Singer-songwriter Joe Brooks has released a music video for his debut single “Superman.” The video features the musician performing in a New York style loft and is definitely worth checking out. “Superman” will appear on Brook’s debut album, Constellation Me, available August 17th on Universal Republic Records. Check it out now.

Patriotism Starts at the Top and Ends at the Bottom

Independence Day: the day we independed something…uhh…a long time ago, where…fuck it, let’s party.

With July 4th right around the corner, I decided to teach America what it means to me, to be free. You need four basic ingredients – none of which hold more or less weight – to a perfect Independence Day, so don’t skimp!

How would like your sausage?

Barbecue

Nothing screams “America!” like a good-old fashioned barbecue. Naturally, if I knew how to cook I’d give you some tips about setting up your BBQ – maybe a recipe or two – but that’s simply not the case. Instead, I will give you my experience as a rider of barbecue coattails.

For starters, you always want to double check what you want to bring is not an item that someone else is already bringing; if they are doubling you up, who knows who brought what? And further more, you have no complete control over a particular good. Yes, if they tell you to bring beer, and add “if you want” at the end, chances are there ain’t much trust. Good work! Now you can go buy that extra fanny pack (People still buy fanny packs? Probably). If you’re looking to score some points, ask if they need any spare utensils or temporary tattoos. Let me tell you, when you show up with temporary tattoos (preferably ultra feminine ones), you are a god amongst men.

You’re wondering, but why do I care about gaining favor with my hosts? Well, friend, that question leads directly into our next ingredient.

Sometimes you Wish you had More Hands

Boobs

“Fuck, man, I love tits!” Me too, dude…me…too. Which is exactly why your influence in the BBQ as a whole (ingredient one!) is so vital! You see, you get in good with the host, and now your library of potential sweater mittens expands. The hosts generally know everyone, or at least one person in each “party” of people; so you do well with ingredient one, and the chesticles fly at you like they’ve got a fever, and you’re the cowbell.

Boobs come in all kinds of realities, makes and models. There’s nothing quite as American as a set of amazing breasts; especially ones that have been coerced into letting you play with them. Now how much more awesome has the barbecue become, since you’ve found a pair of flapjacks to call your own? Don’t know? A-FUCK-ING-LOT! So you’re sittin’ there, enjoying your delicious barbecue, applying some temporary tattoos (if you’re smart), marveling/drooling over your recently-acquired pair of bazooms, but something feels amiss.

Hmm…what seems off here? Has it hit you, while you’re devouring that strip of carne asada? Are you..? a little thirst all-of-a-sudden…? Enter stage left, ingredient number three…

Penis Beer Bong: Stroke of Genius

Beer

Just saying the word, I can faintly hear the Star-Spangled Banner in the distance. Beer. The best four letter word in our American English (The best kind of English there is! Take that, English!). Remember that feeling of emptiness a few moments ago? How ya feelin’ now, champ, as you wash down that tasty BBQ with an ice-cold beer? Fantastic, I know.

Well, what kind of beer should you get? Generally speaking, I go with the lowest common denominator, or ask the host before you get there. There are lots of Summer Ales available now, and you can’t really go wrong with a lighter beer (Corona, a good hefeweizen, Bud / Coors, Stella, etc). If you brought meat during ingredient number one, then perhaps a beer that goes along well with that type of meat would do well. This guy had some cool tips on mixing BBQ with beer, and since he posted a recipe, I’ll just assume he knows more than me.

Shit, if this ain’t heaven, I don’t know what is. Got my BBQ, got my boobs, and now I’ve got my beer. Does it get any better? Ha…ha…ha. To even ask that question before I mention ingredient number four could be seen as unpatriotic.

Instawood

Fireworks

*Fist pump*. If there’s anything I like more than BBQ, boobs or beer, it’s gotta be fireworks (blow jobs are on their own list, sorry). There’s just something about a shit ton of crazy lights making noise that gets your nipples hard, and your dick throbbing. The beauty of fireworks is how universal they are: fun for kids, adults, dogs, getting headers in the back seat of your 2000 Buick Regal GS, selling drugs to minors, etc etc.

To whoever invented fireworks – I’m sure I could find you in a third of a second, but certainly fuck that – I salute you. You have brought me lots of pleasure in my life, and I can’t wait for more.

