Best Music Documentaries?

fat_fleet said:
So Lance Bangs has a Slint documentary coming out soon!



So psyched!
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Wow, that's awesome! I must have listened to Spiderland hundreds of times over the years, and until I saw that clip I had no idea that they were so young when they recorded it . It's kind of surreal watching it - looks like the members of Slint all let their kids loose in the studio and filmed it! Makes the record even more impressive now.

On a similar note, I googled something along the lines of "making of Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" over the weekend, hoping to find a couple of interviews with the band or producers about techniques, equipment etc. and found that there's a whole feature length film been made specifically about the making of that album > I Am Trying To Break Your Heart. Man, I'm looking forward to seeing that :D
 
robgreen said:
Wow, that's awesome! I must have listened to Spiderland hundreds of times over the years, and until I saw that clip I had no idea that they were so young when they recorded it . It's kind of surreal watching it - looks like the members of Slint all let their kids loose in the studio and filmed it! Makes the record even more impressive now.
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Yeah I had the exact same reaction when I saw that trailer. I had no idea how young they were then. I must have listened to that album a hundred times. It's definitely in my all time top 10...no way does it sound like an album made by kids. Love the footage of them playing Good Morning Captain.

robgreen said:
On a similar note, I googled something along the lines of "making of Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" over the weekend, hoping to find a couple of interviews with the band or producers about techniques, equipment etc. and found that there's a whole feature length film been made specifically about the making of that album > I Am Trying To Break Your Heart. Man, I'm looking forward to seeing that :D
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Oh yeah... I saw some bits and pieces of that. Still haven't listened to the album, but I'm not the biggest Wilco guy. That is the one that Jim O'Rourke produced, right?
 
DM60 said:
The Viper Room is one small place. I was there at a showcase for an artist and I couldn't believe how small it was. Maybe 100 people? The meeting room with the record exec was a small room inside the middle of the room.The people who worked there were real A-holes. Setting up was a disaster as there is no place to unload and load. No parking for the rig (van with a trailer). Terrible.
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Wow that is some interesting information. So the place is still up and running or was this a while ago?
 
fat_fleet said:
Yeah I had the exact same reaction when I saw that trailer. I had no idea how young they were then. I must have listened to that album a hundred times. It's definitely in my all time top 10...no way does it sound like an album made by kids. Love the footage of them playing Good Morning Captain.
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Yeah, it was great to see it being actually played by the band. I know they've reformed and done some gigs over the last few years but I've never even seen them or any live footage of them before. I think I've seen Dave Pajo doing some stuff in later collaborations, but otherwise it's just the sounds on the record and the photo on the Spiderland cover.

You familiar with their first record Tweez at all? You can still hear that signature Slint sound, but it's all buried under layers of cheap guitar fizz and dated effects and bad production. A potentially good album completely screwed up by Steve Albini :mad:


fat_fleet said:
Oh yeah... I saw some bits and pieces of that. Still haven't listened to the album, but I'm not the biggest Wilco guy. That is the one that Jim O'Rourke produced, right?
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Ah, I didn't realise it was Jim O'Rourke produced, but thinking about it, that stands to reason. They suddenly got a lot more interesting with YHF and the one after (A Ghost Is Born), after being fairly pleasant but not earth shattering prior to that.
 
robgreen said:
You familiar with their first record Tweez at all? You can still hear that signature Slint sound, but it's all buried under layers of cheap guitar fizz and dated effects and bad production. A potentially good album completely screwed up by Steve Albini :mad:
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Yeah...I've had Tweez for like 20 years and don't think I've even listened to it once all the way. Just never warmed up to it. I also have this 7" from the early 90s:

f9MUluwk
hdS9IX5Q


I think it's the same outtakes that ended up later being released as that 2-song e.p.. The sleeve is just a B&W photocopy and the back indicates #600 in a limited run of 103...however that works.

robgreen said:
Ah, I didn't realise it was Jim O'Rourke produced, but thinking about it, that stands to reason. They suddenly got a lot more interesting with YHF and the one after (A Ghost Is Born), after being fairly pleasant but not earth shattering prior to that.
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I had Being There but it just didn't take, with the exception of a few songs. I think because I kept comparing it to Son Volt's Trace, which I loved at the time. Being There somehow seemed a little slicker and ingenuous. But I think, had Wilco and Son Volt not come from the same band, I wouldn't have been so biased. And I just never ended up following up with either band.
 
That's really cool. Though I suspect it's probably something more to enjoy owning than listening to. My wife bought me one of the really early Pavement EPs on 10" vinyl (Perfect Sound Forever) a few years back. It's so lo-fi that it's almost unlistenable in spots, but I love having it.

With Wilco, I'd say maybe give those two records I mention a listen and see if you like them more. They were pretty much standard alt country fare prior to them, and returned to that kind of template after them, but for two records where Jim O'Rourke clearly worked his magic and made them much more experimental, they were great.
 
