Documentaries On Music
 

Can anyone recommend any good ones?

Ones I've Seen Already
Global Metal
Metal: A Headbangers Journey
Anvil: The story of Anvil
Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage
Flight 666: Iron Maiden
Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten
Punks Not Dead

Ones I want to see
This Might Get Loud
DiGG(or something like that, the dandy warhols one)

Scratch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scratch_(film)

Explores the world of hip-hop djs and turntablism. Good stuff.

It Might Get Loud is great, worth the watch.
Heavy Metal in Baghdad is one I would recommend, I've heard mixed reviews on it, but I though it was fantastic.
The Story of the Who is also really good,
American Hardcore I highly, highly recommend, one of my favorites, I'm suprised we were able to watch it at school.

Some others you might like:
Imagine: John Lennon
Joy Division
The Story of the Ramones
Westway to the World (The Clash)
Instrument (Fugazi)

Yea, the Joy Division documentary was really well-produced and very informative. Highly recommended...

The Krautrock documentary on Youtube was fairly enjoyable, too. Then... of course, there are about three or four documentaries on The Velvet Underground scattered about the internet...

There's also a documentary on Captain Beefheart which (I think) has the almighty John Peel narrating it.

The Art of 16 Bars - a really sweet hip-hop documentary, with tons of who's who...

Tom Dowd & The Language of Music is one of the best.

You might find a few if you look through this thread

http://www.musicbanter.com/media/535...et-come-3.html

There is a reason one that just came out

Beats, Rhymes & Life it's a documentary about A Tribe Called Quest

all me recs have already been mentioned in this thread

Spinal Tap

that's a parody/comedy, not a documentary

1991: The Year Punk Broke. Follows Sonic Youth on tour around Europe with Nirvana and also features appearances from Dinosaur Jr., Babes In Toyland, Gumball, Ramones and a few others. Brilliantly shot.

The Decline Of Western Civilization. A documentary on the L.A. hardcore-punk scene in around 1979-80. Features Black Flag, The Germs, F.E.A.R., X and more.

oh yeah there's this one I quite like:-

The Punk Rock Movie - shot on Super 8, the quality's atrocious, but mostly captures the British 1st Wave pretty well - includes a young Shane McGowan (later of The Pogues) and punks doing dubious things - has some gratuitous nudity as well, good if you're into that sort of thing. shot by Don Letts, later of B.A.D. fame

I know but it is very accurate with it's portrayal of rock star excess. :p:

I've wanted to see that and part II forever but for some reason they're both incredibly hard to track down. :(

All the DOWC movies are on youtube. If you don't mind watching them in 10 minute intervals.

Ken Burns' Jazz is one which I recommend very highly; it's a multi-part PBS documentary, but the amount of information presented and the information itself makes the whole thing well worth watching.

Heh. Good to know! I may have to resort to that.

I downloaded a torrent of the first one a while back but it ended up being only the first 38 minutes of it. It's all up on youtube though if you want to watch it there.

Part 2 is alright, I saw it on some music channel a few years ago but nowhere as good as the first one. Part 3 is terrible.

That's a great series. My only complaint about it is how heavily skewed toward early jazz it is. The music of the 60s and beyond kind of gets short shrift.

Anybody know the best way to see this?

All in one Play! (1991: The Year Punk Broke)

Going to have to watch this meself!

Oh, it really is. But it's legitimately a great introduction; it got so many of my friends actually accepting of listening to jazz.

I tried to get one to listen, and he was like, "I'm not a pompous douchebag who wears a turtleneck and beret, so no thank you."

Now, he's digging on jazz.

I downloaded a torrent of it a few months back but there doesn't seem to be any seeding at the moment. It's pretty much the same quality as the one on google video that Lone Misfit posted though so that seems to be the best way to go.

Heh. I'm glad it turned your friend around. It's so funny when people refuse to listen to music they're not very familiar with because they think it's "pretentious" or whatever. Music is music.

Found a complete video of this on Youtube for those who are interested :)

Nice! Thank you. :)

"Gimme Shelter" aka "Why you do not hire the Hell's Angels as concert security"


"No Distance left to Run" is a very good documentary about Blur that I would reccomend.

It's a mockumentary to be exact. It kind of counts as a documentary.

I'm still not listening to "Dave"... :finger:

Is there a documentary on Futurism? It doesn't necessarily have to be centered around the musical aspect of it either.

I'm starting a website about rock and roll movies. I've got a very incomplete list here that you can use to find some more documentaries:

Movies

I just started so I don't have any reviews up yet (all reviews are welcomed and appreciated) :)

Iron Maiden - The Early Years Part One and Two (nearly 3 hours but worth it).
End Of The Century - The Story Of The Ramones
Yes - Their Fully Authorised Story (not a big fan at all but a very well made doc clocking in at just under 4 hours)
Get Thrashed - a very decent stab at the Thrash Metal genre with all the main players participating and a few that shouldn't be there too.
Can Blue Men Sing The Whites - a great trio of docs concerning the British pre occupation with the Blues in the 60's.
Standing In The Shadow Of Motown - self explanatory really.
Punk : Attitude - a cracking film by the legendary British D.J Don Letts who knows his music being both a Reggae and Punk D.J since the mid 70's.
Motor City's Burning - a BBC doc about the Detroit music scene.

As well as the aforementioned docs:

Krautrock (BBC)
Joy Division

Love all the ones mentioned.

Favorite music documentary?
 

Bit different from other existing threads, I did a quick search and I don't think there's another documentary thread like it. There's usually a good story behind every great band, and some fantastic documentaries about them in circulation.

I've got two personal favorites:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/11/13...5e0c044b76.jpg

...a surreptitious disembowelment of the troubled relationship between two West Coast psychedelic bands: the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre. It pits the chaotic, self-destructive behavior of troubled genius Anton Newcombe against the narrator Courtney Taylor-Taylor's desperately narcissistic struggles to achieve glory. And though Newcombe is vilified throughout for his drug habits and erratic behavior, DiG! only serves to remind who is going to be remembered more fondly by history -- genius, no matter how troubled or self-destructive, always prevails over calculated mediocrity.

and

http://img.filmous.com/static/photos/14482/poster.jpg

...an extremely heartfelt tale chronicling the life and turmoils of living legend Daniel Johnston. The Devil and Daniel Johnston is told largely through a compilation of interviews by his parents, friends and surprisingly, Daniel himself -- scrupulously recording much of his life in audio and video tapes. It tells the heartbreaking story of a boy who suffered incredible pain at the hands of his own blooming mental illness and his noble attempts to reconcile his inescapable shortcomings. In many ways, it's a film about a boy who never grew old: he never had love reciprocated, but loved nonetheless; he never enjoyed the fruits of happiness, yet was haunted by delusions thereof.

Both of which were incredible documentaries, utterly impeccable pieces of filmmaking, though for entirely different reasons.

What is your favorite documentary about music?

woodstock

There was a thread here from not so long ago:

http://www.musicbanter.com/general-m...ies-music.html

Thanks Zer0, I'll close this now.

Merged. Made more sense than just closing it.

Legend.

http://www.jazzmusicarchives.com/ima...the-border.jpg
Step Across The Border

A documentary on Fred Frith. Top notch. Featuring rehearsals, performances, interviews and behind the scenes footage, it's a very interesting look into the mind of one of the most important Avant-Garde musicians ever, as far as I'm concerned.