The rockumentary, if you will, thread

[innerflight]

Looking forward to this one -

Elliot Smith

[psycho*daisies]

checked out a 3 dvd set, Jimi Hendrix - The Uncut Story from Seattle Public Library…(contains no music or performances by Jimi)
but it was very well put-together interviews with family & friends (guys that went to Elementary school with him, etc.), musicians (eg: John McLaughlin, Buddy Miles, Ernie Isley, Terry Reid) and best of all, technical guys/sound engineers (Andy Johns, Roger Mayer, Eddie Kramer).

Appreciated the chronological order (1: 1942-61 2:1961-67 3: 1967-70).

Learned some new stuff, like: he loved Elvis Presley & Flash Gordon with Buster Crabbe. (was nicknamed "Buster" as a kid - his fascination with space age/sound effects first started with that), he was highly creative w/ a vivid imagination, 'psychedelic' painting in grade school.

But worst of all, his manager, Michael Jeffries was a total dick!

Not sure I'd recommend buying it, but worth a look via rental/library...

[chankgeez]

[HorseyBoy]

Watched the Slint "Spiderland" doco last night, "Breadcrumb Trail" (trailer is linked earlier), and really enjoyed it. In the early 90s, everybody I knew who was in a band or into music had a copy of this record but nobody really knew anything about them (that's how shit worked when there was no internet). All we had was the record cover, four dudes in a quarry, and a mailing address in Louisville, Kentucky for "interested female vocalists" to write to (PJ Harvey wrote to them, apparently).

[img]http://quietus_production.s3.amazonaws.com/images/articles/6168/spiderland_1303926063_crop_550x550.jpg[/img]

It was all a bit of mystery but the record was and remains amazing. So it was nice to learn about the band and what happened to them (remember, kids - you really can end up baking erotic cakes in NYC when your band folds). The guitar player, Dave Pajo, probably went on to have the most notable career (Papa M, Tortoise, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, etc). And they were all so incredibly young…
Great stuff on the Louisville punk scene, lots of interesting talking heads like Ian Mackaye, David Yow, Steve Albini, Brian Paulson, etc. Really worth seeing.

[psycho*daisies]

i was just looking at Jim Jarmusch's IMDB page and saw his current project is:
Untitled Stooges Documentary (Documentary) (post-production) !!!

Huge Jarmusch fan here, ever since i saw Down By Law (twice) in Houston, 1986…
...looking forward to what he's put together. Iggy & the Stooges deserve the best.

[John Lyons]

^ This page is full of win!

[agoldoor]

Looking forward to this one -

Elliot Smith

Alright, so I got lucky. After I saw you post this, I looked it up and this was playing here in SF in a few days. So I attended the 2nd screening, on Wednesday.
First, let me say, I'm a HUGE documentary guy. It's pretty much all I watch. And I love biographies/band docs more than anything.

So, overall, this was a pretty satisfying "talking heads" bio. And best of all, there was LOTS of unheard Elliott Smith music, some of which was hilarious (middle school recordings, high school recordings.)

But, and this is where I would demote this film to maybe a 6.5/10 or so...
The filmmaker went out of his way to downplay any "negative stuff." He said as much in the Q&A after the screening.
So this means that they tread very lightly on:
- the breakup of Heatmiser, in a way that made it seem like a non-event, rather than how real band breakups go (dramarama.)
- Elliott's substance abuse (they basically glossed over this, with Jon Brion and one other guy mentioning playing with/running into Elliott and saying, "He didn't look good" or "He wasn't in good shape.")
And... most egregious in my opinion:
- Elliott's death. Basically the film was plugging along and then a black screen with white text pops up and just says that Elliott Smith died on such and such date from two knife stab wounds to the chest, and that the exact story was unknown. Jennifer Chiba and/or the drama that followed the investigation into his death was TOTALLY MISSING from the film.

The filmmaker said that he just wanted to focus on the music and not on any of the "tabloid" aspects of Smith's life. And also that he wanted to make a fun, up-beat film. But to be honest with you, that's half the fun of a rockumentary... Bands/musicians often come with drama, and that's FUN to hear about!

I know that there was another Elliott Smith documentary that never got released other than at film festivals a few years back. And I think one of the big reasons was that the filmmaker focused on the death and had interviews with Chiba, and therefore the family nixed the licensing of Smith's music to the film. So maybe the filmmaker also was afraid of something like that happening? I dunno, that's just speculation.

Anyhow, are you getting what a Smith-nerd fanboy I am? (hides in shame -- Jagermonster's going to slay me on PM for this post)

[chankgeez]

Sorry to hear about your frustrating viewing experience, agoldoor.

Maybe this will provide some of the things you missed in the documentary:

[innerflight]

^ yeah I read it was going to be more of a celebration about his music and to show more of his unheard stuff, which is what i was looking forward to but your right their needs to be a "warts an all" kind of documentary where we hear more first hand stories from his family and friends and get some insight into what happened, probably too painful for them

Thanks chankgeez I will watch that later

[HorseyBoy]

^ And obviously Elliott Smith fans prefer light, uplifting, totally non-depressing stories - just like the stories he told with his music. Wait a second…
Thanks to agoldoor's detailed review I'll probably skip this one. I saw Elliott Smith do a great show to a crowd of 300 people or so at the Annandale Hotel in Sydney, probably around 1999. I'll remember that.