Neil Young 2: An Artistic Credo

So he doesn't get hung up on mistakes? 'Hell, no. If I did I'd still be working on my first project. I can't afford the time. I'd rather do something new than try to fix something I already did. I got to move on. It's always the next thing with me. Always.'

Mark Goes to the Movies (so You Don't Have To)

The Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift (dir. Dennis Lim) I'll give it this: this movie has the courage of its knuckleheadedness. The lead rebel, played by Lucas Black, makes Paul Walker and Vin Diesel from earlier installments look like Harvey Keitel and Robert DeNiro. Women exist in this film for the sole purposes of captivating men with their sexual availability or decorating fancy cars. That definitely applies to Nathalie Kelley, who plays the non-mechanical love interest. (Good thing for her most of the audience for this film probably wasn't born when Tia Carrere had her moment of fame.) Of course, you probably didn't come to this movie for the girls--you came to see a bunch of cars screaming around, and there's a fair amount of that. Like the first two, this'll make a fun video game. Mark's review (stupid points): ???

What motivated Neil Young

Very nice interview.

Well, it was a picture on the cover of USA Today actually. A cargo plane full of soldiers who we re doctors ready to take off for Iraq. The story was about how medicine had made such leaps and bounds in this war, how doctors had learned so much from this conflict. Man, that was just too much for me. Are you really trying to tell me that the positive side of the war is the medical experience gained from all those wasted people. There's really something wrong with that picture.'

What TruthOut says about the Rove Indictment story

It gets weirder and weirder. It's kind of striking, actually--if this version is anywhere close to the truth, it's a lot more interesting than what the networks and newspapers have reported. And I would in no way put it past these guys to plant the whole original story about the indictment. No wonder the MSM prefer their "Rove's free!" narrative--not only is it simpler, it fits the whole "Great Leader is back" storyline they've been trying to construct the past two weeks.

http://forum.truthout.org/blog/story/2006/6/19/185947/499

What I'm Listening To 6-16-06

Gary Bartz and NTU Troop, I've Known Rivers and Other Bodies (OJC)
I'm guessing Gary Bartz is best known for playing sax in the Miles Davis band that included Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette and recorded Live Evil and The Cellar Door Sessions. The title song from I've Known Rivers was one of the "conscious" jazzy songs I often heard on underground Arizona radio (along with "Compared to What" and "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"), and this album strikes a balance between Coltrane-ish modal jazz and electic-piano-based funk. It's not all exciting, but it's warm and grooving when it's not. Would mix in well with some Al Green for a Sunday morning set.

Lee "Scratch" Perry, Divine Madness, Definitely and Produced and Directed by the Upsetter (Pressure Sounds) Adrian Sherwood did the world a good turn by making pretty good records with Lee Perry after Lee went off the deep end and burned down the Black Ark Studio. (Now there's a building that's gone down in studio history with Gold Star in Hollywood and Sun in Memphis.) He's doing the world an even better one by continuing to track down definitive examples of Lee Perry mind-fuck dub from the Black Ark years. The first collection in the series, Voodooism, was fantastic. (I'd put it up there with Open the Gate and Build the Ark, two now-rare anthologies of songs-plus-dubs on Trojan Records.) These last two are much in the same vein. No one could create an aural haunted house hosting a block-rocking party like Scratch, and these albums feature some of his spookiest. (Given a cursory listening, I find the tunes on Produced and Directed more consistently amazing.)

Nels Cline and Gregg Bendian, Interstellar Space Revisited Nels has been my noise guitar inspiration for the past couple of years, and this homage to John Coltrane and Rashied Ali's original goes about it the right way: by blowing the roof off the place using slashes of violent rhythm. And they can turn it down and get downright celestial when they want to.

The truth is only known by guttersnipes, or Exene: An Artistic Credo

Here's Exene on what was different after X got a record contract with a major record label:

More money means you can decide to stop and go eat sushi and go drink Irish coffee for four hours and come back and go, "Where were we?"