There's one about Earl Scruggs that I've seen under a couple of different names - Earl Scruggs Family & Friends. Anyone who enjoys bluegrass will like it. There are various excerpts from it on YouTube. The whole thing could be found at one time but I don't see it now. Interesting to learn that he was an anti-Vietnam war activist.
 
dobro said:
But check out Treme. It's like a documentary of music in New Orleans cuz the guys they got to play for the series are guys playing music in N.O. What a concept. And guess what? It works.
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Back in March or April, I went down South to borrow a mate's turntable and he was telling me about this. But I couldn't find it anywhere and still haven't.
grimtraveller said:
I'm sure the Nilsson one will be back.
I love the notion of endless repeats !
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Ironically, I've not seen this one since I missed it way back when !
Oh well....

grimtraveller said:
We've long been fortunate in England since the 70s in terms of good documentaries. And at the moment, good ones turn up on BBC 1, BBC2, BBC 4, Sky Arts 1&2.
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I don't know if any of you have come across this channel called Showcase but over the last few weeks I've noticed that after midday, they do some really interesting documentaries as part of their Heyday series. I've been taping loads of them and some of the ones I've already seen have been really good. They've done a load from some different points of view, like there was a really good one about the Rolling Stones as a singles band that was full of interesting insights and an alternative perspective, one on Status Quo which carried an interesting bias of their original drummer and founder member, ones on the Pink Floyd albums "Piper at the gates of dawn" and
grimtraveller said:
I love Pink Floyd up to and including "Meddle"
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.....a couple of albums that I've never seen anything on TV about and tonight there's a documentary on Led Zeppelin 1 and tomorrow there's Deep Purple in rock, the latter being amazingly overlooked as far as "Classic albums" goes {they chose Machine Head instead}. They've also just done "The Wall" and one on the Ramones and a four parter {2 thus far} on the development of the Beatles' songs. Next week, there's Genesis, Free, Rainbow, Bob Marley, the Police's Regatta de blanc, Slade, Yes and Motorhead's "Bronze" era. Among others.
The interesting thing I find is that they're not documentaries that I've seen before or that do the repeat rounds on the other channels.
 
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I didn't read this whole thread, so if Beware of Mr. Baker is already listed sorry.

Beware of Mr. Baker

Sound City

Muscle Shoals is a good one.

I just recently seen one on HBO about George Harrison that was excellent. It's a 2 parter.
 
fuzzsniffvoyage said:
I just recently seen one on HBO about George Harrison that was excellent. It's a 2 parter.
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Was that the Martin Scorsese one ? It was good, though I preferred the first part. The part where Paul McCartney explained how Harrison's lead guitar transformed "And I love her" was an interesting window into the importance of the band in arrangements, even though certain members don't get credited. Harrison did the same thing in bringing together two Lennon songs to make "She said she said" one complete song.
 
grimtraveller said:
Back in March or April, I went down South to borrow a mate's turntable and he was telling me about this. But I couldn't find it anywhere and still haven't.
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Treme - Season 1 (HBO) [DVD] [2011]: Amazon.co.uk: Steve Zahn, Wendell Pierce, John Goodman, Kim Dickens, David Simon, Eric Overmyer: DVD & Blu-ray

Your local multinational non-tax-paying online store will happily vend you a copy...

I watched the first series but found the DJ guy too annoying to continue, and the big trombone guy who was also one of the main characters in The Wire... I just couldn't make the switch. (I have the same problem with Dexter... ;))

And I also realised that most of the music being played I found as boring as batshit. I'll give you my copy Grim, if you want to come and pick it up.... :laughings:
 
Armistice said:
I'll give you my copy Grim, if you want to come and pick it up.... :laughings:
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When I said "down South", I meant South London ! :laughings: You're too far south for our Honda ! !
Armistice said:
Treme - Season 1 (HBO) [DVD] [2011]: Amazon.co.uk: Steve Zahn, Wendell Pierce, John Goodman, Kim Dickens, David Simon, Eric Overmyer: DVD & Blu-ray

Your local multinational non-tax-paying online store will happily vend you a copy...
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When I said I couldn't find it, I meant on the telly or online ! You'd think that with 600 channels it would turn up somewhere.
I only ever buy DVDs of series that I've liked and enjoyed. Rarely these days do I take a chance on something being crap although I did with "Mellodrama" and it wasn't bad. I'm waiting for her book though.

Speaking of good documentaries, I'm catching up on my video backlog and came across one I'd forgotten I'd recorded~ it was made very recently about Jack Bruce. It's pretty good, made all the more poignant by the fact that he died not long after it was screened.
 
grimtraveller said:
Was that the Martin Scorsese one ? It was good, though I preferred the first part. The part where Paul McCartney explained how Harrison's lead guitar transformed "And I love her" was an interesting window into the importance of the band in arrangements, even though certain members don't get credited. Harrison did the same thing in bringing together two Lennon songs to make "She said she said" one complete song.
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Yep, that's the one. I preferred part 1 better myself.
 
I am chomping at the bit to see "Filmage" the story of the Decendents. But shitty old Canuck netflix is being a real jerk about it. But i will see it. Oh yes. I will see it.
 
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