Consummation – March 2012

Skins – 2012

Season six – the best so far – has just concluded in Britain. Having become predictable in the last cycle, they messed with the form this time and dampened down the characters, making them more real and approachable. Alo, Mini and Rich – the tart Scots beauty, horny punk farm boy and heavy metal acolyte – go from stereotype to archetype. Special mention of the zombie film extra, starring Gracie and Rich.

Magic Trip: Ken Kesey’s Search For A Cool Place (dir: Alison Ellwood and Alex Gibney) – 2011

Already a key text for my friends and I through Tom Wolfe’s Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, the arty college hoons on acid are finally freed from the disconnected, but still brilliant film they made of their journey to the heart of the American dream. The before and after is done well too. As one of friends said of the film festival showing last year, it’s almost enough to make you want to go again.

Grand Designs – TV3

Kevin McCloud and a never-ending cast of British eccentrics rescue the past and build the future.

Jeff Chang – Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation – 2005

Powerful, political, social and cultural history of hip hop that explains why and how it happened using insight worthy of the quoted Mike Davis and the need to know curiousity of a true fan. A music history template. Five dollars from the cut out store at The Base.

Stephen Davis – LZ ’75: The lost chronicles of Led Zeppelin’s 1975 American Tour – 2010

Davis gets the story from one of rock’s most media weary groups and lets his own guard down.

Shayne McGowan and Christy Moore – Spancil Hill – 2006

Late night youtube favourite from Ireland’s Late Late Show.

Consummation – February 2012

Mark Rudd – Underground: My Life With SDS and The Weathermen (2009)

Rudd was a key figure in the American civil insurrection of the late 1960s and 1970s as Columbia University head of Students For A Democratic Society (SDS) and an early member of The Weather Underground. His is the most honest of the memoirs from the student radicals in that group. An honesty that probably explains why he was soon marginalised by them.

Dakota Skye (dir: John Humber) – 2008

Eileen Boylan (a favourite as Betsy in Greek) (under)plays it just right in John Humber’s delightfully simple Scottsville, Arizona set indie movie about a teenager who always knows when people are lying. So no OTT super hero antics. No geek boy stink. Her nemesis is a “cute stoner boy” who never lies.

Incident At Oglala (dir: Michael Apted) – 1991

Thought I knew most of the radical groups from the 1970s, but the American Indian Movement is a new one on me, as is the “incident at Oglala,” one of the largest Indian reservations in the United States, where undercover FBI agents are killed in an armed standoff with AIM members after crashing unannounced onto the reservation. As Michael Apted reveals in this powerful and riveting documentary, there was much tension and incident before this event. Leonard Peltier, the only AIM member convicted (two were acquitted in a separate trial), became a cause celebre for liberals, including Robert Redford.

Tucker and Dale Vs Evil (dir: Eli Craig) – 2010

Side splitting, long overdue send up of the beautiful college students lost in the woods horror movies, and Deliverence, amongst other rural demonising flicks.

Blood, Sweat and Beers: Oz Rock from the Aztecs to Rose Tattoo – Murray Engleheart – 2010

There’s a lot of Kiwis making up the numbers in the early Ozzie primal rock n roll outfits (Billie Thorpe and The Aztecs, in particular) that kick off this “movement” (progression?), but from then on out  ugly Aussies coming out your ears in Rose Tattoo, X and The Angels (Brent Eccles excepted). Effectively a form of proto-punk, Oz rock, showed off the Australian affinity for balls out rock.

Everything Is An Afterthought: The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson – Ken Avery – 2011

The last of the American rock star critics to have his life got down and work compiled and one of the most interesting. Nelson started as a college music fanzine writer (Little Sandy Review) in the same state as Bob Dylan and progressed to New York and fame in Rolling Stone before retreating into his head in the 1980s. Jonathan Letham based a central character in his 2010 novel, Chronic City, called Perkus Tooth on his friend Nelson.

The Right Spectacle: The Very Best of Elvis Costello – The Videos – 1978  – 1994 (2005)

All the videos and some good live TV stuff. Only $10 at The Warehouse. A cheap way for those who checked out early to catch up on some of the prolific Costello’s output. Commentary by the man himself.

