Review: The Incoherents

Text © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2020

Images from the Internet

The Incoherents

Directed by Jared Barel

Loaded Barrel Studios; Starna Productions; Gravitas Ventures

103 minutes, 2019

www.theincoherents.com/

https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/the-incoherents/id1501037491

Every decade seems to have some nostalgia for twenty years or so earlier, especially when it comes to music. The ‘70s had American Graffiti (1973) and “Happy Days” with a resurgence of early rock and roll, for the ‘80s it was for the British Invasion and ‘60s garage sounds, the ‘90s was looking back at the First Wave punk, the early 21 Century saw a resurgence in hardcore and bands like the Sex Pistols reformed, and now we’re looking back at grunge and Indie rock, with bands like the Pixies, Soundgarden, and even the Dictators coming back for reunion tours. And that’s where this release starts to take off.

The imaginary band in question in this dramedy is the titular The Incoherents, an Indie band that had some friction back in the 1990s, released an album that had some cult-level fans, and then the reality of family and responsibility of employment started to kick in, with he band dissolving into some-normal lives filled with “coulda-been” dreams.

That’s when the nostalgia plays its hand. The ex-bandmates are all in their forties at this point; their rock stardom aspirations, like so many, have fallen to the wayside, such as vocalist and rhythm guitarist Bruce (lefty Jeff Auer, who also wrote the film and co-penned the songs), lead guitarist Jimmy (Alex Emanuel, who is the other half of the songwriting), bassist Keith (Walter Hoffman) and drummer Tyler (Casey Clark). And like the Blues Brothers, they decide to put the band back together again.

Bruce is working as a paralegal drone in a law office (a job Auer actually once performed), Tyler in a wedding band, Keith as a city planner who is vegan (and everything that it stereotypically entails), and Jimmy runs the Lucky 13 bar in Brooklyn (as an FYI, Josephine Blownaparte, lead singer of punk band Chesty Malone and the Slice-‘Em-Ups, who I’ve seen a few times, was a bartender there at one point). Other venues shown include Boston’s The Middle East and the late, great Maxwell’s in Hoboken (during its later “Tavern” days).

I like that they don’t talk down the viewing audience. For example, when Keith reminisces, “Remember the first time we played CBGBs, and I realized I was standing in DeeDee’s spot…” They don’t feel a need to explain who or where, they just go with the flow and assume the audience is astute enough to know. I mean, if you’re into Billy Eilish, Toby Keith, or Drake, I’m going to guess that you’re not going to be watching this film anyway. There are so many name drops, both mainstream and obscure, that there are plenty of a-ha moments guaranteed to make you smile when you make the connection. Make sure you check out the tee-shirts that are worn by the cast throughout, which range from mainstream (like AC/DC) to the obscure. Of course, there are multiple CBGB shirts of various hues.

What is nice is that so many of the people involved in this film are also related to the music business in one form or another, including cameos by the two relatively big acting names: Annette O’Toole won an Oscar as songwriter (for A Mighty Wind), and Amy Carlson, who is recently known from Blue Bloods, has her own music label (Frenchkiss Records) and has been in a grunge band or two. Then there are the occasional musical cameos, like Chris Barron, the vocalist of the Spin Doctors, Richard Barone (The Bongos!), Fiona Silver, and Joe Hurley.

And how are they as a band? Well, it’s kind of grunge pop that was popular in the ‘90s without the hard edge of the Seattle sound, mixing in harmonies with crashing guitars, and no riff that will necessarily stick in your brain with an ear worm beyond the song (a general flaw of rock’n’roll in that time period, in my opinion), but they are okay. The musicianship is fine, as they play their own material, which I respect. The sound is palatable for any general audience that would be watching this (again, not necessarily fans of mainstream pop or some other genres).

A couple of musical aspects that impressed me is how the film also showcases some other bands as well as this one, and that the characters feel real, rather than like cartoons (e.g., Sid and Nancy, Bohemian Rhapsody, Room 37: The Mysterious Death of Johnny Thunders, and especially The Dirt).

