I Need That Record! The Death (or Possible Survival) of the Independent Record Store (2008)

Director:

Brendan Toller

Genre:

Documentary | Music

Plot:

A documentary feature examining why over 3000 independent record stores have closed across the U.S. in the past decade...

Plot Keywords:

Male Rear Nudity | Vinyl | Female Rear Nudity | Anti Bush | Closing Down

Cast

Glenn Branca	...	Himself
Pat Carney	...	Himself
Noam Chomsky	...	Himself
Chris Frantz	...	Himself
Bob Gruen	...	Himself
Patterson Hood	...	Himself
Lenny Kaye	...	Himself
Ian MacKaye	...	Himself
Legs McNeil	...	Himself
Thurston Moore	...	Himself
Mike Watt	...	Himself

Directed by
Brendan Toller

Produced by
Andrew Marino	....	producer
Keith Overton	....	associate producer
Jeff Slocum	....	producer
Brendan Toller	....	producer

Cinematography by
Brendan Toller

Film Editing by
Brendan Toller

Animation Department
Matt Newman	....	animator

Production Companies

• Brendan Toller Productions

Also Known As:

"I Need That Record!" - USA (festival title)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Company:

Brendan Toller Productions

Good Story, But Clearly One-Sided

A documentary feature examining why over three thousand independent record stores have closed across the United States in the past decade...

I enjoyed this documentary, as it presented some nice facts and statistics about record stores, album sales, album prices... the rise of MP3s, the Telecommunications Act, etc. And it let record store owners vent about the death of their industry.

Unfortunately, I also found the documentary to be one-sided. While I would not say it was factually incorrect, it had an obvious bias. And that is unfortunate, because it makes the film political rather than strictly factual. I would have liked to hear more people on the other side defending themselves or the Telecommunications Act, even if I may not agree with their defense.

Most unusual was the presence of Noam Chomsky. I love Chomsky, but he seemed very out of place here. He was able to offer some general comments about bigger businesses replacing smaller ones, but had nothing particular to say about record stores or the Telecommunicatons Act. He even told the interviewers he had not listened to music since the 1940s and that his grandchildren were more aware of what was going on.