Seventy Five Must Own Albums

The Beatles – Revolver (Parlophone Records) – 1966
The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground and Nico (Verve Records) – 1966
Bert Jansch and John Renbourn – Bert and John (TransAtlantic) – 1966
The Thirteenth Floor Elevators – Psychedelic Sounds Of… (International Artists) – 1966
Love – Forever Changes (Electra Records) – 1967
The Velvet Underground – White Light White Heat (Verve Records) – 1967
The Electric Prunes – Underground (Reprise Records) – 1967
The Thirteenth Floor Elevators – Easter Everywhere (International Artists) – 1967
The Chocolate Watchband – Inner Mystique (Tower Records) – 1967
The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground (Verve Records) – 1968
The Can – Monster Movie (Spoon) – 1969
The Stooges – The Stooges (Electra) – 1969
Can – Tago Mago (Spoon Records) – 1972
The Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers (Rolling Stones Records) – 1972
Brian Eno – Here Come The Warm Jets (Island) – 1973
David Bowie – Pinups (RCA Records) – 1974
Big Star – Sister Lovers (PVC) – 1974
Neu! – Neu! ’75 (Brain) – 1975
Kraftwerk – Autobahn (Vertigo) – 1975
The Ramones – The Ramones (Sire) – 1976
The Modern Lovers – The Modern Lovers (Beserkley) – 1976
La Dusselldorf – La Dusselldorf – 1977
Television – Marquee Moon (Electra Records) – 1977
The Saints – I’m Stranded (EMI Records) – 1977
Suicide – Suicide (Red Star Records) – 1977
Iggy Pop – Lust For Life (RCA) – 1977
Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollocks (Virgin) – 1977
Radio Birdman – Radios Appear (Sire) – 1978
Blondie – Parrallel Lines (Chrysalis) – 1978
Johnny Thunders – So Alone (Sire) – 1978
Public Image Limited – Public Image (Virgin) – 1979
Ian Drury – New Boots and Panties (Stiff) – 1979
Wire – Chairs Missing (Harvest) – 1979
Tubeway Army – Replicas (Beggars Banquet) – 1979
The Undertones – The Undertones (Sire) – 1979
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers – Damn The Torpedoes (MCA) – 1979
The Clash – London Calling (CBS) – 1980
The Buzzcocks – Singles Going Steady (United Artists) – 1980
Magazine – Correct Use Of Soap (Virgin) – 1980
The Jam – Setting Sons (Polydor) – 1980
Gang of Four – Entertainment (EMI) – 1980
Dead Kennedys – Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables (IRS) – 1981
Dexy’s Midnight Runners – Searching For The Young Soul Rebels – 1981
The Jam – Sound Affects (Polydor) – 1981
The Psychedelic Furs – Talk Talk Talk (CBS) – 1981
Joy Division – Closer (Factory) – 1981
Stiff Little Fingers – Inflammable Material (Rough Trade) – 1981
Let Them Eat Jellybeans (Alternative Tentacles) – October 1981
Black Flag – Damaged (SST) – November 1981
Simple Minds – Sons and Fascination (Virgin) – 1981
Bad Brains – Bad Brains (ROIR) – February 1982
The Teardrop Explodes – Wilder (Mercury) – 1982
Orange Juice – You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever (Polydor) – 1982
Bruce Springsteen – Nebraska (Columbia Records) – 1982
Julian Cope – World Shut Your Mouth (Mercury) – 1984
Violent Femmes – Violent Femmes (Slash) – 1984
Echo and The Bunnymen – Ocean Rain (WEA) – 1984
The Velvet Underground – VU (Mercury) – 1985
REM – Life’s Rich Pageant (IRS) – 1986
Butthole Surfers – Locust Abortion Technician (Touch and Go) – 1987
Big Black – Songs About Fucking (Touch and Go) – 1987
The Jesus And Mary Chain – Darklands (Blanco Y Negro/ WEA) – 1987
The Wedding Present – George Best (Reception) – 1987
Sonic Youth – Sister (Flying Nun/ Blast First) – 1987
The Fall – I Am Kurious, Oranj (Beggars Banquet) – 1988
The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses (Silvertone) – 1990
Dead Moon – Stranded In The Mystery Zone (Tombstone) – 1991
U2 – Achtung Baby (Island) – 1991
Sugar – Copper Blue (Rykodisc) – 1992
The Lemonheads – It’s A Shame about Ray (Atlantic) – 1993
Oasis – Definitely Maybe (Creation Records) – 1994
Nirvana – Unplugged in New York (Geffen) – 1994
Elastica – Elastica (WEA) – 1995
Gillian Welch – Soul Journey (Acony) – 2003
Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Master and Everyone (Drag City) – 2003
The Go Betweens – Oceans Apart (EMI) – 2005

Consummation – January 2012

Will Hermes - Love Goes To A Building On Fire: Five Years in New York City That Changed Music Forever – 2011

Openminded examination of a city in musical foment. The Talking Heads song of the same name (their first single) is worth checking out as well.

The Yachts – I Can’t Stay Long (Enough) – 1978

Liverpool post-punk group with a Teardrops sheen and frantic 1960s garage riff on the always interesting Radar Records.

Upside Down: The Creation Records Story (dir: Danny O’Connor) – 2011

The 1980s indie dream – Creation Records branch.

Francis Pound – The Invention of New Zealand – Art & National Identity – 1930 – 1970 – 2009

My notebook is full to bursting.

