Because you don’t have time to find your horizons (let alone broaden them), we give you Meanwhile Elsewhere: InsideHook’s essential guide to cultural happenings in America this month.
If it’s new music you’re looking for, head on over to our February Spotify playlist.
Onward.
Dan Deacon
More accessible than his talking lizard phase, the oddball Baltimore musician’s latest, Gliss Riffer, is still a colorful electro jam … and now with more accessible hooks and a bit of melancholy. But still gloriously weird: the background “female” vocals on first single “Feel the Lightning” are all Deacon.
Plus: Horror meister John Carpenter’s best scores on Lost Themes (Feb. 3) | The 40th anniversary of Led Zeppelin’s seminal Physical Graffiti, featuring unreleased music (Feb. 23) | Our February Spotify playlist
A look back the show’s 40 seasons in encyclopedic detail, as well as a detailed behind-the-scenes chronology of a typical SNL episode. Buffered by 2,300 pictures and curated by art-house publishers TASCHEN. (Feb. 25)
Plus: The updated guide to Where Chefs Eat (Feb. 7) | New short story collections from Jonathan Lethem (Lucky Alan, Feb. 24) and Neil Gaiman (Trigger Warning, Feb. 3) | A dark comic take on the war on terror in Mark Doten’s debut The Infernal (Feb. 17)
A different take on shoot ‘em ups: Here, you can play cooperatively as one of four Hunters. Or just be the enemy: a fearsome monster (Kraken, Goliath, etc.) that constantly evolves by killing other creatures. And Hunters. (Feb. 10)
Plus: The expansive, open world zombie apocalypse shooter Dying Light (out now)
An unusual, interview-style biopic on the life of comic Lenny Bruce (wonderfully realized by Dustin Hoffman). Limited edition and on Blu-ray for the first time. (Feb. 10)
Plus: 26 ways to die in the horror anthology The ABCs of Death 2 (Feb. 3) | The remarkable life of film critic Roger Ebert in the doc Life Itself (Feb. 17)
Partly an ode to the Roger Moore-era Bond films — ridiculous weapons, deformed henchmen, megalomaniacal villain (Samuel L. Jackson) — Kingsman also provides a sly meta-critique of those flicks. In other words: comedy. And Colin Firth kicking ass with an umbrella while wearing a Mr. Porter-approved wardrobe. Crazy, no-brainer fun. (Feb. 10)
Plus: Hot Tub Time Machine 2 is … exactly what it says on the tin. (Feb. 20)
This HBO doc profiles the reclusive real-estate scion Robert Durst, a murder suspect in three separate, rather grisly cases. Directed by Andrew Jarecki (of the equally captivating, did-they-or-didn’t-they Capturing the Friedmans), this seven-year investigation should satiate fans of Serial. (Feb. 8)
Plus: The return of The Walking Dead (Feb. 8) and House of Cards (Feb. 27) | The much-ballyhooed Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul debuts … and has an awesome retro website to boot. (Feb. 8)
A serious time trip. Based off a popular Instagram feed showcasing the psychedelic, often double-exposed slides of photog Roger Steffens, this tome of (literally) acid-fueled pics features stark images from the Vietnam War juxtaposed with Steffens’s rather chill hangouts with the likes of Bob Marley, Hunter S. Thompson and Timothy Leary. (Feb. 5)
LISTEN: Radioooo
Musical time machine: Pick a decade. Then a country. Finally, a mood. Then sit back and enjoy the music that reps your preferred time, place and disposition (say, “slow” music from ’70s Argentina … which is kinda sexy). Unpredictable and addictive. And a nice break from Pandora’s repetitiveness.
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