Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone (Cinema Guild) tells the tale of how Norwood Fisher (Bass/Vocal – 1979 present) and Angelo Moore (Vocals/Sax 1979 -present) kept Fishbone together since the beginning to present day. Being a white suburban punk I was lucky enough to have caught them from the onset of their journey. Can’t say I stayed dedicated their whole career but with respect I went on to do my thing and thanks to them discovered a lots music with a open mind. This documentary features a slattering of rock star power and fandom from Iced-T, to Flea, Mike Watt, to Vernon Ried talking about how for them Fishbone set the bar. Watching this I quickly reminded how Norwood exploited the bass with his own funkiness as if it owed him which affected me in many ways when I started learning the instrument. Their energy was so influential to my sense of what a good time at show is; it still to this day is a feeling that’s never been topped by any other live band except for maybe Jane’s Addiction and a couple others. They set the bar so high that even they can’t seem to reach the altitude again and this documentary does a great job of portraying this wall of talent. There is hope as well from the underside of the “rock” dream where the notion conflicts with a bunch talented guys who slowly dispersed with having a hard time of finding acceptance even amongst their own culture. Laurence Fishburne says it best “They brought the funk to the punk”. If you ever wondered how a Artist works through their broken dreams this film gives you a hard glimpse into this world of break-downs and the insanity of it all. Unfortunately depending on your greatness it’s a intense journey that some artist don’t survive. In the end you’re rooting for them hoping the original line-up can get back together to make another record or play one mother fucking amazing show.
Give It Up MP3 by Fishbone from In Your Face (1987)
A few of the bands in the documentary: Organic Anti-Beat Box Band MP3 by Red Hot Chili Peppers from The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (1987) Group Sex MP3 by Circle Jerks (1980) Up The Beach MP3 by Jane’s Addiction from Nothing Shocking (1988)
Repo Man(1984) Directed by Alex Cox (Straight to Hell, Sid & Nancy) is probably one of the most quotable movies involving punk and sci-fi you’ll ever see. The flick self mocks the punk aesthetic as much as it embraces the scene eventhough the soundtrack compilation is not 100% complete it’s pretty awesome. The Plugz a mexican-american punk band composed the original instrumental score for the film, and performed “Hombre Secreto,” a Spanish version of Johnny Rivers’ “Secret Agent Man” plus a few other classics. Emilio (Sheen) Estevez, Dick Rude, Harry Dean Stanton, Sy Richardson, a ensemble eclectic cast and Fox Harris driving the melting aliens around all say some pretty funny shit. Here’s just a few tracks for sampling. If you’ve never seen or paid attention to this very notable conspiracy flick about UFO’s you should netflick it or whatever. Just be careful what you hide in your trunk. For the rest of these tracks you’ll either have to hunt them down or you can friend the Review Stalker Music Blog on facebook and we’ll give you the link to the whole zip. Cut down on all that silly hunting because the life of a Repo Man is always intense.
DOWNLOAD SOUNDTRACK:
1. Repo Man by Iggy Pop [Buy Music]
2. T.V. Party by Black Flag [Buy]
3. Institutionalized by Suicidal Tendencies [Buy]
4. Coup D’Etat by Circle Jerks [Buy]
5. El Clavo Y La Cruz by The Plugz
6. Pablo Picasso(Jonathan Richmond cover) by Burning Sensations
7. Let’s Have A War by Fear
8. When The Shit Hits The Fan by Circle Jerks – “Can’t believe i used to like these guys…”
9. Hombre Secreto (Secret Agent Man) by The Plugz
10. Bad Man by Juicy Bananas
11. Reel Ten by The Plugz
My old pal David Koslowski has been working on this Alice Donut documentary with Skizz Cyzyk for the past year or so called Freaks In Love. Here’s the very exciting trailer with Jello Biafra, Martin Bisi, Kirk Kirkwood, Greg Werckman, some live footage and band interviews. I had the pleasure of seeing this psychedelic punk band a few times when they were on Alternative Tentacles. One notable time they were one of the highest paid bands to ever play the Court Tavern. Another time they drew like ass and the bar ate it but they still kicked ass.
