This documentary released in 2005 is about Arthur “Killer” Kane, former bassist of the legendary New York Rock band The New York Dolls and his involvement in the New York Dolls reunion at the 2004 Morrissey curated Meltdown Festival.  After the Dolls broke up in the mid 70s (after releasing only 2 great records),  Arthur started a few different bands that didn’t really go anywhere and eventually his drinking had gone out of control and he sank into obscurity.  Fast forward almost 30 years we find Arthur living in LA and working at the local Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Family History Center Library having converted fully to the religion.  In 2004 Arthur’s dream came true when Morrissey put together a New York Dolls reunion.

The movie surprisingly give a pretty decent (although abridged) history of the New York Dolls besides giving you Arthur’s compelling story.   I had thought the film New York Dolls – All Dolled Up* was going to be a documentary on the band but was extremely disappointed as it is just 3 hours of rough live and interview footage filmed when the band was together.   The other film is interesting but far from a must see.

One of the best things about this film is that you get the interesting perspective of getting Arthur’s story not only from the subject but also from his friends and higher ups in the LDS church and his coworkers.   The film also includes interviews with the other living band members (David Johansen & Sylvain Sylvain), old friends from the scene (Photographer Bob Gruen, other proto-punk/punk musicians), and famous musicians (Chrissie Hynde and Bob Geldof).

Check out the trailer via youtube.

Other New York Dolls related films:

New York Dolls – All Dolled Up (2005) *note that this is not a documentary as I mention above

Morrissey Presents The Return of The New York Dolls – Live from Royal Albert Hall 2004 (2004)

1981 -1988 were tough years for Neil Young.  At the start of this period he had just signed a million dollar per album contract with Geffen records (and had differences with them throughout the whole period) and his second child had been diagnosed with severe cerebral palsy.  At times during this period you could tell he was burnt out on making music.  To be honest, the releases from this period are challenging and you will be hard pressed to find any songs that come close to the brilliance of those he recorded in the sixties and seventies.  Young’s methods, recording technology, attitude, and band members all changed many times during this period.  I have outlined the releases from this era below.

	1981 – Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Re-ac-tor: The next step on from the heavier tracks off of Rust Never Sleeps.  Unfortunately the mix is off and the material is uninspired.
	1983 – Neil Young – Trans: Young take a hard left turn here and releases an album that features 5 vocoder heavy/electronic music tracks and 3 conventional rock tracks, which completely mystified his critics and fans.
	1983 – Neil Young & The Shocking Pinks – Everybody’s Rockin’: Another genre switch here, this time to Rockabilly.  At the very least features some entertaining songs, some even are a little funny… but the album is representative of this era as they feature style over substance.
	1985 – Neil Young – Old Ways: Most of the material was originally recorded in 1982 but not release until 3 years later because of problems with his label.  This time around its a country album for Neil and a cast of guest country stars including Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings.
	1986 – Neil Young – Landing On Water: If I had to label this release with a genre it would be “over-produced corporate 80s synth pop.  A few goods songs but overall probably one of his worst albums.
	1987 – Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Life: Back to Crazy Horse again after releasing 4 albums without them.  You get a few decent track among an album that includes some 80s synthy stuff and some conventional NY w/ CH tracks.  Note the cover art featuring someone behind bars with a NY poster on the back wall which eludes to his feelings about his record label at the time.  This would be his last record with Geffen (except for the shotty best of from this period entitled Lucky 13.
	1988 – Neil Young & The Bluenotes – This Note’s For You: Neil’s first album back on his original label Reprise Records.  This time Neil is backed by The Bluenotes (including a 6 pc horn section) for a album of Blues and R&B numbers.  Includes the song “This Note’s For You” which Neil actually won a the Video of the Year award at the MTV video music awards in 1988 which MTV had previously refused to play because they were parodied the video.
	1988 – Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young – American Dream: Young reunites yet again with these burnouts.  What you get is a bunch of tracks from the wash-ups and a few halfway decent numbers from Neil.

Even though it is a difficult era, I thought I would still put together a playlist below of my favorites songs from it.  If you can not see the playlist below, please follow this link.

