posted July 02, 2004 08:32 PM            

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Brian Jonestown Massacre, Dandy Warhols Go Head-to-Head in New Documentary

Nick Patch reports:
For those of you who thought Courtney Taylor-Taylor's head couldn't get any bigger, you're in for a surprise: Come October, it's going to be plastered on art-house movie screens across America. Dig!, a documentary film following the ups and downs of the band's difficult relationship with fellow West Coast rockers The Brian Jonestown Massacre, made its American debut at the Directors Guild of America on Friday, June 25th, and has already garnered the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance-- which means Miramax must be all over that shit.

The film contrasts the apparent self-destruction of Jonestown singer Anton Newcombe with the rising commercial success of The Dandy Warhols. While the bands began as friends and frequent tourmates, their relationship eventually soured and took a turn for the bizarre in a cloudy hail of drugs, money, jealousy, and denim jackets. According to a film review on venerable zboneman.com, the movie focuses less on the Dandys' rise to quasi-fame than it does on Newcombe's often erratic behavior-- like that time he allegedly saw fit to send individually labelled bullets to each member of the Warhols. Meanwhile, my death threats to Star Jones go unreported.

Unsurprisingly, Newcombe objects to his representation in the movie. Speaking to Pitchfork via email, Newcombe expressed his anger pretty directly: "I have been used, and contrary to popular belief, more media attention on my art will not help. This is lowest common denominator slander... and to this I add, 'Burn Hollywood, Burn.'" Newcombe also stated that positive footage was set aside "in favour of some reality TV-esque gold-digging experiment."

While Newcombe didn't hide his contempt for the writer and director of the film ("I have seen quite enough to know that these people are not worth my time and that they should never be allowed to be in my presence"), he said that contrary to what the movie and his response to it might indicate, he and Taylor are on good terms and were planning a road trip in the summer. In the meantime, he's working on his band's 14th record, We Are the Radio.

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http://www.digthemovie.com

Anton Newcombe responds to the film (from BJM website):

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Thanks for taking the time to ask how I feel about this project. I care
very much about my work, I always have, and hope that that was made clear
in the film. I have no desire to interfere with the flim makers in any
way, and until very recently, I never bothered to view any of the footage.

I was shocked and let down when I saw the end result. Several years of
our hard work was reduced at best to a series of punch-ups and mishaps
taken out of context, and at worst bold faced lies and misrepresentation
of fact.

A perfect example is footage shown of me getting arrested in Georgia.
The narration and editing suggest that I am being arrested for drug
possession. It was actually Ondi who was arrested for possession, and
rightly so, as the drugs were hers. I happened to have an expired
license.

Another odd editing choice is that the footage concerning myself and the
BJM in the film stops in 1997, while the Dandy's footage goes through
2003. This leads the viewer to believe that I fell off the earth in a
drugged-out downward spiral of insanity. Nothing could be farther from
the truth. I quit heroin over 5 years ago, thank God, and have been more
productive than ever making albums and touring all over the world.

I would like to explain why I let this person film our band in the first
place. She asked me to be a part of a project about bands. She listed
off a number of future nobodies and agreed to come to San Francisco to
meet us. I told her that I intended to take over her movie, and
introduced her to the Dandy Warhols. I thought it would be wonderful to
capture how all of the industry bullshit can destroy bands and friendships
just as much as drugs and fame. When the project started, neither one of
our groups had major labels, but we both knew the direction life was
taking us. I remember Ondi being very keen on all of this.

I accept that people will make up their own minds about this film when
they see it. I just feel ripped off by the "lowest common denominator"
culture machine (something I don't cater to).

Please let me know if you have any more specific questions.

Anton Alfred Newcombe 1/30/04

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posted July 04, 2004 10:41 AM            

Despite Anton's whining about being misrepresented (welcome to the art world DOCTOR) by the media, I have never heard anyone say anthing good about him as a person.

From all accounts, he's a self-obsessed, egotistical prick who is such a jagoff to his bandmates that he deserves to be ripped in the press.

Despite this, I am a HUGE fan of BJTM. He's an asshole, but I love his music.

posted July 05, 2004 02:02 PM            

i saw it at sundance and plan on taking as many people to it as possible.

c.

posted November 05, 2004 06:40 PM            

after seeing both bands live (dandy's last year and BJM last week) it's pretty clear the differences.

Courtney AND Anton BOTH have fat heads.
Courney is the chilled, nothing bothers me because i'm oh so cool guy.
Anton is just a opening crazy, anyone that's seen him live knows. Maybe the guy quit heroin but his band last year and himself certainly where doing something in those couple of minutes stepping off stage between every song.

I think Dandy's cleaned up (to some extent) when they made it big, but Anton's never really changed.

posted November 05, 2004 07:18 PM            

As bad as things get it always come back to the vision and (unstable) genius that is Anton and his approach to music. Courtney mentions several times that dispite the fueding he still thinks that Anton is a genius and his music will be treasured for decades to come while the Dandy's may very well fall of the face of the earth.

posted November 08, 2004 03:21 PM            

they have their entire discography available for download on their website I believe. the stuff I downloaded sounds like pretty authentic 60s pop without being incredibly derivative. It is both a homage and a progression of sorts.

posted November 08, 2004 04:25 PM            

and i cant even guess how many times those kids said "dig" throught the film....hysterical.

i dug a lot of the BJM music that was played, but it always got interupted by violent drugged out arguments, so i couldnt get a real gauge.

cool flick though, recommended

posted November 09, 2004 10:12 PM            

From watching the film (FINALLY!!) tonight I felt sorry a little for Anton. I think he truly is an enigmatic personality, you watch him in action and can't help but stare in part horror and part awe. Granted I feel sorry for what his bandmates went through(cept for Matt Hollywood who just came off as whiny to me)because they put up with a whole hell of a lot and without them Anton wouldn't have had the BJM, he would have just been Anton Newcombe and that wouldn't have been so fun for the rest of the world.

I didn't like the fact that some of the later clips of BJM did seem a bit stilted, as if you never quite knew what year or where they were. And I really didn't like Courtney Taylor at all in the film. He came across like such an asshole. To me because he knew what he was doing whereas there are times you damn well know Anton didn't know what he was doing, well that was more of a crime.