Good online documentaries about music...

Remember the PBS doc on John Cage? Good times...

Cool doc on William Onyeabor, sort of the opposite of Sugar Man.

a couple dub/reggae docus worth watching

Studio One Story
http://youtu.be/OdARmTszGCU

Wackies: Bullwackie in New York
http://youtu.be/BxDO_31FqxQ

King at the Controls: The King Jammy Story
http://youtu.be/fVIHkmelZoo

The one about Steely Dan making Aja was spectacular:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8GwEX7nn6o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jZ5L8vAH-Q

Rokk i Reykjavik, documentary from 1982 about the new wave scene in Iceland

http://vimeo.com/57055620

there's a short clip here from Roxette, a student film from 1977 about teenage Roxy Music fans in Salford, they were showing the whole thing (about 15 minutes or so I think?) at the Glam exhibition the Tate Liverpool had last year. If anyone knows were it's possible to see the rest of this again please say, because it was fantastic!

where

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5HRa9nEVVU

excellent documentary but contains trace elements of Rick Wakeman

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xrxyxb_the-nomi-song-2004-documentary-the-klaus-nomi-odyssey-he-came-from-outer-space-to-save-the-human-rac_shortfilms

The Nomi Song, amazing documentary about Klaus Nomi

There are at least two very good documentaries about Momus on youtube, possibly more

http://youtu.be/kuZf3YD1cYo
'Amongst Women Only', 1991

http://youtu.be/MVzyCewxNZk
'I Can See Japan', 1999

Only Yesterday: The Carpenters' Story (2007)

http://youtu.be/SUMnajChiM4

there are lots of Carpenters documentaries on youtube, I like this one a lot, I don't know if anyone has recommendations for which other ones are worthwhile?

http://vimeo.com/344856

I thought about that, I wasn't sure if it counted as a documentary, I agree it's a great film

it's not a documentary really is it? but everybody shd see it

Sacred Music: Gorecki and Pärt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7C8c7oh1xc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7C8c7oh1xc

this is nothing but filth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh175GnxvL4

Yes, the Carpenters had a (hilariously) formulaic made-for-TV movie that is classic in it's own right. Not that I think anorexia is funny - it's just that it was so exploitative....I can't bear to watch the Jackson's biopic again...it's as long as "Roots", I think.

Anyway...for important moments in rock history - how about James Vance and Judas Priest?

It aired on POV, which to some is an example of "far left" public television programming:

http://youtu.be/eDsv_oG3KWY

Also, search UNSUNG on YouTube. It is a regular series on Af-Am channel "One" and features hour-long documentaries of the cool cats of soul music. I would think you need to see these.

http://youtu.be/BXhfzkH_u14

Getting ready to watch this....

Gosh, that xpost Wyatt is exemplary, re being suffused with coherent music excerpts, especially the concert, without skimping on backstory, other commentary, or visual interest. Would have liked to hear "At Last I Am Free" one more time, but hey.

Not only are there loads of documentaries, but there are VINTAGE newscasts that make some second-hand sources look like fools:

http://youtu.be/QB74JaVoWLA

I really enjoyed this ancient Geraldo "exposé". If you ever wondered about late 70's America, here it is! It has stuff I haven't seen on TV in a million years, like REAL SOUTHERN PEOPLE!

I mean it's a "must do" if you're educating yourself about rock and roll music!

No idea if it's any good, but I was on YouTube trying to find something on album cover art, and found an hour-plus documentary called Under the Covers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9wJrqC7tXI

Phrase I love from upthread: "contains trace elements of Rick Wakeman."

That xpost Beefheart doc turned out to be really good, though mostly as an introduction; guess the same is true of this Hawkwind, but it's really got the visuals, the continuous sounds through the lightyears (listen on headphones),the succinct comments that don't intrude. Dave Brock refused to be in it because Nik Turner was, but he's got an interview, almost as long, on this same page (with a couple of Hawkwind concerts and albums too)Wonder if he's still keeping Hawkwind going, and if Nik & co. still are Space Ritual?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RDJzAldD6t-ps&v=JzAldD6t-ps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RDJzAldD6t-ps&v=JzAldD6t-ps

A really fantastic Rush documentary. Once you get beyond the useless celebrity eulogies in the first couple of minutes, it is nothing like you expect. The rare music documentary that may even be more enjoyable for non-fans while still taking the musicians at the center of it very seriously throughout.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAUtQhOFWFA

Is that the one which has that famous argument with Alex and his dad? From your description I am exactly the audience for that.

