Not So Fabulous Lifestyles...

Ladies and Gentlemen: The Fabulous Stains (1981)
Director- Lou Adler
Starring- Diane Lane, Ray Winstone, Laura Dern

Corinne Burns (Lane), an orphaned, angst-ridden teen living in a washed-up town forms a band with two of her cousins and strikes a chord with other disillusioned youth. Soon the band finds themselves headlining with the Looters, and Burns sees all the good and bad sides to touring.
Her fans imitate her, seeing in her that part of them that wanted to scream out all their lives and thinking themselves unique, when the Looters' frontman Billy (Winstone) gives them--and Corinne--a rude awakening.

It was cool to see some vastly different personalities in these bands. Billy and Corinne are both brooding and insecure, trying to give the audiences something different while keeping their integrity somewhat intact. Corinne's cousins act and feel as if they're simply along for the ride--which they are. They can barely play any instruments, have little money, and soon miss their home lives as the road becomes longer.

There are also some interesting personalities in the Metal Corpses, essentially a has-been band trying to keep itself alive with a strange frontman who managed to so far stave off STD's and a drugged addled guitarist who probably never knew where he was.

All roles were played very well, very convincingly. The advice from the "has-beens" goes unheeded, and ironically makes sense. It's a good depiction of band relations/tensions, broken families, and also kids coming to the realization that for all the bad in their lives, they are in fact still kids.

Rating: 4/5 Bonedaddies.

The "Rock 'n' Roll N****r Experience"

Afro Punk (2003)

Director- James Spooner

African Americans are present in the punk scene, though not in large numbers. The question that is asked, and apparently affirmatively answered, is "Can Afro and Punk go together?"

I have some problems with this documentary. First, I cannot take much more of punks (or every other subculture for that matter) thinking that they're incredibly unique in their philosophy of life and music. "This is a fresh and original sound," "we were playing this music/dressing like this before it was cool"... Bullshit. Absolute bullshit. Blues was accepted by rebels when it first appeared. Bluegrass as well. Your music is a cultural trend, just like Rock, Country, Blues, Classical, etc. When you get old, chances are good that you won't like the music of today's youth for one reason or another. And stating you did anything "before it was cool" is essentially nothing more than an attempt at aknowledging that you are "ccol" because you were somehow original. I'm heavily into Rockabilly, but I don't kid myself that it hasn't been done. I just love the sound, whether it's Buddy Holly, Reverend Horton Heat, or the Koffin Kats.

One guy stated in the documentary that he was an anarchist who believed in peace. Peace implies maintained order, which is only attainable through structure. Anarchy politically existing without a government, without state/county/city police departments, without a judicial system. Without a judicial system, there is no mandated form of punishment, giving free reign to violence, whether it be present in a crime, or in the punishment. No peace. Sorry, guy, you're an idiot just trying to sound cool.

My last problem is the percieved racial exclusivity of certain genres of music. Whites stole the blues from blacks. Whites are trying to steal rap and R&B from blacks. Blacks steal rock (or rather rock samples) from whites. A couple musicians implied that Punk music may have had more black origins and was more influenced by black music. True or not, it implies that once again, whites have taken black music. This seems to imply that white people should stick to their European classical music, their pianos and lutes and such. Again, bullshit. On all honesty, Puff Daddy didn't steal the melody from Kashmir any more than Elvis stole blues from Robert Johnson any more than Rockabilly stole country from God-fearing whites any more than Sid Vicious stole fashions from the Furious Five any more than Screamin' Jay Hawkins stole piano from Beethoven. It's music, people. Just get a beat going, play something, and shut the fuck up...unless your the singer, that is.

The documentary did, hoever, bring up the important issue of the role of race/culture in influencing musical interests. Many blacks interviewed aknowledged a certain amount of self-loathing at not being accepted by other blacks for prefering to attach themselves to the punk subculture. It is followed by self-acceptance, fortunately, but bitterness still accompanies. There was also a curiously frequently feeling of jealous covetousness involved when one black punk saw another black punk in the same club.

Rating: 2/5 Bonedaddies.