Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2004 12:31 pm
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Crazyass long post ahead. And I'll get to Wreckless Eric in a second.
First, a funky movie house in town called the Pacific Cinematheque is putting on Big Smash, a 5 day festival of music films. Flicks include the Minutemen doc We Jam Econo, the Roky Erikson doc You're Gonna Miss Me, The Devil And Daniel Johnston, the Jeff Buckley doc Amazing Grace, the Esquivel doc Esquivel: King of Lounge, a Nina Simone doc , AND Brian DePalma's nutty '70s rock opera Phantom of the Paradise with a special appearance by soft rock elf Paul Williams (who wrote the songs and soundtrack).
Have any Obneroids seen any of these films yet? What did you think?
And check out these other films that are part of this festival. Dayum, I wanna see 'em all.
ONE PLUS ONE: SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL
Director: Jean-Luc Godard 1968 100min. 35mm
Guest of honour Wreckless Eric will introduce his selection for the festival - ONE PLUS ONE: SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL, Godard's documentation of late 1960's western counter-culture, examining the Black Panthers, referring to works by LeRoi Jones and Eldridge Cleaver. Other notable subjects are the role of the media, the mediated image, A growing technocratic society, Womens Liberation, the May revolt in France and the power of language. Cutting between 3 major scenes, including the Rolling Stones in the studio, the film is visually intercut with Eve Democracy (Wiazemsky) using graffiti which amalgamates organisations, corporations and ideologies. Godard also examines the role of the revolutionary within western culture. Although he believes western culture needs to be destroyed, it can only be done so by the rejection of intellectualisation. "There is only one way to be an intellectual revolutionary, and that is to give up being an intellectual" (Gary Elshaw)
LET'S ROCK AGAIN!
Director: Dick Rude 2004 67min. BETA SP
LET’S ROCK AGAIN! is about the last years of Joe Strummer - a punk rock legend past his prime - and his struggle to re-enter a musical landscape he helped shape in the late '70s. Originally intended by Joe Strummer and long time friend director Dick Rude to be another form of publicity for Strummer's new band The Mescaleros, this intention changed after Strummer’s unexpected death in December 2002, before the actual completion of the documentary. “It was no longer about promoting this band,” says Rude, “but more about closure.“
I WAS A TEENAGE QUINCY PUNK!
Director: Various 85min. Video
If you're old enough to remember punk rock, then you certainly remember Quincy. And if you care to remember punk rock, then you've never forgotten the Quincy Punk Rock episode. Without exaggerating its cultural or historical relevance, it can be said that “Next Stop Nowhere" has remained a kind of inside joke or secret handshake; the term ”Quincy Punk” became part of the vernacular almost overnight. Tonight we celebrate the bastardization of punk rock by clueless TV executives, with a dazzling array of clips including the CHiPS punk episode, other television nuggets featuring real bands like Devo and The Dickies, and the legendary Quincy episode that started it all.
SOUND CLASS
Director: Adam Glickman 2004, 25min. Video
SOUND CLASS traces the history of the Jamaican 'soundsystem' and its often overlooked, highly influential impact on hip-hop, DJ culture and modern music in general. Filmed in Kingston, London and New York, the 'soundsystem' story is told here for the first time through interviews with musicians such as Coxsone Dodd, U Roy, Grandmaster Flash, Kool Herc, Paul Simonon of The Clash, Jerry Dammers of The Specials, Sean Paul, Wyclef Jean and many more.
MY BROTHER IS JAMES CHANCE
Director: Jamie Levinson 2004 25min. Video
Milwaukee native David Siegfried, is the brother of late 70s No-Wave music pioneer James Chance. While James went on to an influential career in New York, David stayed behind in the Midwest opting for a degree in microbiology. Nearly 20 years later, Chance - experiencing resurgence in popularity - was invited back to perform in the Midwest. He enlisted Chicago-based Watchers to be his backing band for a brief tour. Given the geographic divide, Chance enlisted his brother to rehearse in his place. Intercut with footage from the tour and rehearsal process David reminisces about his days in music to his current occupation as a vending machine salesman. As David says, "Everyone wants to be like their brother." (Chicago Underground)
PAYDAY
Director: Daryl Duke 1972 103min. 16mm
PAYDAY is a sublimely detailed slice of life on the honky-tonk circuit and a backstage movie par excellence. Rip Torn gives a masterful performance as Maury Dann, an alcoholic, womanizing country singer (based on WAYLON JENNINGS), seething with self-hatred and existential nausea. It's one of the great performances of Torn's (or anybody's) career. Torn pops trucker pills, rants drunkenly, picks up and discards groupies. He's a man out of control. The music is beautifully authentic and director Daryl Duke evokes a long lost world of sawdust and gasoline, good ol' boys in powder-blue Nudie suits, ex-homecoming queens from Decatur Georgia on the skids. It's a powerful movie, Americana seen from both sides of the fence. (Lars Nilsen)
TV PARTY
Director: Danny Vinik, 2004 91 min. mini-DV Unrated
"This is not a test! This is an actual show!"(Glenn O'Brien)
In 1978, two revolutionary trends emerged in New York City, public access cable TV and punk rock. Public access was about do-it-yourself television. Punk was about do-it-yourself music (and do-it-yourself art and cinema.) These two phenomena were made for each other and they came together spectacularly in Glenn O’Brien’s TV PARTY. Billed as “The TV show that’s a cocktail party but which could be a political party,” this public access show hosted by O'Brien and Chris Stein of Blondie brought an hour of the wildest of the wild to live television every week. Show guests and regulars included Robert Mapplethorpe, Fab Five Freddy, Mick Jones, David Byrne, Nile Rogers, Debbie Harry and Jean Michel Basquiat.
TV Party quietly disappeared in 1982. The gang dissolved along with the scene itself: O'Brien got distracted by Downtown 81, Stein got sick, Basquiat got famous, and a bunch of people went into rehab. Plus, says O'Brien, "It got harder to live on no money in New York." It almost seems like a hallucination now, an idyll before the '80s art and real estate booms kicked in. As Amos Poe wonders in the documentary, "Was it some kind of folly or some kind of genius?"
And the one I'm looking forward to the most:
THE PASSING SHOW: THE LIFE & WORK OF RONNIE LANE
Director: Rupert Williams & James Mackie
Presented by VIDEOMATICA
Ronnie Lane was the bass player in the Small Faces and the Faces, one of the most loved men in rock'n'roll, and one of the most cursed. Unscrupulous managers ensured that the Small Faces never made a penny despite having a string of hits, while the Faces were just getting to stadium level when Rod Stewart decided to leave the former friends he saw as his backing band with nothing. So Lane moved to the country and fulfilled a fantasy of being a gypsy farmer before multiple sclerosis got the better of him. Lane was not only a brilliant, earthy songwriter — the Faces' Ooh La La was his signature tune — he was also hugely inspiring through being so positive in the face of poverty and pain. (Will Hodgkinson)
Wreckless Eric is a guest of honor for this festival, and he's playing a show at the Railway Club. He did an interview with Nerve magazine's Adrian Mack (drummer for Rich Hope and John Ford) this week, and it contained this nugget that needs to be shared:
Mack: Do you like Coldplay's music?
Eric: I actually want to do a record under the name Coldsick, and call the the record A Rush Of Vomit To The Throat. Does that answer the question?
Wreckless Eric's website is pretty damn funny too. Here's a review of his new album Bungalow Hi by Andy Gill (of Gang of Four), including Eric's review of the review.
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