That's the one!

Phrase I love from upthread: "contains trace elements of Rick Wakeman."
Should be noted that this is cancelled out by the simultaneous presence of Bernie Worrell.

Taking a look at the Beefheart doc now, watching Switzerland-Ecuador out of the corner of my eye.

Wow, Zappa in a mellow tone.

And making a reference to young Don as the protagonist of "Institutionalized."

And Ry Cooder doing an excellent imitation of the good captain!

This documentary is bringing out the best in everybody.

Zappa is mellow in the movie mostly because he's dying.

Of course.

When "Hothead" started playing, could have sworn it was Television playing "Friction."

Rush video blocked in my country on copyright grounds.

Use a chrome extension called Hola :)

Hawkwind doc up thread was excellent

This one about NYC in 1977 was amazing. NYC rap, disco, punk in their social context.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSOj9UUjtCk

yeah that 1977 doc is really well done.

oh cool I need to watch that

"We Jam Econo: The Story of the minutemen". Really well edited, with some fantastic rare live footage. The story is told in chronological order, but the live clips are not -- they are used to illustrate various points made about the band in the story and interviews, and it's very effective. Also the drummer made me cry at the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmKGusadv08

"we jam econo" is indeed fantastic, and i was close to tears from start to finish.

yeah it's the greatest. very teary

Will check that and the one about NYC in '77. Just now watched this 'un about The Fall, I get about 3-4 words from most of Mark E.'s offstage sentences, but they're always apt 3-4, and very good comments from all hands on deck. Had totally forgotten about the shows with Michael Clark's dance company! Excellent excerpts; hope to find the completes. Must check current Fall too. Anyway here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InXwZc4RS7M&feature=kp

Every time I watch We Jam Econo I go through a couple of days feeling like minutemen were the only rock band that was worth a shit in this world

otm

really enjoyed the rush doc! they seem like great guys, and love the fandom of it too.

My god, youse guys are so write about We Jam Econo---ideal music/talk ratio, as well it might be considering how short so many of their songs are: can do 2 sentences/whole song---but many directors would not manage this (gotta say, that's understandable too, considering how intriguing a lot of these uncommentaters are). Wonder what ever happened to those ten sets of song lyrics Meltzer gave them for the proposed collab, with him singing and playing sax?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmKGusadv08

Cant link atm but the Mark Sandman doc is on Vimeo (with Spanish subtitles) also incidentally features Watt

Thanks. Just watched this good Can documentary, from 1999, 1 hour, 27 min. Mostly music, mostly long performances.Would like to see full-length "I Want More," with the disco gold dust women, and this is the only one where audience, well some of the audience, move with the music, rather than staring, like the students in The Blow-Up. From 1971 on, we get various vocalists, the funk-and-then-some, tophatted bassist, when Holger transfers to his tapes, shortwave and Morse key; excerpts from previous Continental docs, stretching out on The Old Grey Whistle Test, in the home stretch with comments and remix excerpts from Carl Craig, Sonic Youth, James Lavelle and U.N.K.L.E, the Orb ("The first time I heard about Can was in this thing about the Sex Pistols"). The music never stops, or takes a backseat to talk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNhuwkmmzak

Nico_Icon---starts with some sordid road stories (thanks, James), but they pertain, as does his "We were sort of planets around her moon." And it gets better, though some of the comments are in German, French, Italian. Music always sounds great, and a very nice performance surprise at the very end:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1vkiQdEU7M

Of course the talk/music ratio is always tricky in these things, but overall effect seemed pretty exhilarating.

I need to see that still. Recall reading criticism of it for being too conventional for a Jarmusch movie. Plus the James Booker "Bayou Maharaja" one.

I thought it was just okay, redeemed largely by Iggy being such a great storyteller. A lot of the sillier animation and cut-in footage was goofy but what else could Jarmusch do - not a ton of archival footage he could rely on or anything.

