The Velvet Underground: A Documentary (2021)

The Velvet Underground is a 2021 American documentary film directed and produced by Todd Haynes that chronicles the life and times of the rock band the Velvet Underground. Click on the image for the full film.

The Rise and Fall of The Fall

The Fall were a groundbreaking band who created some brilliant music. They combined a poetic aesthetic with the gritty anti-authoritarianism of Punk. This was accomplished under the leadership of the late Mark E. Smith (1957 - 2018). But we need to examine how Smith worked and what his motivations were. This short documentary does that by looking at how he managed the band, leading it for more than 40 years with many different members.

In April 1998, Manchester band The Fall played a live show at Brownie's in New York City, where chaos reigned from the very first song. There was an on-stage brawl, most of the band quit after the gig, and frontman Mark E Smith was arrested by the NYPD. This is the story of what happened at that concert, and why.

'Musical Holdouts' (1975)

An expansive survey of 1975 American musical subcultures that steadfastly refuse to be blanded by mainstream consciousness. Directed by John Cohen(1932-2019. From front porch banjo pickers in Appalachia and the Bluegrass Festival circuit to black children on the Carolina sea islands, cowboys, and Cheyenne and Comanche Indians, they have all retained their cultural identities despite pressures from the mass media and popular culture.—Folkstreams

Half Japanese: The Band That Would Be King

Filmmaker Jeff Feuerzeig documents the strange career of Jad and David Fair's avant-garde rock duo, Half Japanese. Formed in the pre-punk 1970s and originally releasing their music on self-distributed cassettes, the brothers quickly gained renown in the fringe-rock underground due to their lo-fi recording style and deliberately minimal musical skills. The film includes interviews with both brothers as well as famous fans like magician Penn Jillette and Velvet Underground drummer Maureen Tucker.

Fear of a Black Hat (1993)

Fear of a Black Hat is to Hiphop what Spinal Tap is to Metal.

Fear of a Black Hat is a 1993 American mockumentary film on the evolution and state of American hip hop music. Written and directed by Rusty Cundieff in his directorial debut, the film stars Cundieff, Larry B. Scott and Mark Christopher Lawrence. Fear of a Black Hat is similar in format to the satirical film about early 1980s heavy metal, This Is Spinal Tap. It is told from the point of view of a graduate student who is documenting the hip hop group N.W.H. (which stands for "Niggaz With Hats", a reference to N.W.A.) for a year as part of her thesis.

The title is derived from the 1990 Public Enemy album Fear of a Black Planet. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 1993, and was later theatrically released on June 3, 1994. While critically acclaimed, it was a box office bomb. Its stature has grown in the years since its release and the film has acquired a cult following.

Celebration at Big Sur (1969) Festival

 

Celebration at Big Sur is a film of the 1969 Big Sur Folk Festival in Big Sur, California, featuring Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell and others.

Songs: 

"I Shall Be Released" – Joan Baez

"Mobile Line" – John Sebastian with Stephen Stills offstage

"Song for David" – Joan Baez

shown rehearsing offstage, with stage performance of same song cut in

"All of God's Children Got Soul" – Dorothy Combs Morrison and the Combs Sisters

"Sea of Madness" – CSNY

"4 + 20" – Stephen Stills solo performance

Stephen Stills introduces this number discussing his interaction with a heckler in the previous scene

"Get Together" – Joni Mitchell with Crosby, Stills & Nash and John Sebastian

"Put a Little Love in Your Heart" – Dorothy Combs Morrison and the Combs Sisters

incomplete

non-musical footage of nude sauna, audience happenings

"Swing Down Sweet Chariot" – various

offstage, incomplete

"Rainbows All Over Yours Blues" – John Sebastian

"Woodstock" – Joni Mitchell (playing piano)

non-musical footage of self-identified "freak" with Woodstock-themed bus

"Red-Eye Express" – John Sebastian with Stephen Stills

"Changes" – Mimi Fariña and Julie Payne with Stephen Stills

incomplete

"Malagueña Salerosa" – Carol Ann Cisneros

"Rise, Shine, and Give God the Glory" – The Struggle Mountain Resistance Band

incomplete

"Down By the River" – CSNY

incomplete, over 7 minutes

folk musician improvising outside the festival

"Sweet Sir Galahad" – Joan Baez

"Oh Happy Day" – Dorothy Combs Morrison and the Combs Sisters with Joan Baez

opens with Joan Baez rehearsing same number with Dorothy Combs Morrison

Directed by – Baird Bryant, Johanna Demetrakas

Produced – Ted Mann, Carl Gottlieb

Cinematography – Baird Bryant, Johanna Demetrakas, Gary Weis, Peter Smokler, Joan Churchill

