this is one of the greatest live-music films of all time! it was on UNIHD (in hi-def) the other night and i DVR'd it. i had the soundtrack (on cassette) when i was young. the DVD will probably never be released, unfortunately, due to some r****ded legal issues. if you have a chance to see this, by all means DO! the movie was set-up and made by Stewart Copeland and his brother, Miles (IRS Records). un-freakin-believable! seriously. tracklist: 1. Opening credits 2. The Police – "Driven to Tears" 3. Wall of Voodoo – "Back in Flesh" 4. Toyah Willcox – "Danced" 5. John Cooper Clarke – "Health Fanatic" 6. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – "Enola Gay" 7. Chelsea – "I’m on Fire" 8. Oingo Boingo – "Ain’t This the Life" 9. Echo & the Bunnymen – "The Puppet" 10. Jools Holland – "Foolish I Know" 11. XTC – "Respectable Street" 12. Klaus Nomi – "Total Eclipse" 13. Athletico Spizz 80 – "Where’s Captain Kirk?" 14. The Go-Go's – "We Got the Beat" 15. Dead Kennedys – "Bleed for Me" 16. Steel Pulse – "Ku Klux Klan" 17. Gary Numan – "Down in the Park" 18. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts – "Bad Reputation" 19. Magazine – "Model Worker" 20. Surf Punks – "My Beach" 21. The Members – "Offshore Banking Business" 22. Au Pairs – "Come Again" 23. The Cramps – "Tear It Up" 24. Invisible Sex – "Valium" 25. Pere Ubu – "Birdies" 26. Devo – "Uncontrollable Urge" 27. The Alley Cats – "Nothing Means Nothing Anymore" 28. John Otway – "Cheryl’s Going Home" 29. Gang of Four – "He’d Send in the Army" 30. 999 – "Homicide" 31. The Fleshtones – "Shadowline" 32. X – "Beyond and Back" 33. Skafish – "Sign of the Cross" 34. Splodgenessabounds – "Two Little Boys" 35. UB40 – "Madame Medusa" 36. The Police – "Roxanne" 37. The Police – "So Lonely" useful links -- with history and the legal road-blocks to the DVD: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urgh!_A_Music_War http://www.urgh-dvd.com/urgh-a-music-war.html so, my real question, geeks, is this: can i burn a copy (in 16:9 ratio) from my DVR box? i NEED a permanent copy of this film. thanks and enjoy...
A lot of those are horrible tracks by formerly great bads. Looks like it was made when a lot of the punk/post-punk acts were doing lots of coke and producing dance music.
What I found really funny was how ridiculously similar in style and even, to a degree, in substance to indie bands today.
wrong. (the "horrible tracks" part, not the "formerly" and "doing lots of coke" parts) 1980 is when the "new wave" movement pretty much peaked. you likely will not find a better representation of that era than this. dude, X-freaking-TC plays a LIVE set (pre-"dear god"-era) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wall of Voodoo pre-"mexican radio." DEVO pre-"whip it." OMD pre-dance-era. check yourself...
I've seen it, and it is great. If you like it, you'll love this.... Punk Attitude Absolutely the best documentary about the history of punk rock music that has ever been made. The film was made by Don Letts, the DJ at the Roxy in London at the time (later cofounded Big Audio Dynamite with Mick Jones from the Clash), who had a huge influence, turning the British punks onto dub & reggae music. The film ties it all together in a linear, chronological way...from the MC5 & the Stooges to the NY Dolls, Dictators, Ramones, Television, Talking Heads & Blondie to the Sex Pistols & the Clash in London, to Black Flag and the Dead Kennedys. And it includes many bands you have totally forgotten about. It is an incredible documentary jam packed with rare videos and live footage. It's been showing on the Documentary Channel (DISH network). I DVR-ed it and played it for a few of my musician friends. Everyone I've showed it to has gone GAGA over it. Highly highly recommended. This pic says it all.....
You speak to me as if I'm not incredibly familiar with what I'm talking about. The Ganf of Four song is beyond horrible is exactly THEE exact reason I posted my comment about once great band getting coked out and producing a horrible dance track.
It's no secretly that bands like Franz Ferdinand and The Futureheads activiely borrow from Gang iof Four, XTC, The Jam, et al. They specifically borrow from the crappy era of all of those bands.
The problem with that movie, and punk documentaries in general, is that they tend to completely skip the years from 1985 to 1990 or so. It's a shame, because a lot of great music was being made by "former punks" that were really growing as musicians during that time. Basically it was the birth of indie rock started, and that was the American underground for that time period. The docs are usually like" sex pistols, classh, nyc punk, la punk, then nothing happenened until nirvana broke".
Setting XTC aside (who I loved), it's why so many of these bands are of so little interest to me. It's like parachute pants and bandanas. I went through that phase once already. Do I have to go through it again?
The first 3 XTC recors are killer. Not a huge fan of the stuff after that, but Partridge definitely has a rabidfollowing. The Dukes of Stratophere record was a nice retro record 10 years before everyone was doing it.
I guess you haven't seen the movie then. Lots of info in the movie on post punk, Sonic Youth, "no-wave", and the underground movement that led to Nirvana. Plus, some of the performers discuss the very "void" up until Nirvana that you are referring to.
Go 2 is an incredible album. i like the Dukes album a great deal. you're correct about them being ahead of the curve on that one.
haha, will you people quit making assumptions about me? i've seen it. i found it as lacking in info on that era as most other punk documentaries. basically those docs focus wayyyy too much on the original uk and nyc seens, which are honestly the least interesting era of punks. those scenes were full of manufactured bands trying to cash in on a fad. the people still plugging away by 86 were the real deal weirdos.
OK, zantabak, I get it. The following post from you says it all: "basically those docs focus wayyyy too much on the original uk and nyc seens, which are honestly the least interesting era of punks. those scenes were full of manufactured bands trying to cash in on a fad. the people still plugging away by 86 were the real deal weirdos." I guess Croatian radio ain't what it used to be, eh?
"those docs" fail to give the Texas scene(s) their fair dues, in my opinion. i feel that the "scene" overall after about 85 was pretty lacking. "punk" as an attitude or concept no longer appeared to exist after that point. "real deal weirdos" were no longer interested in the "punk" ethos. they became concerned with making good (if more digestible to the "mainstream") music. "good" or "bad" or "indifferent," "punk" was dead by 1985 -- in my opinion.
i'm a moron because i think the the 77Uk and CBGB's scneere were boring? They WERE boring. Tom Verlaine was a great guitar player and Johnny Thunders did one hell of a Keith Richards impersonation, buut I fail to see how those scenes were more interesting than the American underground scene from 85-90.
