Tuesday, July 19, 2011

1991: The Year Punk Broke



This is a documentary following my two favourite bands; Nirvana & Sonic Youth on tour in Europe in 1991 along with other bands; Babes in Toyland, Dinosuar Jnr, Gumball and the Ramones. 1991 is said to be the year when punk rock finally exploded into the mainstream, when it broke. This is before Smells Like Teen Spirit was released and Nirvana went from being an underground band to an international phenomenon.

The raw, DIY filming style makes it even better, just like a home-video. That means the quality isn't very good but that doesn't matter. It is sort of narrated by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. He does, like a lot the the alt, punk, grunge musicians at that time, mock the way the press are so serious about the explosion of punk and the 'Seattle Sound.' He says a lot of things that don't make any sense but is still pretty funny.

"People of the universe... tonight, tonight will be night that the skies will open and spray forth the divine hand with pointed finger and say, "Everybody, you're not just a duck! -- you are human! YOU ARE HUMAN!" Go forth! Go forth and thrash!"


"To me... I need this elixir of... skinhead violence" (When asked about his soup)


The Nirvana guys are pretty funny too, Dave especially. Take a look at the video clip from the film below. It's hilarious! Kurt is very quiet mostly, but that's the way he always is anyway. You just see the three guys, unknowingly fooling about, not knowing what is to come upon Nevermind's release.

Babes in Toyland rock it up too. There are some good shoots of them on stage. I love that band, they're great musicians. Also there was Dinosaur Jnr, The Ramones and Gumball which all did good shows.

Apparently the film is being released on DVD for it's 20th Anniversary on September 6th which is close to Neverminds 20th Anniversary deluxe CD/DVD release on September 24th. I'm going to get them both!

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