Archive for the Favorite Films Category

Favorite Films: Heavy Heavy Low Low Vocalist Lists His Favorite Flicks as Halloween Creeps Closer

Posted in Favorite Films, Interviews, Lists, Reviews with tags , , , , , , , , , on 10/25/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

It’s not uncommon for an actor to form or join a band – after all, it takes a certain gene to drive a person to be at the center of attention as much as they possibly can. But this past summer, when we caught up with vocalist Robbie Smith of sasscore squad Heavy Heavy Low Low, we learned that the inverse isn’t necessarily as common.

Sure, he enjoys fronting the band from San Jose, California, and writing and recording their songs – which are so unhinged and berserk that even Guantanamo Bay couldn’t restrain or temper them. Nonetheless, Smith also enjoys stepping away from the physical intensity of the band’s concerts to focus on an artistic endeavor he may value even more than crafting music: filmmaking.

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Favorite Films: Point Break 2 Frontman Cops to His Guilty-Pleasure Movies: ‘Mortal Kombat,’ ‘Terror,’ ‘Elvis,’ More

Posted in Favorite Films, Features, Guilty Pleasures, Interviews, Lists with tags , , , , , , , on 09/19/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Earlier this month saw a new release by Point Break 2 – no, not a sequel to the immortal 1991 surfing-undercover-cop-thriller-pseudohomoerotic-unintentional-comedy-action masterpiece starring Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze, but rather a fresh record by a band using that amusing name as its moniker. Featuring members of Brooklyn indie bands These Are Powers and The Flag including Ted McGrath, Point Break 2’s self-titled EP dropped on Naturally Records.

McGrath originally assembled Point Break 2 to bide his time while The Flag’s second LP was in the works. But he hit it off so well with Flag bandmate Ryan Crozier, Jason Robira of Sunwatchers, Fixtures’ Kris Liakos and Billy Bouchard (Ice Balloons, Dancehall Crashers) that they decided to formalize Point Break 2 as a full-fledged project.

And how could they not, with a fuzzy, skronky song as infectious as lead single “Hall of Justice”?

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They/Live Leader on Growing Up Mormon, Teaming With Drab Majesty

Posted in Favorite Films, Features, Interviews with tags , on 03/25/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Delve into my New Noise conversation with polymath Whitney Mower, who fronts Born Losers Records band They/Live and survived the disastrous fires that recently ravaged Los Angeles.

Lo-Pan: ‘We Play at the Audience. We Do Not Play for an Audience’

Posted in Favorite Films, Features, Interviews with tags , , on 03/01/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Heavy-hitters Lo-Pan give New Noise an early preview of their fifth record ahead of its April release–and, to The Bad Penny‘s particular delight, geek out about Big Trouble in Little China.

Doppelgängers: ‘It Follows,’ ‘Hereditary’ and ‘In the Mouth of Madness’

Posted in Doppelgängers, Favorite Films, Features with tags , , , , , on 01/31/2023 by Kurt Orzeck

Three of the scariest horror films from the past 30 years deeply affected audiences for radically different reasons.

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