While the story follows a bit of a “history of a band” formula – the band (re)forms, woo-hoo exciting moments as things start to go well, and then (old) resentments (re-)arise within the band. But this also plays around with it, giving it more texture and history, with the addition of family and work responsibilities of 40-something-year-olds, and those lives clashing with the backstage antics of sex, drugs/alcohol and the temptation of groupies. Yes, even for those in their 40s. Rather than overwhelming the audience with excess like they did in the telenovela version of the aforementioned The Dirt, this is more realistic for bands at this level of (burgeoning?) fame.

Whether you like this genre of music or gave up on it by the time grunge came around in the early 1990s, the story is still compelling and the sound is not offensive (i.e., not Top 10 sonically flattened and auto-tuned). Even though it hammers home the truth about the mixture of music, business and the overabundance of social media in today’s scene, it is a good story, with pithy moments and above average acting.

Speaking of nostalgia, this review is dedicated to Little Richard, who passed away the day it was written.

DVD Review: What Did You Expect? The Archers of Loaf: Live at Cat’s Cradle

Text © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2015
Images from the Internet

 

What Did You Expect? The Archers of Loaf: Live at Cat’s Cradle
Produced, directed and edited by Gorman Bechard
What Were We Thinking Films
88 minutes, 2011 / 2012
www.WhatDidYouExpectMovie.com
www.wwwtfilms.com
www.archersofloaf.net
www.mvdvisual.com

The 1990s was a good time for indie music. Just listen to Mary Lou Lord’s song from that period, “His Indie World,” and you’ll possibly think, “Oh, yeah, right.” One of the bands not mentioned in the song though, was the Archers of Loaf, hailing out of Ashville and Chapel Hill, NC.

Everybody seems to talk about how bad a band name it is, but what I never hear anyone say is that it’s actually the “badness” that first absorbs the attention of the listeners. In other words, people will remember the name better if it’s badder [sic].

Then

That being said, what the band is most memorable for is their music, of course. As director Gorman Bechard describes them on the DVD cover: “Archers of Loaf were the greatest indie rock band of the ‘90s. No one had more energy on stage. No one put out better records.” You might even say he is a fan (yeah, I’m bein’ a smartass).

The group formed in the early ‘90s, broke up in the late ‘90s, and reformed again for short tours (one of the band members refer to themselves as “weekend warriors”) in 2011, when this concert was filmed by seven pretty steady handheld cameras at the Cat’s Cradle, in Carrboro, NC, a mere few hours from their home turf.

Well, enough with the history lesson, let’s examine the documentary. Before anything, let me state that one of my pet peeves in concert footage is quick edits, I prefer slower and longer shots, to see what the band is doing musically (e.g., watching hands on frets). The tendency is to match the music to the edits, and with indie or punk bands, the inclination is to do extremely quick shots. For this film, the edits fall somewhere in the middle. Bechard uses medium length clips that are not gonna be flashing so fast it could set off a grand mal, but it’s not lingering, either. It’s a pretty decent flipping camera-to-camera ratio.

Most of the cameras, however, are either from the back, the side, long shots of the whole stage, or close-up to vocalist Eric Bachmann; often it’s hard to make out exactly what they’re playing. However, some of the camera work is excellent, such as the one to the far stage left near guitarist-lawyer Eric Johnson, which often manages to get his guitar and the rest of the band at a great angle.

Later

The Archers had four albums, so at this point when they play live they are a more or less a Greatest Hits group, like the Beach Boys. This is not a criticism, it’s just the fact. Luckily the music holds up after all these years. You can see it in the faces of the fans who look like they were in infancy when the Archers was originally active, and they mouth along with the songs. That’s a testament to both the band and the material.

The band takes a song or two to settle in, especially Bachmann’s vocals, but by the time the ballad “Greatest of All Time” comes up, he’s in top form. Some of my favorite bands have that couple of songs warm-up, so that’s not unusual. Except for some gray here and there and some hair loss on a couple of them, their energy levels were on full force. This is especially true for bassist Matt Gentling, rocking ripped cargo shorts, and just plain physically rocking…and jumping…and moving.

The Archers of Loaf sound is definitive ‘90s, with jangling guitarwork full dissonance, discordant chording and almost atonal melodies, but manage songs that you can sing along with, which is one of their strengths. It should be noted that they are one of the early proponents of that particular sound, and helped popularize it.

