(to get the most of this week’s Gimme Gimme Schlock Treatment Experience don’t forget to listen to the Deltron 3030 music player above as you read)
Usually my first site to hit in the morning is Met’s Blog . I have a sick obsession with my Mets. After that it’s Pitchfork. A few days ago as I wiped the sleep out of my eyes I found out the Mets were planning on signing Gary Sheffield and The Arcade Fire were offering up their documentary “Mirror Noir” for free for seven days via Pitchfork.TV. I had mixed feelings about Sheff dawg but I had zero reservations about seeing “Mirror Noir” for free. Free documentaries “in this economy”? Kudos to you Win Butler and Company. Win is definitely just trying to make up for the time he stole some kid’s basketball. The Arcade Fire has churned out two amazing albums so they can steal whatever they want. If the documentary is even half as good as Neon Bible or Funeral it will rank in the top five of my favorite musical documentaries. …and there’s the cue for another list:
Del’s Top Ten Musical Documentaries
10.) Eddie and the Cruisers – Not really a documentary but it deserves credit for constructing the general template used for VH1’s “Behind the Music“. It also doesn’t hurt that “On the Dark side” happens to be the best song by a fake band in the history of film.
9.)Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten – A kick ass documentary that if nothing else introduced me to the song “Keys to Your Heart” by Joe Strummer’s pre-Clash Band, The 101’ers. Strummer doesn’t come off to well in this film. I’m sure if you told him so he’d simply tell you to “piss off!” and then he’d rip through some power chords.href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fIdy1UYVR8″ target=”_blank”>
8.) Luna: Tell Me Do you Miss Me- Watch the swan song to one of the most underrated bands you’ll ever come across. This film really paints the perfect picture of Luna’s detached romanticism My love for Luna was slightly tested by watching this movie as it felt like watching the demise of the Beatles if Paul had been replaced by Yoko…and Yoko happened to have previously been the singing voice to a 1980’s multiple personality disorder suffering cartoon character. Yep, Britta Phillips was the singing voice of Jem. Truly Outrageous.
7.) Air Guitar Nation – The best musical documentary starring “musicians” on stage sans instruments. For all you Extreme fans out there you’ll get to hear Exteme’s “Play with Me” at least five times. Yes, that is a good thing. I guess this is what people did before they had Guitar Hero and Rockband. Simpler times.
6.) New York Doll - Sad and tragic at points but seeing Arthur “Killer” Kane leave his post @ his Mormon library to make peace with his fellow Dolls and rock once more is pretty uplifting. Side note: David Johansen (AKA Buster Poindexter) of the New York Dolls might be the scariest human being in the history of Rock and Roll…if not the history of mankind.
5.) I Trust You to Kill Me – Follow the band “Rocco Deluca and the Burden” and their tour manager Kiefer Sutherland as they embark on a tour of Europe in 2006. Jack Bauer would make for a good tour manager. Kiefer Sutherland, not so much.
4.) Flaming Lips: The Fearless Freaks – A great recap of a band that somehow overcame the clutches of heroin and the shame of playing “She Don’t Use Jelly” @ The Peach Pit After Dark (Sadly there’s no youtube available ) and become rock gods. I can call them rock gods because I’ve seen them twice live and they put on an amazing show. Imagine a New Years Eve party that actually lives up to the hype. Now imagine this happening all the time, 200+ times a year. That is the Flaming Lips.
3.) The Devil and Daniel Johnston – It is painful watching the patience of Daniel’s parents and the truly horrible things his sickness puts them through. Lucky for us Daniel recorded just about every aspect of his life so you get to experience mental illness firsthand…and it’s set to his far out there music. For anyone who doubts Daniel’s influence on today’s artists please check out how many amazing artists are on his tribute album, highlighted by Bright Eyes’ rendition of Devil Town
2) Wilco - I Am Trying To Break Your Heart –An amazing window into Wilco’s band dynamic and their relationship with their record labels. I say “labels” because “coming to near completion of their album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot conflict arose between the band and its record label Reprise, a division of the Warner Brothers. The label was concerned with how to market the new album; as a consequence Reprise rejected the work, and dropped Wilco from the label. Wilco, with a completed album and no record contract decided to make the album available on the internet via their website WilcoWorld. Awareness of the new album was becoming apparent and Wilco’s profile as a response to this, another record label Nonesuch Records offered Wilco a new record contract. For those of you scoring at home Nonesuch Records is a Warner Brothers subsidiary, so essentially Wilco were paid twice for the album by the same record company. Idiots. Is there any wonder why the record labels are having problems? I should mention this album scored an unheard of PERFECT TEN from Pitchfork. Unheard of territory.
1) Dig – The story of two bands running in opposite directions. For seven years watch the Dandy Warhols try their hardest to break into the mainstream and watch The Brian Jonestowne Massacre try their hardest to piss away their potential. It’s like the BBC’s Up series…but with a far better soundtrack. This movie takes the basic formula of Good Vs Evil and turns it on its head. On one side you have the Dandy’s led by Courtney Taylor who, even though is conflicted about losing his cred, will do anything to become a rock star…and then you have his polar opposite, Anton, leader of the BJM. Dig also happens to contain possibly my favorite line from a documentary ever. Anton, after it appears as if someone has damaged one of his instruments, says “you fucking broke my sitar, motherfucker“. One always thinks of the sitar as an instrument of peace and inner spirituality, and then you have Anton, void of those virtues, spouting off at his goonie band mate. Even still I found myself rooting more for the Brian Jonestone Massacre. If you enjoy this film and want to see another case study in megalomania do yourself a favor and rent Overnight. The film is about the rise and fall of Troy Murphy, the Director of “The Boondock Saints“. Saying he has a bit of Anton in him is putting it nicely. Only rent this if you have already seen “The Boondock Saints”.
Please note: If you have not seen Boondock Saints we should stop being friends
