If you think the electronica genre has grown a little tiresome, here’s something to give it a little juice: KOMPOSI003, the third label-showcase compilation from Positron! Records. I was unfamiliar with all of the 11 artists on board, but now I have 11 artists to add to my “watch out for” list. Largely void of vocals, KOMPOSI003 fronts a nicely chilled groove overall, though the tracks themselves differ a bit, running the range from IDM to trip-hop. It opens with the jazz-cut/drum-and-bass funk of the aptly named Amish Rake Fight’s “Artist with a Thompson,” while Chris Randall’s thick and humid “Be There Tonight” sounds like the late-night city-driving song of the summer. Aizome’s “Terminal” was my favorite track, a Tangerine Dream-esque tune with airport ambience and a ticking-clock beat. With contributions from Milkfish, Micronauts and Scanalyzer, KOMPOSI003 proves the indie scene is where tomorrow’s electronica stars are currently brewing. –Rod Lott

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Are you getting sick of Asian horror films yet? Apparently not. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have new ones come out every other week. Or is it just that all the Asian countries are trying to top J-horror before they quit making them? THE HEIRLOOM is from Thailand, which brought us the Pang Brothers’ THE EYE and SHUTTER.

There is a ritual going on in a mansion to summon forth the ghosts of children. Of course, doing crap like that doesn’t go the way they want it to be. They all die. Years later, a young one inherits the estate and moves in. And guess what? It’s cursed by those spirits! Leste Chen’s minimalist direction differs about from other popular Asian horrors, but it’s a bit of a mistake because the film chooses style over substance. THE HEIRLOOM never gets exciting because not much really happens. It is very moody (in fact, it is beautifully photographed) and creepy, but it is not engaging and most of all, it
isn’t scary.

The film spends most of the time (if not all) guiding us to the mystery of the ritual by having those youngsters wander around the house and get killed. I’m cool about the film engaging in some horror clichés, but if it does nothing else, the result is simply brutal. Any scare is once again just a cheap-shot quick-jump, which is always uninspired. Perhaps Chan lacks what it takes to create a true scare, to explore the genre. The film doesn’t do anything on any level. –Shogo

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This little parcel of total strangeness, a mixture of happy toy insanity with a Saturday-morning LIDSVILLE aesthetic could only come from Japan, and sure enough, the likable foursome does hail from that hallowed land, and how they ended up on an Athens, Georgia label is anyone’s guess. On WELCOME WONDERFUL WORLD, they play simple, straightforward, happy songs but do so with an astounding ESL slant that sometimes comes across as a little too precious. Lines like “We’ve been living in the city long time maybe we should live there peoplepack!” are par for the course. Where they succeed, however, is in their outstanding tribute song “Almanack,” which honors The Kinks’ great song “Autumn Almanac.” It’s not a cover; it’s just about how much they love the song and they mimic one or two moments while singing “Ray the rock!” Ray the rock indeed. Goofy stuff and every once in a while Youichi Sakamoto sounds like Davy Jones. Don’t know if that’s good or not. –Mark Rose

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Superstitious people the world over are scared shitless today, what with the date being 6/6/06 and all. And you know what? I think they have good reason to be! In my 15 minutes in the car this morning, two Rob Thomas songs came on the radio. If that doesn’t signal “say your prayers, bitches,” what does, I ask you?

Related: Read our review of THE OMEN here (as in the original book, not the new movie starring Julia “Circleface” Stiles). Also, what the hell is up with this new LEFT BEHIND videogame in which you score points by killing those who refuse to convert to Christianity? Is the sacred no longer sacred?

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Let’s put a whole lot of TV bits into one, shall we?

• First of all, my move has still put me behind on the TV front. My TiVo holds the last five episodes of 24, which I need to get to, even though I’m betting I know how it ends. (Jack Bauer saves the day, perhaps?) I also have the LOST finale waiting, even though I hadn’t seen any of the episodes since April. Knowing I’d never have the time to play catch-up there, I asked a friend to spoil them for me so I could watch the finale. But then life happened and I couldn’t watch the finale. And life continues to happen and I still haven’t, and now I’m just wondering if I should save myself another two hours and just ask for that to be spoiled for me, too.

• And is THE APPRENTICE over? Which asshole won that? That’s a show I’ve decided to ditch from here on out.