That style definitely feels strong here, thanks to the concert audio recording and mixing by Minnesotan bred, Carrboro living Brian Paulson, who was once in the band Man Sized Action (still have the LPs). More notably, though, he has produced recordings by this band, Wilco, Slint, Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, Dinosaur Jr., Superchunk, etc.

Between songs, there are brief interviews with the quartet which I really found interesting, as they are a personable bunch of guys, especially Gentling. They tell of the origin of their name and the infamy of having such an unusual one, the differences of touring in a van versus a bus or plane, their friendship, and being in a band while holding other jobs, to name a few topics. For anyone who is going to be making a music documentary, please note that I (and I am assuming others) would rather the interviews have been after the film, rather than inbetween songs, because it’s harder to get into the music when it’s interrupted for talking heads, even when it’s the band doing the telling.

For the extras, there are six more songs from the same set (you can see the list below), giving you an additional almost 25 minutes of music. Also included, as Bechard is really good at giving these perks on his discs, is an additional 12+ minutes of interviews with the band, each of whom tell an extended anecdote that are worth a listen, and the trailer for the film (see below).

As for me, I still like their first song, “Wrong,” best, followed by “1985/Fabricoh.” But that’s neither here nor there, really.

Band:

Eric Bachmann: vox / guitar
Eric Johnson: guitar
Matt Gentling: bass / vox
Mark Price: drums

Song List:

Audiowhore
Harnessed in Slums
Greatest of All Time
Lowest Part is Free
Freezing Point
What Did You Expect?
Worst Defense
Attack of the Killer Bs
You and Me
Might
Bacteria
Web in Front
Nostalgia
Slow Worm
Encore:
Wrong
Plumb Line
Revenge
Second Encore:
Scenic Pastures
1985/Fabricoh
All Hail the Black Market

Bonus songs:

Dead Red Eyes
Strangled by the Stereo Wire
Form and File
Let the Loser Melt
Step Into the Light
Smoking Pot in the City

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_lzHSkypbg

DVD Review: I’m Now: The Story of Mudhoney

Text © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2014
Images from the Internet

I’m Now: The Story of Mudhoney

Produced and directed by Ryan Short & Adam Paase
King of Hearts Productions
102 minutes, 2012
www.mudhoneymove.com
www.mudhoneyonline.com    
www.mvdvisual.com

Let me say it now, and get the shock over with. Grunge. There. Grunge. Oops, again.

Are Mudhoney grunge? Well, depends on who you talk to, of course. For example, Mudhoney vocalist Mark Arm was in a Seattle band in the late ‘80s called Green River (still have my copy, with the insert and press release, I may add). They arguably started the sound. In Seattle, anyway. Like punk in New York, everyone was denying they were punk left and right during the time, but love to be included in that scene now.

In my opinion, grunge is actually older than that, dating back to a bunch of SST-era bands. I mean, Dinosaur Jr. was grunge, along with a bunch of other longhair groups that tend to get clustered into the hardcore genus due to the time and the label, but those longhair bands were into experimental and heavy guitar sounds that many previous punk groups had turned its back upon.

No, grunge did not begin and end with neither Seattle nor Nirvana. I still get bugged when I hear that Nevermind caused the “year that punk broke.” I like the band, but they were not punk, any more than the Beatles were rock’n’roll on Sgt. Pepper’s. It was something else. But before Nirvana, who absorbed so much of the Seattle energy and press, followed by Pearl Jam, there was and is Mudhoney. This is not fair.

I don’t know if it’s accurate to say there would be no Nirvana (the movement, not just the band) if Mudhoney weren’t who and what they were, but they were a definite force that shaped and honed for what Seattle would become known.

This documentary tells their story with the full participation of all members of the band, past and present, which is hardly surprising since they produced the thing. But this is not just a fluff, vanity piece. There is actually some depth to the thing. Sure, with the rare exception about a brief mention about drug abuse, they seem to just get along like fleas on a dog, the doc does show some of their downs and bad choices, as well as how they have lucked out on more than one occasion.

