I watched "American Hardcore" last night (a review).

[slj0101]

Cool documentary on the hardcore punk scene of the early 80's. It wasn't terribly in-depth, but it was interesting seeing old footage of a lot of the bands. The usual suspects weighed in, like Henry Rollins and Ian Mackaye; even Moby managed to shoehorn his way into the doc. H.R. from Bad Brains even participated (big surprise for me, considering his reputation for being unpredictable). Even though I was a latecomer (I caught the second wave of acts as a teenager in the late 80's), it was a fun, nostalgic trip. It made you realize that in this day and age when a band can make professional-grade CDs and merchandise from a home computer, we'll probably never have a DIY-type scene like that again. Pressing your own 45s and taking a Sharpie to a white T-Shirt almost seems primitive now.

I give it 3 1/2 out of 5 magic marker X's on the hand.



SPOILER- at the end of the film, the scene dies. :cry:

[AllegroRondo]

1. did they cover UK Subs?

or Bad Religion?

[slj0101]

2. Bad Religion, yes.

Greg Hetson, Brian Baker and Brett Guerewitz (spelling?) were interviewed.

Not UK Subs, since they focused on the American side of it.

[slj0101]

3. Minor Threat's first album was originally a double-7".

But I had the 12", because it was a later pressing.

[swag]

12. Single 7", if you can believe that.

You mean this one?



That was a single 7".

[asthmaticeog]

4. I didn't see it...

I got a promo of the soundtrack album and it was mostly stuff I didn't like so I skipped the film when it came around. :shrug: Should I give it a chance?

[slj0101]

5. It was okay.

It got it through Netflix, so it was still a good deal. Not as good as the book, though.

[asthmaticeog]

6. The book WAS good, wasn't it?

It spent too much time on SSD and their doctrinaire soundalike thrash-and-bellow followers for my taste (fuckin' east coast hXc, jeez :eyes:), but it was impressive in its comprehensiveness, and the writing was compelling even when topics I couldn't care less about were being covered.

[Fenris]

7. God, listening to Ian MacKaye pontificate...

I could take that for about .003 seconds.

[slj0101]

8. Fortunately, for us, he lays off the preachy stuff.

But H.R. still has a bit of that phony Jamaican patois going on.

[slj0101]

9. Bad Brains' first full length album was released on cassette only.

By ROIR records.

[swag]

11. ROIR was an incredible avenue for music back then.

Great stuff.

Low-budget vector for infectious music.

[enigmatic]

13. absolutely

They put out Television's "The Blow-Up", which is my choicve for best live album ever made, however crappy it sounds. The live versions of Marquee Moon and especially Little Johnny Jewel were mind-blowing; what guitar playing..

[swag]

10. I will rent it and see it. Thanks for the brief.

If I love the movie, I will buy it.

Granted, I have heard enough out of the mouths of most of those guys. And I enjoyed a lot of that stuff first-hand.

But still it's nice to look back now and again and see something you missed.