An unseen image of Kurt Cobain at home featured in the film “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck” (© The End of Music, LLC/ Courtesy HBO)
At SXSW last month, Brett Morgen got right to the point as he introduced his new documentary about Kurt Cobain, who died 21 years ago this past Sunday: “I know a lot of you have been waiting over 20 years to see some of this footage,” he told over 1,000 people at Austin’s Paramount Theatre. “So let’s just start the fucking movie.”
Take a break from scouring Airbnb for remotely affordable places to stay during SXSW, cuz passes just became available for a couple of other first-rate festivals. First off, early-bird badges went today for Brooklyn’s own Northside Festival, set for June 8 to 14 this year. Prices are $25 for Film (around 50 films are expected), $70 for Music (around 400 bands), and $245 for Innovation (around 150 speakers).
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Back in March, we caught The Heart Machine at South by Southwest. Since then, the psychological thriller about a cyber relationship between a Bushwick boy (played by John Gallagher, Jr., aka Jim from The Newsroom) and a woman who may or may not actually live in Berlin (think of this as Gone Girl for the Tecate set) made Complex’s list of fall’s most anticipated movies.
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Dead Stars was tearing through SXSW last time we caught up with them. Today they released a video that — along with their forthcoming album, Slumber, out June 17 — will do still more to solidify them less as occasional Nirvana impersonators and more as rocking band in their own right.
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(Photo: Richard Kauffman)
At Baby’s All Right, Cultfever played an energetic set for an enthusiastic hometown crowd before setting off to SXSW. The Williamsburg venue’s backdrop, a mosaic of lit-up glass bottles, cut cheerful silhouettes of the band members. Lead singer Tamara Jafar leaned over the lip of the stage, looked at the people ten feet away and crooked a finger; on demand, everyone moved up.
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At the Sailor Jerry Gypsy Lounge event in East Austin, Slothrust opened their set with the same song they always open with. Simply titled “Intro,” it’s a minute and a half of intimidating sound that boldly proves Leah Wellbaum is much more than a pretty face. The crowd head-banged as the band thumped through a blistering set, literally shaking the stage.
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Dark Sister’s matching tats.
Dark Sister, the Bushwick phenomenon comprised of Jessi Wade and Tiffany Nicole, really, really, really, really like Henry Rollins. How else could one explain why they have matching tattoos of the former Black Flag frontman’s signature?
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She’s Lost Control is a tense, brooding story about a sex surrogate and her involvement with a volatile new client. Technically, the profession is now called “surrogate partner training” (in researching and preparing to make the film, director Anja Marquardt and her captivating lead actress, Brooke Bloom, spoke with the head of the International Professional Surrogates Association).
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Still from The Heart Machine
The first moments of The Heart Machine are a dream, an abstract impression of movement and shifting light, laced with muted sounds like music from next door. Then the filter pops off, the thumping music rushes in, and we’re thrust into the life of Cody, checking his phone in a loud club, ignoring the Millennial mating ritual happening around him. In Zachary Wigon’s film, which premiered at SXSW over the weekend, Cody suspects that his online girlfriend is not, as she claims, in Berlin, but here in New York, perhaps in the East Village as he pines for her from Bushwick.
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Pat Philips, opening for Kaiser Chiefs at Music Hall of Williamsburg last month. (Photo: Shayne Hanley)
Pat Philips, the lead singer of the band Honduras, might be hungover. He’s drinking a lot of water. Philips, Tyson Moore, lead guitar, and Josh Wehle, drums, are relaxing in the front of Radio Bushwick — without alcoholic drinks — before the gig celebrating the release of their EP Morality Cuts, on Black Bell Records. The bass player, Paul Lizarraga, is off somewhere taking a nap.
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