THE OFFSPRING sorta came out of nowhere today with the release of a brand-new single, "Coming For You." Streaming below in a "photo" video, the song is available direct from the band's webstore, along with iTunes, and should be available on all the usual digital retailers in the near future. THE OFFSPRING's next show announced takes place on April 4 in Tempe, AZ, and further tour dates have been promised...

After a huge response this past November, WWE is again going to offer a FREE month of WWE Network to new subscribers during February. The announcement comes in the lead-up to WrestleMania 31, which will take place on Sunday, March 29. During the month of February, subscribers will have access to all of WWE Network’s programming including a live podcast hosted by Stone Cold Steve Austin this Monday, February 2 featuring Triple H and the all-new, live pay-per-view event WWE FAST LANE on Sunday, February 22. 

Around this same time last year, I sat here in my office looking at the calendar and realized that my travel plans for the year were shaping-up to look an awful lot like routing for a tour. With "The Rock Father" as my moniker, and serving as publisher of this site of the same name, everything came into focus that I should look at my adventures as just that, and the #RockFatherTour was born. By the end of 2014, I'd logged more miles than any other of my 38 years, and my work had morphed from a "U.S." to a "North American" Tour. Of those missions, four of them led me to The Golden State, one of which was my first of the year.

To kick off the 2015 Rock Father Tour, I'm excited and privileged to announce that I'm going back to where it all started almost exactly one year ago, Walt Disney Studios and ABC. My old pal, Mickey Mouse has been kind enough to fund another big adventure (disclosure and all) on which I will be part of a group of 25 entertainment writers and bloggers that will have the opportunity to meet with the talent and creatives behind several new projects from the Disney family of companies including McFARLAND, USA (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures), TINKER BELL AND THE LEGEND OF THE NEVERBEAST (DisneyToon Studios), BIG HERO 6 (Walt Disney Animation Studios), FRESH OFF THE BOAT (ABC) and BAD HAIR DAY (Disney Channel). While I'll be bringing back some in-depth coverage to be posted as features in the weeks ahead, I'm inviting all of YOU to follow along and take part in the journey online as it happens. Want to know the details?

Earlier this month, I shared a preview of BARBIE IN PRINCESS POWER, the 30th animated film to feature Barbie and her friends. For the first time in Mattel's 56-year history, Barbie is donning the cape and mask to become a real superhero (unlike the times she's dressed-up as licensed characters), and at the world's largest Toy Fair in Nuremberg, Barbie appeared as a live-action, high-flying character to launch the toy line associated with the coming film, and it's digital empowerment mission, Be Super. Check out some video from the launch...

I'm a huge fan of Kia's excellent new 2016 Sorento, which I reviewed here on THE ROCK FATHER a few weeks back. I'm also a huge fan or Pierce Brosnan - perhaps my favorite Bond - and spent much of the mid-90s pretending to be him while playing GOLDENEYE on N64. What's happened here is that Kia Motors America recently tapped Brosnan for their annual Super Bowl commercial, and with the "Big Game" taking place this weekend, an extended version of the spot has arrived. With the 2016 Kia Sorento being touted as "The Perfect Getaway Vehicle," it's only right that Brosnan looked back to his "action-adventure" days as James Bond when he got pitched the gig, right?

In a perfect world, cinematic rights to all MARVEL Characters and Properties would be pulled under the current ownership of Disney so that the fans could be given what they want - a unified MARVEL Cinematic Universe. While that is unlikely to happen for quite some time due to pre-existing agreements with other studios, some heavy hitters are spread out and can't currently mingle on the big screen with their MARVEL cousins. Spider-man is over at Sony, while 20th Century Fox has the X-Men franchise and FANTASTIC FOUR. Taking some cues from what MARVEL Studios has been doing, Fox has done well with recent films such as X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, and now they're going back to the "4," throwing away the ok-to-mediocre movies of the mid-2000's for "a contemporary re-imagining of MARVEL's original and longest-running superhero team." The first trailer has arrived, and I'm curious what all of you think of it...