Perhaps it is because they were the ones who made the thing that they were able to get some heavy hitters to talk about the group, such as (in part) Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Kim Thayil (fellow grungites Soundgarden), Tad Doyle (TAD), and Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam; Eddie Vedder only appears in a live clip of an MC5 cover of “Kick Out the Jams”). No one from the Foo Fighters, however, I noticed. Is this a case of what is not said is saying something? There is also a clip of Nirvana, and there is a definite slam against Courtney Love’s causing them to get kicked off Reprise, but none of the women-led Seattle bands are represented. In fact, the only adult females you see are Kim Gordon and Megan Jasper, of the Sub Pop label.

As much as this is Mudhoney’s history, it is also, in part, a story of their label, Sub Pop. The label’s creators, Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Peneman, are also heard from here, I should add. Sub Pop, whose first single-band release was by Green River, came close to folding before Mudhoney took them on the road to some success. Of course, Nirvana helped, but it was Mudhoney that put them on the map. There were other important Sub Pop releases, such as by Babes in Toyland and Elliot Smith, but the focus here is of course and rightfully so on Mudhoney.

There is a bit of unspoken irony in the story of Sub Pop in that many bands they introduced didn’t fit into their Indie World (Mary Lou Lord reference there), and went on to major labels – including Mudhoney – and had a hard time reconciling their indie independence with the big boys’ “formulas for success.” With the knighthood of Nirvana, Sub Pop, too, joined with Warner Music Group, where they were hard pressed by the new management.

The documentary presents the present and past members of Mudhoney as engaging, relaxed, independent in band direction (showing chutzpah to the big studios by doing it on their own and pocketing large sums of recording funds), and being relatively sober of mind if not body (there is an awful lot of booze consumption shown).

But hey, this is their party and they can present any frontage they want, and this one is quite a fun and funny face. Even as a band I don’t follow, the way Mudhoney are represented here shows quite a bit of honesty, including calling some of their own albums as not up to snuff, and blaming mostly themselves (and Courtney) for their occasionally sloppy work; they also justly take credit for their rightful place in grungeworld.

Mixed in with the band and guests interviews, there are also film clips from third-party sources such as old b-films (including the Russ Meyer one from which the band takes its name), live performances and interviews (MTV, for example). The film covers much from the beginning, through their rise, signing with the majors, a slump leaving the majors, and re-signing with Sub Pop (where Mark Arm now works in the distribution area), then back to touring when they want(/need).

The two extras are a music video for the song “I’m Now,” and a 13-minute short called “Fresh Socks,” which features behind-the-scene clips of interviews, travelogue, backstage and onstage antics from a recent tour in Europe, Japan and Brazil. One stop in Belgium is especially telling, as they mock a stoic and distracting Kurt-wannabe in the audience.

If you’re into the whole Seattle scene – well, the male end of it as there is no mention of the riot grrrl aspect at all – I can wholeheartedly recommend this. If you’re more like me and are casual at best, it’s still a well-crafted document/press release that is enjoyable all the way through.

DVD Review: “Pearl Jam: Under Review”

Text © Robert Barry Francos/FFanzeen, 2010
Images from the Internet

Pearl Jam: Under Review
Directed by Alan Westbrook
Narrated by Thomas Arnold
Sexy Intellectual, 2010
90 minutes, USD $19.95
Chromedreams.co.uk.com
MVDvisual.com

To tell the truth, grunge never did much for me. Yeah, I’ve liked bits here and there, but as a movement it just sounded like rehashed navel-gazing soft metal rock (nascent emo?). To me, the real balls of the 1990s Seattle music scene was with the women, like Babes in Toyland and Bikini Kill. But they were given a different name, Riot Grrrls, so they were historically segregated (even if the term came from them).

That being said, I was looking forward to watching this British documentary. Pearl Jam’s been around for 20 years and I’ve never followed them, so I wanted to learn what was going on. And I sorta found out.

