Ear on TV: Week of 05.10.10: Exile on Main St Week

When one of rock and roll's greatest albums also ranks as the most decadent, it deserves its own week. To that end, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is hosting a week long tribute to the Rolling Stones' 1972 release Exile on Main St, which celebrates a special reissue this week. The week features artists performing songs from the album and culminates on Friday with an hour-long making of documentary, Stones in Exile (scroll down for trailer).

Headlining as music guests for the week are Green Day (Monday,) Sheryl Crow (Tuesday), Keith Urban and Phish (Thursday). But the real treat here are the artists who will be sitting in with The Roots, playing Stones songs throughout each broadcast. Taj Mahal, Pearl Jam's Mike McCready, Stones' longtime keyboardist Chuck Leavell, and New Orleans legend Doctor John. Getting the premiere of the documentary Stones in Exile (on Friday) is a bit unconventional for a late night talk show, but Late Night has always forged ahead, and since Jimmy Fallon and The Roots have taken it over, it's been one musical coup after another for the little talk show that could,


The director of the Stones documentary, Stephen Kijak, got the gig thanks to his amazing work on the rock documentary ScottWalker: 30 Century Man, which, fittingly enough, gets its television debut this week as well, on the Sundance Channel Monday night (8 PM, EST). The film follows the fascinating career of Ohio born Scott Engels (aka Scott Walker), who conquered the UK in the 60s as part of The Walker Brothers and at the height of his fame, had his own TV show and rivaled The Beatles in popularity. He went from crooner to mind-bending solo artist, and to this day, Engels/Walker remains a towering influence over modern rock, as testified by the parade of artists interviewed for the film (David Bowie, Radiohead, Brian Eno, etc.). All the while remaining mostly unknown here in his home country. The film does the enigmatic artist incredible justice, even if it's reluctant star would be just as content to remain unknown to the world of American Idol.


Elsewhere, The National promotes their latest release, the gorgeous and melancholy High Violet (out this week), with a performance on Letterman Thursday. The Hold Steady drop by The Colbert Report on Thursday, highlighted by a sit down between Colbert and Craig Finn. And last, but not least, MGMT takes their crazy to Letterman on Tuesday night.

Playlist: Picks for the week
Monday, May 10
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Crash Kings
CBS: Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Wilco
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Dr. Dog
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Green Day, Taj Mahal sits in with The Roots
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Wild Light (REPEAT)
PBS: Tavis Smiley: Tom Petty
SUNDANCE: Scott Walker: 30 Century Man: Scott Walker, David Bowie, Brian Eno, Radiohead, Jarvis Cocker
Tuesday, May 11
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: MGMT
CBS: Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Jonsi
ESPN: Straight Outta L.A.: Ice Cube (direction and score), Snoop Dogg
FUSE: Nirvana Live at Reading: Nirvana
IFC: Dinner With the Band: Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings (REPEAT)
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Keith Urban, Pearl Jam's Mike McCready sits in with The Roots
TBS: Lopez Tonight: Ozomatli (REPEAT)
Wednesday, May 12
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: B.o.B.
FUEL: The Daily Habit: We Were Promised Jetpacks
HBO: Music by Prudence: Prudence Mabhena
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Macy Gray
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Sheryl Crow, The Rolling Stones' longtime keyboardist Chuck Leavell sits in with The Roots
SYNDICATION: The Ellen DeGeneres Show: Court Yard Hounds
TBS: Lopez Tonight: Slash (REPEAT)
Thursday, May 13
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Dirty Heads
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: The National
COMEDY CENTRAL: The Colbert Report: The Hold Steady
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Jakob Dylan
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Phish, Doctor John sits in with The Roots
SYNDICATION: The Ellen DeGeneres Show: Common
Friday, May 14
FUEL: The Daily Habit: A Day to Remember
NBC: Today: Sting
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Stones in Exile (documentary on The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street)
SUNDANCE: Live From Abbey Road: Temper Trap, Little Boots, Michael Buble
Saturday, May 15
NBC: Saturday Night Live: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
PBS: Austin City Limits: Manu Chao (REPEAT) [check local listings]
Sunday, May 16
HBO: The Wire: Various artists from New Orleans

Tonight is Monk Time - "Monks: The Transatlantic Feed Back" premieres on Sundance

If you're like me, your heads still bobbing (& throbbing) from the exquisite reissue that LITA did for The Monks' classic Black Monk Time. The music is great, but it's the historical context of LITA's liner notes that gives the experience that extra kick. Tonight on Sundance, you can add to that visceral thrill with the critically acclaimed German-made documentary Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback, as this week's Friday night RockDoc.