The Stones And Brian Jones / 2023, BBC4

At the age of 14, Nick Broomfield met Brian Jones by chance on a train. Brian was at the height of his success with the world at his feet - yet six years later he would be dead. The Stones and Brian Jones looks at the relationships and rivalries within The Rolling Stones in those formative years. It explores the iconoclastic freedom and exuberance of the 1960s, a time of intergenerational conflict and sexual turmoil which reflects on where we are today. Featuring revealing interviews with all the main players, and unseen archive released for the first time, The Stones and Brian Jones explores the creative musical genius of Jones, key to the success of the band, and uncovers how the founder of what became the greatest rock'n'roll band in the world was left behind in the shadows of history.

Oils on the Water (1985)

Here's the entire Oils on the Water concert from Goat Island in Sydney Harbour from 1985. I was 16 when this was broadcast. I had been listening to Midnight Oil for over a year. I had been introduced to them by a girl I had a brief thing with, and we went on to become lifelong friends (its been over 40 years now anyway). Midnight Oil changed reality for me. Prior to hearing their music I was a good little colonial boy. When I was 12 I wrote a 10 page essay on Winston Churchill, from an admiration. When I was 15 I won a school writing prize for a story about nuclear war being conducted like a cricket match. That change was largely due to the 1982 Midnight Oil album 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1. Songs like US Forces taught a generation of Australians about the history of their nation that was not being taught in school. I was told in school that Aboriginal Australians were an "evolutionary dead end" and they would die out. It was only a matter of time. My discovery of Midnight Oil was the beginning of my awareness. It was shown on national television and broadcast in stereo simulcast on Radio JJJ - it was the 10th birthday for the station. Enjoy and think of Rob Hirst the drummer who died yesterday.

Be Here To Love Me - A Film About Townes Van Zandt (2004)

Directed by Margaret Brown, Be Here To Love Me chronicles the often turbulent life of American singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt. The film includes interviews of Van Zandt's immediate family and contemporaries such as Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle and Guy Clark, along with "home movies, old TV performances and, especially, mid-Seventies footage originally filmed by James Szalapski for his outlaw country documentary Heartworn Highways.

Deep End (1970)

Deep End is a 1970 psychological comedy drama film directed by Jerzy Skolimowski and starring John Moulder-Brown, Jane Asher and Diana Dors. It was written by Skolimowski, Jerzy Gruza and Boleslaw Sulik. The film was an international co-production between West Germany and the United Kingdom. Set in London, the film centres on a 15-year-old boy who develops an infatuation with his older, beautiful colleague at a suburban bath house and swimming pool.

The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival on 1 September 1970. Deep End, considered a cult classic, went unreleased for many years due to rights issues. In 2011, it was given a digital restoration with the co-operation of the British Film Institute and was released in theatres and on home media.

Mike (John Moulder-Brown), a 15-year-old bathhouse worker, develops a crush on his older, attractive co-worker, Susan (Jane Asher). At first they help each other secure bigger tips by swapping their respective male and female clients. But their tidy business arrangement is severed when Mike discovers that Susan has not only shunned him, but is cheating on her fiancé with an older swim coach. As Mike begins stalking Susan in an effort to break them up, his innocent crush spirals into obsession.

The film features the song "Mother Sky" by Can in an extended sequence set in Soho, and "But I Might Die Tonight" by Cat Stevens in the opening scene and finale; the previously unreleased version heard in the film was eventually released in 2020 on a reissue of Stevens' album Tea for the Tillerman.

Deep End was one of David Lynch's favourite films.