What I mean by “sorta” is I have a bunch of issues with the talking head experts (no women, even though they did much of the writing about the local scene in fanzines back then) picked for this particular video. Usually director Alan Westbrook does a great job, but here he chose mostly mainstream music writers from around the country, contributors to - and editors of - publications such as Rolling Stone, Spin, and The Village Voice; there is a local Seattle writer that has published some grunge-based books, and all of them seem to be knowledgeable, but they are incredible sycophantic to the band and don’t just dabble in hyperbole, but immerse in it. Some quotes I pulled include: “[Pearl Jam are] holding the torch for good old rock’n’roll,” “There is probably no band in America more respected by fans and by other musicians, certainly,” and “Pearl Jam is one of the most important bands of the last two decades in American Music.” Really?

A bunch of Seattle bands are mentioned, such as Nirvana (duh), Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, and Mother Love Bone. Again, no women, not even Hole. Anyway, after the death of Mother Love Bone’s lead singer Andy Wood via OD on the cusp of their album being released (talk about bad timing, eh wot?), the band splintered and then took on some new members. With Eddie Vedder moving up from So. Cal to become lead vox, they transformed, after another name change, into Pearl Jam. Vedder himself is interviewed about the band in a couple of clips shown from 1996.

Ignoring local labels like the groundbreaking SubPop (not being critical about that; I have no problem with a band signing to a major), they broke nationally with their first album, Ten. As big as their first release was, their second, Vs. was even larger, selling over a million copies the first week (breaking a record). This was their first (and wise) association with producer Brendan O’Brien, who made their sound rougher, much to the glee of the critics on this film.

One area addressed on Under Review is the supposed feud between Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and Vedder, and it’s pretty much trashed (Kurt started it by calling Pearl Jam “careerists”), with the blame going to the media who was looking to start a fight between the only major bands from the same town.

Their third release, Vitalogy is described by one critic here as better than the Who. Nah, don’t buy it. The Who were four incredible lead musicians; with Pearl Jam, and this is actually something I had a problem with in this documentary, pretty much all the viewer hears about is Eddie Vedder. The moody Vedder did this; the introspective Vedder wrote that. This is Pearl Jam, not Eddie Vedder’s Pearl Jam. I was interested in hearing about the band as a whole, not the 99.9% devoted to its lead singer and songwriter. I couldn’t tell you one person who was in the band, as each is usually mentioned by name once in the 90 minutes once they form as PJ.

The seclusion for their noble tout at the windmill called Ticketmaster is a key part of the center of the study, and rightfully so. I was so rooting for PJ on this, but even at the time I was not convinced it was going to succeed. If more bands would have stood by and taken the same stance, possibly, but no single band, no matter how big, could have stopped the money-grabbing monster that is TM, who set the model for all other ticket scam-artists – I mean sellers (and government officials, such as the dubious Mayor of New York, Mike "Buy the Election" Bloomburg, made ticket-scalping fees legal).

All the "official" Pearl Jam albums are covered in some detail (including comments by two of their studio engineers), but what interested me was their 120+ “bootleg” releases of every show on a particular tour, which was a brilliant idea; unfortunately, it is only lightly talked about here. This was a groundbreaking concept, and I wanted to learn about how it came about and how successful it actually was, but other than mentioning it happened in a passing moment, that was it for this DVD.

Now Pearl Jam have their own label (Monkeywrench) on which they released their last album, Backspacer. There are a bunch of side projects the band members have been working on, like Vedder’s solo Into the Wild, but not much is talked about there.

Twenty years after their first album, they are the only “grunge” band still around from that place at that time, and still selling out showplaces. Great for them, truly. What I came away with from this documentary is less than I was hoping, and it is certainly less critical than most of this British series (even with the albums that those here say were not as powerful as the earlier ones, such as No Code).

If you’re a fan of the band, well, there’s much to get off on, including a lot of live performance clips and some from their early videos (before they stopped making them, apparently), and detailed descriptions of Vedder’s role in society and to his followers, but I found it a little hollow, and a bit disingenuous due to the glorification of Vedder-er-er-er (supposed to sound like an echo).

The extras are slim, being the contributor bios and an only fair-quality audio interview with Vedder and drummer Matt Cameron (who does most of the talking, natch) while they were on tour in Berlin in 2009.

Well, one thing this documentary did do is inspire me to go to a video sharing site and check out some of their music. That's something.


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