Jul 262012
Have any of you seen something called Heavy Metal Parking Lot? I don’t recall it coming out; heavy metal was and still is off my radar. Looks like it might be worth tracking down and watching. Can anyone recommend this?
I’m also thinking about taking the plunge and watching the Beulah tour doc that came out a couple of years ago, A Good Band Is Easy to Kill. I like those guys and have been interested in tracking down Miles Kurosky for an RTH interview.
Time permitting, I’m thinking about ending the summer by hosting a party in my backyard and projecting a rock movie on my garage wall. Should I be able to organize this, what rock movie (fictional or documentary) should we look to screen?
I think that Help! is the perfect summer movie. Although the plot & acting by the Fabs isn’t as strong as Hard Day’s Night, I’ve always enjoyed the setting of the songs in the soundtrack.
I picked up several music DVDs as part of my recent birthday swag, including the new Talking Heads DVD & Stop Making Sense, as well as Ladies & Gentlemen The Rolling Stones, which I thought was great, although Mick Taylor looked like he didn’t belong there at all.
Mod, EVERYONE should see Heavy Metal Parking Lot. It’s been a fave of mine since the late 80s. It’s only about 30 minutes long. Just goofy Judas Priest fans being interviewed in the parking lot before a show in Maryland in ’86. Many quotable moronic stoner metalhead comments. Here it is: http://youtu.be/whZuz5Dwtw8
Correction: The original HMPL is only 15 to 20 minutes long. There is some additional material by Jeff Krulik, the director, on the 30min. version above.
Obviously, I would vote for the endurance challenge movies that RTH still needs to tackle: Eddie & The Cruisers and Sgt. Pepper.
But something that would be harder to get a hold of yet might actually play well: Pop Gear.
I am actually a friend of the director of Heavy Metal Parking Lot! Jeff is s super-nice dude who’s made a whole bunch of wonderfully peculiar documentary movies over the years, focusing on topics such as:
Ernest Borgnine and his tour bus
The GI who liberated Hitler’s hat
The history of Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp
The guy with the largest porn collection in the world
His latest opus centers around a unique rock event that took place in suburban DC in the early 80s — sort of a home-grown heavy metal Woodstock. It’s pretty darn entertaining. Here’s the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwGFmCRO3p8
Come to think of it, I should ask Jeff if he wants to be interviewed. He might go for that.
HVB
I think I have a copy of Pop Gear somewhere.
Heavy Metal Parking Lot is terrific. There’s some brilliantly stupid things said in that parking lot. It’s really funny stuff!
For your party, how about a double bill of The Decline Western Civilization parts 1 and 2. For sure, part 2 is just as funny as Heavy Metal Parking Lot.
http://youtu.be/hVyI-tFDa3M
For selfish reasons, I’d say The Doors. I’ve never actually sat through it from beginning to end. That would probably be the only way I would do it. Nobody spoil the ending for me!!
The only Doors-related video entertainment worth watching: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xillqqt0Y0
For beard glue analyses alone that could be worth it.
Plenty of good suggestions throughout.
In the early 80’s, there was a movie in heavy rotation on HBO called Roadie. It starred Meatloaf and featured appearances by Blondie and Alice Cooper among others. I remember it being so bad that I would stay up to all hours to catch repeated viewings.
The Monkees’ Head is always a good litmus test, even for some veteran rock nerds.
Also, I just remembered a terrible ’80s horror film, Trick or Treat, featuring Gene Simmons, Ozzy Osbourne, and Skippy from Family Ties. Directed by Charles Martin Smith, from American Graffiti and The Untouchables.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092112/
… but it sucks.
Wow, that last one is the only one I haven’t seen (didn’t even know of it’s existence). I love Mr. Krulik’s stuff.
How about Streets of Fire (1984)?? Now stay with me for a moment here. We get Michael Pare (post Eddie with no Cruisers) as the hero and Diane Lane as Ellen Aim with her band The Attackers. We also get Willem Dafoe chewing up the scenery as the bad guy and Rick Moranis(!) as the Lane’s oily manager.
Plus, Ry Cooder does the score and it’s directed by Walter Hill (The Warriors and 48 Hours, but also Brewsters Millions and Crossroads).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJGo2rvfSuA
I had no idea Dafoe was in that. Promising! What’s the movie like that with Dylan?
That would be Hearts of Fire (1987) featuring a very young Rupert Everett and some nobody named Fiona. I recall seeing this a long ago on some late night movie show on CBC.
Here’s the trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQSy643xHcY
Hearts Of FIre is the TJ Hooker of rock & roll films. So bad it’s hilariously good.
Wow. I’d never heard of that before but just watched the trailer and that shows a lot of promise.
Not only did I find the trailer for Roadie on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JKdChhd_P4
I found the entire movie there too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhmX_-OgWVw
Just trying to make it easy for you, Mod.
No so super-rocking, but I really like the first hour or so of ‘That Thing You Do.’ Once they go Hollywood it goes downhill (for the band and the viewers), but the set up is good clean fun, and the music is kicky.
I’ve seen Streets of Fire a number of times and it’s arguably even weirder than its trailer. To give it more (?) context, all of the music for Diane Lane’s band is written by Jim Steinman, and Robert Townsend is in it as the leader of a kidnapped doo-wop group that, when they finally perform, do Dan Hartman’s “I Can Dream About You”. And though the trailer obscures it, there’s an extended fight scene where Dafoe and Pare try to kill each other while dueling with pickaxes.
I kinda love it.
To tie together a couple of threads, what about that classic midnight movie, “Heavy Metal”?
A remake was planned that looked like it was going to attempt to class it up: segment directors included David Fincher, Guillermo Del Toro, Zack Snyder, Gore Verbinski, and Jack Black/Mark Osborne. But according to Wikipedia, this was dropped due to studio lack of interest (!!!!!) Robert Rodriguez has now bought the rights.
Can I put in a late vote for “Times Square”. I love those “Damn Dog” chicks and seedy old Midtown NY from 80-81. Or just torrent a copy of “Rock of Ages”. You know you want to and who are you really stealing from here?