Recent Concert Reviews / The LC's Pop Culture Corner

Indie-rock fans are notoriously un-funky, but occasionally they like to embrace a neo-funk or neo-soul band such as Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings (Richard: "I totally saw them open for Spoon!") or, more recently, Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears, who played a raucous set inside a sweltering Bottleneck last night (Richard: "Bottleneck, I fully understand that the best rock shows are often hot and sweaty affairs, but it's only a matter of time before someone actually suffocates in your fucking bar!").

Hipsters are especially drawn to frontman Black Joe because he's actually black (rare enough in indie circles) and because his moniker draws attention to his ethnicity in a way they assume to be ironic. Also, his shows give them a chance to throw around terms such as "Stax records" in an attempt to impress ladies who, in truth, don't give a fuck about their record collection but really just want to dance to Lewis' tunes like "Get Yo Shit" and "Sugarfoot," which Richard deems the set's highlight and one of his personal favorite rock moments of the year so far.

Verdict: three-and-a-half out of four PBR's (because apparently the Bottleneck is now a PBR bar as well, even though it's so hot in there you'll abandon beer for water at some point in the evening).

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Entourage returns to HBO tonight for its seventh season (Richard: "Seven seasons for Turtle? And only three for Deadwood? What is wrong here?"). And although the show is wearing thin, the boys continue to watch because the Hollywood sexcapades of Vince and his "posse" remind them very much of their own lives in Larryville. This season is getting a little extra press due to the presence of hardcore porn starlet Sasha Grey in a recurring role as one of Vince's flames.

Chip: "You know, Sasha was actually quite good in her first mainstream film role last year as an escort in Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience, but for my money her best work remains The King of Coochie 4."

Richard: "Agreed, but I also liked her work in Meet the Fuckers, which was actually funnier than the Ben Stiller flick it was parodying."

Also premiering tonight on HBO (entering its second season) is Hung, the tale of a big-dicked gigolo in Detroit.

Chip: "This show works quite well as both a trenchant analysis of the collapse of American economy and as a vehicle for hilarious cock jokes."