I got carried away at the beginning of that post, but it's solid, and "conventional" mostly via a just-the-facts-Ma'am momentum that's really a bit atypical for rock docs, given the way so many stick with Behind The Music soap opera and/or infomercial touches---no nostalgic endorsements from Bono and/or Dave Grohl in this one, just comments from the musos and close associates, mainly Danny Fields and Kathy Asheton (didn't know they had a sister, even a mention of her as original connection w MC5, being Sonic Smith's gf---she should write a book)(so should Ig, or maybe he has?). Also, I think it makes clear as excerpts can their strengths and limitations.

The extra footage which is just Iggy making weird sounds is great.

https://youtu.be/2_A9XJQ1UdY

^ New Order documentary, ITV 1993.

Kraftwerk and the Electronic Revolution is streaming for free on Amazon Prime and is also on Youtube and elsewhere. it's really good. milton parker described it a few years ago on the cluster thread:

there are late 60's film clips from the Zodiak Free Arts Club in the Kraftwerk and the Electronic Revolution DVD, which is actually a very interesting documentary on the origins of Krautrock -- the first hour is all about Tangerine Dream / Kluster / Ash Ra Tempel, with interviews with Schulze / Moebius / Roedelius / Schnitzler & lots of clips. Kraftwerk's first record isn't even mentioned until 60 minutes in, at which point the documentary switches over mostly to critics talking about the records and the archival footage becomes far less interesting, but if you like Krautrock 68-71 you definitely want to see that DVD

Kraftwerk's first record isn't even mentioned until 60 minutes in, at which point the documentary switches over mostly to critics talking about the records and the archival footage becomes far less interesting

i will say, though, that i actually really liked the talking heads part of it because karl bartos is one of the heads (as well as moebius, roedelius, schniztler, schulze, and others) and he has lots of interesting tidbits about his role within the band when he first joined vs how he was let into the composition process more for man machine and computer world. i'm realizing more and more what an unsung hero bartos is. as far as the archival footage goes for the post radioactivity-era part of the film, i had seen a good deal of it before but there were also plenty of things that were new to me, so i enjoyed it. but yeah, the title is a bit of a misnomer because it's really only about 1/3 to 1/2 kraftwerk, all told, since they also spent a lot of time on early krautrock, new wave, eno and bowie, detroit and chicago techno, and other scenes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agUS6GnZr_U

oooh thx

^so good
Also works as a long podcast if you don’t care about visuals

yeah this was really great!

finished watching the jarmusch GIMME DANGER doc last night: tbed to agree with Οὖτις upthread, that ig as raconteur absolutely made it worth it but the fill-in visual material was all opportunities missed -- if you going to deploy the three stooges so often then at least talk to iggy abt the stooges!

(as it was we got the anecdote -- new to me but i bet not new to the world -- of ron asheton ringing moe to ask permission and iggy snicking muttley-style at the outcome) (which was basically yes)

also: why not did in a little against the entire cliche armature of what the stooges did and what they were against? for rock against hippies, ok -- get ig to talk abt this, push him on the problems. when he's being disobliging abt john sinclair and the white panthers push back and ask if maybe MC5 politics (which ig disdains) isn't the reason the mc5 were eager to help enable creative space for the stooges? he's a highly intelligent cultured man, he absolutely understands irony, th4e answer might be dull and self-serving but maybe it won't be!

if they "destroyed the 60s" what are they doing being inducted into the RnR hall of fame? when tony defries said ig shd play "peter pan" and he gurned back at him "manson or nothing!", i mean, look at where iggy is now: he is literally become the "world's forgotten boy who never grew up"! -- nudge him to comment (instead of replaying "they replaced elvis with fabian, oh my a-boo-hoo" for the trilliionth time, fabian is really not an issue these days

it ends with an anecdote abt the "cool kids" at his school come to harass him in his parents' trailer -- they were bullies and jerks and he hated them and wanted to impress them, well ok, why not expand on the complexities of this too, as an original story or a persona and an act and a stance

anyway the live stuff was good, it was nice to see dave alexender and the ashetons getting some belated human affection, and mr osterberg is always pleasant to spend company with

Think this is the one with sister Kathy or Cathy Asheton? More her please and a family doc, w the music of course.

