All the below recommendations are being released on Tuesday, June 26. Buy em, rent them from the video store, or pick them up at the local library. Chances you you might have some of these already, but hey this is the good stuff worth getting your hands on regardless.

Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger (Lost Highway Records)

Adams is back yet again and this time he’s mellowed out a bit, while retaining the strains of his country influences. This one sounds like a tighter package than previous efforts with bits of blue-eyed soul thrown in for good measure. Stand out tracks include: “Pearls on a String,” “I Taught Myself to Grow Old,” “Two” and “Halloween Head.”

The Beastie Boys - The Mix-up (Capitol Records)

Much has been made of the all-instrumental record. Pitchfork Media basically lampooned the album, but we say this is the direction the Boys should have moved in long ago. Without their odious rapping skills, the music here really shines through. The funk, rock, jazz and banging beats easily subsides into the background making this a welcomed party record or something decent to throw on while vacuuming your apartment.

Pharoahe Monch - Desire (SRC/Universal Motown)

The deft lyricist returns after a too-long absence. His latest delivers almost the same thrills as Internal Affairs did about a decade ago. Yes, this is only his second LP but the word-play and funky beats remain. Certainly hip-hop lovers should pick this up, in what’s been an otherwise ho-hum year for hip-hop.

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (Anchor Bay)

This comedy-horror flick bombed at the box-office, but it’s worth seeing. Certainly one of the more inventive takes on the genre, as a group of college students film a documentary about a masked serial killer.

Black Snake Moan (Paramount Classics/MTV Films)

Craig Brewer’s follow up to the stellar Hustle & Flow. This time he’s got another Southern-fried drama on his hands with Sam Jackson as a blues guitarist who tries to help nympho Christina Ricci mend her sexually deviant ways. Seems audiences are split down the middle: either you love it or are repulsed by it. It’s worth watching to decide on your own, but we love it.

Shooter (Paramount)

This one comes straight from 1987. With Mark Wahlberg playing the action hero. There’s some kind of a plot, we’re not sure. It doesn’t really matter much. Cause afterall does anyone really remember the plot from Commando, Predator, Cobra, or Rambo? Exactly.

You could see this one coming from about seven miles away. James Blunt’s hit song “You’re Beautiful” was voted the most annoying song of all-time.

We generally loath lists around here, but most of us were nodding our heads, going “yup, that’s about right.”

But what struck us odd about The Sun Online article was it just listed ten annoying songs. No deets about how the poll was conducted, who voted, who did the poll. It’s almost like the article should have been titled:

TEN SONGS THE SUN STAFF FINDS ANNOYING BECAUSE EMMA THE 14-YEAR OLD INTERN LISTENS TO THEM NONSTOP

But we digress. Without further ado here is the top ten. What say you? Any songs they left out?

1. “You’re Beautiful” — James Blunt.

2. “Axel F” — Crazy Frog.

3. “Mmm Bop” — Hanson.

4. “Mr Blobby” — Mr Blobby.

5. “Birdie Song” — The Tweets.

6. “Shout” — Lulu.

7. “Agadoo” — Black Lace.

8. “Grace Kelly” — Mika.

9. “My Heart Will Go On” — Celine Dion.

10. “La Macarena” — Los Del Rio.

Coincidentally, James Blunt was also voted “Person I’d most enjoy giving an atomic legdrop to, brothah!.”

Dust off those lighters for some “Stairway to Heaven” action. But just once … let’s not get your hopes up. Seems Page, Plant, JPJ and some random drummer, probably Jason Bonham, will play a one-time tribute show for Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun in London.

Let’s hope this concert goes better than the Page/Plant reunion some years ago.

A source says, “Page, Plant and Jones spoke and agreed to do the memorial concert. They are waiting for a definite date.

“And no-one can quite believe it, but during discussions about the concert they all gave the green light to a tour if it all does well and they don’t all fall out.

“It has been hoped-for and denied for years. But this is the closest they have ever come to a reunion tour. The feeling is that this is going to happen next year.” Ertegun died in December (06) after seven weeks in a coma following a fall at a Rolling Stones concert.

These rumors are so 1983, but still, who doesn’t love a good Led Zeppelin reunion tour rumor? For ever-more.

Joblo got the premier for the “Hitman” trailer, based upon a video game of the same name.   I’ve played the game a few times as my roommate  plays it all the time.  Fox Studios is releasing the movie in October and the trailer will be attached to  the upcoming Bruce Willis vehicle Live Free or Die Hard.  

Regardless, the story has something do with a hitman named Agent 47.  He’s bald and has a barcode tattoo on his neck and he kills evil doers. Actor Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood, Catch and Release, Go) stars as the titular Agent 47.  Gotta say this trailer leaves me a little lukewarm.  I’m sure it could be great, but Olyphant, who we love by the by, looks odd.  Like one of those bald dogs or cats with wrinkles everywhere and you keep thinking to yourself how cool that dog would be if only they had hair.