The documentary tells the story of the former GI's who formed their band in Germany, singing songs about war and peace to a proto-punk sound. The film catches up with them nearly 40 years later, punctuated by the band reforming and finally getting a chance to play in their native USA. I've yet to see it, but here's a trusted quote:

It takes more than just documenting a great band to make a great movie: the band has to be unique in spirit and story and fit into a larger picture of the rock canon, and the filmmakers have to find the cinematic language to bring that essence to the screen. Never have these rarities all come together more beautifully than in MONKS: THE TRANSATLANTIC FEEDBACK.

(Directors) Dietmar Post and Lucía Palacios have given us a brilliant journey with the most extraordinary rock band to ever cut vinyl!
-Allison Anders, Filmmaker, Los Angeles

And here's the US trailer for the film:


Previously: Now Downloading - New Releases 04.13.09 (Black Monk Time featured)

Hot grits and broken ankles: Two docs from Robert Mugge

This week there are two DVD reissues from music documentarian Robert Mugge, focusing on two very different artists in somewhat similar straits. With the documentaries Gospel According to Al Green (1984) and Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus (1986), Mugge finds both artists on the other side of their commercial and (perceived) creative peaks, with both reaching in different directions for new inspiration.

Gospel According to begins with the soulful Al Green solo with guitar, singing about a love deep in his heart. His beaming smiles and squeals of delight spill joy through the screen into our laps. Going in blind, the assumption here is the song is about love for a woman, but when he plays the song again through the credits, what we've seen in the prior 90 minutes confirms that it's more likely about his love for God. Using fiery gospel performances from 1984 as a backdrop, the film intertwines interviews with Green, producer Willie Mitchell and rock critics to piece together his conversion.

Much of the film seems built around getting Green to talk about the infamous "hot grits" incident that most believe (and Green finally admits 30 years later) spurred his conversion. The story goes that Green was seeing 29-year-old Mary Woodson, while seeing other women, and when Green turned down an offer for marriage she became unhinged. While Green took a bath to unwind after a long recording session, the spurned lover Woodson boiled some grits on the stove and proceeded to throw them on a naked Green. He suffered second and third degree burns, and barricaded himself in a room. With her revenge now complete, Woodson located Green's .38 revolver and took her own life. As Green tells the story in the film, it seems to occupy a blind spot in his memory, even earnestly asking Mugge, "Did it really happen?" -- as if he hadn't really been a witness to the incident. Green, in fact, tells of his born-again conversion for the film entirely different, insisting instead that it was a 4 a.m. wake-up call from his Lord in a hotel room in Anaheim back in 1973, predating the incident (and a lot more sleeping around) by more than a year.

Green began moving toward gospel, eventually distancing himself completely from secular music after 1977's The Belle Album. That album features a lyric in its title track that pretty much encapsulates the bridge between gospel and soul that Green had been crossing: "It's you that I want, but it's Him that I need." Green then turned his back on the money and fame and gave himself fully to singing only for the Lord. With Green's recent successful return to secular music (last year's Lay It Down), seeing Green in full gospel mode is even timelier. Green really gets a workout screaming for the Lord, and it's hard for even the hardened to resist his unbridled joy. But is it really all joy, or is part of it just a mask for the past he's repressing?

Playlist: Rssmbld Sndtrck - Gospel According to Al Green

Meanwhile, if Gospel is fascinating for an incident unseen, Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus actually captures a legendary scene on film. The film is really two short documentaries put together, the first focusing on an outdoor concert in Saugerties, New York, in August of 1986, and the second on the debut of a concerto Rollins wrote, performed in Tokyo with a symphony backing him. Mugge again weaves together interviews with his subject (with his wife Lucille) alongside critics, who, much to Mugge's chagrin, can't find anything negative to say about the legend, other than his recordings often don't live up to his live performances.

The Saugerties concert is legendary, and Rollins' playing helps make his critics' point, as he is on fire through the performance. The concert is captured in the album G-Man, which served as the soundtrack release for the movie. The title track opens the film and features some of Rollins' most daring solos ever captured. Later, during a rendition of "Autumn Nocturne," Rollins moves from song-to-song phrasing before deciding to jump off the rocky stage, breaking his ankle on the fall. He lies there for a minute, assessing his pain, before launching back into his solo, much to the delight of his bandmates and audience alike.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the second half in Tokyo, as his "Concerto for Tenor Sax" seems pedestrian in comparison, and the symphony backing him mostly a distraction from the solos he conjures up on stage. It's no wonder that this is the only recording commercially available.

Both DVDs are kind of grainy in the transfer, as it seems the original reels were not well preserved, but the sound is top-notch. Extra features for Gospel include an uncut 90 minute interview with Green that is placed in like a director's commentary, and both DVDs have video of the director's recollections, with Mugge giving insight into several key scenes for both films. Both are great for fans of the artists, but I'd only really recommend Gospel for the casual fan.

