Rockumentaries

We wanna rock! No, wait, we don't. We wanna watch historical footage of other people rocking! Non-rock musical documentaries also welcome.

Posts for this club should be tagged: rockumentaries_club.

August 22

Movie: Beastie Boys Story

Mike Diamond and Adam Horovitz share the story of their band and 40 years of friendship in a live documentary.
posted by The corpse in the library at 5:53 PM - 4 comments

March 19

Movie: Sample This

A rockumentary about the Incredible Bongo Band's version of the song "Apache," which you might have heard sampled once or twice.
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:03 PM - 2 comments

May 12

Movie: Captain Beefheart: Under Review

"Traces the roots and history of this iconic musical legend with rare live and studio performances of Beefheart, interspersed with contributions from virtually all members of The Magic Band along with a panel of esteemed experts." - Amazon description
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:33 AM - 1 comment

April 13

Movie: The Clash: Westway to the World

A career retrospective of British punk band The Clash, featuring exclusive interviews with the entire band. - IMDB
posted by The corpse in the library at 5:26 PM - 1 comment

April 11

Movie: I Am Trying to Break Your Heart

First-time filmmaker and award-winning photographer Sam Jones documents the recording of Wilco's album, "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot." - IMDB
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:10 PM - 2 comments

March 29

Movie: X: The Unheard Music

This film is a documentary about the personalities in, and the music of, the early 1980's Los Angeles punk band X. - IMDB
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:44 PM - 1 comment

March 23

Movie: The Wrecking Crew

A celebration of the musical work of a group of session musicians known as "The Wrecking Crew", a band that provided back-up instrumentals to such legendary recording artists as Frank Sinatra, The Beach Boys and Bing Crosby. - IMDB
posted by The corpse in the library at 6:13 PM - 9 comments

March 21

Movie: A Band Called Death

"A documentary on the 1970s punk trio Death, and their new-found popularity decades after they disbanded."
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:07 AM - 4 comments

March 19

Movie: Fleetwood Mac: Rumours

The making of Fleetwood Mac's album Rumours in 1976 - 77.
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:46 PM - 6 comments

Movie: Here to be Heard: The Story of The Slits

"The tale of the formation, journey and end of the seminal Punk/Reggae band The Slits." - IMDB
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:34 PM - 5 comments

March 18

Movie: Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage

An in-depth look at the Canadian rock band Rush, chronicling the band's musical evolution from their progressive rock sound of the '70s to their current heavy rock style.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:04 PM - 10 comments

Movie: Muscle Shoals

A documentary that celebrates Rick Hall, the founder of FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and the signature sound he developed in songs such as "I'll Take You There", "Brown Sugar", and "When a Man Loves a Woman".
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:01 PM - 3 comments

Movie: We Are Twisted F*cking Sister!

"The film follows Twisted Sister from their beginnings as a cross-dressing glam band, playing cover songs for 4 shows a night, 6 nights a week – from New Jersey bowling alleys and Long Island beach bars, to the suburban mega-clubs of the late 70s/early 80s, and on to their bust-out appearance on the UK rock TV show, 'The Tube'. Through it all, Twisted stood ready to do or die, not just for the music, but also 'the show'. They refused to play the usual bar band role of 'human juke box for drunk and horny teens'. Every night, the band would give their all to the crowd, and mounted a full frontal attack on anyone not participating. They were going to force you to pay attention – and you were going to have fun whether you liked it or not."
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:22 AM - 2 comments

March 17

Movie: We Are X

A documentary about the Japanese rock band X JAPAN. Content warning: there's a lot of talk about suicide in this film.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:04 PM - 3 comments

Movie: The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart

An exploration of the history of the Bee Gees, featuring revealing interviews with oldest brother Barry Gibb, and archival interviews with the late twin brothers Robin and Maurice. - IMDB. Trailer at HBO, YouTube, and Amazon. [more inside]
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:57 PM - 11 comments

November 28

Movie: Zappa

With the help of more than 10,000 dedicated Zappa fans, this is the long-awaited definitive documentary project of Alex Winter documenting the life and career of enigmatic groundbreaking rock star Frank Zappa. Alex also utilizes in this picture thousands of hours of painstakingly digitized videos, photos, audio, writing, and everything in between from Zappa's private archives. These chronicles have never been brought to a public audience before, until now. [more inside]
posted by vverse23 at 5:51 PM - 6 comments