"I don't like colour movies and I can hardly think about colour. It really cheapens things for me and there's never been a colour movie I've freaked out over except one, this thing called Deep End, which had really great art direction." - David Lynch

A BAND CALLED DEATH - The Pioneers of Punk Rock

Before Bad Brains, the Sex Pistols or even the Ramones, there was a band called Death. Punk before punk existed, three teenage brothers in the early '70s formed a band in their spare bedroom, began playing a few local gigs and even pressed a single in the hopes of getting signed. But this was the era of Motown and emerging disco. Record companies found Death’s music— and band name—too intimidating, and the group were never given a fair shot, disbanding before they even completed one album. Equal parts electrifying rockumentary and epic family love story, A Band Called Death chronicles the incredible fairy-tale journey of what happened almost three decades later, when a dusty 1974 demo tape made its way out of the attic and found an audience several generations younger. Playing music impossibly ahead of its time, Death is now being credited as the first black punk band (hell...the first punk band!), and are finally receiving their long overdue recognition as true rock pioneers.

The New Sound of Music (BBC Documentary 1979)

A one-off documentary highlighting the extraordinary story of musical pioneering, which took the audience into the world of White-Noise, Saw-Tooth, Square-Wave and Digital Sequencers, as well as other highly melodious sounds created by a variety of novel instruments never imagined before.

Good Copy Bad Copy

Good Copy Bad Copy is a documentary about copyright and culture in the context of Internet, peer-to-peer file sharing and other technological advances, directed by Andreas Johnsen, Ralf Christensen, and Henrik Moltke.

It features interviews with many people with various perspectives on copyright, including copyright lawyers, producers, artists and filesharing service providers.

A central point of the documentary is the thesis that "creativity itself is on the line" and that a balance needs to be struck, or that there is a conflict, between protecting the right of those who own intellectual property and the rights of future generations to create.

B-Movie - Lust & Sound in West-Berlin 1979-1989 [2015]

B-MOVIE: LUST & SOUND IN WEST BERLIN is a documentary about music, art and chaos in the Wild West Berlin of the 1980s. The walled-in city which became the creative melting pot for a special kind of sub and pop culture, attracting ingenious dilettantes and world famous celebrities alike. However, before the iron curtain would fall, artists and communards, squatters and hedonists of all kinds would enjoy Berlins unconventional lifestyle. It was not about long-term commercial success, but about living for the moment - the kick - the here and now. With mostly unreleased TV and film footage, photos and original interviews, B-MOVIE tells the story of life in the divided city, a cultural interzone in which everything and anything seemed possible in a place unlike anywhere else in Europe. It's a fast-paced collage of stories from a frenzied but creative decade, starting with punk and ending with the Love Parade, all from a city where the days are short and the nights are endless. This is a time when Berlin was like a B-MOVIE: Colourfully cheap and trashy, threatened and thrown together, anxious and ambitious, clubbed and caned, stoned and strung out, drunk, drugged and - just very special. Click on the image above to be taken to the film.

„B-Movie“ ist eine Dokumentation über Musik, Kunst und Chaos im wilden West-Berlin der 80er Jahre. Bevor der eiserne Vorhang fiel, tummelten sich hier Künstler und Kommunarden, Hausbesetzer und Hedonisten.

Velvet Goldmine (1998)

 

Velvet Goldmine (1998) dir. Todd Haynes (Click on the image and you are there)

In 1984, journalist Arthur Stuart investigates the mysterious rise and fall of glam rock icon Brian Slade, a Bowie-esque figure who staged his own disappearance a decade earlier. As Arthur pieces together Slade’s story—his relationship with wild American rocker Curt Wild, his transformation into a glittering star, and his ultimate downfall—the film becomes a kaleidoscopic meditation on identity, fame, and reinvention.

Todd Haynes crafts a dazzling, surreal homage to the glam rock era, blending fictionalized history with mythic storytelling. The film’s striking visual style, inspired by 1970s glam culture, embraces bold colors, theatrical costumes, and dynamic cinematography. The soundtrack, featuring original and reinterpreted glam rock classics, amplifies the film’s electric, nostalgic atmosphere. Beyond its extravagant aesthetic, Velvet Goldmine explores themes of artistic evolution, sexual fluidity, and the commodification of rebellion. The film blurs the line between reality and illusion, mirroring how icons are created and dismantled. Arthur’s journey reflects the bittersweet loss of youthful idealism, as he reconciles his past with the present.

Premiering at Cannes, where it won the Special Jury Prize for Artistic Contribution, Velvet Goldmine divided critics but gained a devoted cult following. It remains a defining queer rock opera and a love letter to the era that celebrated beauty, excess, and transformation.

