Over the past five years Sherman Alexie has become the hippest, most popular Native American cultural icon we have ever seen. With a bunch of novels and short stories, a screenplay credit for an upcoming Miramax film, a popular stand-up act in his native Seattle, and spot on the prestigious Granta Best Young Writers list it is hard to imagine what could possibly be missing.

In “Indian Killer” Alexie transforms modern day Seattle into neo-noir landscape complete with a serial killer on the loose and a tenuous racial climate beginning to burst at the seams. Alexie’s modern Native Americans aren’t the headdress wearing teepee building warriors chasing after John Wayne, but more alcohol guzzling misunderstood people trying to fit into a modern American world.

“Indian Killer” is the story of John Smith, an Indian adopted by white parents in an affluent suburb of Seattle. His struggle with his heritage comes to a head as the serial prowls the streets brutally murdering his victims and leaving two feathers on them to mark his prey. This is a very well written page turner that tackles serious issues with a sense of humor, but always manages to make its point in a way that makes you think.

It’s not often that I laugh out loud, but for whatever reason it happened at least a couple times a page for throughout the two-hundred pages in “Et Tu, Babe.” Although not exactly a novel with anything ever vaguely resembling a plot, the storyline follows the author as he reinvents himself as a kind of superhero author. More a series of short surreal stories about a anatomical cheese sculptors or getting high off of a vial of authentic “Abraham Lincoln’s Morning Breath” stolen from the National Museum, Leyner is amalgam of literary minds which cross somewhere between J.R. Tolken and Hunter Thompson. His wit is fast, hip, and twisted but also surprisingly and technically informed about everything from modern medicine to technology. You’ll either love it or hate it, but it would be hard to truthfully say that this guy isn’t really talented.

Label: K

Once again Calvin Johnson and Dug Martsch have united to crank out some of the weirdest, most oddly danceable tunes this side of King Kong. On “The Rebels Not In” Dug and Calvin do a much better job of vocal harmonizing that on their two prior albums, trading deep wails for off key whines in their own unique fashion. Vocally this record belongs largely to Calvin, accompanied largely by the trademark guitarwork of Martsch. “The Rebels Not In” is a swell upbeat collection of tunes spun by a couple of pretty zany dudes.