thus spake drake: joanna newsom

Monday, January 16, 2012

Music on TV - Week of 01.16.12: Fishbone, Fleet Foxes

Angelo Moore of Fishbone in a scene from Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone.

As much as the VH1 Behind the Music series was great for music documentaries in theory, in practice it's tried and true formula has made for a lot of lazy filmmaking. Thankfully, that's not the case with the music doc Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone.

It's a really hard documentary to get right. You have a devoted fan base that knows everything, but as a filmmaker you want to tell a universal story that anyone can identify with. - Filmmaker Chris Metzler

The film, while still in its theatrical run, is getting a national television debut this Sunday, launching the 4th season of AfroPoP on PBS. Sadly, the Seattle-Tacoma market has yet to pick up any of the great AfroPop entries thus far, so no matter where you are, make sure to check your local listings. (Unless your in the aforementioned Sea-Tac area, as both KCTS and KBTC are leaving us high and dry on this one).

Luckily, the DVD comes out a month later (February 21), so the wait is minimal in that regard.

Fleet Foxes and Joanna Newsom on Austin City Limits Saturday. Photos by Scott Newton

Speaking of being left high and dry by our local PBS stations, both KCTS and KBTC have been notoriously absent in the airing of the long running Austin City Limits. This week sees the potent combo of Fleet Foxes (they're local, fer crissakes) and harpist/sprite Joanna Newsom. While PBS has enjoyed the success of Downton Abbey (deservedly so -- congrats on the Golden Globe win for, what was it again? A mini-series?There's a second season in my DVR queue that tells me otherwise), a lot of interesting cultural programs (like AfroPoP and ACL) continue to get passed over.