Kill Your Idols (2004)

Director:

Scott Crary

Release Date:

8 April 2004 (UK)

Genre:

Documentary | Music

Tagline:

You Are A Target Market.

Plot:

A documentary on thirty years of alternative NYC rock 'n roll. |

Plot Keywords:

Rock 'n' Roll | Punk | Punk Music | Musician | Band

Cast

Ron Albertson	...	Himself
Angus Andrew	...	Himself
Tristan Bechet	...	Himself
Hisham Bharoocha	...	Himself
Glenn Branca	...	Himself
Sebastien Brault	...	Himself
Brian Chase	...	Himself
Bjorn Copeland	...	Himself
Eric Copeland	...	Himself
Susan Donaldson	...	Herself
Michael Gira	...	Himself
Aaron Hemphill	...	Himself
Eugene Hutz	...	Himself
Oren Kaplan	...	Himself
Lung Leg	...	Herself (archive footage)
Arto Lindsay	...	Himself
Lydia Lunch	...	Herself
Matthew McAuley	...	Himself (as Matt McAuley)
Brain McPeck	...	Himself
Thurston Moore	...	Himself
Pat Nature	...	Himself
Chris Pravdica	...	Himself
Pamela Racine	...	Herself
Lee Ranaldo	...	Himself
Martin Rev	...	Himself
Sergei Ryabtsev	...	Himself (as Sergey Rjabtzev)
Jim Sclavunos	...	Himself
J.G. Thirlwell	...	Himself (as Jim Thirlwell)
Aaron Warren	...	Himself
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Nick Zinner	...	Himself

Runtime:

USA:75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Company:

Hunger Artist Productions

Trivia:

The title of the film is inspired by the Sonic Youth song "Kill Yr Idols".

Movie Connections:

Features The Right Side of My Brain (1985)

Soundtrack:

(untitled)

The No Wave revival: blind without its roots...and attacked by kittens instead of cats

There's nothing captivating--or, at the very least, enlightening--about the No Wave movement which started in New York City's East Village/SoHo District in the mid-1970s as a non-commercial, non-melodic answer to glam rock and punk. Skittering through a brief history of the music--which includes vintage footage and new interviews with pioneers Lydia Lunch and members of Teenage Jesus, Swans, Suicide, Theoretical Girls, and '80s torch-bearers Sonic Youth--amateur auteur Scott Crary avoids overtures to nostalgia while demonstrating what was so enticing to these musicians about being completely out of the mainstream: they were free to do their own thing while (unintentionally, perhaps) cementing an art-rock off-shoot. But Crary can't wait to get up-to-date with the new bands carrying on and, unfortunately for his film, few of the 20-somethings who hit the stage can barely formulate a concise thought much less create a riff. Though based in Brooklyn, the lead singer for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs talks like a Valley Girl from Sherman Oaks. "And, um, it's like...well, when we...I mean, you know..." Lydia Lunch is correct when she says the No Wave movement has become softened through homogenization; the veteran bands were fighting the bourgeois, middle-class aesthetic, but I have no idea what is driving this new generation (the kids have the atonal rage down pat, yet show no interest in the music's history, no appreciation of the communication between audience and performer). There are one or two funny insights dropped along the way (who wouldn't want to listen to Lalo Schifrin over Black Dice?), but otherwise this documentary does the opposite of what I assume Crary was trying to accomplish: it makes the No Wavers of today look like vapid substitutes desperately in need of a thesaurus. *1/2 from ****