Hey, it’s Friday. Do you know what that means? I’m just beginning my work week, which is about the worst thought imaginable. Actually, that’s not true, as I think I recently compiled a top ten list ranking some of the “worst things”. Actually, it was ten horrible things that could happen to you…but you get the idea. I probably shouldn’t slag off about my work considering the hours are cushy and the environment is relatively stress-free. Just today someone walked up to me and handed me four free tickets to a screening of Burn After Reading next Thursday night at the Arclight in Hollywood. Not bad, right?
Speaking of free movies, I’ve just returned from a free screening of the eagerly anticipated (by me) documentary Such Hawks, Such Hounds: Scenes From The American Hard Rock Underground. The first glimpse I received of the film was in late June of last year, when the high-resolution 10-minute trailer was leaked. Less than a month later, I bumped into a guy at an Earthless show who was filming their performance for the documentary. He gave me an e-mail address or a website to visit to follow up with him, but I never did. A couple months ago there was a screening at the Silent Movie Theater but they were charging almost twenty bucks for it. So, I settled for a free screening tonight at the Echoplex.
Of course, the whole “free” term brings with it some harsh realities, like the fact that someone will probably show up who hasn’t showered in five months, and the smell of body odor and vomit will waft out from the pathetic asshole and destroy everything in its path. I had to move from a comfortable seat near the back of the screening area to almost the front row on the opposite side of the floor just to be mildly safe from the stench. Luckily that was the worst aspect of the night. Such Hakws, Such Hounds was way better than the smell of dirt-encrusted flesh and sun-baked vomit.
I wanted to like the film from the moment I learned about it, and I did like the film, but I thought it contained several flaws that prohibited me from truly loving it. The interviews and the historical context that they lent to director John Srebalus’ film were both informative and fun. I loved listening to the dudes from Nebula, Al and Chris from Om, Scott Reeder and Brant Bjork and pretty much everyone they interviewed (except for the journalists — what do they know?!). The vast amount of musical knowledge that is present more than satisfies the minimum requirement for any in-depth musical documentary.
The general outline of the film is as follows. The subjects discuss the history of hard rock from the ’70s to the ’00s, and the spoken passages are interspersed with live clips of modern bands like Earthless, Om, High on Fire and Dead Meadow. Musicians discuss their earliest bands, the groups that inspired them, and their career arcs. The huge impact of bands like Sir Lord Baltimore, Hawkwind, Blue Cheer and Pentagram are discussed. The segment on the ’80s details the ways in which the punk rock and hard rock scenes interacted in California, the birth of the “desert” scene, and the co-opting of of hard rock by the mainstream, which resulted in cheesy acts like Def Leopard and Iron Maiden. Saint Vitus, The Obsessed and the Melvins were discussed. For the segment detailing the underground music of the ’90s, the term “stoner rock” is dissected and dispelled by many as a misnomer. More attention is paid to the ways in which psychedelic tendencies became woven into the fabric of hard rock, resulting in bands like Sleep, Sunn O))), Earthless and Dead Meadow.
The narrative was concise and clear. The film falters because it zips through the first two decades of heavy metal in order to focus on the modern underground movement. As stated above there are a good number of bands referenced in those passages, but at times it feels like they are being glossed over instead of receiving the attention that they should. Furthermore, the performance clips are a bit too few. There needed to be longer and more varied clips of the bands that are featured. Again, some of the older bands are shown performing for brief periods of time, often while an interview voice over drowns out the music. People who are interested in the history of the genre more than the contemporary movement want to see footage of those bands so they can have a better idea of how they inspired the current crop of heavy bands sonically as well as ideologically. Lastly, and this is purely a technical flaw, the transitions and editing are a bit unrefined. It was a bit jarring for the first twenty minutes, but I was able to look past it as the film progressed.
The premise is, of course, amazing. I’m a fan of almost every band that contributed to the project. I loved hearing about what inspires them and how they approach their craft; the bands share many similar elements yet still differ in some very crucial ways. I think Such Hawks, Such Hounds is an important documentary, one that is definitely worth seeing, and one that must continue to expand in order to truly grasp the importance of the music that is being created by the artists involved in propelling and expanding and carrying heavy psychedelic music into the future.
There’s a show Sunday at the Echoplex featuring Earthless, Witchcraft, Witch, Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound, Ancestors and Graveyard. It starts at 3:00pm, and I don’t get off until 6:00 but I’m going to try and make it over, hopefully in time to see those bands I just mentioned and no other bands. You should go, too. Hilariously, one of the event’s sponsors is Arthur Magazine, which is a pathetic travesty because if the asshole who runs the magazine is really adamant about ditching LA for New York he should stop putting his magazine’s name on shit like this. It’s hypocritical and it’s embarrassing. Fuck that guy.
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