All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces

Not since The Human League topped the charts has the UK had such an un-Christmas-like number one, and surveying the other options, Mad World has got to get the counterculture vote . . . although we'd have settled for The Darkness!
    Here's the run-down: CDs from Blink-182 and The Fiery Furnaces, big screen horror in Dead End and big screen hobbits in The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King.
    In print, Watchers: The Battle For The Throne is the second of William Meikle's Scottish Vampire trilogy and The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn is John Cavanagh's look at the making of Pink Floyd's psychedelic opus.
    Finally, Joshua Cain and Justin Pierre take their places on the counterculture couch and chat about movies and music in our Motion City Soundtrack interview.

Bigger, badder, bolder
So bright, so beautiful, our precious

One big blowout before things start winding down for Christmas: On CD, Hatebreed and DevilDriver play hard while Slipknot's Shawn Crahan takes an alternative approach with To My Surprise. Former Jeff Buckley cohorts The A.M. release their debut, and there's singer-songwriter magic from Aqualung and Sarah McLachlan.
    Howling Book is the latest from Eleven, whose members have played with everyone from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Pearl Jam, The Hedwig And The Angry Inch soundtrack is reworked by the cream of alt-rock cool as Wig In A Box and Audio Bullys raid their record boxes in the latest Back To Mine.
    On DVD, Depeche Mode release a bigger and better version of their seminal tour documentary 101, director Peter Jackson releases a bigger and better version of The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers and Ricky Gervais brings us stand-up in Animals Live. And on the big screen Richard Curtis directs Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman and Bill Nighy in Love Actually.
    On the live circuit we catch up with punkers Motion City Soundtrack and turntablist extraordinaire Kid Koala, and hook up for a chat with Latin metallers Ill Niño on the recent Roadrage tour.

Old, Neo, borrowed and blue
The BellRays, Nickelback, The Strokes . . .

New and not so new discs from rock 'n' soulers The BellRays, shake 'n' stirrers The Beeps, trad rock revivalists Nickelback, street preachers Spy 51, UK rappers Border Crossing and new Roadrunner signings 40 Below Summer.
    Add to that the second album from retro New Yorkers The Strokes, the guitars 'n' guns soundtrack to Once Upon A Time In Mexico and the final big screen outing for Morpheus and Neo in The Matrix Revolutions.

Iggy and The Stooges
Back together again

On CD: Iggy Pop reunites with The Stooges, and teams up with Green Day, Sum 41 and Peaches on Skull Ring, and Bay Area bruisers Machine Head return with Through The Ashes Of Empires. Plus new discs from Seattle's Boss Martians and Sunderland's Mavis.
    At the cinema: Nearly a quarter-century after its original release, Ridley Scott buffs up his masterpiece for another outing as Alien: The Director's Cut hits the big screen. Plus Meg Ryan stars in the sexually charged thriller In The Cut.

The return of Tarantino . . .
Kill Bill heads up our movie reviews

A whole stack of recent and upcoming movies reviewed: Tarantino returns with Kill Bill: Volume 1, Disney team up with Pixar in Finding Nemo and Sigourney Weaver in Holes and Diane Lane discovers Italy in Under The Tuscan Sun.
    On CD, Josh Homme ropes in PJ Harvey for The Desert Sessions 9 & 10, Wilco's John Stirratt resurfaces with The Autumn Defense, Spooks follow up S.I.O.S.O.S. with Faster Than You Know . . ., local boys The Hitchers punk it up and the Ozone Quartet get arty with Live At Local 506. The cutting edge of metal is showcased in MTV2 Headbangers Ball and Manchester's I Am Kloot offer up a second dose of wry acoustic anthems.
    Talking up whom . . . I Am Kloot live in Liverpool! Wrapping things up there's the latest Alex Cross novel, Four Blind Mice from James Patterson and The Namesake from Pulitzer winner Jhumpa Lahiri.