See American Hardcore: The History of American Punk Rock 1980-1986

I just checked a screening of American Hardcore: The History of American Punk Rock 1980-1986 that I had Mogged about earlier and the verdict is in: it's a hands-down must-see... I was in a room with 30 other music geeks and it was unanimous and it was everything that Afro Punk wasn't...the viewer's given a glimpse of what it was like to be in on one of the most mis-understood/ mis-used subgenres in the music industry...Ian MacKaye (of Minor Threat) reveals why he got out of the scene, Henry Rollins (first of S.O.A. and then of Black Flag) drops some insight as does Bad Brains' Darryl Jenifer, Dr. Know and more prolifically, HR, who's morphed into the antithesis of what he used to be in terms of delivery -- still tight, tho...for those who've heard the lore, this film will shed a lot of shine on what went down in New York's Alphbet City, Hermosa Beach and Calvert Street in DC; the no-holds barred exposition of Keith Morris (Circle Jerks), John Joseph and Harley Flanagan (the Cro-Mags) cuts right to the chase as all of these cats throw in their own brand of snap, crackle poo with humorous and incisive results...there's also Lucky Lehrer (Circle Jerks), Chris Doherty (Gang Green), Flea (who played in Fear before slipping on his tube sock with the Red Hot Chilipeppers) and David Brockie (from Gwar, yo!) the list is long, son-- hell, fuckin' Duff McKagan of G'n R drops a little bit science and it's all butter...

American Hardcore does not disappoint and covers a lot of ground in n addition to exploring the scenes in D.C. and Los Angeles director Paul Rachman goes up into Boston then cuts into the deep south and moves into Texas, the mid-west, the Pacific North west and circles back down into San Francsco, LA and the South Bay area...driven along by a rock-solid soundtrack, hardcore rockers will see rare, grainy (oh, how punk) footage of live performances like "Corporate Deathburger" by M.D.C. or "Seeing Red" by Minor Threat or "Joshua's Song" (Bad Brains) or "Kill a Commie" (Gang Green)...it goes on and on...Posers need not apply: even though X wasn't covered in it as I'd hoped, this one's a must-see for anybody remotely interested in what the hardcore scene was really about -- I'm going to go and check this one again, in a big movie house that houses industrial-sized, THX speakers...This one will hold you from beginning to end and if you're not careful, you might learn a little something-something -- it's all killer and no filler!!! American Hardcore:The History of American Punk Rock 1980-1986 opens in NYC on Sept. 22nd, LA on Sept. 29th and everywhere else in October...check it when it drops...