You Weren’t There: A History of Chicago Punk 1977-1984

You Weren’t There is an entertaining history of the Chicago scene, from the opening of the first punk dance club (La Mere Vipere – on which the Mudd Club was modelled) to the beginning of the Ruthless Records era (Naked Raygun, Big Black, ect). It covers most of the key artists and people, and footage and talking head action.

Chicago was a third tier town in the scheme of American punk locales. Things got started a little late there, and the first groups didn’t have much luck getting recorded until the pre-dawn of the hardcore boom, so a lot of this info will be new to most people.

The basic narrative is standard - gay club starts punk night, all weirdos are welcome, everyone freaks out, some groups and zines start, then it becomes a media event and the suburban kids ruin everything – but the interviews are excellent, and the live footage is a gas. I’d forgotten how great the Effigies and End Result were, and the early documentation of Naked Raygun, Silver Abuse and Mentally Ill is revelatory.

Much of the last half is devoted to local turf warfare (Effigies versus Articles Of Faith; Steve Albiini versus Vic Bondi) and it’s pretty fun to realize this battle over nothing still rages 35-plus years down the line.  I have no idea who’s telling the real story in any of this, but I can verify that Bondi lies when he says the first AOF single was self-released. It was on Bon Moore’s Version Sound label. So fuck you Vic.

-Byron Coley



For fans of the psychedelic folk duo spawned by Galaxie 500, this exquisitely packaged, nearly three-hour DVD is almost too good to be true. The main attractions are two video artifacts by Naomi: Song to the Siren, which provides slices of life from a European tour, and Japanese Scrapbook. They not only perfectly capture the monotonous excitement of touring via moments at soundchecks and shows -- as well as the meticulous packing of gear by frequent collaborator/guitar genius Michio Kurihara -- but also her and Damon's personality, as friendships are made on trains and tables are turned on music journalists. Three art films by Cedrick Eymenier and exerpts from two gigs in Japan (including my favorite song "Stars Never Fade") are a huge bonus, not to mention an entire concert on wax!

-- Martin Wong

Factory 25 has listened to a lot of music over the past year and here are the top 40 records of 2009:

1. Papercuts - You Can Have What You Want (Gnomonsong)

2. So Cow s/t (Tic Tac Totally)

3. Crocodiles - Summer of Hate (Fat Possum)

4. Sleepy Sun - Embrace (ATP)

5. Atlas Sound - Logos (Kranky)

6. Japandroids - Post-Nothing (Polyvinyl)

7. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino)

8. Blank Dogs - Under and Under (Under the Red)

9. Micachu & the Shapes - Jewellery (Rough Trade)

10. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - S/T (Slumberland)

11. Luke Haines - 21st Century Man (Fantastic Plastic)

12. Bill Callahan- Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle (Drag City)

13. Kurt Vile - Childish Prodigy (Matador)

14. Super Furry Animals - Dark Days/Light Years (Rough Trade)

15. Bardo Pond - Peri (Three Lobed Recordings)
16. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca (Domino)
17. Oneida - Rated O (Jagjaguar)
18. Farmer Dave Scher - Flash Forward to the Good Times (Kemado)
19. Black Sheep - Kiss My Sweet Apocalypse
20. Dinosaur Jr. - Farm (Merge)
21. A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head (Mute)
22. Broadcast and the Focus Group - investigate Which Cults of the Radio Age (Warp)
23. The Boy Least Likely to - The Law of the Playground (+1)
24. The Veils - Sun Gangs (Rough Trade)
25. Cass McCombs - Catacombs (Domino)
26. Pink Mountaintops - Outside Love (Jagjaguar)
27. Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications (Rough Trade)
28. Phosphorescent - To Willie (Dead Oceans)
29. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest (Warp)
30. Liechtenstein - Surviving Strategies in a Modern World (Slumberland)
31. Real Estate - S/T (Woodsist)
32. The Clientele - Bonfires on the Heath (Merge)
33. Richard Hawley - Truelove's Gutter (Mute)
34. Magik Markers - Balf Quarry (Drag City)
35. Girls - Album (True Panther Sounds)
36. Dodos - Time to Die (Frenchkiss)
37. Flaming Lips - Embryonic (Warner)
38. Grass Widow - S/T
39. Mika Miko - We Be Xuxa (PPM)
40. Bonnie Prince Billy - Beware (Drag City)

top 12"/EPs:
1 Destroyer - Bay of Pigs (Merge)
2 Moon Duo - Killing Time EP (Sacred Bones)
3 Spectrum - War Sucks (Mind Expansion)
4 Wooden Shjips - Contact (Mexican Summer)
5. Dum Dum Girls - S/T (Captured Tracks)
6. White Hills - Dead (Thrill Jockey)

This special evening begins with the first-ever theater screening of Naomi films from the Factory 25 DVD release Damon & Naomi: 1001 Nights, a comprehensive video anthology of the duo. The screening is followed by a Q&A moderated by Haden Guest, Director of the Harvard Film Archive, with Damon & Naomi and Michio Kurihara of the legendary Japanese band Ghost, who is featured in the film. After the Q&A, join us in the mainstage for Damon & Naomi in concert with Kurihara. Sharon Van Etten, the ethereal Brooklyn based songbird who is a direct musical descendant of Damon & Naomi, plays an opening set.



