Scott Thill

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Joe Sacco on Comics, the Arabs and the Jews

Scott Thill
Joe Sacco can give you a headache. A cartoonist who is more often recognized as a journalist, he straddles so many fences that he makes you realize that life really isn't simply a choice between black and white. Ironic, considering that his comics are mostly in black and white, and......
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Mike Watt: Mr. Engine Driver

Scott Thill
Mike Watt sends me sunsets by e-mail. Not just me, I’m sure. The Minutemen’s legendary staff-thudder — Watt’s laid-back San Pedro slang for “bassist” — has got...
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The Dragons: Diggin' in the Sand

Scott Thill
“I was drumming and basically trying to get laid. I was 22,” Malibu lifer Dennis Dragon explains over the phone during an interview that begins with the veteran...
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Seymour Hersh, the Optimistic Pessimist

Scott Thill
The New Yorker’s legendary muckraker Seymour Hersh, who will be stopping by UCLA’s Royce Hall on October 4 for what will no doubt be a fearsome discussion, has broken some of the most depressing stories in history. The Vietnam War’s My Lai massacre, wherein our troops murdered anywhere from 350......
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Sonic Youth Rides its Masterpiece

Scott Thill
Sonic Youth, like fellow New York legend Andy Warhol before them, have always walked the tightrope between commerce and art, and that knotted lifeline splits its strands the more time passes and the band is rightfully canonized. Their perseverance as musical purists in the age of the Internet’s mess consumption......
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Rock the Mic Like Cal Worthington!

Scott Thill
“If we tried to be like Snoop Dogg or 50 Cent, I don’t think it would work for us,” explains rhymer Andy Cooper of Long Beach throwback outfit Ugly Duckling. “Then we would be wack and broke.” The aptly named Ugly Duckling — filled out by DJ Young Einstein and......
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¡Ay, Dios Mío!

Scott Thill
“We’re not mellow guys,” confesses Dios (Malos) bassist J.P. Caballero, though he knows that might sound like heresy to fans of the band’s laid-back, ’60s-based pop songcraft. “We’re actually angry people. I just wanted to clarify that: We’re not mellow California beach-pop. We’re actually degenerate intellectual symphonic rock. Actually, strike......
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''Led by God to Do Me''

Scott Thill
I had the freedom to make a Run album, because God loves me that way... I had to be smart enough to know to just make a record that sounds like [Run-DMC’s] Raising Hell. After losing legendary DJ Jam Master Jay to a gunshot in 2002, Run-DMC’s Run (a.k.a. Joseph......