Angelo Moore and Norwood Fisher are the heart and soul of Fishbone (photo by Erin Flynn)
EVERYDAY SUNSHINE: THE STORY OF FISHBONE (Lev Anderson & Chris Metzler, 2010)
Marcus Garvey Park
18 Mount Morris Park West
Wednesday, July 11, free, music at 7:30, film at 8:30
imagenation.us
www.fishbonedocumentary.com
When they were junior high school students in South Central Los Angeles in 1979, Angelo Moore and Norwood Fisher formed the core of Fishbone, what would soon become one of the most exciting live bands on the planet. Chris Metzler and Lev Anderson document the band’s rise and fall — and rise and fall, and rise and fall, etc. — in the stirring Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone. Using archival footage, old and new interviews, and playful animation, Metzler and Anderson follow the group — Moore and Fisher along with fellow founding members Chris Dowd, Walter “Dirty Walt” Kibby II, and Kendall Jones — through its many personal and financial struggles as it tries to deal with such socioeconomic issues as racism, violence, and the anti-liberal bias taking hold of the nation in Ronald Reagan’s 1980s. Fishbone held nothing back on such albums as In Your Face (1986), Truth and Soul (1988), The Reality of My Surroundings (1991), Give a Monkey a Brain and He’ll Swear He’s the Center of the Universe (1993), and Chim Chim’s Badass Revenge (1996), mixing in pop, punk, funk, ska, reggae, R&B, soul, jazz, and hardcore, prancing about the stage without shirts, diving into the crowd, and always speaking their mind, and they hold nothing back in Everyday Sunshine as well. Narrated by Laurence Fishburne, the film really picks up speed when it delves into the Rodney King beating and the mysterious circumstances involving Jones’s religious transformation and the band’s attempt at an intervention. The decidedly unusual tale also features an impressive lineup of talking heads offering their views on the history of Fishbone, including Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Perry Farrell from Jane’s Addiction, fIREHOSE’s Mike Watt, No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani and Tony Kanal, the Roots’ ?uestlove, Gogol Bordello’s Eugene Hutz, Parliament-Funkadelic’s George Clinton, Primus’s Les Clayool, Living Colour’s Vernon Reid, Circle Jerk Keith Morris, Ice-T, and, perhaps most informatively, Columbia Records executive David Kahne, who lends fascinating insight into what made Fishbone great — and what kept them from greater success. While you definitely don’t have to know a thing about Fishbone to enjoy this very intimate documentary, longtime fans should eat it up. Everyday Sunshine is screening on July 11 in Marcus Garvey Park as part of the ImageNation Outdoors summer series and will be preceded by live performances by GAME Rebellion and Daví. The festival continues with such free screenings as Night Catches Us on July 21 at Weekesville, Africa United with live music by Taj Weekes & Adowa, Shine & the Moonbeams, and Randolph Matthews on July 29 in Springfield Park, and Taking Root! A Tribute to Wangari Maathal on August 1 in West Harlem Pier Park.
Director Susan Dynner examines the past, present, and future of punk rock in the fast-paced documentary Punk’s Not Dead. Punk rock broke wide open in the mid-to-late 1970s, as pierced and tattooed fans packed small, sweaty clubs to have the Sex Pistols spit on them and other bands scream about anarchy and chaos, railing against the establishment that had brought them Vietnam, suburban sprawl, bloated arena rock, and an uninspired mainstream society. Bands such as Bad Religion, the Damned, Social Distortion, Minor Threat, and UK Subs used shrieking guitars, killer drums, and a nonstop verbal barrage that, as Dynner points out, never went away; thirty years down the road, many of these bands are still together or have re-formed, appearing in underground clubs and on indie records. Punk influence saw a revival in the 1990s, with Nirvana, Green Day, and Rancid all hitting the charts, but the film argues that the current wave, which includes such groups as Good Charlotte, My Chemical Romance, and Sum 41 and stores such as Hot Topic, is more market-friendly pop punk than the real deal. Among those sharing their opinions on what qualifies as punk are Black Flag’s Henry Rollins and Greg Ginn, X’s John Doe, Circle Jerks’ Keith Morris, Rancid’s Tim Armstrong (who also coproduced the film), Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, the Dead Kennedys’ Jello Biafra, the Subhumans’ Dick Lucas, Social D’s Mike Ness, and members of dozens of bands both old and new. The biggest revelation is the Adicts, a British band that has been doing it their own way, with the original lineup, for more than thirty years now, still bucking the system and attracting a whole new generation of fans. Punk’s Not Dead also includes snippets of hundreds of songs that will send you poring through your record collection to find those old gems you haven’t listened to since you were in college. Sham 69’s “If the Kids Are United” fabulously sums things up over the closing credits. Punk’s Not Dead is screening July 6 at 10:45 at Anthology Film Archives as part of the inaugural CBGB Festival. The festival runs July 5-8 at venues in Manhattan and Brooklyn and includes a bevy of concerts, film screenings, panel discussions, and other special events being held in honor of the classic Bowery club that hosted cutting-edge, alternative, punk, and indie bands from 1973 to 2006. Among the groups participating in the festival are Sick of It All, Redd Kross, Reggie Watts, Quincy Mumford & the Reason Why, JD Samson & Men, PS I Love You, DJ Jonathan Toubin, Lissy Trullie, the Van Allen Belt, LA Guns, Sic F*cks, the Virgins, and Michael Cerveris & Loose Cattle, and that’s just on Friday.