Two "Rock Docs" You've Gotta See!

Over the summer, I saw several great documentaries recently released on DVD. You must rent or buy these asap - it's the punk thing to do!

"Joy Division (The Miriam Collection)" directed by Grant Gee. If you choose to watch the Ian Curtis biopic "Control" released by the same company, make sure you watch the documentary first! This great and short-lived post-punk band finally gets the historical treatment they deserve.

"The Future Is Unwritten - Joe Strummer" directed by Julien Temple, who previously directed the Sex Pistols documentary "The Filth And The Fury." I've always loved the Clash, but I never realized what an incredible person Joe Strummer really was. This documentary never pulls any punches, showing Strummer at his best and worst, but I admired him even more after watching it. Highly recommended!

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Artist 2.0

Over the past few years, there has been chatter about new media developments, for instance "Web 2.0," "Music 2.0," etc. I believe we are witnessing the emergence of a new type of artist, "Artist 2.0," who will cross traditional borders of media and incorporate old and new media in order to get his/her ideas across. Here are two recent examples:

1. Joss Whedon, during the writers strike, decided to produce an internet musical webseries (his brother actually coined the term "mushortio" to describe it) outside the traditional studio system. "Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog" turned out to be such a huge success that it crashed their server during the first day of it's release. It was streamed free for one week, but offered for sale on iTunes as well, and it continues to be in the top ten TV seasons now, 3 weeks later. It is currently streaming ad-supported on Hulu.com, and will be released on DVD in a few months. The soundtrack will also be released soon, presumably on iTunes. Whedon and company spent no money on promotion for the series. Instead, they used MySpace and Facebook, obviously to great effect!
   
2. Trent Reznor is in talks with HBO for a television adaptation of "The Year Zero" (see my earlier post.) This will reportedly be accompanied by another album, as well as an Alternate Reality Game (they also did an ARG for the original record.)
   

Now, just in case you think I'm grasping at straws, I Googled "Artist 2.0" and found an NY Times article published more than a year ago where they used the term. I guess I can't get credit for coining the term...

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Zack is Back!

An interview with Zack de la Rocha in yesterday's L.A. Times Music Blog:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/soundboard/2008/08/these-days-the.html

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Trent Reznor Announces More "Year Zero" Plans

Trent Reznor is now in negotiations with HBO to present a two-season "maxiseries" based on "The Year Zero." I have a feeling we will be seeing more of artists crossing traditional media boundaries to get their ideas out there, especially as they begin to untether themselves from traditional media conglomerates. I'm definitely interested to see how this proceeds!

Link: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2008/08/trent-reznor.html

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