The Story of Bryan Cook and Inner City 90s Sydney

Inner city Sydney in the 1980s and 90s was a very special place. I first spent extended amounts of time in Newtown from 1991. The creativity and energy of the community was amazing. Music, art, performance and writing as well as dancing, singing, sculpting and raving were happening everywhere. Large loft-style warehouse spaces could be rented for a few hundred dollars a week and large groups could live in them too. I moved permanently to Sydney in late 1992 and the city was my base late 1999. The city has changed a lot since then and on my first and only visit back since, in 2023, it was almost unrecognisable.

This is the story of Bryan Cook. A local inner city photographer and Australian independent music lover who captured some of the most unique, unseen photos around the inner city pubs like The Hopetoun, The Vulcan, The Sydney Trade Union Club The Evening star, The Strawberry Hills Hotel and more.

His love of film and digital photography inadvertently captured a music scene that was never given a lot of attention or documented by the mainstream press. Dr Gregory Ferris, an esteemed academic from the UTS, discovered Cookie's extensive, extraordinary and rarely seen photos and exhibited them at the Powerhouse Museum in an interactive display that recreated the Hopetoun Hotel. Cookie has confirmed that the total number of photographs taken over the years exceeded 80,000, a monumental achievement.

This video was the concept of Ed Garland and Nick Bleszynski, who were determined to expose to the world the amazing photography of Bryan (Cookie) Cook and his accidental documentation of a unique time in Australian music history.

Interviews: Clyde Bramley (Hoodoo Gurus)

Jon Roberts (The Barbarellas)

Geoff Datson (Samurai Trash)

Susie Beauchamp (Box the Jesuit)

Dr Gregory Ferris (UTS Academic)

Ed Garland (Waxworks)

Credit to Nick Bleszynski for footage at the Moshpit Newtown and the scene with Dr Ferris.

The Los Angeles Free Music Society 1972-2012

 

In 2012 The Box, a downtown Los Angeles art gallery, ran a six-week exhibition celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS). Entitled "Beneath the Valley of the Lowest Form of Music: The Los Angeles Free Music Society ‘1972-2012,’" the exhibit showcased nearly 40 years of LAFMS artwork, self-made musical instruments, recordings, ephemera, film/video, and installations, and included a schedule of live performances and artist’s talks. 

From the exhibition description:

The LAFMS have created a huge collection of homemade musical instruments throughout their history. A large selection of these objects will be on display in the space, exposing their playful and ingenious approach to sound. The selection on display includes both historical and new instruments made by Rick Potts, Tom Recchion, Joe Potts, Joseph Hammer and others. Rick Potts’ Hinge Neck Guitars, Tom Recchion’s “Strunagaphone” and Spring Boards, Joe Potts’ Chopped Optigan, and Paul McCarthy’s Sonotubes will be among the plethora of functional sculptural objects included. Films by John Duncan, Michael Intriere, Doug Henry, Tom Recchion, Rick Potts, Jonathon Rosen, Janie Geiser and more will be screened. A “record store” ala Poo-Bah Records, a scene of the early development of the LAFMS, will offer CDs, Vinyl, Cassettes and other objects for sale. A non-linier, historical, wall-sized collage of flyers, drawings, notes, correspondence, photos and other ephemera will also be on display.

Another focal point of the exhibition will be a major collection of photographs taken by Fredrik Nilsen. Nilsen, now a well-known exhibition and art photographer, will show prints documenting the LAFMS between 1972 and 1981. These images that have been printed especially for this exhibition, portray the beginning of this pivotal movement. Photographs documenting this vast scene by Tom Recchion, Kevin Laffey, Dennis Duck, and others will also be shown.

