Heavy Metal in Baghdad is a wakeup call for musicians, music fans, and Americans of all kinds who have grown numb to the terrible news coming out of Iraq. There have been so many powerful Iraq documentaries of late (Taxi To the Dark Side, Standard Operating Procedure, Body of War) that it's hard to imagine being deeply affected by one more, and even harder to look forward to the experience. However, anyone who loves bands or has ever been in one should consider this film required viewing.

Acrassicauda (Latin for "black scorpion") is a heavy metal band made up of four friends from Baghdad who love Metallica, Slayer, and the release that comes from rocking out. The folks at Vice magazine became aware of them in 2003 and began to follow the band's progress, filming them in Baghdad and eventually Syria. Heavy Metal in Baghdad is built from four years of footage of Acrassicauda rehearsing, recording, performing, and simply trying to stay alive in the most dangerous city on Earth.

Indecisive Rhythm
Tales from the Dumpster
[May 2008; Self Release]

Indecisive Rhythm is the brainchild of Amy Mustoe, who has been working the Seattle scene for more than five years with various incarnations of her power pop trio. The band’s sound (lovingly referred to as ‘dumpster pop’) has undergone a series of changes over the years, but with its current and longest-standing line-up, IR seems ready to prove itself as one of Seattle’s best performing acts.

Aranos - Tax
Pieros 2007

Capitalism.

The word provokes serious political debate. The kind that is best avoided in the company of surly foreign nationals at your local watering hole.

Nevertheless, the topic has made for some great anti-establishment songwriting, even if it is hackneyed and polemic these days. Or is it?

It's safe to say that 21st Century America wasn't deceived for the first time when the phrase "fuzzy math" driveled from our fearless leaders' lips in 2000.

See, today's free market economy has plenty of new virtues. Like rewarding corporate America for disguising our sweatshop textile dependency with arrogant globalization tactics. Like utilizing today's trade programs to exploit cheap labor abroad.

Meanwhile, tell folks in Detroit that unemployment is better now than in the 1980s and you might find yourself walking away backwards...very slowly.