Celebrate Sub Pop's Anniversary on the small screen

Twenty years ago in Seattle, the flannel was plentiful and the music was loud, and at the center of it all was the record label Sub Pop. This weekend, the label celebrates its 20th anniversary and so the story of the Seattle music scene is being retold all over again in the media. Probably the best and surprisingly accurate description of what happened is the Doug Pray documentary Hype!, which was five years in the making.

Hype! is told from the perspective of the people swept up in the middle of the grunge scene, with Sub Pop at the epicenter of both the scene and the film's voice. Not only are there amazing live performances captured, but the film is pretty hilarious, poking many holes in the mythology of the so-called genre. Sub Pop employee Megan Jasper famously sold The New York Times on bogus grunge slang, making up phrases like 'swingin' on the flippity-flop' (hanging out) and harsh realm (a bummer) which the Times printed verbatim ("Grunge: A Success Story," November 15, 1992). Between that and seeing models on the runway wearing flannel at Fashion Week it was inevitable that the anti-market scene was being over-marketed and would phase out soon enough (and in its wake, a chorus of "good riddance"). The film also features footage of the first time Nirvana played "Smells Like Teen Spirit," which has a special place in my heart -- because I was there!

Another great film that indirectly documents Sub Pop's historical rise is the Sonic Youth concert film 1991: The Year Punk Broke. The NY band was one of the first to appear on a Sub Pop imprint (the compilation Sub Pop 100), and befriended several bands on the label, including Nirvana, who they took under their wing on tour in Europe just prior to their (and, in turn, Sub Pop's) breakthrough. Full of great concert footage and oddball humor (see Kurt Cobain mock Kevin Costner from Madonna's Truth or Dare concert film) it captures a moment in time before everything would change, for good and for bad.

Other DVD's that share a part of Sub Pop's history:
Acquired Taste - A collection of videos from more recent Sub Pop artists including The Shins, Iron & Wine, The Postal Service, Sleater-Kinney and Hot Hot Heat
The Murder City Devils: Rock & Roll Won't Wait - An all access, warts and all look at the once popular Seattle punk rock act. Full of drinking, punching, bleeding and of course rocking.
Mudhoney: Live at El Sol - Recent (2007) performance of the legendary Seattle rockers, which beautifully captures singer Mark Arm's lovably ornery humor.
David Cross: Let America Laugh - At the turn of the century, Sub Pop started branching out into comedy, starting with funnyman David Cross, who's albums on the label are a throwback to George Carlin's classics from the 1970's.
Garden State - The Zach Braff curated soundtrack promised to change your life, but it mostly changed Sub Pop's. It was nearly Nevermind: The Sequel as The Shins became huge, and allowed the label to expand it's stable of artists once again.
Flight of the Conchords: Season 1 - Considering they were doing both music and comedy, the label is the perfect fit for this comedic duo to release their music. The series is already a cult hit, and the music's not bad either.

Iraq and Roll Refugee: Heavy Metal in Baghdad on DVD

While it's true that most rock bands face all kinds of obstacles (venues that don't pay, bad management, the rising cost of hair product,) how many can say that their practice space was destroyed by a scud missile? Acrassicauda, Iraq's only heavy metal band can sadly make that claim, along with plenty of other grievances associated with their new democracy, which has forced them and millions others out of their homeland and into an uncertain future as refugees.

Heavy Metal in Baghdad, by Vice's Suroosh Alvi and Eddy Moretti, started out as the story of a heavy metal band, but in the end is truly about the human cost of the war, and the growing and much ignored Iraqi refugee crisis. By lookng at the war through the eyes of these four very Westernized musicians (they learned their English watching American movies and listening to Metallica, dude) the film is able to resonate in a different way than the slew of other documentaries concerning the war.

You got the troops and you got the terrorists outside, and we are stuck in the middle... That's the democracy that we got now... so I'm like, f*ck this democracy.
- Marwan, drummer

They took Ali Baba and left the forty thieves.
- Firas, bass player

We're given only a brief look at how life was under Saddam, which was marked by the annoyance of having to sing a song for the regime. But at least Acrassicauda (latin for 'black widow,' ) could play gigs, unlike after the fall, where there's no electricity, a curfew of 7PM... and oh yeah... the likelihood of getting shot by insurgents. Vice pulls some strings to set up a gig for them in 2005 at hotel in the green zone, which turns out to be the last time they play in their homeland (and the last action that hotel sees as it's blown up by a car bomb some months later). But through it all, the band somehow manages to hold on to their dream.

