Mudhoney featured on BBC2 7 Ages Of Rock doc.

[Smallstone]

Not sure if this'll be any good and I'm not sure if any of the band are interviewed, but TMIS is featured.
www.bbc.co.uk/music/sevenages/programmes/left-of-the-dial/
Been watching this series unfold. It's ok. A bit 'this is the authorized history of rock' and not really any different from anything you've seen or read before, but still worth a look. For folks outside of the UK I guess this series will get shown on BBC Worldwide (or whatever it's called) and interesting bits will be up on You Tube soon enough
This episode looks the most interesting (to me anyway) so far though.

[Thurston_Whore]

Kool i must admit i am prone to watching the odd rock documentary now and then when one is broadcast on TV.

Thx for info mate.

[Smallstone]

Hope those who watched it enjoyed it. Of Mudhoney interest they played about a minute or two of TMIS and had some great live footage of late 80s/early 90s era band. Must admit I'd seen none of the footage before! Got me thinking - was this footage from long mooted DVD? It was good anyway! Brief interview with Charles Peterson and a great interview with the mighty Jack Endino. But no Mudhoney interview action.

Weird old program though.... I enjoyed it, but the basic premise of the show is as the title says - there were 7 Ages of Rock. Er..... ok. So ya get - Alt Rock, Indie, Metal, 60s rock, Stadium Rock etc etc
Each show centres on a particular strand of the 'story' and misses out (through it being an hour long I guess) whole swathes of key folk/bands. Last nights Alt Rock 'Age of Rock' dealt centrally (without giving he game away if you haven't seen it) with the relationship between REM and Nirvana. Touches on Pixies, Black Flag, Husker Du and Replacements admittedly but no mention of Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr and say Minor Threat. So kind of selective. Awesome Kim Deal interview though! Rollins comes across well too.

If you're a Nirvana nut it was pretty cool. New interviews with Krist and Dave. Michael Stipe talking pretty openly about Kurt etc.
So all in al - watch it if you can In UK sure they'll repeat it on BBC3 or 4 sometime. Anyone else catch it?

[Thurston_Whore]

I managed to see it thx to you mate not to much there we didnt already know about these bands though but like you said they did miss a few bands like where was the Sonic Youth? Fugazi? Minor Threat? Dinosaur? ect..ect..But all in all it wasnt half bad and as you say a truely AMAZING kim deal interview,I also liked the part where they asked dave if he could have anything back the way it was or something and he said 'I Just Want Kurt Back' was kinda sweet on his behalf,The krist interview was fun also.

Hehe it was kinda fun seeing REM on there also as both my other brother were un-aware that before the release of Document they were like pretty much an underground band panning the way for what was later to come along with the flag,Also i was kinda pissed there was no Minutemen mention? or mabye i was getting a beer while that was said?

Anyway cheers for the head up about it tim made a good watch.

[Smallstone]

No worries man - glad you watched it and dug it:)
Re: REM - I think they were up to Document the biggest US 'indie' band (no one called it 'Alt Rock' in the 80s!

The difference between REM and say Black Flag/Husker Du/Minutemen etc was the 1980s mainstream music press like Melody Maker, NME (in UK anyway) really liked them and could see their 'sales potential'..... they came to the UK and played a lot, toured Europe, recorded here, were on the covers of magazines, got on TV a lot (some of the footage of REM was from Ch 4 show the Tube) and sold records too. They were indie - not punk. The music press/radio/TV couldn't deal with hardcore/punk. You really had to search that stuff out. Personally it was bands like Sonic Youth and Mudhoney talking about Minor Threat and Black Flag that made me check them out more as a 16/17 year old. I knew about Hendrix / The Stooges / MC5 & Neil Young - so got those references when I first heard Mudhoney but wasn't hugely aware of hardcore per se.

Now Black Flag played here in Europe a bit, but they were totally part of the 80s punk scene and never really 'crossed over'. I kinda think it was only when Rollins became a 'star' that a lot of revisionism went on around Black Flag. They progressively seemed to play to less and less people as their time as a band went on. There peak seemed to be the early '80s Opposite could be said of REM. They grew in size/status as a band whilst Black Flag kinda pained themselves into a corner (no diss meant at Black Flag at all). But yeah at some point they were working on/creating the same circuit.

Not sure if the Minutemen ever played outside of US - same goes for the Replacements etc. Husker Du did and Sonic Youth did a lot. Obviously the Pixies were over here all the time - but that was by the time REM were played venues (in the UK at least) the size of Wembley! They really should have talked about Sonic Youth though.....

REM spent the 1980s working on being the global mega-band they are now. IMO they should have split after Automatic For The People or at least when Bill Berry left. Aside from the very occasional good tune they've now pretty much been awful for about 15 years.

But hey - still worth watching this show and yeah nice to see D Grohl being honest and Krist N comes across as being pretty settled. He's certainly been enjoying the pies - and why not!!

[brandnewface]

no link? youtube?
so new Mudhoney footage? England? from the Lame Fest in UK could be?
ps: hey tim-o did you get my last email?

[thewagon]

i heard that it was shit, the show. the focus was only on REM but im not sure i can trust that since i havent seen it.

its on youtube and im watching it now, just look up seven ages of rock

[Smallstone]

The programme wasn't shit it was just ok. Too much emphasis on REM and predicatably Nirvana. But it wouldn't have got made if it was talking just about Husker Du and Black Flag.
This weekends edition is about 'Indie' and seems to concentrate on Oasis and Blur. Two bands on 'major labels'. Indie used to be a term that described the business situation of a label not the style of music...ho hum. From the BBC:
What The World Is Waiting For - Indie 1980-2007The story of British indie, beginning with The Smiths, the archetypal indie group. The film follows The Stone Roses as the heirs to the indie crown, Suede's dark sexuality and the media saturation of Brit-pop's Blur v Oasis. What The World Is Waiting For explores how indie ultimately lost its once cherished intimacy and integrity in front of 250,000 fans at Oasis's Knebworth spectacle in 1996 and how, by returning to its roots in clubs and bars (and even front rooms) with bands such as Franz Ferdinand, The Libertines and The Arctic Monkeys, indie became respectable again.

Ok sort of sounds fair enough (indie respectable? - hmmmm) ....Christ I guess the Enemy and the Kooks are thought of as indie these days. It really is time for a musical revolution.....

[Thurston_Whore]

Indie? Hmm if it was Indie Rock (Sebadoh ect..i'd be watching it) Even though i was a massive fan of oasis and blur in the day i wont be watching this one me thinks.

[Smallstone]

Don't know if anyone watched the 'indie' episode. Pretty flawed from the outset, but still watchable Saturday night TV (after a bottle of rather lovely Italian wine No mention of New Order or Joy Division or any of the myriad strands of youth sub cultures that made up 'alternative' music in the 80s and 90s. Indie condensed into basically what the NME and the 'Evening Session' (or it's forebears) were playing....
Smiths stuff is always good though - someone really needs to make the definitive Smiths documentary soon. As much as I think Noel Gallagher is a knob his interview footage was pretty funny, as was Alex James. But far too much on Oasis and Blur. If anyone really needs to know about Brit Pop they should just read John Harris's book The Last Party.
I do like a nice rock doc ;D