2018 Directed by Stuart Swezey
The untold story of a series of Reagan-era guerrilla punk and industrial desert happenings in Southern California that are now recognized as the inspiration for Burning Man, Lollapalooza, and Coachella. Interviews and rare performance footage of Sonic Youth, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Redd Kross, Einstürzende Neubauten, Survival Research Laboratories, Savage Republic, Swans and more.
Anthony Ausgang Joe Baiza Bob Bert D. Boon Jack Brewer Lisa Derrick Janet Housden Stephen A. Housden George Hurley Cris Kirkwood Curt Kirkwood Mario Lalli Bruce Licher David Markey Jeffrey McDonald Steven Shane McDonald Thurston Moore Carmel Moran Lee Ranaldo Steve Shelley Stuart Swezey Mike Watt Blixa Bargeld Mark Pauline
Denmark
Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7130802/releaseinfo?ref_=tt_dt_rdat (CPH:DOX)
USA
Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7130802/releaseinfo?ref_=tt_dt_rdat (Slamdance Film Festival)
Denmark
USA
The first concert I saw was Redd Kross and Meat Puppets opening for Stone Temple Pilots back in the summer of 1994.
The first festival I saw was Lollapalooza 95 which had Sonic Youth as the headliners.
As you can imagine then, I have a high level of interest in hearing about a series of middle-of-nowhere desert gigs from the mid-80’s featuring all these bands (minus STP).
If you care about...
- 80’s punk/alternative music history
- Unique and influential musical experiences
- Early industrial music performances
- ‘I was there, man!’ storytelling
...then you will enjoy this. If you don’t care about these things, you will not enjoy this.
Blixa Bargeld says “in Europe we didn’t have access to the explosives that you do in America.”
Mark Pauline says “Well, after we set off the FIRST bomb…”
Having Survival Research Labs and Einstürzende Neubauten play in the desert seems like a true ecological disaster, but I’m in full support of smashing cinder blocks on Boyd Rice’s stomach (aim a little higher next time, though).
Chattily connects the dots from post-punk to what became Burning Man. I'm cool with all the lamenting and fussing over what once was (cuz relaaate) but yes, since this is dir/pr by Swezey himself, it really bends over backwards to generate all that vaguely obsequious awe and 'omg-i-was-there-they-really-did-that'-ness native to these nu panegyrics to the past, however *clears throat*:
Minutemen
Throbbing Gristle
Swans
Sonic Youth
Einstürzende Neubauten
Boyd Rice (hmm...)
Survival Research Laboratories (!!!)
The young Alexander Hacke?
Don't mind if I do ;)
Had a little pretentious insufferable hipster moment when the guy called Swans, The Swans.
Okay documentary, did not have a clue about this until now. Best part was 100 percent those dudes who tried to blow up a rock formation. They could have easily decapitated someone and made this doc an entire horror story.
If I were mythologizing my past I would simply not include the part where the same events inspired some cornball motherfuckers
I enjoyed the hell out of this. One of the best music documentaries I’ve seen in quite some time. Made me want to blow myself up with explosives while listening to Einstürzende Neubauten.
Final bid for depth by contrasting the commercialization of Burning Man, Lollapalooza etc and the "purity" of the punk scene is a bit of a stretch -- there might've been a little inspiration, sure, but these festivals would probably end up happening in some shape or form, and even the desert location isn't enough of a parallel (Coachella is hardly an isolated location, and one of the Desolation Center shows was on a boat anyway). That angle is offered as a conclusion of sorts, but the movie still ends up feeling like it just trails off and ends. That said, the footage is fascinating, the interviews sometimes hilarious and I have to confess to getting a little emotional when they talked about D. Boon's early passing. I hope some kid watches this, looks up the Minutemen and has his mind blown.
"Oh, there's rocks and shit!"
About a year ago, my friend Eddie sent me the trailer for this movie and told me that it seems like something I'd enjoy a lot. I went in mainly because I am a big fan if Einstürzende Neubauten, but discovered many more incredible artists and music along the way, as well as learned about this almost cult-like event that took place many years before I was even born.
The movie Fitzcarraldo is about a man who dreams of an opera playing in the middle of the jungle. In this documentary, Stuart Swezey tells about his dream of bringing LA's punk rock scene in the 80s to the middle of the Mojave Desert. The inspiration from Fitzcarraldo being the juxtaposition of music and environment, which is portrayed in this documentary through archival footage of the 3 concerts that were put on by Desolation Center, featuring bands such as Minutemen, Sonic Youth, Meat Puppets, Swans, and performing arts groups like Survival Research Laboratories and Einstürzende Neubauten.
I never would have thought a grassroots desert concert with school busses full of punk rockers, explosive mechanisms, power tools as instruments, and some…
This is like the antithesis to the Fyre Festival documentary.
They had no money, no experience, no advertising, but a ton of passion for music and art, and a commitment to giving the right kind of people the right kind of experience. Yet, it all worked out!
And what experiences! The Minutemen, Sonic Youth, Einstürzende Neubauten, Survival Research Labs, Swans, The Meat Puppets - out in the middle of the desert with very little regard for health and safety (or, you know, the environment).
They say that everyone who saw The Sex Pistols' first gig in Manchester went on to start a band, and it seems like everyone who went to these shows went on to do something creative -…
this rocked, its as good a doc as everybody says it is. my fav genre of music doc (and often fav kinds of music) is people sitting around like “I don’t know why we did it that way it’s just what we had and what we were dealing with and it made sense at the time”
