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Great documentaries about music?
Beck
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I love watching documentaries, and usually I stick to nature and biographies. But tonight I picked up Half Japanese: The Band that Would be King and The Devil and Daniel Johnston, both directed by Jeff Feuerzeig, and I loved them (though I will say The Devil and Daniel Johnston is much better). I just have to watch more. So, where should I start?
I would be really interested in Punk, indie, or singer songwriter focused documentaries, but I'd watch pretty much anything so long as it's good. I'm not sure if I'd be interested in a metal documentary, though, just because the genre's a bit boring. But again, if it's really good, I might have to give it a shot.
Oh, and the weirder, the more unique, the better.
Anyway, what films do I absolutely have to watch?
I would be really interested in Punk, indie, or singer songwriter focused documentaries, but I'd watch pretty much anything so long as it's good. I'm not sure if I'd be interested in a metal documentary, though, just because the genre's a bit boring. But again, if it's really good, I might have to give it a shot.
Oh, and the weirder, the more unique, the better.
Anyway, what films do I absolutely have to watch?
Lucas's Franklin Badge reflected the lightning back!
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There's Control about Joy Division, which is amazing.
Shine A Light about the Rolling Stones (Scorsese has a couple more, I can only remember one about The Band, but I can't recall the name)
Bird on a Wire about Leonard Cohen.
Instrument is pretty great if you're already a fan of punk or more speficially the band Fugazi.
There's also a documentary you can get online about a sample of a drum breakdown which has been used all over the place for years, I'm sure someone else who reads this will post the name of it because I can't remember sorry.
Anyway, get Dig!
edit: Anvil! is a good metal documentary, and I don't even like metal
Dig! looks incredible.
Great start, thank you. But keep them coming.
If you enjoy that at all, I'd also recommend Until The Light Takes Us, which focuses on black metal. It focuses on the main people behind the second wave and how things played out back in the 90's (Murder, church burnings, suicide....) Again, it didn't teach me anything I didn't already know but it was still pretty interesting.
edit: I didn't see your point about metal being boring, but for what it's worth, M:AHJ has a 90%+ rating on RT and UTLTU was on the official selection for Sundance, Gothenberg and Athens film festivals.
American Hardcore is another good one about hardcore punk music like Black Flag and the Bad Brains.
seconding Anvil!
http://www.crybabydoc.com/
especially if you like guitar. I found it pretty interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob5NpdkH5Dw&feature=related
It's also available on Netflix Instant
Wattstax
Gigantic (A Tale Of Two Johns)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csuiz9AHias
Fela Kuti. Real revolutionary. The government raided his home, murdered his mother, laid siege to his commune, constantly arrested the man. Awesome doc with tons of music and interviews.
Never stopped the funk.
Meeting People is Easy is about Radiohead and is good if you're a fan of the band but maybe not so much if you don't like them. But try it anyway.
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Yes! Watch this one.
loudQUIETloud - a film about The Pixies
Some Kind of Monster - a fascinating portrayal of the meltdown of a megaband, worth watching even if you don't like Metallica
Slow Century - if you're into Pavement, you'll love it; if you're not, you will be after watching it
"Moog" is a good one, about Robert Moog (synthesizer innovator)
It's about a group of musicians (called, oddly enough, The Buena Vista Social Club) in Cuba.
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We Jam Econo
Instrument
a history of the electric guitar
featuring Jimmy Page, Jack White, The Edge, and their music
edit: oh wait, it was posted. sorry. consider this a second for it then.
Another vote for It Might get Loud.
- Scott Walker - 30 Century Man (60's pop icon who went experimental)
- Jandek on Corwood (Outsider artist)
- The Dirty Three
- Live Forever (Britpop)
Edit: Also, a seconding on both Scratch and It Might Get Loud.
There was a doco on the reformation of the New York Dolls - I think it was New York Doll.
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Whoa, this is awesome.
Thank you so much for all the great titles, everybody. I think I'm going to start off with We Jam Econo (I've wanted to get into The Minutemen and it seems like a good way to expose myself to them) and Scott Walker - 30th Century Man (love Scott Walker, had no idea there was a documentary about him). But I'm going to hit pretty much everything recommended here. I'm not sure if I can do the metal stuff, but that first one, with all those awards, maybe I'll give that one a shot.
I like the idea behind the documentary about the Crybaby a lot, and I was wondering if there are other films focusing on Guitar pedals specifically? I use a Fuzz Factory and a good amount of Electro-Harmonix pedals (mostly fuzz pedals), and I'd love to learn more about the history behind them.
But yeah, thanks again. There's a lot of great stuff here and I'll be sure to watch everything mentioned.
It's about music, but really it's about the music industry. I've watched it a couple times, and it's pretty great.
If you live in the US, you should be able to watch it on Hulu.
Then you have to watch the documentary "Joy Division", directed by Grant Gee and released in 2007.
Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEDCyV-wxa0
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Scott Walker - 30 Century Man
loudQUIETloud
Meeting People is Easy
I'm Not There
The Making of the Dark Side of the Moon
I'm Not There is a fantastic movie about Dylan, you should definitely see it. The Pink Floyd one is part of a Classic Albums series, I heard the rest are pretty good too.
You might give The Promise: The Darkness at the Edge of Town Story, really interesting as well.