The use of “Ave Maria” was a sublte touch, much better than using your standard Drowning Pool or Staind for shoot’em up trailer.

Click here to watch the trailer. 

It feels like it’s been awhile.  Busy weekend.  We’re prepping the offices around here for an August move to Portland, OR.  It’ll be different than Boston, but we’re looking forward to it.  So without further ado, let’s play catch up and see what we missed out on over the weekend.

- Pharoahe Monch will be releasing his first new album in almost a decade today.  Desire continues where Internal Affairs ended, which means the album is gonna straight kill.  Monch is one of the best MCs out there, so it’s nice to have him back.  P4K did a great interview with him leading up to the release of the album.

- Chris Benoit, aka The Canadian Crippler, died over the weekend along with his wife and seven-year old son.  It was an apparant murder-suicide.  Details are mum, but authorities are saying when those details get released they’ll seem weird.  WWE owner Vince McMahon cancelled a show last night.  Fans everywhere thought it was another publicity stunt.

- Paris Hilton got out of jail.  We’re obliged to let you know these things even as we wretched a bit.

- First Harry Potter gets an amusement park, now Charlie Dickens is getting his very own Victorian playground in London!

-  Spike Jonze is back behind the director’s chair.  He’s turned his sites upon the Maurice Sendak classic Where the Wild Things Are.  MTV got a first look at the film.  One word: awesome!

- Vice President Dick Cheney doesn’t play by the rules of government.  And the majority of Americans ask why that’s surprising.

- There’s a fine art to band t-shirts and this one from Wilco hit’s all the right notes.  Seems Wilco has some love for the Wii.

- Seems Joshua Jackson didn’t quite land the covetted role of Fletch.  Word comes that The Office’s John Krasinski is also up for the role.  He seems to be a slightly better fit than Pacey.

- Nice little interview with Transformers scribe Robert Orci.  Nice job for the fellas at Latino Review.

Oh Billy how we used to love you so. Seems Mr. Corgan now has more in common with the blood-sucking leech Courtney Love.

P4k is reporting that the long-awaited (some might say anticipated, however, we’re not sure we’re exactly excited for the new released) Smashing Pumpkins album will be released in four different versions. With the big-box stores Best Buy and Target each getting one version of the record, iTunes getting the other version and then every record store you love to shop in getting yet another version.

The catch is that Best Buy, Target, and iTunes are all getting a unique bonus track for their albums, while indie record stores and local places are getting a ho-hum standard issue set.

Now, while Pitchfork Media seems indignant about this, making the not-so-true case that true fans will have to go out and buy all three albums just to get the bonus tracks, it’s safe to assume that true fans will probably have a pirated copy of the album four weeks before its release. And we’re guessing it won’t be difficult to find those three bonus tracks floating somewhere.

Various track lists after the jump.

MORE »

Steven Spielberg has taken some time from directing the latest Indiana Jones flick to deliver us this shot of Harrison Ford as the fedora, whip-wielding archeologist.

Sort of shaping up to be a Harrison Ford kinda day ain’t it?  Thanks to Comingsoon.net for the heads up.

You know when people complain about how many times Georgie Lucas has worked over the original Star Wars franchise? How come people don’t have that same emotional reaction to what Ridley Scott has been quietly doing to Blade Runner?

The 1982 sci-fi masterpiece has long been regarded as one of the benchmarks, not just in sci-fi, but hell, in all of film. It wasn’t too long ago that Scott went back to the drawing board to rework the flick and came out with a directors cut. Now for the 25th anniversary he’s done it again to produce, obviously, The Final Cut of the film.

So how does this one differ? Not many details are being given, but one thing that does stand out is that the movie will be given a short theatrical run.

Later in 2007, to celebrate the film’s 25th anniversary, the studio will unveil “Blade Runner: The Final Cut,” Scott’s definitive new version of his science-fiction masterpiece. The film will be released theatrically in select major U.S. cities, followed by a multi-disc Special Edition DVD release which will also contain three alternate versions of Blade Runner: the Original U.S. Theatrical Cut, the Expanded International Theatrical Cut and the 1992 Director’s Cut. Ample, ground-breaking bonus features will also be included.

In making the announcement, Jeff Baker, WHV’s Senior VP and General Manager, Theatrical Catalog, said: “This is clearly Ridley’s signature film and we are thrilled to have it back. While details of the new DVDs will be announced later, we wanted to get this great news to the many serious film buffs and ardent ‘Blade Runner’ fans who’ve been so patient, despite besieging us with thousands of annual requests in recent years for new ‘Blade Runner’ DVDs.”

