Was thinking where to put my comments as there is a lot of cross referencing to different threads!
I went last night and I was slightly underwhelmed which was pretty disappointing as I was really hyped for it. The book was fantastic, really was a joy to read but just felt like the film didn’t translate as much as it could have.
Felt rushed at parts, and set up the narrative for certain bits and then didn’t really deliver fully (such as 9/11, and Albert’s drug problem) where in the book you really feel the impact. Obviously still enjoyed myself and seeing all their young faces having fun but yeah didn’t land as much as it could have for me.
Remember absolutely rinsing the book in 2 days by L’ac-a-l’eau-claire in Canada. Got the movie on pre-order on iTunes so I’ll have thoughts a week on Tuesday.
I enjoyed it as a mood piece, it was never going to cover the entirety of the book, that would need to be a netflix series, but I totally get why some may find it a bit underwhelming
Yeah, I got that impression as well, I’d read stuff about his Dad before, and obviously everyone knew about Albert Hammond. We were wondering after if any of the them were actually ‘normal’ people and really needed the band to be a massive success? Ended up in a band with all these rich flakes!
There’s been a couple of bits in documentaries that have done kind of 1st passes at it. There was that indie one for the beeb in particular about 15ish years ago. It’s probably on youtube now.
It didn’t hang that well from a narrative point of view and the 9/11 stuff felt really out of place (although very difficult not to mention obv) but I really enjoyed.l, 7.5/10 stuff. Being in the strokes looked a lot more fun than being in Interpol. Imagine it might have been a better film if Julian Casablanca was a more engaging interviewee.
Went to see it today and enjoyed it. Thought it was a wise decision to narrow the scope to a smaller selection of bands/shorter time frame and not attempt the much wider scope of the book. Honestly, I don’t get the feeling there’s all that many crazy interesting stories to tell about these bands really - someone falling off a stage and another having some issues with drugs are hardly out of the ordinary for rock bands - so I think a nice brief film that captured some of the essence of why those bands were seen as so exciting at the time was the right way to go.
Have to say, I thought Ryan Adams appeared a bit more than was necessary (especially considering the other bands floating about at that time and discussed in the book were largely ignored). Also, pretty sure one of The Strokes described the band and the scene as ‘DIY’ at one point - pretty easy to be ‘DIY’ when the Dad of the guitarist has handed you his credit card eh lads
Really must check out more TV on the Radio - the only one of the bands covered that I’m not particularly familiar with - the clips in this sounded great.
Yeah, there is no huge story with any of them and I think it did well to capture some of the “that place / that time” vibe. Made you wish you were there for at least the first half of it - must have been an exciting place to be young.
Quite liked the bit about James Murphy and his E experience changing his whole musical outlook. Might have hit fairly close to home, having been the exact same grumpy rockist kid refusing to dance at one point in my life too.
Saw it last night. Haven’t read the book so can’t compare but I thought it was decent, it held my attention really well and the archival footage was great - so impressed a lot of it exists at all, and that it survived given how much of it was pre youtube/cloud/endless storage etc
Shame a lot of the more interesting bands (Oneida, Black Dice, Gang Gang Dance) are referenced but not covered but that’s the nature of it I guess.
Favourite bit was Jame Murphy being an absolute Milhouse about kids using Napster to download rare records and steal his “bit”. The coolest dweeb there ever was.
Reckon there’d be a great follow up on the late 00s scene with Vivian Girls, Woods, Titus Andronicus etc, but I probably would say that because I had a couple of great holidays there in that time seeing them all in grotty warehouses.
Meet Me in the Bathroom follows some of the most prominent musical artists of the period, including The Strokes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, LCD Soundsystem, Interpol, and Vampire Weekend.
Vaguely inquisitive about the Strokes, I suppose. Will lap up YYYs and LCD. No interest whatsoever in Interpol, and less so in VW.
Scanning through the Spotify list of songs that are in it, there’s a worrying amount of KoL and Killers. Plenty of White Stripes, fair enough.
Happy to see The Rapture and Fischerspooner getting a showing. From what I’ve read, that direction is a side thought rather than a main thread, though.
Presuming the JSBX and MIA inclusions are fleeting?
Yeah, the film cuts the scope down to just the most prominent NYC based bands of that time (so no KoL thankfully) and narrows the timeframe considerably (so no VW who came later on).
The Liars appear once or twice in some footage but don’t really get any real attention. The YYYs, Strokes, Interpol and LCD are the main four in the film.
Just not my bag.