Here’s to BBQ, boobs, beer and fireworks!! Amen amen.

Steve Miller Band - Bingo! Album Cover

In honor of Steve Miller’s newest album “Bingo!,” we are giving away one album to a random hyper. Miller is releasing the album on his own Space Cowboy Records. Following his annual summer U.S. tour, in a new show designed by director Rob Roth (who did “Beauty and the Beast”), Steve Miller will do a European Tour in the fall, including a concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Rules on winning the album are below – good luck!

Behind the scenes footage:

All entries must be received by June 30, 2010. If you want to enter to win this item, please send an email to: rmtc@behindthehype.com. Limit one entry by email per person. Winners will be selected by BehindtheHype.com at random. Your chances of winning depend upon the number of entries we receive while the promotion is posted on BehindtheHype.com. Void where prohibited. USA residents only.

You can find more information on “Bingo!” at the official Steve Miller Band website.

It’s been awhile since we’ve had a great comedy, and we are god damn due. I’d like to extend a friendship leaf to the crew of Get Him to the Greek for putting an end to that wait. Jonah Hill, and Russell Brand work very well together, though Puff Daddy definitely stole the show. Are we calling him Puff Daddy now? I don’t watch the news or read the Twitter (we read Twitter, right? Maybe “decode” is a better verb). Whatever we call him, he was fucking hilarious nearly every second we see or hear him.

Get Him to the Greek Movie Poster

In Get Him to the Greek, Sergio Roma (played by Puff Daddy) runs a record label, Pinnacle Records, and is looking for the next big idea to turn their poor sales numbers around. Aaron Green (played by Hill) is a dorky, awkward tie-wearing intern who suggests that the record company throw a huge concert as a 10-year anniversary to Aldous Snow’s (played by Brand) last mega performance. As a result, Sergio gives Aaron the nod, and has him pick up Aldous from England, then bring him to the states to promote the concert and obviously perform. Naturally, Aldous has his major “rock star” quirks about him, which definitely helps in the hilarity. Along the way, Aaron has a temporary falling out with his girlfriend, and Aldous shows his insecurities about the woman of his dreams, Jackie Q (played by Rose Byrne), and his father, Jonathan Snow (played by Colm Meaney).

Jonah Hill, Russel Brand and Puff Daddy in Get Him to the Greek

The plot was plausible, and didn’t deter from the story or the characters. Jonah Hill showed decisively that he isn’t a younger, fatter Seth Rogan, and can be super funny without Michael Cera. Cheers to that alone. This was – start to finish – the best comedy of the year, gives The Hangover and I Love You, Man a serious run for their money, and had me rolling the entire time. We had the usual 15 minutes of mushy garbage at the end, but it wasn’t in your face and still mixed in with some humor as well. Puff Daddy very much stole the show with his abrasive, quick wit, and PERFECT timing. But every character (sans the women, of course…just kidding…I like blowjobs…) had amazing lines with limited physical humor. I also like that I saw some titties, didn’t have to see any dick, and only got about 4 seconds of Jonah Hill’s disgusting ass.

I loved the subtle humor throughout the big joke sequences; it was a constant barrage of humor, and while you were rolling on the floor they also decided to tickle you with a soft, Arabian feather (“Arabian” was clearly only for effect – I’m not feather expert, and certainly not of the Arabian variety). The film was really clever, with genius editing and great cut-aways, and comes with only a handful of dull moments. When you stop laughing after a scene, just know that you probably missed 2-3 other jokes that you couldn’t hear, which is fine ’cause you’re a smart person and will go see it again (maybe this time around you’ll be stoned or drunk? Just putting it out there). Shit, even the songs Brand performed were hilarious.

Russell Brand as Aldous Snow in Get Him to the Greek

Clearly designed for young adults, I could still see my dad having a kick out of it too. Really, if you don’t have a good time with Get Him to the Greek, then you are a grade A asshole (or maybe your grandma just died, and it was simply too soon. Pro-tip: Always allow for adequate bereavement).

