excellent! 
last night i went to the NFT to see "DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILISATION", a film i have dying to see for years, but doesn't seem to be available anywhere on video or DVD...
...although having found that link, seems that its gonna be released soon!
anyway.....
so i finally managed to see this film, and fucking great it was too. basically, its a hacked up, thrown together piece of cheap tat documentary about the LA punk scene around 1978(ish) featuring Circle Jerks, The Germs, Fear, Black Flag and X, as well as interviews with assorted punk kids, promotors and fanzine writers.
its pretty amusing in places, and pretty excrutiating in places too (some of the bands are awful - the germs, alice bag band, etc) - but when it kicks arse, its cracking stuff.
Black Flag footage pre-Rollins with Chavo Pederast (Ron Reyes) on vocals - this stuff is amazing. having never seen Black Flag live, and only really ever having seen Rollins footage of the band, its kinda gobsmacking stuff to see how intense and insane they were. now i know why everyone that saw Black Flag prefers the pre-Rollins version. Quite a big interview with the guys, followed by live footage of "White Minority", "Revenge" and "Depression".
"Revenge" footage on YouTube
I'd never seen or really heard the Circle Jerks before, but they include Keith Morris (Black Flags first singer) in their line-up. Mental stuff - they churned out 4 songs in about 4 minutes. not much in the way of inview footage, but they showed a lot of stuff of them fighting with the club bouncers.
"Red Tape" footage on YouTube
The X footage was the big bonus for me. One of my all time fave bands, i got into these guys around 1985, when they'd long since stopped playing the UK and Europe, so again, never got to see them. And as you can imagine for a band that not many people have heard of, theres not much live footage or interview stuff floating around.
So we got four awesome X songs "We're Desperate", "Johnny Hit And Run Pauline", "Nausea" and "Beyond And Back". They were an extremely tight and top-notch band, even back then, and stand head an shoulders above the rest of the bands in the film (mainly because Billy Zoom is the best guitarist ever, and John Doe and DJ Bonebrake can actually play their instruments!)
not from the film, but live footage of "Motel Room In My Bed"
the interview footage was kinda funny too - the band come across less wasted than the others, although exene has a severe case of the hiccups! they are a pretty sarcastic bunch, and come out with some funny shit while singer John Doe does some home-made tattoos on random roadies and punks.
i'm so glad i got to see this - so much so, i'm prob gonna go back and see it again on Saturday!
enjoy the videos...
last night i went to the NFT to see "DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILISATION", a film i have dying to see for years, but doesn't seem to be available anywhere on video or DVD...
...although having found that link, seems that its gonna be released soon!
anyway.....
so i finally managed to see this film, and fucking great it was too. basically, its a hacked up, thrown together piece of cheap tat documentary about the LA punk scene around 1978(ish) featuring Circle Jerks, The Germs, Fear, Black Flag and X, as well as interviews with assorted punk kids, promotors and fanzine writers.
its pretty amusing in places, and pretty excrutiating in places too (some of the bands are awful - the germs, alice bag band, etc) - but when it kicks arse, its cracking stuff.
Black Flag footage pre-Rollins with Chavo Pederast (Ron Reyes) on vocals - this stuff is amazing. having never seen Black Flag live, and only really ever having seen Rollins footage of the band, its kinda gobsmacking stuff to see how intense and insane they were. now i know why everyone that saw Black Flag prefers the pre-Rollins version. Quite a big interview with the guys, followed by live footage of "White Minority", "Revenge" and "Depression".
"Revenge" footage on YouTube
I'd never seen or really heard the Circle Jerks before, but they include Keith Morris (Black Flags first singer) in their line-up. Mental stuff - they churned out 4 songs in about 4 minutes. not much in the way of inview footage, but they showed a lot of stuff of them fighting with the club bouncers.
"Red Tape" footage on YouTube
The X footage was the big bonus for me. One of my all time fave bands, i got into these guys around 1985, when they'd long since stopped playing the UK and Europe, so again, never got to see them. And as you can imagine for a band that not many people have heard of, theres not much live footage or interview stuff floating around.
So we got four awesome X songs "We're Desperate", "Johnny Hit And Run Pauline", "Nausea" and "Beyond And Back". They were an extremely tight and top-notch band, even back then, and stand head an shoulders above the rest of the bands in the film (mainly because Billy Zoom is the best guitarist ever, and John Doe and DJ Bonebrake can actually play their instruments!)
not from the film, but live footage of "Motel Room In My Bed"
the interview footage was kinda funny too - the band come across less wasted than the others, although exene has a severe case of the hiccups! they are a pretty sarcastic bunch, and come out with some funny shit while singer John Doe does some home-made tattoos on random roadies and punks.
i'm so glad i got to see this - so much so, i'm prob gonna go back and see it again on Saturday!
enjoy the videos...
VIEW 8 of 8 COMMENTS
vix:
Was so good to see you properly Dude! 
fenstar:
cheshkat@gmail.com eh
eh