Anyone see the movie (documentary) "Dig!"

[vi5]

It was pretty great. For those that haven't it takes place over the course of roughly 10 years. It's about this guy who is the lead singer/songwriter of a band called Brian Jonestown Massacre and it follows him around and presents testimonials from people as to what a musical genius the guy is. It shows him talking about the community of like minded musicians he's trying to create, and a new band that he is mentoring called the Dandy Warhols. Well over the course of 10 years of filming it shows the Dandy Warhols acheiving a modicum of success (particularly overseas) and shows The Brian Jonestown Massacre imploding under the weight of their own pretensions and lots of onstage fighting, drug abuse, music industry self sabotage and the like, and how it affected the relationship between the two bands.

It's particulalry compelling if you're into music, but even if you're not it's a fascinating study. Highly recommended.

[FrankBooth]

1. Excellent movie

I really like both bands, but BJM's music is just fantastic.
Too bad that Antone is such a scumbag ... I guess heroin addiction combined with bi-polar disorder can make anyone an asshole.

[vi5]

2. Not to mention having people constantly tell you...

..how much of a genius you are and how big your band is going to be. I can't believe that wouldn't instill a sense of false invincibility in a guy.

[Elidor]

3. I just saw Some Kind of Monster

Which, alas, isn't nearly so good as yours sounds. It just drags on and on. I was surprised to note that Lars is not as big an asshole as I had taken him to be. In fact, James Hetfield turns out to be very much the biggest asshole in the band, while Kirk Hammet is very low-key and lacking in egotism. Lars is actually capable of self-examination these days, and it's delightful to see him confront himself and not like what he sees.

Loved the sit-down between Lars and Dave Mustaine with the shrink.

Too bad St. Anger sucked so bad. Watching this movie, one can see why: throughout their career, Metallica has imposed more and more conditions on their creative process, with the result that they can't even find the Muse anymore. She packed her bags and split about four albums ago. Doesn't look like she's ever coming back.

[warrens]

4. Both bands are playing Lollapalooza in Chicago in July

Color me there. If you want a great album, there's a double-disc BJM best-of out. I got it at Xmas and it is just addictive, particularly the second disc.