Just missed a discussion author Ned Sublette had with director Robert Mugge re 2021 restored version of his 1991 Deep Blues doc in Mississippi

Just got this from Jessica Hopper, offering screeners, but also, as it says at bottom, first three eps are already streaming, with a new one about to drop:

Hello music writer buds, strangers, ex-colleagues--

I spent the better part of the last year directing and producing Women Who Rock, a four-part docuseries for EPIX/Amazon, spotlighting women's artistry and their innovations in music. It's four hours of delineating matrilineage, working through the last 70-ish years of popular recordings, from Bessie Smith on up to Syd.

It stars Mavis Staples, Chaka Khan, Rickie Lee Jones, Nona Hendryx of LaBelle, Nancy Wilson of Heart, Pat Benetar, Sheryl Crow, Shania Twain, Joan Jett and few dozen working artists including Tori Amos, Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads, Kira from Black Flag, Jayne County, Merry Clayton, Syd, St. Vincent, Sarah McLachlan, Alice Bag, Yola, Susanna Hoffs, Kelis, Allison Wolfe of Bratmobile, Kathleen Hanna, Sheila E, Nite Jewel, Kate Pierson of B52s, FeFe Dobson, Debora Iyall from Romeo Void, Margo Price, Star Amerasu, Tegan & Sara, Bethany of Best Coast, Aimee Mann, Jody Watley... it's a real cavalcade.

AND ALSO!? Some of your co-workers/mentors/critical faves: Ann Powers, Suzy Exposito, Ayana Contreras, Holly George-Warren, Danyel Smith, Andrea Warner, and Julianne Escobedo-Shepherd all weigh in with their deep expertise. PLUS! Ramona Gonzalez of Nite Jewel outlines the history of women screaming in music! Sheila E talks about building her own studio! Nona talks about being mentored by Nina Simone! Chaka Khan talks about Joni pulling her back from the brink! Shania gets emotional talking about Taylor Swift! A lot happens!

Gendered canons are weird, as we likely all agree, but I tried to make something that was really about what these women endowed to each other, their relationships to each other's work. To put the lie to competitive mythology. And to also have a discussion of punk that isn't centered on Henry Rollins memory of events. Modest and, perhaps, predictable goals.
I hope you enjoy it.

...& the first 3 episodes are streaming on EPIX and Amazon now.
They will hook you up with whatever you need.
Episode 4 airs this Sunday.

Best --
Jessica H.

up to Syd whut?

possibly Syd tha Kyd?

Syd Straw?

You have to sign up for Night Flight to watch this, but they have some good stuff, might not be too bad (haven't checked for any prices)

Fugazi - Instrument (1999)
Instrument is a collaboration between filmmaker Jem Cohen and Fugazi, covering the period of 1987-1996. Far from a traditional documentary, this is a musical document; a portrait of musicians at work.

The project mixes sync-sound, 16mm. Super-8 video and a wide range of archival formats, including concert footage, studio sessions practice, touring, interviews and portraits of audience members from around the country. (Special thanks to our friends at Dischord for tonight's new arrival).

"...a beguiling, mesmerizing film, because it never settles on a straightforward path. It creates a portrait of the band without revealing the whole picture." — Kyle Ryan, The AV Club

Sorry! Link to Night Flight is in here:
https://mailchi.mp/nightflight/fugaziinstrument?e=42851f1305

Only tangentially music, but I watched this Milton Glaser (famous Dylan poster, various album covers) documentary off YouTube last night:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ1YHqgZzGQ

This is so great -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO4N_wgbl-o

I have no idea who Miller miller miller and sloan are but watched the first 10 minutes and the music sounds fantastic and the documentary interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWP_fmRnDEc

The Death (band) documentary^

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLvCp7zqzxs

I have no idea who Miller miller miller and sloan are but watched the first 10 minutes and the music sounds fantastic and the documentary interesting.

I actually saw a bit of that - also didn't know who they were before, but one of those guys went on to build a pretty good career as an engineer. (He even worked on 3 Feet High and Rising.)