Favourite music docs/films

#22

Love the Tresor one (wrote about it here last summer) and can’t wait to scope the Grime one. Thanks!

@kid_kozmoe Elektro Moskva looks SICK…saw a few brief docs on contemporary ‘post-soviet’ jams but this looks for real!

@Icelandbob That scene where his manager is having the meeting with the Japanese…just the funniest shit i’ve seen in months!

Damn, genuinely impressed and stoked that I just got more than 5 movies I’ve never seen from this thread (being a music doc obsessive)…and y’all set the bar HIGH.

Havent watched that doc on the Slits on Hulu yet so can’t recommend that…the Bikini Kill one is a bit fawning BUT since I see to be on a rock kick, as a drummer and someone who gets addiction, the doc about Patty Schemel is BOSS:

Wrote an article on Harry Partch’s Oedipus when it was performed in Seattle last May and this doc was invaluable:

Haven’t seen this yet, but have heard good things and while I’m on a grunge/90s tip…

So back in 2006 when I was living in LA for the summer, I had heard of Father Yod and the Source Family the previous spring. At that time, the only real ‘text’ on him was a doc made by an undergrad at Carlton College in MN…and it was good! Not as polished as this, but felt more comprehensive (tho I can’t remember the name for the life of me):

I love John Fahey.

Another one I haven’t seen but will…

I KNOW I’m forgetting like all the electronic ones but hopefully y’all find these helpful!

#23

i watch this continuously, it’s well worth it.

#24

@zurkonic thanks for the Fahey tip; have never seen this film. also a huge fan. you ever read his book?

#25

Nah…not that big of a fan tho I’m looking forward to finishing the doc and could certainly use some Fahey records in my collection. The homie who runs Unseen Worlds actually was the janitor at his record label way back when! (I have an interview with him on my site that’s one of my faves)

#26

yeah, the Takoma mythology runs pretty deep…I love all that stuff…although I’m a liiiiittle skeptical Fahey had an actual physical office that required janitorial services???

#27

I know. I was hesitant to write that but being lazy to consult what Tommy actually said.

And of course, I misremembered:
As far as influences, it is hard to overestimate how important John Fahey was to my entire musical outlook, including with the label. I was in Austin when the label first started and Revenant was putting out lots of great releases then. I washed dishes in a restaurant that Dean Blackwell of Revenant’s wife did the books for and I thought that was the greatest thing. I never even met her or Dean, but apparently we both shopped at Whetstone Audio. I also worked in an audio visual library at University of Texas, so I had access to lots of great releases there. In particular I remember checking out Pogus’s CD of Pauline Oliveros’ Alien Bog / Beautiful Soop on a whim and it still remains one of my most memorable listening experiences, and one of my favorite recordings.

#28

oh! okay, Revenant, right on. sadly, my Fahey knowledge ends right about there…although looks like there are some great releases in that catalog.

#29

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#30

two top picks:
-Good Vibrations, biopic of Terri Hooley, one of the founders of Good Vibrations, the record shop and music label. Great soundtrack, brilliant story and future dr who jodie whittaker is in it.

-Joe Strummer: the Future is Unwritten, because i’m a sap for anything clash related and it’s a fascinating and well made documentary.

bonus: the BBC documentary series “Blood on the Turntable” has a hilarious episode about the Stone Roses. Effectively, their manager is interviewed about his work with the group, and then two or three witnesses, lawyers or experts are brought in to explain that he’s lying.

#31

Wild Combination, a documentary about Arthur Russell is fantastic: http://www.arthurrussellmovie.com/

#32

Oh man…

The Sound of Belgium:

808:

Lemmy:

Stop Making Sense:

Until The Light Takes Us:

#33

Saw this at a screening at the ICA few years ago - documentary on Principe Records in Lisbon made by Just Jam and Warp - but it never got released it seems. Worth keeping an eye out for it and will definitely post if I ever come across a link…

#34

In the middle of this and liking it so far.


Even though it’s not my prefered “scene” the insights are pretty good and the (slow) format makes for a great watching experience if you have the time.

#35

Nice one. Love the music of Arthur Russell but i didn’t know this doc existed.

#36

Ok, these videos are not exactly music docs but a talk with Susan Rogers about music and neurology. CDM recommended the first video where Susan Rogers was invited by Ableton Loop. This is a amazing thing to listen to:

Peter Kirn from CDM did another interview with her. I haven’t seen it yet but I’m sure it’s worth to watch/listen:

#37

jaco

rhyme & reason, not the greatest hip hop doc but pretty raw and a good look at the era

rockers, classic performances and performances

footwork doc,

old stoner at heart, cool looks at pink floyd production and some pre dark side moments with synths and stuff

cool look at early 80s late 70s nyc

zaire 74, bill withers can make u cry

salad days, about the dc punk scene

gigi allen was gigi allen

the monks!

co-sign - maestro - we jame econo

#38

Ooh, getting this to watch now.

#39

Just saw this clip today, where Sheek Louch from The LOX explains Missy Elliott’s involvement in It’s All About The Benjamins… Anyone any idea what it’s from?

#40

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#41

This documentary about Erkki Kurenniemi is very inspiring:

https://lux.org.uk/product/the-dawn-of-dimi-mika-taanila

“Electronic musician, filmmaker, audio engineer, philosopher and media theorist Erkki Kurenniemi is profiled in this consistently mindblowing essay-documentary by Mika Taanila. Rather than a straight biography (which would have opened with Kurenniemi building computers from scratch at the University of Helsinki in the early 60s), Taanila’s collection of five shorts drifts in and out of imaginative, methodical montage-reveries “written” by Kurenniemi’s voiceover. He waxes on psychological future of technology alongside the past, the history of “interfaces” as a series of tactile encounters and trends that have vast, incomprehensible repercussions for humanity.”