"If you really want to know what is the attraction, look around... we are living in a heavy metal world.
- Faisal, lead singer/rhythm guitarist

By the next year, the landscape is like an album cover from one of their favorite bands (Iron Maiden's Death on the Road,) and their practice space is in buried in rubble. Alvi and Moretti, treat us to a game of chicken with their dangerous surroundings. Even then, you can't go anywhere without plenty of guns, bullet-proof vests and a large security detail (which at the time runs you about $1500 a day). With all the rampant violence, the band soon follows millions of others and finds their way to Syria, to join a growing refugee crisis. Here, even if they're not allowed to work and are treated as unwanted guests by their hosts, they at least are able to book a show. All they have is each other, and often that is not enough. The frustration boils over in the final scene, as Marwan has an angry message for those watching, and sitting on their hands, and it stings like a punch in the gut from a new friend.

Just to rub some salt in our guilt-ridden wounds, an epilogue tells us the band later had to sell their instruments to pay the rent. It's a downer of an ending, but their story obviously doesn't end there. The film's website made it possible to help the band out with money, and as a result, the band was able to make it to a slightly better situation in Turkey, as documented in the DVD release's bonus feature, Heavy Metal in Istanbul, a 45-minute update that takes us all the way to January 2008. It's both a continuation of the band's story, as well as a deeper look at the continued refugee crisis at hand.

Also included in the DVD release are plenty of additional and deleted scenes along with some videos of the band performing live.

To air guitar is human, to rock is divine

From the same folks who brought you Project Runway and Last Comic Standing, the documentary Air Guitar Nation was originally slated to be a reality series on VH1 for 2006, but instead ended up becoming a film festival favorite last year. Tomorrow night, it finally makes it on to VH1, a score of sorts considering it only recently made it to DVD.

AGN is the perfect meeting of two recent cultural trends, the first being the recent resurgence of rock, thanks in part to the popularity of Guitar Hero. The second trend is the recent run of fascinating documentaries dealing with obscure sport, like Murderball, Mad Hot Ballroom, Spellbound, Wordplay and the more recent King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.

It's formulaic to an extent, this burgeoning genre of documentary. First, find obscure tournament. Second, find at least two fascinating subjects that are pitted against one another. Here, the two subjects are C-Diddy (LA actor David S. Jung) and the greatly named Björn Türoque (New York writer-musician Dan Crane). At first it seems like a silly notion, but the wild performances and quirky humor make it an addictive film.

Looking at the list of songs played in the film, it's easy to see the parallel to the Guitar Hero series, and listening to them right now, it's hard to resist the urge to get up and flail my own air axe. Ah screw it -- post over... I'm airin' out!

Playlist: Rssmbld Sndtrck - Air Guitar Nation
1. "Ace Of Spades" - Motorhead
2. "Cherub Rock" - Smashing Pumpkins
3. "Get Your Hands Off My Woman" - The Darkness
4. "God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You II" - KISS
5. "I Want You To Want Me" - Cheap Trick
6. "Hate To Say I Told You So" - The Hives
7. "Heroes" - David Bowie
8. "The Mole" - The Bags
9. "More Than a Feeling" - Boston
10. "Play With Me" - Extreme
11. "Take It Off" - The Donnas
12. "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" - Judas Priest
13. "We Are The Champions" - Queen
14. "Won't Get Fooled Again" - The Who
15. "Yankee Rose" - David Lee Roth

Respect yourself, don't miss this

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the great accident that was Memphis' Soul imprint Stax Records. To help mark the occasion, airing tonight as part of PBS' Great Performances series is the documentary Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story, which follows the story of the small label that helped launch the careers of great soul artists like Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Booker T. & the MG's, Rufus and Carla Thomas, the Staple Singers, Isaac Hayes and many more.

The documentary features classic performances from the late Otis Redding, along with clips of The Staple Sisters, Isaac Hayes, Sam and Dave, The Temptations and many more.

Playlist: Respect Yourself - The Stax Records Story

Here's a great preview:

No, I actually can't wait

Couldn't You Wait? is a documentary on the great band Silkworm. This extended trailer (taken down at the behest of the director) features friends and acquaintances of mine (along with Steve Albini) talking about the band that affected our lives in one way or another. This 14 minutes is purely reverential, and doesn't touch on the tragedy of their ending.

(TRAILER REMOVED)


Playlist: Silkworm sampler

Can't do a proper list without either the (criminally out-of-print) album Libertine or their final EP Chokes, of which neither is digitally available.

There's also a tribute album coming out soon, and last week Silkworm fans like Chris Brokaw (The New Year, Consonant, Codeine) and .22 played a show at Chicago's Empty Bottle to help with the release of the tribute. There were rumors that a live recording by my old band doing "Three Beatings" was in consideration to be used as an uncredited (as requested) bonus track.

tag: film, silkworm, movie, documentary, playlist, rhapsody