Dig!

By Chris Hyde

April 26, 2005

Rock and roll it burned a hole deep into my goddamned soul

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A special edition rockumentary DVD package picks over the scattered history of two rock and roll bands.

The annals of rock history are littered with the broken corpses and empty dreams of those who signed on looking for glory and found heartache as well as fun along the way. But rarely do we get an up close look at the people and events that work their way into the songs that fill our shelves and iPods, as all too often the only glimpse that we get of our stars is under the white lights of the stage or through the antiseptic puff pieces that generally pass for interviews in the musical press. Occasionally, however, fans get their hands on a backstage pass to the show and garner an inside look at the heady energy and sometimes seamy interpersonal dynamics that often accompany the trail towards musical success or failure. Such is undoubtedly the case with Dig!, a narrative that follows the antics of two bands: The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

This musical documentary chronicles the long and at times uneasy relationship between these two outfits, contrasting their stories as they attract differing levels of success and go from amicable friendship to pseudo-feud. In many ways the groups are polar opposites: the Dandy Warhols are basically funloving pals fit for a niche in the world of indie/corporate rock while the Jonestown Massacre is a hugely dysfunctional unit whose leader would quite uneasily wear the crown of smash hit success. While both bands certainly have their attractions, it’s really the unbridled fury of the Jonestown Massacre that screams rock and roll as their drug and booze-addled stage shows sometimes break down into the gutbucket madness of onstage fistfights.

At the center of it all is the figure of Anton A. Newcombe, the man whose creativity fuels the '60s-driven rock of the Jonestown Massacre and whose powerful personality acts both as attractive force and repulsing entity. While the hyperbolic “genius” term that’s dropped a couple of times during the course of the film is perhaps a bit rich, there’s little doubt that his talent for mining the veins of the past and reworking its themes into brilliant new form is a unique and at times spectacular one. But unfortunately for those around him, this flair comes with a hefty dark side - for the leader is prone to fitful browbeating of his bandmates and psychojunkie antics that sometimes erupt into violence.

As the film’s tale unfolds, we get to watch both bands as they travel their way through the travails of the music business - which might also be referred to as the world’s sleaziest industry. The Dandy Warhols actually manage to have enough success that they latch onto a major label contract, make a music video with Dave LaChappelle and eventually become big enough in Europe to play the festival circuit. The Brian Jonestown Massacre, on the other hand, attracts some interest from A & R people but then manages to blow it big time by having its showcase descend into an all out donnybrook between band members. (This scene offers up one of the film’s most amusing moments as the singer announces “this song’s about love” shortly before he drops his guitar to throw some punches in the career-killing brawl).

Besides contrasting the dual nature of the two bands’ musical experiences, Dig! also details the rocky relationship that exists between them. What starts as a mutual attraction (most especially between Newcombe and Courtney Taylor, the lead singer of the Dandy Warhols) eventually becomes a bit of a love/hate rivalry fraught with perceived insult and the sometimes stalkerlike behavior of the Jonestown Massacre’s lead singer. To their credit, though the Dandy Warhols are undoubtedly a bit freaked out by Anton’s at times bizarre behavior, most of them remain steadfast right up to the present in their praise for the man’s music and the true greatness of their rival band. There’s just something off in Newcombe’s personality that leads him to be jealous of his friend’s success while at the same time his warped idealism prevents him from having his own band attain a similar pinnacle — a peak that his talent would allow if only his personality would let it happen.

However, this brief overview of Dig! honestly doesn’t give a good flavor of the full range of material that’s on display during the course of this fine movie. There’s far more heft to the proceedings than can be given here in a few hundred words, and I’ve given short shrift to much of what occurs in the narrative. Suffice it to say that if you have any affinity for independent music at all — or for rock and roll that deserves to have that time honored moniker bestowed upon it — that this documentary is well worth the two hours you’ll put into watching it. Even more amazing, though, is the depth that comes with Palm Pictures’ two disc DVD set of the film as the voluminous extras allow for a much deeper knowledge of history than just the main event itself.

That’s because the just-released digital version of Dig! comes fully outfitted with bonus material that fills in lots of background and even at times presents the viewer with Rashomon-like versions of past events. Primary here are three separate full-length commentaries from many of the crucial participants, all of which are fascinating in the way they delineate history from different perspectives. The most consistently entertaining one, unsurprisingly, is the track featuring a few members of the Brian Jonestown Massacre as they pore over the detritus of their wayward career. But also valuable are the Dandy Warhols reminiscences as well as the audio overview provided by the film’s director and two producers. The only thing sadly lacking here is a view of events from the viewpoint of the person who this entire venture revolves around; as Anton Newcombe reportedly is unhappy with the depiction of history that Dig! provides, it would have been helpful to also get his outlook on all of this.

On top of the triple commentaries comes much other material to help make this a truly great release: there are videos, live performances, extended and deleted scenes, a behind-the-scenes look at the recording of the audio tracks, a “where are they now?” segment and even more. All of this stuff (over ten hours worth in total!) combines to provide one of the most in depth looks at rock and roll available in the marketplace, and as the genre pushes on towards 60 years old it may very well be a depiction of the dying gasps of a once great form. Though there still might remain some small room for rock and roll rebellion in the world today, in the main the current landscape is one in which this music has become nearly as ossified as classical is now. In the final assessment, however, that’s all the more reason to appreciate the immense skill of one crazed crew of musicians and their mad leader who show themselves to be worthy heirs to the sex and drugs and rock and roll tradition — for The Brian Jonestown Massacre do not simply excavate the past, but they somehow manage to extend it some way into the future. Hearing them play would alone make this a valuable documentary - and there's a heck of a lot more here than just that.


     


 
 

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