One of the photos from one of those shows is below. I have a crap load more somewhere but doesn’t matter the events are etched in my mind. The trench coat stunk like BO but the band fuckin’ rocked like nobody’s business. New York does not make bands like this anymore. Not even close. They are above categorization in the same way you need to think twice when confronted by a transvestite that is hot under the bridge. Your mind and loins say wow but there is something disturbingly wrong. You know it is not right. Your brainspace knows it but the words don’t come out. Oh and then they start playing and it makes sense when Jello says in an interview that Alice Donut “are the mising link between REM and the Butthole Surfers” This is just the beginning of the narrative for a genuinely alternative band compared to the bland rock-n-roll your’re used too imbibing these days. Take a deep whiff. That’s your mind melting…
Alice Donut Live at The Court Tavern, New Brunswick N.J.
So the babe who is on the top of The List has put out a Tom Waits cover album? Scarlett Johansson has a tasty spoken voice as it is and it seem to translate to a sexy singing raspy voice in the music. A very strange and daring choice but not when you look at it from the perspective of a performer. She seems to interpret and pulls off some serious artistic integrity. She plugs myspace for musicians a little and seems full of sympathy for musicians who just want to create. Going to have to listen to this record. She is an actress who has the power to make things believable but singing is not something you can fake.
It is very easy to put Joe Strummer up there in the top 10 most influential list of Rock History. Julian Temple’s movie The Future is Unwritten, really captures Strummer’s enigma and beginings from a hippy squater, to his punk, to world traveler. The one thing that lasted, besides the band is his Punk Icon status up there with the like of Che, the Man in Black, Elvis, John Lennon and dare i say Bono. Temple uses a campfire for all the people in his past to talk about him and people he influenced or knew (Flea, Johnny Depp), which was one of Strummer’s things near the end of his life where he was inspired to put the Mescaleros together and perform. Bono’s sentiment said it best “…there is no reason why The Clash are still not a band today, they were victims of some classic mistakes”, he and the Edge obviously learned. One of the reasons I love The Clash still today was completely illustrated in the movie in the way they completely embraced all kinds of music(disco, Rega, Rap, etc) and also how relevant his words are still today even with their mega hit that put them on the global map and ironically destroyed them in the end.
Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone (Cinema Guild) tells the tale of how Norwood Fisher (Bass/Vocal – 1979 present) and Angelo Moore (Vocals/Sax 1979 -present) kept Fishbone together since the beginning to present day. Being a white suburban punk I was lucky enough to have caught them from the onset of their journey. Can’t say I stayed dedicated their whole career but with respect I went on to do my thing and thanks to them discovered a lots music with a open mind. This documentary features a slattering of rock star power and fandom from Iced-T, to Flea, Mike Watt, to Vernon Ried talking about how for them Fishbone set the bar. Watching this I quickly reminded how Norwood exploited the bass with his own funkiness as if it owed him which affected me in many ways when I started learning the instrument. Their energy was so influential to my sense of what a good time at show is; it still to this day is a feeling that’s never been topped by any other live band except for maybe Jane’s Addiction and a couple others. They set the bar so high that even they can’t seem to reach the altitude again and this documentary does a great job of portraying this wall of talent. There is hope as well from the underside of the “rock” dream where the notion conflicts with a bunch talented guys who slowly dispersed with having a hard time of finding acceptance even amongst their own culture. Laurence Fishburne says it best “They brought the funk to the punk”. If you ever wondered how a Artist works through their broken dreams this film gives you a hard glimpse into this world of break-downs and the insanity of it all. Unfortunately depending on your greatness it’s a intense journey that some artist don’t survive. In the end you’re rooting for them hoping the original line-up can get back together to make another record or play one mother fucking amazing show.
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