"Libby, Montana" DVD (directors: Drury Gunn Carr & Doug Hawkes-Davis)

An exhaustive 2 hour documentary from 2006 that focuses attention on the small town of Libby, Montana, which was the center of a national controversy after a major mining operation (and the area's leading employer) was found guilty of nondisclosure of asbestos and toxic pollution hazards. 

The path to cleanup has been long and difficult for the citizens. This documentary shows the EPA stepping in to help resolve the issues, and the touchy situation that the town had to deal with, as the employer outright lied and attempted to avoid any liability, all the while seeing their longtime employees diagnosed with terminal  lung disease and asbestosis. Many of the town's working class were interviewed for this in-depth documentary, and many have since passed away. But the heart of this film is to draw attention to the rights and wrongs, and how the town never lost it's spirit, despite the devastating pollution and heartbreak brought on by corporate greed. 

It's an engrossing and enlightening film, and deserves your attention. 

(High Plains Films)

Wolves In The Throne Room - "Celestial Lineage" CD

Opening with the ethereal ambiance of the 12-minute "Thuja Magus Imperium", complete with female vocals, it's evident that this isn't your typical black metal album. If anything, "Celestial Lineage" is a post-black metal album, delivering much more than just blasting beats and demonic vocal stylings.

Underneath it all, these eco-warriors eschew the genre's trappings, and create majestic songs that herald a new age of back-to-nature idealism. In fact, both members (and their families) even live (and work) a natural lifestyle and grow their own food. But that's beside the point. The music here blends black metal with ambient, psychedelia, post-rock, and drone in an unusually cohesive fashion.

"Subterranean Initiation" is a bruising and fiery tempest of rolling metal that opens up to a low-and-slow psychedelic/krautrock thud, like a mix between Neurosis and Can, before refueling back to a torrent of cascading black metal stylings. "Woodland Cathedral" is a beautifully evocative stab at medieval Popol Vuh-style ambiance that conjures just what the title implies. "Astral Blood" is another dynamic and masterful 10-minute journey that blasts, lulls, and blasts again. The closing piece, "Prayer Of Transformation", is an epic swell of symphonic post-metal rich with bombast and beauty. A tremendous work, "Celestial Lineage" is Wolves' sonic tour-de-force. (Southern Lord)

Wolves website

"Rivers Of A Lost Coast" DVD (director: Justin Coupe and Palmer Taylor)

A moving and provocative documentary here, examining the rise of West Coast fly fishing in the 40s and 50s, and the maverick steelhead and salmon fishermen who started a sporting revolution. As subsequent droughts and industrial progress decimated the once-fertile Russian River in the 70s, many of the fishing legends came to realize the need for conservation and ecological restoration, and since then, many have become tireless defenders of the river's bountiful fish populations.

Fly fisherman, actor, and activist Tom Skerritt narrates this well-done, and well-illustrated history of fly fishing, and the wild and wooly characters that made it what it was. There are tons of candid interviews, tons of historical videos and photos, and some amazing stories that you won't soon forget.

Even from a non-fisherman's point of view, this is a riveting and intelligent history lesson, and a very worthy watch.

(MVD Visual)

Rivers Of A Lost Coast official site

"Bag It" (director: Suzan Beraza)

This smart and enlightening, yet thoroughly engaging and entertaining documentary began as a study on the effects of all the disposable plastic bags we have used for years. Think about it. Every time you went to buy groceries, you got a stash of throwaway plastic bags. Sure, if you're like me, you "recycle" them as cat litter bags, trash can liners, etc. But do we really ever question where these bags go? The director has a valid point. We throw them away, but where, exactly, is "away"? There is no such thing.

We have created a vast sea of floating plastic garbage, ensnaring and stifling sea life for miles and miles, and in several spots around the world. But does that affect any of us, who live in the mainland? Out of sight, out of mind, right?

Director Beraza enlists the affable "everyman" Jeb Barrier to narrate and host this film, and it's a real winner. But before you turn away shouting "guilt trip from the environmental tree-hugging extremists", this one is optimistic and hopeful, and certainly "must-see" viewing for anyone looking to educate themselves on the world and our unnecessary impact upon her.

Diverging from the simple plastic bag, "Bag It" also looks at plastics at large. Cheap, useful, and, in modern times, an essential part of our survival, this chemical-based building material has been a blessing and a curse on our culture. But as stated earlier, the likeable host here, Barrier (and his wife) provide enough comic relief and humility to make what could be heavy-handed easy-to-digest and to show that we have the ability, knowledge, and technology to make things so much better for our children. Do yourself (and your friends and family) a favor and see this!

"Bag It" is set for National Public Television screenings beginning this month, too, so check your local listings or search your DVR...

To purchase DVD/merch


To find the nearest public screening

"The Cove" trailer (director: Louie Psihoyos)

It's not horror. Or is it? Kinda. Action? Not really. Real life? Definitely. Anyhow, this gutsy documentary looks to be a harrowing, interesting, and ultimately important document, and I have my friend Aaron to thank for passing on the link.
Check the trailer and sign the petition.