Okay.  Sounds as if The Final cut will be a slight reworking of The Directors Cut, which Ridley Scott completed in 1992.  The most substantial changes from the original theatrical run were the absense of the happy ending and the introductory voice-over.

Imagine Entertainment has picked up the rights to produce the comic book Cowboys & Aliens. Brian Grazer and Ron Howard will bring the property to the big screen with the hopes that it can become another hit in the same vein as Men In Black.

Universal and Dreamworks will be the studios behind the flick, which will be written by Mark Fergus and Hal Ostby. The duo is responsible for Iron Man and Children of Men and are also attached to the John Carter From Mars property.

Don’t really know much about this comic property, but it’s premise sounds cool. The graphic novel is available from Malibu Comics.

The graphic novel mixes Western and science fiction genres. Set in 1800s Arizona, a skirmish between cowboys and Apaches is interrupted by the crash landing of a space ship. The alien commander plans to tame the Old West and enslave everyone, but the cowboys and Native Americans turn their six-guns against the alien invaders.

Um … yeah sounds awesome!

The Sundance Channel is debuting a new show tonight at 10 p.m.  Live From Abbey Road features three performances from established and lesser known musicians.  They’ll play some songs and talk about the recording process throughout each episode.

They’ve shot twelve episodes to run every Thursday night.  In a way it’s reminiscent of the great program from PBS Austin City Limits.  Only without the audience.

Tonight features Norah Jones, Richard Ashcroft and John Mayer.  Mayer always entertains and whether or not you care for his boring adult contemporary tunes, the dude can rip up the guitar blues-style and never takes himself too seriously.

Other acts scheduled to appear on the show include Snow Patrol, Amos Lee, Dr. John, Gnarls Barkley, David Gilmour, Iron Maiden, Kasabian, Muse, Paul Simon, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The Zutons, The Killers, The Kooks and one we’re excited for The Good, The Bad & The Queen.

As they say be sure to check your local listings or get those DVRs ready.

Not sure what to get your elementary school aged cousin or nephew or niece for their birthday? Well have we got the ultimate present for you. Now they can tote Kurt Cobain in lunchbox form and show all the other first graders just how cool they really are.

The fun won’t stop at lunchboxes, however, as Courtney Love has liscensed the late Kurt Cobain’s likeness to the National Entertainment Collectables Association and they plan to creat Cobain action figures, key chains that double as flasks and of course, lunchboxes.

One can only hope this will spark a flannel revolution among kids everywhere. But without all the depression, drug use and cigarette smoking. Cause that would be bad for a six year old.

Is tasteless a word?

Seems a satirical look at Clay Aiken and those Aiken acolytes who think the Idol singer will save the world is heading to New York and possibly Broadway. From Spinner:

Idol: The Musical,’ which is to open Off Broadway in New York City on July 5, is described as “a satirical look” at the phenomena known as Clay-Mania — a thumbnail that strikes us as being almost as redundant as “a soporific rendition of ‘You Light Up My Life.’”Be that as it may, the show’s characters manage to sink to the bottom of the social totem pole in Steubenville, Ohio by dint of their unwavering faith in feats of Clay.

It’s about time someone tried to pop the Idol balloon. Kinda surprised that it’s Broadway, but hey, it worked for the hilarious The Putnam County Spelling Bee.

Not to get all indignant on these kinds of lists, but last night CBS aired yet another American Film Institute tribute to the 100 greatest movies of all-time. Now we love these sort of lists, partly due to their idiocy, partly due to how easy they get a conversation about the movies rolling. While it’s easy to debate the placement of some movies on a countdown and become upset about it, it’s another thing to purposely have a second go-round for this list specifically to inlcude films from the past ten years and then not actually include any of those movies!

I fail to believe that in the past ten years only The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Saving Private Ryan and Titanic would be including in the discussion for the greatest movies of all time. And so, there’s my indignation.

The new list looks remarkable similar to the old list, revealing that the median voting age of the 1,500 voters is somewhere in the neighborhood of 76. That’s just a guess, but how else can you explain the over abundance of movies from the 1930’s, 40’s, and 50’s. I’m not saying those movies are not without their merit, it’s just that how is it that films from the 70’s weren’t reevaluated slightly higher on this list? How else to explain the lack of flicks from the 80’s and consquently the 90’s as well.

Let’s let the conversation ball start rolling. Which movies should be higher? Which movies should not be on the list? Any suggestions for which flicks should be included? How come they don’t love genre flicks or comedy? Is Raging Bull really a better or more culturally significant movie than Star Wars?

The top ten here, but head over here for the complete list.

1. Citizen Kane
2. The Godfather
3. Casablanca
4. Raging Bull
5. Singin’ In the Ra