Archive for the Favorite Films Category

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”?

Continue reading

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.

Continue reading