The Story of Mudhoney: I'm Now, DVD

Rock documentaries of course can be anything from great to awful. It helps if the subject matter, the artists, are extraordinarily interesting people in their own right. That's true, I found, of the members of Mudhoney. But it also helps if the documentary makers have a sensitivity to what they are addressing. Ryan Short and Adam Pease have that. Put the two together and you have the documentary DVD The Story of Mudhoney: I'm Now (King of Hearts 03).

This is the band that was fundamental in the foundation of the Seattle rock craze known as grunge. The music was and is interesting, the history of the scene is interesting. We experience Mudhoney's climb to success, their initial status as avatars of underground music, the major label grab and how it effected the band, their adjustment to (eventual) moderate obscurity with legendary status intact. All that is part of the documentary.

The members of the band and the people involved in their careers--producers, label execs, etc., manage to say very interesting, smart things in this doc. And there's enough of the music live (and otherwise) to get you in the mode of the band.

In short--excellent documentary, one of the very best on a "punk" band I've seen. Interesting, definitely.

Bird Names Debuts with Some Odd Sort of Garage Music: "Metabolism"

OK, we have a group called Bird Names on tap today. They did an album in their basement (Chicago) which they call Metabolism: A Salute to the Energy of the Sun (Northern-Spy). It has a strange sort of garage momentum combined with an element that is so original I don't quite know how to describe it. The Northern-Spy website mentions the Residents, and there is a wall-to-wall conceptualism here that I suppose has some Resident qualities. There is a hint of classic Beefheart and psychedelia, but then it goes off on its own so you might just forget all that and approach the music on its own turf.

There is a DIY ingenuity at play though. They have a low-fi kind of authenticity and an asymmetrical kind of alt going on. It's absolutely underground sounding in the classic sense. The vocals are garagy, they use the usual rock instruments plus extra percussive and home-grown sounds.

It's fun and rather deranged. I have trouble easily assimilating where they are coming from. Which is a very good thing. This is recommended for those searching for another way to do things. They are original and perhaps a bit nuts. That is quite cool with me.