What I'm Listening To 6-8-06

Alex Spearman "Mama Ka Toka Laka" (from New Orleans Popeye Party, Night Train) A very pissed-off guy describes in some detail how he's going to kick his woman's ass--all set to a perfect New Orleans party arrangement, complete with rock and roll nonsense verbiage (also cf: "Ya Ya", "Iko Iko", "Tipitina").

Tony Allen, "No Accommodation for Lagos" (from album of same name, Evolver) A somewhat early solo record, so he gets Afrika 70 to record with (including Boss Man Fela himself, if my ear serves me correctly). Since they're one of the great interstellar groove orchestras, it's great to have even with a bunch of Fela records that sound and move almost the same.

Die Kreuzen, October File (Touch & Go) I remember in '84 one of the Sub Pop guys reviewing this band (in The Rocket!) by saying "Only a silver bullet could stop them." (They liked it better than Zen Arcade.) So here I finally found their songs on eMusic, and lo and behold, they sound like Black Oak Arkansas for the 80s hardcore era--or the guys who inspired (or learned from) Mark Arm's singing.

Grant McLennan, In Your Bright Ray (Beggars Banquet) You can have Coldplay, U2, The Flaming Lips, Belle & Sebastian. Hell, you can have Robert Forster. When I want purely lyrical pop with angelic guitars, this guy will be my first go-to. This album is the one full of gorgeous harmonies and gauzy (and once in awhile almost noisy) guitars.

"Return" of the 'Mats!

I know, reunions of bands I loved 20+ years ago kind of suck--but so many bands built careers on the reckless, soulful sound this band evolved that I don't even mind. P. S. to Paul: Please don't drink yourself to death!

Mark Goes To The Movies

Wah Wah (dir. Richard Grant) Although it's a totally different kind of film, this one reminded me of The Squid and the Whale as an emotionally grueling look at the effects of divorce on kids. This one throws in alcoholism for good measure, but it's wider in scope than Noah Baumbach's film, more concerned with establishing a community (in this case, British expatriates) in a particular place (the rugged hills and near-deserts of Swaziland) and showing how the parents' shenanigans (and their efficts on children) affect their roles in that community. There's fabulous acting from Gabriel Byrne, Emily Watson, Miranda Richardson, Julie Roberts, and (as the sensitive and righteously pissed-off son) Nicholas Boult and a lot of beautiful photography of the land. It's a little long and doesn't completely escape sentimentality, but it has a lot of heart and a lot of emotional ups and downs. Mark's review: ****

Markie goes to movies (so you don't have to)

District B-13 (dir. Pierre Morel) Normally, Luc Besson is the ideal auteur for the kind of action-movie trash I like: fast, punked-out, dystopian. But since he decided to hand over actually making the movies to various hired directors, the movies themselves have varied in quality: Kiss of the Dragon pretty great, The Transporter ridiculous, etc., depending on how smart the director was. This film has the advantage of moving really fast, with some great acrobatic sequences up and down stairs, walls, walls, roofs, and plumbing fixtures in the high-rise Paris projects where most of the movie is set. Disadvantages include the director's relative inability to edit action sequences in any ways that make sense, the supermodel himbos who play the good cop and the good criminal, and Dany Verissimo providing a pretty lame female lead (at least compared to such kick-ass earlier heroines as Annie Parillaud in La Femme Nikita--or Natalie Portman in The Proessional). So a good, quick, dumb summer action movie, no more, no less. Mark's review (stupid points):??

One of Seattle's Coolest Stores

And one of my favorites, profiled in today's Seattle P-I. I highly recommend a stop to anyone in town visiting.

We Love Great Leader! 26

He's right at the top of our list! (Thanks to Atrios.)

Wily (D)s

Jesus--finally someone taking a page from the Rethugs' bag of political tricks (thanks for protecting the environment and civil liberties, Greens!).