Product Description
-------------------
ANTON A NEWCOMBE OF THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE & COURTNEY
TAYLOR OF THE DANDY WARHOLS ARE STAR-CROSSED FRIENDS & BITTER
RIVALS - THIS IS THE TRUE STORY OF THEIR LOVES & OBSESSIONS, GIGS
& S, ARRESTS & DEATH THREATS, UPPERS & DOWNERS - & THE
DELICATE BALANCE BETWEEN ART & COMMERCE.
.com
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Italian fabulist Italo Calvino observed that there are two kinds
of artists--those who are prolific and successful, and the
tortured geniuses, each gazing at the other in deep jealousy and
admiration. The two rock bands chronicled in the documentary DiG!
fall easily into this equation. On the side of the tortured
geniuses is the Brian Jonestown Massacre, led by the psychedelic
and volatile Anton Newcombe. Portland's the Dandy Warhols,
fronted by Courtney Taylor, fulfill the role of the artists who,
while unable to plumb the artistic depths of their friendly
rivals, achieve a fair degree of popular accl (in Europe,
anyway). over seven years and containing some astonishingly
footage, the film represents a labor of love for
director Ondi Timoner, who befriended, lived, and traveled with
the bands. DiG! will likely be most remembered for a remarkable
scene of rock and roll implosion--a show in LA's Viper Room after
which the Brian Jonestown Massacre were expected to ink a record
deal. Instead, the band erupted in a fist fight onstage. Among
themselves.
Does it go uphill or downhill from here? Depends on your
definition of the terms. While dooming their careers, the Brian
Jonestown Massacre manage to crank out an insane number of
self-distributed albums--including three records in a single
year. Courtney Taylor and the Dandies regard the musical output
of their peers worshipfully and find themselves virtually ignored
stateside but huge stars across the pond. While tens of thousands
of fans in Germany and the UK sing along to every word at
sold-out festivals headlined by the Dandies, Newscombe leads his
crew in a nine-hour set in a dingy club for an audience of ten.
Throughout the film there are controlled substances imbibed,
clothing shed, sitars broken, punches thrown, arrests made.
Taylor performs double duty as narrator of the film, begging the
question of whether to accept his assertion that he fronts "the
most well-adjusted band in America" at face value. The
destined-for-greater-things Joel Gion, BJM's tambourine player,
is the thief of every scene in which he appears, playing Flavor
Flav to Newscombe's Chuck D. For those who want even more
immersion, the DVD includes the option to "zoom," or expand,
various scenes--a very cool feature. Those responsible for the
hilarious excesses of DiG! have made a movie worthy of being
mentioned in the same breath as This Is Spinal Tap, as mixed an
honor as that might be.
DVD Features
The second of this set's two discs is practically its own
sequel. Director Ondi Timoner had 1500 hours of footage to work
with, so there was plenty of good material left on the
cutting-room floor that found its way onto this supplemental
disc. The deleted scenes include an unintentionally haunting
pre-9/11 interview on a New York rooftop with BJM's Anton
Newcombe; the twin towers loom behind the singer as he attempts
to justify singing about love yet engaging in violence, drawing
tenuous parallels between himself and militant prophets
throughout history. This, and Newcombe's delight in listening to
Charles Manson's musical s, is about as heavy as it
gets, though. Other extras include various videos by the bands,
with the conspicuous absence of the Dandy Warhol's David
LaChapelle-directed "Not if You Were the Last Junkie on Earth."
(The omission is understandable in light of the Dandies' sour
grapes over the $400,000 video.) The Where Are They Now features
find various members of the bands a little older and reflective,
with new families and new gigs, reminiscing fondly on the seven
years spent under Timoner's watchful cam. As is the case with
the film proper, the mood picks up whenever Joel Gion appears.
When is this guy going to get his own talk show? For fans of
Timoner's commentary on disc 1 there is--get this--footage of the
director and her partners that commentary. Why there's
no footage of Timoner watching and commenting on the footage of
herself the commentary is anyone's guess. --Ryan
Boudinot
Dig These Discs by the Brian Jonestown Massacre
Tepid Peppermint Wonderland: A Retrospective (
/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00065U036/${0} )
Strung Out in Heaven ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/B000007O7I/${0} )
Bravery Repetition & Noise ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005QD98/${0} )
And This Is Our Music ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000C8ZDQ/${0} )
Thank God for Mental Illness ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/B000003JGL/${0}
)
Bringing It All Back Home Again (
/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000IX6V/${0} )
-- end6pak -->
Dig These Discs by the Dandy Warhols
Welcome to the Monkey House ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000AKX8G/${0} )
Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia (
/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004TA8K/${0} )
The Dandy Warhols Come Down ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/B000002U2S/${0} )
-- end6pak -->
Dig These Documentaries (and One Classic Mockumentary) on DVD
This Is Spinal Tap (Special Edition) (
/exec/obidos/ASIN/6305922756/${0} )
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (
/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0006IIKS0/${0} )
Hype ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/B000654YK6/${0} )
X (The Band): The Unheard Music (
/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0006L0LM0/${0} )
End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones (
/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000642JG8/${0} )
Gimme Shelter ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004YZFR/${0} )