Usually I steer well clear of politics and religion – chiefly ’cause I think they are too silly to waste my precious time on this Earth worrying about – but when religion rears its ugly head around the topic of breasts, that’s when I take notice. There are certain things that you simply don’t fuck with in this world, and breasts are definitely at the top of my list (Oxygen and water are tied as a close second, with sports rounding out the top 3). When I heard this dastardly quote in favor of women dressing modestly, from an Iranian cleric, I had to get involved somehow. My newest enemy, Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi, had this to say a couple weeks back:

Many women who do not dress modestly…lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes…there is no other solution but to take refuge in religion and to adapt our lives to Islam’s moral codes.

All right, so maybe he was speaking metaphorically? Even still, any man that wants to turn back the hands of time and make it even harder for the rest of us to get laid can go fuck himself. Well, a small group of people decided he could really go fuck himself, with the helpful hand from our friend: Facebook. Jennifer McCreight decided she was gonna take action into her own hands (or chest, if you will), and setup a glorious day entitled Boobquake.

Boobquake Participant: Michelle Marie Morris

As part of the Boobquake movement, she asked her fellow females to show as much cleavage as they were comfortable with on April 26th, and boy was there cleavage to be had. If you have a heart condition, you probably want to steer away from the pictures, but it wouldn’t be a bad way to go, gramps. Even though the intent was to clearly show there’s no “science” behind breasts causing earthquakes, there was indeed a tremor in Taiwan on Monday (aka Boobquake day). Were boobs to blame? I sure hope so; maybe we can employ breasts to fix our economy.

The Facebook event had over 200,000 “confirmed guests” and literally thousands of submitted photos from females from all around the world. Breasts of all shapes and sizes were on display…in a word: SCORE!

Whoever said we’ve turned into a nation of slackers underestimated the power of the breast.

Glee - Some Show on Fox you don't Watch

The executive producers of the Fox show, Glee have begun a nationwide casting search to fill new high school student roles that will be added to the show’s second season. Auditions are open to professionals and amateurs age 16 and older.

All that being said, if you have 15 seconds of your life to spare, please vote for my buddy Anthony – merely login to your (now outdated, I’m sure) MySpace account, and click Give a Gold Star.

http://www.myspace.com/gleeauditions?link=7181206

I realize this is a shameless plug, but I also realize I don’t give a flying fuck.

THANKS!

More often than not, you’ve found yourself in a YouTube circle jerk, where you see one video then another and then another; sometimes you stay on topic, but you typically get to something that stops the momentum and end up getting back to whatever you were doing. When You’re Strange, The Doors documentary by Tom DiCillo, took me on a similar ride. Here I am thinking I’m gonna get something ground-breaking and new, yet I finish this film not knowing why I got to where I was.

Originally, DiCillo slated himself as the narrator, but after initials complaints about his monotone voice (something I too share), he opted to get Johnny Depp to take over that responsibility. I’m sure in some circles, men don’t compliment other men on their voice, but Johnny Depp could speak all day and I’d listen. His timing was on point, and he kept me engaged throughout the entire film. That is, until I started questioning exactly what I was watching. I realize there’s no requirement to conduct interviews for documentaries, but when the people it’s about are still alive, why not? Albeit, the film (as is much Doors-inspired creations) was chiefly geared around Jim Morrison, but still I would have really enjoyed hearing from his bandmates. Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, and Robby Krieger are all still alive, yet none of them had a present-day interview conducted.

When You're Strange: The Doors Documentary

It was an hour and a half of Doors footage. Some of it was very rare, and awesome to be able to see, but random video footage a documentary does not make. There really wasn’t much of a direction I took from it in general; the crux of the documentary was about Morrison’s shenanigans. Who cares? We (the general Doors “public”) all know Morrison did drugs, drank himself stupid, and fucked random sluts, so what was the film trying to show me? It showed me that the general public (not the general Doors “public”) will always only get to understand Jim. Ray, John, and Robby did a hell of a lot more than play instruments, but When You’re Strange makes it seem like they were merely clowns in Jim’s circus.

I really wanted to hear from the other bandmates, but I’d even settle for fans that went to The Doors shows back in the day. Someone had to be sober, right? Maybe sober is a stretch…someone has to have some drunken / stoned memories, no? Before it’s too late for their to be “survivors” of The Doors shows, everyone needs to hear from them. I know they are out there. I can smell ‘em.

If you’re a Doors fan, go check out the film. Everyone else, save your money (assuming you’ve even heard of the documentary).