I have recently discovered that 1973 through 1980 is my favorite era of Neil Young’s music.  It includes my favorite Album, On The Beach.  It was a dark period for Neil but it is filled with broken hearted gems.  I have outlined the releases from this period below.  Please note what I deem to be the ESSENTIAL releases.

	1973 – Neil Young - Time Fades Away: A strikingly noncommercial followup to 1972s hugely successful release Harvest.  An album of new material recorded entirely live in concert.  Neil had to fire guitarist Danny Whitten before the tour started and he overdosed and died shortly after.  What you get is an extremely raw recording of some of Young’s most emotional songs drunkenly delivered on this album that is still unreleased on CD.  ESSENTIAL
	1974 – Neil Young – On The Beach: Another mid 70s gem that didn’t see a proper CD release until 2003.  Young is joined on this revelatory set of music by Cajun Countryman Rusty Kershaw.  The album has a great vibe all the way through and is probably one of Young’s most consistent recordings.  ESSENTIAL
	1975 – Neil Young – Tonight’s The Night: Originally recorded in 1973 but not released by Young until 75.  A legendary release known for its loose off kilter cuts.  Book ended by the title track, “Tonight’s the night”, an interesting reaction to loosing both Danny Whitten and roadie Bruce Berry to drugs.  ESSENTIAL
	1975 – Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Zuma: The debut of new rhythm guitarist Frank Sampedro. Young and the Horse return to form along with his producer David Briggs.  ESSENTIAL
	1976 – The Stills Young Band – Long May You Run: Young reunited with his old band mate from Buffalo Springfield on this release.  Really the only song that came from these sessions that is worth a damn is the title track by Neil.
	1977 – Neil Young – American Stars ‘N Bars: A fairly mediocre collection of songs thrown together that includes one of my favorite tunes “Like A Hurricane”.
	1978 – Neil Young – Comes A Time: Young’s most accessible music since the release of Harvest in 1972.  Put together from acoustic demos with the band overdubbed in.  Some really great songs that wasn’t released on CD until 1988.  ESSENTIAL
	1979 – Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Rust Never Sleeps: Some regard this as Young’s last great album until his resurgence in the early 90s.  Another album book ended by a great song, this time the Rock N’ Roll epic “My My, Hey Hey…” / “Hey Hey, My My…”.  Some of the other tunes on the album would be his hardest edged songs so far.  ESSENTIAL
	1980 – Neil Young – Hawks & Doves: Another fairly mediocre mix of tracks which include a few great stand outs including the experimental “Lost In Space”.
Live releases from this era:
	1979 – Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Live Rust: A great live album including most of the tunes from Rust Never Sleeps along with great renditions of some of Young’s classic tunes.  ESSENTIAL

There are also two albums during this period that Young had put together and sadly decided not to release.  They are known by the titles Homegrown and Chrome Dreams (Young released Chrome Dreams II in 2007 as somewhat of an inside joke).  They both featured the song that were scattered throughout his output in the 70s but some tracks have still not seen release.  If you really search you may be able to find fan re-sequenced releases of Chrome Dreams put together by what songs were said to be included.

Here is a playlist I have put together featuring my favorites from this era.  I tried to stay away from the most well known tunes.  If you can not see the playlist below, please follow this link.

I am a huge fan of The Posies, including the solo work of main men Ken Stringfellow & Jon Auer.  I received some news by way of the Posies Google Group (join here if you are interested) today that Ken Stringfellow is the guest editor for this week on Magnet Magazines website.  Magnet is a kick ass, wonderfully laid out music magazine with some great photography if you are at all into progressive new music.

Check out his posts at http://www.magnetmagazine.com/

Ken (now living in France) muses about the food, music, and film in his new euro-home.

If you scroll down a bit you’ll find posts from past guest editors like Tim Kasher from the band Cursive, Ben Lee, and Dean Wareham & Britta Phillips sounding off on the things that they are excited about.

Check out some Posies related links:

http://www.theposies.com

http://www.myspace.com/theposies

http://www.myspace.com/jonauermusic

http://www.myspace.com/kenstringfellow