Battle of the Bands Throwback

Among the many titles being released through the no-frills Warner Archive Collection are a few oddball orphans and obscurities that didn’t get much love the first time around such as 1971’s Dusty and Sweets McGee, a docudrama of Los Angeles heroin addicts, Carny (1980) starring The Band’s Robbie Robertson, Jodie Foster and Gary Busey, the eccentric Italian sci-fi thriller Wild, Wild Planet (1966) and The Cats aka The Bastard (1968), a Eurocrime drama with Rita Hayworth and Klaus Kinski. These are definitely worth a look but the one that has the potential to make you pogo is Urgh! A Music War (1981), a compilation concert film featuring 33 live music acts recorded in different cities in the U.S. (Los Angeles, New York) and Europe (London; Portsmouth, England, Fréjus, France). Some of the more famous groups featured include X, Devo, The Police, The Go-Gos and The Dead Kennedys but there are also now forgotten acts like Chelsea, John Cooper Clarke and The Alley Cats. And for some reason, Splodgenessabounds, who performed “Two Little Boys,” were completely omitted from the Warner Archive DVD-R.   Continue reading

God Stave the Queen

Criterion DVD cover of Derek Jarman's JubileeOne of the few films to emerge from Britain’s punk rock movement of the mid-seventies that succinctly expressed the anger and anarchic spirit of the times, Jubilee (1978) is possibly director Derek Jarman’s most accessible film though its irreverent mixture of history, fantasy and agitprop shot, guerilla-style, on the back streets of London is not for everyone. The loosely structured film has a framing device that is set in the year 1578 as Queen Elizabeth I ponders the future of her country. Along with her court magician, Dr. John Dee, and lady-in-waiting, she is transported to contemporary England by the angel Ariel. There she finds a mirror image of herself as Bod, the leader of an outlaw band of deviants, who struggles for dominance in a post-Margaret Thatcher wasteland controlled by the fascist media mogul Borgia Ginz.   Continue reading