‘Meet Me within the Rest room’ and 4 different films to see/hear in Sound Unseen fest
They turned a few of the hippest and most lauded rock bands of the 2000s, however the New York Metropolis acts featured in “Meet Me within the Rest room” come off surprisingly uncool on this inspiring new rock doc. That makes them and this film much more likable.
One of many lead movies within the Twin Cities’ 23rd annual Sound Unseen competition — opening Wednesday and working by Sunday — the practically two-hour documentary is basically a sequence of overlapping vignettes about eight NYC bands of the early 2000s. You most likely downloaded lots of them onto your iPods, together with the Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, LCD Soundsystem, Interpol, TV on the Radio and the Moldy Peaches.
Proximity is not all that ties these bands collectively in “MMITB,” based mostly on a guide of the identical title by journalist Lizzy Goodman. There’s additionally a shared sense of them being arty misfits and anxious loners who bonded through the sprawling cityscape. This was proper earlier than New York can be eternally modified by the Sept. 11 assaults, and earlier than well-heeled hipsters took over Brooklyn — a gentrification that these bands inadvertently helped spawn.
They partied, certain. However loads of the behind-the-scenes footage within the film exhibits these musicians struggling, coping, working laborious and pondering even tougher. A few of them arguably overthink rock ‘n’ roll.
Even Strokes singer Julian Casablancas — who seemingly epitomized New York Cool together with his dad working a prime mannequin company — comes off as an insular nervous Nellie. The identical goes for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ supposedly fearless Karen O, who had sexism to dread together with the hassles of sudden fame. LCDS chief James Murphy additionally goes all deer-in-the-headlights when his band takes off nearly unintentionally.
Their tales are very completely different. TV on the Radio’s is unfortunately under-told. Interpol really would not have a lot of a narrative in any respect, however its efficiency clips are among the many finest within the movie.
Mixed, these teams’ adventures spotlight the synergy and snowball impact an area music scene can have on rock acts even as soon as they change into international. New York being the backdrop of this explicit scene simply makes for a extra excessive instance.
(SU screening with creator Lizzy Goodman: 7:30 p.m. Wed., Parkway Theater, Mpls., $13; additionally exhibiting Tue. & Wed. nights at Alamo Drafthouse Woodbury and Emagine’s Eagan, Plymouth and White Bear Lake theaters.)
Listed below are 4 different really helpful movies on this 12 months’s Sound Unseen lineup. As at all times, the screenings are unfold out to completely different unbiased venues round Minneapolis. Some embrace discussions with the filmmakers, after-parties and/or a dwell music counterpart. See the complete schedule at soundunseen.com.
‘Friday I am in Love’
The Texas metropolis that gave us “City Cowboy” and Sen. Ted Cruz, Houston has additionally lengthy been an enormous and numerous sufficient metropolis to boast thriving nightlife and a robust LGBTQ neighborhood. These latter traits converged within the Eighties and ’90s at Numbers, a First Avenue-like nightclub that turned a hub for dance music and dance-centric different rock acts like Erasure and Ministry. The membership’s tumultuous historical past is advised on this generally hilarious, generally maddening documentary, finally a broader tribute to how pop and rock music has helped stamp out homophobia. (9:30 p.m. Sat., Bryant Lake Bowl)
‘The Elephant 6 Recording Co.’
With Impartial Milk Lodge’s oddball masterpiece “Within the Aeroplane Over the Sea” being the one album from the Elephant 6 label that really achieved success, you possibly can think about how bizarre the remainder of the music was on the Athens, Ga., ultra-indie imprint within the Nineties. Famed music video director Lance Bangs helped produce this loving portrait of the psychedelic pop and folk-rock label and all its individuals, which additionally included the Apples in Stereo, Of Montreal, Elf Energy and others who selected enjoyable over fame. (7:15 p.m. Sat., the Foremost Cinema)
‘Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On’
Partly a tribute to a semi-forgotten music hero like “Trying to find Sugar Man” and partly a survivor’s story like “Tina,” this fascinating new documentary produced with PBS’ “American Masters” sequence spotlights the Canadian American singer/songwriter who turned one of many first Native musicians to cross over into the mainstream, and one in every of too many ’60s-’70s musical activists to be monitored by the FBI. Joni Mitchell and Robbie Robertson are amongst those that sing her praises. (1:15 p.m. Solar., the Foremost Cinema)
‘Quantum Cowboys’
X’s John Doe and twang-pop mega-singer Neko Case are a part of the solid on this quirky, music-filled function movie that is an old-school western wrapped in modern, new animation methods. We do not have to fret in regards to the musicians turned actors quitting their evening jobs, however we get to listen to them present cool musical accompaniment to the eye-catching visible storytelling, additionally together with desert-y sounds from Howe Gelb and Xixa. (5 p.m. Solar., Parkway Theater, with Case and director Geoff Marslett Q&A)
Sound Unseen
When: Wed.-Solar., occasions range.
The place: Parkway Theater, Trylon Cinema, the Foremost Cinema and different venues.
Tickets: Screenings $13, digital move $40, soundunseen.com.
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