	Damon & Naomi's 1001 Nights: An Evening of Music, Film and Conversation with Special Guests Michio Kurihara, Sharon Van Etten and Haden Guest     Damon & Naomi: 1001 Nights Film and Q&A Info Date & Time: Sat, Jan 30, 2010, 7:30pm Location: 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson Street Directions Venue: 92YTribeca Screening Room   Tickets available at 92nd Street Y Tribeca

Four STARS!!!!

Damon & Naomi: 1001 Nights

Damon & Naomi's acid folksongs are oddly suited to the tour diary format, so 1001 Nights works surprisingly well. Featuring tour films by Naomi Yang, music videos and Japanese concert footage from 2001-2009, with guest appearances from The Clientele, Richard Youngs and Ghost, 1001 Nights captures the duo's world perfectly: reflective, pensive, with understated humor - check the quietly surreal vox pops from Yang.

Extras: Limited edition with live LP and calandar.

Jon Dale

from The Wire, Dec 2010

Damon & Naomi's music has always been accompanied by a strong visual aesthetic. Their LPs and CDs are package with great care, whether it's the tearstained Man Ray portrait chosen for 1992's More Sad Hits or the delicate blooms in water on the most recent Within These Walls (2007). Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang also run the Exact Change publishing imprint, which produces exquisite editions of experimental literature from the schools of dada, surrealism, and 'pataphysics.

It is, therefore, no surprise that their interests have also extended to film. Yang was already a keen photographer when Krukowski (also her husband) gave her a DV camera as a gift. She started making films of their tours, and these are brought together on Song to the Siren from 2001 and Japanese Scrapbook from 2002.

The style is casual and episodic, linking together live performances by Damon & Naomi and their support acts with vignettes of tour activity -- finding venues, meeting interviewers, and so on. They are probably the quietest tour videos ever made. No voice is ever raised, no disappointment or confusion ever voiced. It matches the intimacy of Damon & Naomi's performances with an almost domestic and handmade feel.

There are also three short films by Cedrick Eymenier, which set Damon & Naomi songs to meditative single-subject (and almost single-shot) films: a woman reading, light through a window, night traffic on a roundabout. The highlights for Damon & Naomi fans are the two live performances that catch them in fine form at the O-Nest in 2005 and 2008, joined on both occasions by longterm collaborator Michio Kurihara of Ghost, as well as Bhob Rainey, Ghost's leader Masaki Batoh and Helena Espvall. A limited package also adds a snow-white vinyl LP of the live recording at San Sebastian, previously released as Song to the Siren.

Family Jams is an amazing look at the Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsome and Vetiver tour of 2004, directed by fellow musician and filmmaker Kevin Barker.

Synopsis:

Three San Francisco-based musical acts – Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, and Vetiver – tour the country performing their genre-defining music in the summer of 2004. They help each other overcome family tragedies and car accidents, and meet colorful characters, forgotten musical heroes, and folk luminaries as they travel across the country.

The film is an intimate portrait of life on the road for these young musicians early in their careers, playing tiny, obscure clubs and art galleries, but on the verge of larger success where small vans are replaced by large, impersonal tour buses. Here music is a creative, organic, inclusive endeavor. They not only sing about - they create - the world in which they want to live.

The Family Jams - Trailer from kevin barker on Vimeo.

D Tour trailer from dtour on Vimeo.

The Beat is the Law: Part One of the sequel to Made In Sheffield, documenting the journey through the 80’s and 90’s of musicians coming of age in Sheffield - a journey which lands them at the heart of the UK’s Dance and Britpop movements.

Featuring Jarvis Cocker, Richard Hawley, Mark Brydon and many more.
Running Time 1 Hour 10 Mins

Visit Film Website:
www.thebeatisthelaw.com

Jarvis Cocker on the meaning of life from thebeatisthelaw on Vimeo.

The Beat is the Law (Part 01) - Trailer from thebeatisthelaw on Vimeo.

Richard Hawley reveals his only job from thebeatisthelaw on Vimeo.