Last year, Hasbro celebrated the 30th Anniversary of the TRANSFORMERS brand by hosting the "Fan Built Bot" poll, in which fans assisted in the creation of the now-popular AUTOBOT female, WINDBLADE. We were pretty pleased with the outcome, as many design features we'd voted for made it into the final character, a figure of which we have here at Rock Father HQ (one I just may feature on the site in the near future). For 2015, Hasbro is following-up with something a little bit bigger,  launching the new “Fan Built Combiner” poll. This crowdsourcing project seeks fan input to create a new team of TRANSFORMERS robots that combine into one giant new character in celebration of the theme of the 2015 TRANSFORMERS GENERATIONS line: COMBINER WARS!

Since it's launch last year, the Disney Princess line of building sets from LEGO has slowly, but steadily been gaining a foothold here at Rock Father HQ. We've built a variety, from the now-retired Ariel's Amazing Treasures, to Rapunzel's Creativity Tower (reviewed here) and Cinderella's Romantic Castle. Our most recent build from this world comes from the Kingdom of Arendelle, with the first-ever LEGO set based on Walt Disney Animation Studios' Academy Award-winning FROZEN. Officially released on January 1st, we managed to score Elsa's Sparkling Ice Castle (#41062) a few days early on a post-Christmas visit to Toys "R" Us, and after teasing our build on the socials (here & here), it's time for a proper review right here on the site.

This is the news I've been waiting for since FAITH NO MORE first reunited for their "Second Coming" shows that began in 2009...

FAITH NO MORE have announced their first North American Tour since 1997, and it's happening this April/May. At long last, the band will return to Chicago for a date at Concord Music Hall (5/7), and one way or another, I will be there. For those of you unfamiliar, not only is FNM my favorite band of all-time, but had it not been for them, my life could've taken an entirely different path. The reason? FAITH NO MORE were the first band to ever grant me an interview, and it happened back in 1992 when I was just 15 years old. In addition to the tour, the next single from their forthcoming new album has been revealed, with "Superhero" due out as a limited-edition 7" single on March 17, followed by a digital release on March 31...

Every so often, beyond the normal realm of traditional vehicles, Mattel releases a fresh batch of Hot Wheels "Character Cars" - concept vehicles inspired by a pop culture franchise. In the past, the Character Cars series has seen MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS, TOY STORY 3, THE MUPPETS, and even SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS get the Hot Wheels treatment - but right now the two big lines are based on STAR WARS (two of which I showcased here) and MARVEL Comics. From the MARVEL assortment comes the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Rocket Raccoon car, featured in a #Toyography post on my social networks last week, and one that I've decided to share here on the site with a little more detail. First, the original photo...

When it comes to mashups, Austria's DJ SCHMOLLI is one of the best in the game, and as such I've written about his work on a few sites over the years (here's one of my favorites). This week, Schmolli places JAMES BROWN vs. MARK RONSON and BRUNO MARS for "American Uptown Funk," a mashup of the recent hit "Uptown Funk" and the 1985 classic, "Living in America" (ROCKY IV!). While the video was quickly up-and-down over at YouTube, Vimeo has a fresh version that you need to watch...

Confirmed: I need a LEGO Mystery Machine to go along with my LEGO Ghostbusters Ecto-1. This August, that just may happen as  Scooby, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, Velma and the Mystery Machine, as well as all the ghosts, goblins and other villains that make SCOOBY-DOO adventures complete come to LEGO form for the very first time in a series of five new building sets. Announced today by The LEGO Group and Warner Bros. Consumer Products, the sets will be accompanied by a 22-minute LEGO SCOOBY-DOO special, and made-for-video movie titles by Warner Bros. Animation that will feature the Mystery Inc. gang animated in LEGO form, much like BATMAN and STAR WARS before them. 

It's a rare thing to have a vehicle from a press fleet for more than a week, but that's exactly what happened when a 2015 Mitsubishi Outlander GT arrived here at Rock Father HQ for review over the holidays. The extra time was beneficial both to the vehicle and our family for some real-world testing hauling people and stuff from Northern Illinois to Michigan and back. Marketed as a great value and exceptionally safe Crossover SUV for families looking for a lot of people capacity for a lower price, Mitsubishi has wisely focused on the Outlander's strong points, drawing attention away from some curiously-unexciting features on the design front. While my thoughts are split on this one, I can tell you this before we move any further: my kids love it.