There’s Lana Del Ray. Grimes. Sleigh Bells.
All set to make waves this year. Your playlist has room for each.
But Band of Skulls are the ones to know now. For one simple reason:

When you watch Band of Skulls play live you will watch Band of Skulls play live.

You’ll be focused and free. A bit in love. Since when does music still make you feel like that?

I first saw them through the sweat of a Tennessee night. Hot for fun. Loud, dirty, spontaneous. In search of a surprise. There was a crowd, big. It knew something I didn’t. Some kids were dressed in full haberdasher threads. I could barely stand the heat of my flip-flops. One guy near me had what looked like a full-on ’Nam flashback, burrowing into shallow sand, covering his body and face until the epileptic urge inside him eased. My girl beside me. It was good. It was, of course, Bonnaroo.

I later realized that (2009’s) Baby Darling Doll Face Honey is a helluva debut. Equal parts barbeque and honey. Three skulls. They all write. They can all play. They don’t take songs off.

Last fall they rolled through Ontario and Quebec. Story had it they were live-testing bits of their next album. They played The Garrison, this small club with a small bar and a small stage and they lit it up. They played new stuff called “Wanderluster” and “Devil Takes Care Of His Own.” Just about all of Baby Darling, too. Their hair looked way too good for being so long.

They play rock that works. Bonnaroo knew. Rolling Stone (“Best at SXSW”) and SPIN (“Best at Coachella”) approve. They cover Young (“Don’t Let It Bring You Down”) and Dylan (“It Ain’t Me, Babe”). This month they’re home rolling the UK with the Black Keys. Even the movies (21 Jump Street) and the TV (Hugo Boss, Mustang spots) are getting it right on these guys.

Their new album’s called Sweet Sour. That about says it. They’re putting it out through their own imprint, Electric Blues Recordings, with an assist from Vagrant in the U.S. and the fine folks from PHI in Canada. It’s out on Valentine’s Day. A week earlier on iTunes.

These are some of the songs you’ll love this year.

1. Sweet Sour
2. Bruises
3. Wanderluster
4. Devil Takes Care Of His Own
5. Lay My Head Down
6. You Aren’t Pretty But You Got It Going On
7. Navigate
8. Hometowns
9. Lies
10. Close To Nowhere
11. Such A Fool*
*Only the iTunes release includes this bonus track

Get an early taste at the band’s Soundcloud page:

Eerie. Intriguing. Peculiar. These are shots from Vertebrata, a series by French photographer Marc Da Cunha Lopes.

I am excited! Their $100 laptops are a big success. Now the One Laptop Per Child organization and fuseproject have released designs for the $100 XO-3 tablet. They look amazing.

The $100 laptop is being used by 2 million children across the globe. Read the remarkable stories at the One Laptop Per Child website.

Sunday, January 15.
Prada showcases elegance and power on a star-studded Hollywood cast in Milan.
What Golden Globe Awards?
Here is a peak at the 2012 Fall/Winter collection (photos: gq.com).
Visit the Prada website to view the entire collection.

Adrien Brody

Gary Oldman

 Emile Hirsch

 Tim Roth

 Willem Dafoe

 Jamie Bell

 Garrett Hedlund

Alex Carril

 Victor Carril

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.

~Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)

We love Friday the 13th.

It’s frivolous. It only happens a couple times a year (2012 spoils us with 3!)
and, on forgettable January mornings like this, it gives the day a little extra excitement.
What’s not to dig on?

Truth is, we love any excuse to get superstitious. Goalies talking to their posts.
Pitchers hopping over chalk lines. Left leg first into the pants. Every time.

To honour this we great day: a great remix. Justice’s aluminum-plated, hyper-infectious
sex strut through Stevie Wonder’s undeniable voodoo dance boogie. Hell, spend a little
time with it, too.

The track’s 40 (!) years old this year. Like great superstitions it just gets better with age.

The Next Three Days

Russell Crowe is a great actor. One of his generation’s best. In “The Next Three Days” he is sometimes good enough that you briefly forget the movie around him is lacking.

Crowe stars as John Brennan, a Pittsburgh community college professor we sense could be capable of more. Honest, bright, affable; you’ve met the type. We see he has all he needs to be happy. A loving wife, Lara, who looks like Elizabeth Banks and a young son (Ty Simpkins) who, well, seems well-behaved. (He doesn’t say much but, hey, he’s healthy). Life is good.

The plot doesn’t wait to show us more. It’s morning. Police barge into the happy home. Lara is hauled away and charged with murdering her boss. The next time we see her she’s wearing an orange jumpsuit.

John is now a single dad burdened by the weight of his own unfulfilled childhood. But he is determined to be the father and husband he so badly desired.  And, significantly, his love for Lara runs deep. When he learns that the appeals he’s exhausted defending her are hopeless something in him changes. Just as Lara is about to be transferred to the biggest prison in the country (in Pittsburgh?) this man of process decides he must become a man of action. He has, you guessed it, three days.

The movie succeeds to the extent it does because Crowe shows us how Brennan hurts. He has played many parts requiring him to lose himself inside a frail, fraying psyche. He stops short of that here, reminding us how, unlike many actors of his stature, he can play normal, too. The problem here is that he doesn’t get a lot of help.

Banks gives her all. But the Lara role, like many here, is underwritten. There’s just not much for her to do. Ditto Olivia Wilde whose single mother acts as a willing accomplice to the Brennans on the strength of Crowe’s conviction alone – without so much as considering the implications for her own daughter. Where was she during jury selection?

“The Next Three Days” is written and directed by Paul Haggis. This is disappointing news. Haggis has produced some great moments in film. Consider the father’s desperate search for his son’s killer of “In The Valley Of Elah,” the verbal and physical barbs thrown in “Casino Royale” and “Million Dollar Baby.” And the searing, if hyperbolic, revelations of “Crash.” Haggis has talked about making the film during the difficult time he left Scientology. Whether or not the very literal notions of escape apply here the finished film does suggest a distraction in its maker.

“The Next Three Days” gets some things right. We hope for Brennan and fear the consequences of his desperation. Brennan is a shrewd planner. But he’s a novice in the execution. If he prevails, it will be against all odds. Liam Neeson helps, too, bringing classic cool to his scene as an ex-con-turned-jailbreak-advisor.

Unfortunately, as in the clumsy parts of “Crash,” amping up the emotion comes at the expense of the storytelling. Characters appear with no introduction. Actions play out without explanation. Preposterous scenarios abound. The actors make “The Next Three Days” adequate stuff. But you’re left with the feeling that, given the talent involved, it could’ve been more.

** 1/2

Russell Crowe – John Brennan
Elizabeth Banks – Lara Brennan
Olivia Wilde – Nicole
Liam Neeson – Damon Pennington
Ty Simpkins – Luke Brennan

Written and Directed by Paul Haggis
Based on the film “Pour Elle” written by Fred Cavayé
Running Time: 122 Minutes.