008 |
Reviews
Young-Adult Fiction: 'American Teen'new

High school heroes and zeros roam the halls of alleged documentary.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
07-25-2008 |
Reviews
'Step Brothers': Blended Family Valuesnew
Director Adam McKay and Will Ferrell relish working on an absurdist high wire, and the whole point of their movies isn't how any one scene relates to another but rather how much they can chip away at the logic that holds most movies together. Baghead also reviews.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
07-25-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Roy Head Brings His Raunchy Soul to the Memphis Pops Festivalnew
In 1965, Head was a spastic, seething force of nature whose frenetic, hip-hunching dance moves made Elvis look like an arthritic altar boy.
The Memphis Flyer |
Chris Davis |
07-25-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Dex Romweber's Back Pagesnew
Those who have seen the semi-classic 1987 documentary Athens, GA/Inside Out have a hard time forgetting guitarist Dexter Romweber and drummer Chris "Crow" Smith blasting away with their uber-raw, enigmatic version of rockabilly as Flat Duo Jets.
The Memphis Flyer |
Andrew Earles |
07-25-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Dex Romweber, Flat Duo Jets
Election '08: Stupid McCampaign Tricksnew
With Obamapalooza in full swing, John McCain shouts into the media void.
L.A. Weekly |
Marc Cooper |
07-25-2008 |
Commentary
Immigrant Soccer Players from Across the Globe Go Balls Out at a St. Louis Parknew

La Liga Latino Americana de Futbol has grown from a weekend assemblage of 4 teams -- all hailing from the same small town in southwestern Mexico -- to 28 teams, with more than 1,000 players representing nearly every corner of the map: Nigeria, Kenya, Iraq, Brazil and Hungary among them.
Riverfront Times |
Keegan Hamilton |
07-25-2008 |
Sports
Filmmaker Craig Brewer's Latest Project Brings Reality TV (of a Sort) to Memphisnew

It's a Friday night at the New Daisy Theatre on Beale Street, the first night of shooting on $5 Cover, Brewer's new web-based MTV series about Memphis music.
The Memphis Flyer |
Chris Herrington |
07-25-2008 |
Movies
'Free Ride' Dissects a Media Smitten With the McCain Mythosnew

Brock and Waldman hypothesize that the media, weary from covering a corrupt government and the self-centered politicians that are its lifeblood, suffers a hero-sized vacuum that needs filling. Enter McCain. After Clinton's semantics and Bush's chickenhawk warmongering, a straight-talking former POW cuts quite the dashing figure.
Artvoice |
Matthew Miranda |
07-25-2008 |
Nonfiction
Memo to McCain: Offshore Drilling Won't Reduce Gas Pricesnew
McCain -- who has accepted more than $1 million from Big Oil donors -- is hoping that voters who are outraged by the high cost of gas will support his desire to find new domestic sources of oil and natural gas. But according to the "official energy statistics" from the federal government's Energy Information Administration, there isn't enough oil in the "off-limits" offshore areas to make a dent in world supplies or the cost of gas.
Shepherd Express |
Lisa Kaiser |
07-25-2008 |
Environment
A New Crop of Game Shows Take On-Air Debasement to a New Lownew
Watching a real Japanese game show conjures up mixed feelings of glee at the rampant creativity and sadness for the desperate contestants who'll do anything for money or attention. Watching shows like Wipeout and Hurl! is merely depressing, a reminder that when faced with a choice between originality and exploitation, American reality-TV producers will almost invariably choose the latter.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Josh Bell |
07-25-2008 |
TV
'Step Brothers' Finds Will Ferrell Regressing and Repeating Himselfnew
The problem is not that Ferrell has ceased to be funny, although his shtick is clearly wearing thin; the problem is that he and collaborator Adam McKay, with whom he worked on Anchorman and Talladega Nights, have abandoned all goals other than to "be funny" in the most desperate, overblown and ultimately grating manner.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Josh Bell |
07-25-2008 |
Reviews