A Storm Of Light - "Forgive Us Our Trespasses" CD

This album serves as a warning, and a document of mankind's widespread gluttony and greed over our own Mother Nature, and the devastating effects of Earth tipping the scales back into her favor. And to capture that heavy-duty concept, the music needs to be grand, all-encompassing, and absolutely omnipotent. "Forgive Us Our Trespasses" comes mightily close, and in fact works quite well under that condition. Formed in 2008 by Josh Graham (ex-Battle Of Mice, Neurosis visualist) and joined by Dominic Seita (Tombs, Asea), Andy Rice (Sinking Ships), and Joel Hamilton (Battle Of Mice, Book Of Knots), this incredible combo is primed to prove themselves juggernauts of environmentally-conscious, cerebral post-metal heaviness. The titanic rhythms and thunderous riffage of the aptly-titled "Tempest" envision a future wrought with apocalyptic cataclysm. The potent storms of doomy, slow, and tortuous grind here are melodic and dynamic, though, pulsing with ethereal undercurrents that envelop the monolithic slabs of pure, primal force. Lydia Lunch herself provides effected spoken parts through three cuts, and former Swans frontwoman Jarboe also adds her considerable vocal talents to a couple of songs, but this is really Graham's child, as he contributes just about every instrument to the mix, as well as conjuring the amazingly apocalyptic artwork on the sleeve and liners. "The Light In Their Eyes" places a mournful cello as the centerpiece, with martial drums and frightening soundtrack textures providing the color to the rendering. This is an album that warns of a possible, even inevitable, global environmental catastrophe. And the music provides a sort of soundtrack -- powerful, unstoppable, and ultimately sorrowful. This is a hell of a recording, and this group will be legendary if they can keep up with a creative zenith like this. (Neurot Recordings)

A Storm Of Light website

Link to exclusive video for "Tempest", on Brooklyn Vegan website

Limpy and Defenders Of Wildlife

Náttúra Campaign

photo by tzachritz

Back in June of 2008, a veritable 'who's who' of Icelandic pop and rock (namely, Bjork and Sigur Ros, plus Einar Orn's Ghostigital and Olöf Arnalds) converged upon Reykjavik to present a massive-scale free concert to raise awareness of looming industrial threats to Iceland's environment.
Together with other concerned citizens and activists, they created the Nattura website to make people aware of the environmentally destructive aluminum smelting factories that are already polluting their country, which has long been respected as being one of the cleanest and most naturally-harmonic cultures in the civilized world.

Nattura info
Nattura blog

The sites continues to be available to address other environmental threats to one of the world's most unspoiled destinations.



Bjork recorded a single ('Nattura'), with guest vocals by Radiohead's Thom Yorke, to further the cause (all sales went to the Nattura organization).
Now, a video feature has been released via iTunes (it's $9.99) that outlines Nattura's cause and the problems afoot in Iceland. A variety of artists, musicians, and citizens are featured, including both Bjork and Sigur Ros. A nearly-3-minute Quicktime trailer (it's absolutely stunning) can be viewed here:

trailer view thru itunes

or downloaded here:
trailer download

As well, a Bjork has appeared on youtube in these UK news segments...

Save The Polar Bear

A harrowing look at one of our planet's most remarkable and iconic species...



For more info and to sign the petition, visit:

Save The Polar Bear.org

Time out for an important PSA...

Click here to express yourself...

Stars Of The Lid - Environmental Defense Fund commercial

A curious and pertinent ad featuring the tired (and beautiful) sounds of Stars Of The Lid...

Bernheim Forest, KY - locusts

This huge natural park/wildlife reserve (actually Arboretum and Research Forest) in the wilds of Clermont, KY is a superb place to hear the seasonal locusts. There are the original drones...

The 11th Hour

It was cool to be nihilistic and destructive as an angry teenage punk-industrial kid. That snotty abrasiveness and urge to 'smash it up' has it's place, I suppose, as a release valve of sorts. But later in life, a little experience and knowledge almost always makes that adolescent angst seem rather directionless and, well, stupid. Punk rock was always about breaking the rules, breaking with the accepted way of things, and dispensing with consumer culture. So why follow and consume blindly? So what does that have to do with this review?

Well, for starters, what could be more 'against the grain' than casting away the corporate monoliths who decimate rainforests and exploit valuable natural resources in the pursuit of dividends and profit margins? It's a death culture, and if this sounds all too 'hippie' and 'tree-hugger', well, so be it. I'd rather lie in the grass and actually hug a tree than embrace a smokestack billowing out toxic smoke. It'd be safe to assume, so would you, too.

Personal soapbox aside, 'The 11th Hour' is a 'green' documentary. Presented (and hosted) by noted conservationist Leonardo DiCaprio, this feature-length film documents and illustrates the condition of our fragile world, and ultimately, what can be done to halt the effects of pollution and environmental catastrophe (aka global warming). It's not likely to affect those who see global warming as a 'great lie' and a 'media hoax'. No, those people are probably unreachable. However, if you are like me, and genuinely concerned that we are pissing in our own water supply (and we literally ARE, and even worse...), then you will appreciate, and maybe even embrace the scholarly and beautiful ideas set forth here.

Discussions with a varied and international cross-section of concerned scientists, scholars, thinkers, and theologians , including Stephen Hawking, Mikhail Gorbachev, Chief Oren Lyons, Nobel peace prize winner Wangari Maathai of Kenya, Rabbi Michael Lerner (and many more) provide a cross-denominational perspective on the poisoning and toxification of our universally-shared Earth. It's a compelling and hopeful call to arms, and a highly worthwhile film to anyone who has an ounce of love for our planet and a flicker of hope for our children's children, who could inherit a burnt-out cinder of wasteland, or a lush, green, and colorful world packed with life and bio-diversity. Featuring some very impressive camerawork, and some amazing natural photography, 'The 11th Hour' could even be seen as a cross between the godlike 'Planet Earth' series, and Al Gore's informative and compelling 'An Inconvenient Truth' film.

The music soundtrack for 'The 11th Hour' is just as impressive, featuring grand sounds from Sigur Ros, Mogwai, The Dirty Three, Cocteau Twins, and more. If that doesn't make this one a 'must-see', I don't know what else you need. Kudos to Leo for putting his energy and influence to work for a greater good.

website + trailer