James Iha starts middle-aged teen rock band (aka "huh?")

How's this for truly bizarre career decisions:

James Iha (late of A Perfect Circle and The Smashing Pumpkins) has started a band called Tinted Windows that apparently consists of himself and several other 30/40-somethings dressing like they raided the Jonas Brothers' dressing room and slamming out power pop of a style so aggregious that it might make Miley Cyrus blush (Hannah Montana, on the other hand, would remain quite composed.)

Seriously though, Tinted Windows sounds an awful lot like something you'd hear on Radio Disney.

OBVIOUS PRESCIENT QUESTION FOR THIS BLOG POST:
Is this an actual band or some kind of bizarre meta-joke?

ANSWER:
No one seems to know, but given the group's presentation it seems like this one is for real.

Whether that is the case or not, you can be sure as shit that I'll be lip-synching these hypnotically catchy tunes into a shampoo bottle for at least the next few months.

Seriously, what the frak is going on here?

What is Matthew McConaughey doing...

...in this photo?

Why does he look so confused (even more so than usual)? And what in god's name is that stuff on his abs? Toothpaste? Silly string? House paint?

WTF Matt? W. T. F.

Ra Ra Riot does Portland

Barsuk Records is notoriously picky about which acts they'll let into their miniscule stable so it's fair to assume that if a band can get into that most exclusive of clubs they've probably got something going for them.

Although Ra Ra Riot at first seemed to defy this trend (they're good but they're not great) the group has been steadily growing on me. They manage to make a string section sound chipper rather than melodramatic and it is hard to argue with those hooks once they really sink in.

Check them out at the Doug Fir tomorrow night for a more thorough investigation.

Retarded Fox news anchor gets verbally owned by the mayor of Lansing

Fainting goats

I have never seen anything as hilarious as this.

The Best Oscar preview yet

In this week, the one before the Oscars, many a publication have taken to rehashing and discussing the nominated films, mostly revealing nothing new or exciting. (We get it, "Slumdog Millionaire" is likely to be a big winner.)

But n+1, a literary mag out of New York, took a different approach. They pretty much hate everything, it seems, only not really. That's a worldview I can get behind.

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

In a series of bad dreams, Brad Pitt combines with Forrest Gump, E.T., Oliver from The Brady Bunch, the baby from Eraserhead, Tom Waits album covers, Dr. Zhivago, Dick Cheney/Donald Rumsfeld, on and on, like robot locusts eating the inside of the movie theater in three hours."

Link: n+1 magazine

Joaquin's Mockumentary?

First we were shocked at Joaquin Phoenix's announcement that he was leaving the acting business. Then we were further confused as we learned he was calling it quits in order to put his passion for music into high gear, hip-hop music to be exact.

Oh, then came the videos. First the Las Vegas shots of him floundering about on stage, eventually falling off. Then his charismatic presence on Letterman caught all of our attention. It seems Phoenix is pushing the weirdness factor a bit more the further he goes.

Though word on the street is that we all might be victims of a well played hoax. You see Phoenix's brother-in-law Casey Affleck anounced his directorial debut recently for a documentary he was filming. The subject of said documentary, you guessed it, Phoenix's hip-hop career. A few hollywood lightbulbs went on over the heads of critics, bloggers and other folks who generally don't have much of a life. Could Phoenix's crazy antics be at the expense of a mockumentary in the making? I guess we will all just have to wait and see.

So what do you think? Has Joaquin Phoenix boarded the crazy train or are we all falling for perhaps one of the greatest jokes in hollywood history?