• And now for two shows I have never watched – SMALLVILLE and PEPPER DENNIS – although, based on these photos, I’m thinking maybe I should have:

• Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim continues to shit out new shows on an alarmingly speedy basis without much advance word. Seems like I don’t hear about them until they’ve already been airing for a couple of weeks. (If I were unemployed and stoned and watching ATHF repeats in the wee small hours, I guess I would be more on the up-and-up.) One of them is MORAL OREL, a stop-motion DAVEY AND GOLIATH parody. The one episode I saw was about Orel bottling his own pee and selling it to kids at school to drink. How funny was it? I won’t be a TiVoing a second, that’s how funny. I guess they’ll put on anything now. Just give me more VENTURE BROTHERS and clog up the rest of your schedule as you see fit.

• I have medium hopes for Comedy Central’s DOG BITES MAN, premiering Thursday night. It’s an improv-com in the vein of RENO 911!, about a TV news team. The part that grabs my interest is that segments of the show find the team conducting man-on-the-street interviews with real people who don’t know that the show is fake. Making fun of the clueless general public equals comedy in my book.

• Finally, that cute little Jessica Alba hosts the 2006 MTV MOVIE AWARDS, premiering this Thursday and then repeated for the rest of the summer. The musical guests are almost always irritating, but I enjoy the movie parodies they do, unless the host is Jimmy Fallon. Anyway, up for Best Movie are THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN, KING KONG, BATMAN BEGINS, WEDDING CRASHERS and FRANK MILLER’S SIN CITY. With the exception of that big, boring ape, all those movies were on my list of the five ‘05 movies I loved the most. I don’t know whether to feel proud or ashamed.

I know I said the other day that Rip It Atomic Pom was the best-tasting energy drink I’ve tried, but now I ask that those comments be stricken from the record, your honor, now that I’ve tried Monster Khaos.

While en route to move a refrigerator yesterday morning, I filled my car up at a 7-Eleven; since I was yawning about every gallon, I went in a bought a can of this. I’d never had a Monster before, but this one caught my eye because the can read “70% Juice!” And they’re not lying when they say “juice”: apple, orange, pear, pineapple, tangerine, white grape … I know I’m forgetting a couple, but damn, was it ever a veritable fruitopia! Best of all, the calorie count was pretty low for a serving – 90! – and it still had the caffeine boost that my brain, body and self-esteem have come to crave.

I really need to find this stuff in bulk, though. I’d love to drink one of these every morning, but $2 a can is pricey, and my babies need food.

One of the funniest and least appreciated TV shows of all time – POLICE SQUAD! – is finally hitting DVD … in color!

Paramount Home Video will be releasing it in November, hopefully including all six episodes. I wouldn’t expect any extras, but wouldn’t it be nice to have a commentary and maybe see John Belushi’s cameo that was excised since he died before the broadcast? Though I was only 11 at the time this show aired in 1982, my AIRPLANE!-loving self was one of the very few people who tuned in each week on ABC to catch the hilarious, crime-busting exploits of Lt. Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen). I loved everything about it, from its opening credits with the guest stars murdered just as they’re introduced to the end credits where the forced freeze-frames were always screwed up.

The show was so ignored that when it was turned into a film franchise with the NAKED GUN films years later, most people didn’t even realize it had been a TV show. But it was, and it was an absolutely terrific one that never got a fair shake. I’ve been waiting for this news essentially for 25 years.

As promised, I tried the two new flavors of Rip It energy drink I found on sale at the grocery store: Lime Wrecker and Atomic Pom.

Both of them taste great. I tried Lime Wrecker first, which is definitely limey, and in such a way that it tasted alcoholic. No problem there. The next day, I tried Atomic Pom, which I suspect is pomegranate-flavored (hence, the pun!). I thought it was the best-tasting energy drink I’ve ever tried, so I let my wife have a sip, since she loves pomegranate juice. She hated it (go figure), so I’ll chalk that up to my revenge for tricking me into trying that Coke Blak sludge.

Energy drink are not exactly known for great taste, so these are breakthroughs in that department, especially when other, older Rip It flavors (”Citrus X” and the generic “Power”) sorely lack. The downside of all that is to get the “energy” benefit (i.e. caffeine buzz), you really have to consume both servings. So that’s 440ish empty calories per can. Oh, well, who can afford heroin with these gas prices nowadays?