1.  X-Men: Days of Future Past

Summer popcorn movies keep getting better and better and this X-Men iteration is no exception.  Have your cake and eat it too with a thrilling spectacle that offers up some genuinely compelling characters and a plot that will appeal to audiences who don’t know or care for the comic book mythology that this draws on.

2. Comedy Bang Bang on IFC

This surreal and deeply funny talk show stars Scott Aukerman and weirdo genius Reggie Watts as they “interview” celebrity guests and perform sketches that leads the audience to some very strange places.  We love it and some of the frequent guests like Zach Galifnakis, Tim Meadows and David Cross.

3. Damon Albarn – Everyday Robots

In Damon Albarn’s first album simply accredited to himself, Everyday Robots grinds technologically to commentate on the troubling state of our society. Including the title track that is overwhelmingly melancholy, to “Mr. Tembo” (that Albarn apparently first sang to a baby elephant before it was released) Everyday Robots sticks to Albarn’s style of haunting your daily life with catchy melodies and subversive undertones.

4.  Agalloch – The Serpent and the Sphere

Awesome, expansive experimental metal that will charm even those who don’t like the genre with it’s world-creation.   Don’t isss them on their current tour either which includes a stop at the infamous Maryland Death Fest.

5. Revisit a Classic: Mr. Show

This classic HBO comedy sketch show seems ahead of it’s time NOW, so you can only imagine who cutting edge it was for the late nineties when it first aired.  This hilarious show launched the careers of David Cross and Bob Odenkirk (better known as Breaking Bad’s Saul Goodman) in addition to Paul F. Tompkins and Scott Aukerman who we mentioned earlier.  There is plenty of scathing social commentary here but they never sacrificed humor and managed to steer clear of preach-y content.