Dan Bejar has been plying his trade as Destroyer since the mid-90s, and though most performers settle into a groove of stylistic redundancy and an avoidance of risk-taking, he's made a habit of shaking things up with nearly every album. And if his latest, the thoroughly outlandish/amazing Kaputt is any indication, he's a man who has sincere love for things most people would approach only ironically—who would've thought the sweet honey of 80s saxophone could sound so good? But while the yacht rock-esque sonics can be a bit shocking on first listen, all you have to do is dive into the lyrics, which, as is always the case with Bejar, prove themselves to be well worth investigating; after all, his very first album title was an allusion to Tolstoy's mention of Russian Commander Kutuzov talking about Napoleon, and he hasn't let up from there. So it goes without saying that in preparation for Destroyer's must-see show tonight at Mohawk, we had to ring Bejar up for a chat. more ›

In his first-feature film Brick, director Rian Johnson set own to make a noir detective film. But he was tired of seeing the same old characters playing out similar storylines. He wanted to bend the genre, so it would still look and feel like a noir pic, but with a different sensibility. Enter, high school. Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has just received a disturbing call from his distressed ex-girlfriend Emily (Emilie de Ravin). She's... more ›