Brief History-

The foundation of the Los Angeles Free Music Society goes back to 1973 when Rick Potts, Joe Potts, and Chip Chapman—began making tape experiments and improvised music mixed from TV cartoons and material appropriated from Chapman’s eccentric record collection. A year later, with Tom Potts and Susan Farthing- Chapman they formed Le Forte Four. In Pasadena they became acquainted with Tom Recchion who worked at Poo-Bah Records and kept locals informed of new experimental and avant-garde records. Concurrently at Poo-Bah’s, late night improvised music experiments were taking place in the back room, with Tom and customers-now friends Dennis Duck, the Ace of Space, The Professor, Fredrik Nilsen, Juan Gomez and Harold Schroeder. Out of those sessions Tom and Harold formed The Two Who Do Duets, and went on to form the Doo-Dooettes with the inclusion of Fredrik, Juan and Dennis. It was only a short while later that the factions joined forces under the LAFMS moniker when it became obvious that there was a symbiosis to their approach and aesthetics, as well as strength in numbers. Ace Farren Ford, also affiliated with Poo-Bah, was part of Ace and Duce, also joined the ranks and the first LAFMS concert was produced in 1975 featuring Le Forte Four, the Doo-Dooettes and Ace and Duce, billed as The Los Angeles Free Music Society. Members of the avant-rock group Smegma, who had already been in existence since 1973, also developed out of and beyond the Poo-Bah Records scene before moving to Portland, Oregon in 1975. John Duncan, another Poo-Bah customer and subsequent acquaintance of Tom’s became part of the collective, releasing several of his earliest recordings as part of the LAFMS canon. AIRWAY, Joe Potts’s project and one of the first “noise” bands, emerged spurring on the development of “noise as art” aesthetic, becoming a global influential force and the idea of “maxmimalism.” Influenced by everything from Zappa/Beefheart to Cage, Terry Riley and One String Sam, they were ahead of the curve and their DIY aesthetic presaged Punk Rock, releasing their own efforts and self-produced concerts.

This was only the beginning. As years went on many groups and affiliations began to spring up and each member of the LAFMS began to emerge as solo artist in both visual arts and musical fields as well as collaborate and join other groups.

LAFMS’s work and performances have been pivotal figures in L.A.’s history of experimental art and sound and have had a global impact with international recognition. They are not simply a NOISE group, but embrace all forms of music and have demonstrated an adept capacity for tonal, improvised music, sound art, rock, musique- concrete, “turntablism”, humor, drone, minimalism, etc.

Since 1975, the LAFMS has released over 25 recordings on their own label and participants have released or have appeared on hundreds of releases from labels around the world. A merchandise store with some of these releases will operate throughout the exhibition, where visitors can find in-print and rare out-of-print items available for purchase including a new 2012 edition of “Lightbulb”, an occasional magazine published between 1977—1981 by the LAFMS.

A few infamous quotes about LAFMS

“Free ears and minds are one thing, but what about aesthetics?”—Hal Clark, Electronic Music Festival Hovikkoden, Norway (1974) 

“For decades, [the LAFMS] has influenced literally dozens of free-improv weirdos and avant-garde musician/non-musician types—who in turn have influenced thousands of others.”—LA Weekly (2011)

“A bunch of Hoodlums!”--- Director of Pilot Theatre, LA 1977 (upon canceling a show by AIRWAY and the Doo-Dooettes) 

Vashti Bunyan: From Here To Before

When modern artists embrace her forgotten album “Just Another Diamond Day,” failed U.K. folk singer Vashti Bunyan experiences popularity like never before. This documentary profiles her disappointing career and astonishing resurgence 30 years later. Featuring interviews with Andrew Loog Oldham, Joe Boyd and Robert Kirby, this charming movie follows Bunyan as she takes a nostalgic road trip and prepares for the biggest concert of her life.

Bob Marley: The Lost Tapes

This is a collection of long television interviews done with Bob Marley between 1974 and 1978. The man with the mostache and Australian accent is George Negus, a legend of Australian TV. I remember when this was shown on '60 Minutes' and the scandal that was associated with Bob Marley, when he was treated like a wild man in Australian media. Bob Marley and the Wailers toured Australia in 1979 and they had a big impact on the Aboriginal people, with their songs of freedom.

Bob talks about his ideas and philosophy. He shows himself to be a profound thinker. He is humble, wise and funny.

Bob Marley is one of the most influential men in music. Born on a farm in Saint Ann Parish Jamaica, he committed his life to the freedom of people all around the world. To date he has sold over 75 million albums worldwide, making him one of the worlds best-selling artists of all time. In this riveting documentary, packed with unreleased interviews, we explore the revolutionary ideologies of the legend Bob Marley.

The Stone Roses: Made of Stone

 

The Stone Roses: Made of Stone is a 2013 British music documentary on the acclaimed band The Stone Roses directed by Shane Meadows. The film stars band members Ian Brown, John Squire, Gary Mounfield and Alan Wren. The film was released on 5 June 2013 in the United Kingdom.

The film, which has received positive reviews from critics, follows the band reforming in 2012 after a 16-year split, capturing the band at work and in their everyday lives as they practise for their much-anticipated reunion on a tour across Europe, which culminated in three triumphant homecoming gigs at Manchester's Heaton Park.