Trees Lounge (dir: Steve Buscemi) – 1996

Buscemi does Bukowski in Brooklyn.

Nile Rodgers – Le Freak: An upside down story of family, disco and destiny – 2011

Classy autobiography from Chic guitarist and hitmaker to the stars. Rodger’s family background is fascinating and could have been a book in itself.

Breaking Away (dir: Peter Yates) – 1979

A class conscious cycling movie from a British director who made films as disparate as Summer Holiday (1963) starring Cliff Richard and Bullit (1967) with Steve McQueen – Breaking Away - is as unlikely as it is compelling and has long been appointment viewing hereabouts. Its release last year on DVD finally allowed a more considered examination.

Up close its core crew – Moocher the punchy little dude with woman problems,  Cyril, the curly thatched oddball who smoothes the waters with his humour and let’s slip a surprising regret; Dennis the handsome high school football star with the ruined leg and Dave Stoller the dreamer in love with Italy and cycling – remain convincing and recognisable especially to those from working/ lower middle class backgrounds.

Feeling the pinch of a receding economy and modernisation that has robbed them of their birthright as skilled working men they are lost between high school and the adult world. Between their dreams and validation. When the blond cyclist at the movie’s centre falls in love with a college student in their Bloomington, Illinois hometown, the class divide becomes ever more clear and conflict erupts S.E. Hinton-style between the wealthy upper class students and the motley working class “cutters” (named after their father’s trade cutting stone from the area’s quarries which have now filled up with water and become a favoured swimming hole and hangout). There’s an obvious metaphor here in the drowning of the past by the inevitable tide of the future and the clinging to and ownership of that legacy by the present generation even as it slips further away.

When the college kids (who are a poorly drawn Reaganite era cliché) use the submerged quarry for fun, the cutters snap at this invasion of their space and decide to take their ire to the college campus resulting in a brawl and uneasy compromise-contest between town and gown that the cutters win.

Heroic stuff, but it doesn’t change anything. The cyclist is headed for university and Cyril’s biggest regret is missing out on a basketball scholarship making Breaking Away more about frustrated ambition than class warfare.

Consummation – October/ early November – 2011

Hettie Jones – How I Became Hettie Jones (1990)

Picked this beat era memoir up in Browsers in town last week. Jones was the wife of Le Roi Jones and like so many of the women in the shadows of that time (who have just about all written about it since) she was a writer.

Soul Boy (dir: Shimmy Marcus) – 2010

Young love amidst the Northern Soul scene of the 1970s. Some blurbs mention bootboy aggro of which there is none in the movie. Strange. One of a raft of recent British movies dealing with music culture.

Simon Comber – The Right To Talk To Strangers EP (2011)

Endearance had the keys to the whiskey cabinet and the black eyed dog snapping at its heels making it a harrowing listen for those of us staring at the walls of that particular room. The Right To… opens the windows and lets some light in. By combining compelling repetition and sound wash with his deft folkish guitar and direct and affecting words Simon manages to evoke more in five songs than others do in a whole album. He also rescues Glen Frenzy’s heartbreaking Tonight The Kids Sleep In The Car from obscurity.

The Nectarine No. 9 – Can’t Phone Potatoes (1994)

Brilliant b side of This Arsehole’s Been Burned Too Many Times Before 7″ from mid-period Davy Henderson (Fire Engines) group released on the revived Postcard Records.

Paul Kelly – How To Make Gravy (2010)

Australian publishers are really getting the goods out of their musician writers. This is a song lyric and observational history compendium of unputdownable class. All 500 plus pages of it.

Hunter S Thompson’s Ten Fave Albums From The 1960s

As requested by John Lombardi at Rolling Stone in December 1970.

1. Let It Bleed
2. Memphis Underground (Battle Hymn Of The Republic) H. Mann
3. Mr Tambourine Man (Bringing It All Back Home) Zimmerman
4. Highway 61…Zimmerman
5. Buffalo Springfield first album
6. Workingman’s Dead…Warlocks et al.
7. Surrealistic Pillow
8. Roland Kirk…(various albums)
9. Sketches Of Spain…M. Davis
10. Sandy Bull…#2

From Fear and Loathing In America: The Brutal Odyssey Of An Outlaw Journalist – The Gonzo Letters II (ed: Douglas Brinkley) – 2000

The Psychedelic Sixties – Andrew Schmidt nets some pioneering cybernauts

I wrote this tribute to the 1960s sometime in the 2000s for Netguide. Some links may no longer work.

The Psychedelic 1960s
It’s official Dad, the 1960s happened, whether you remember them or not. These survivors from the University of Virginia (www.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/sixties.html) have got the era down. Everything from nineteenth century precursors to the essential posters and handbills of the time.

Drugs

Pro-natural drug site (www.entheogen.com) with all the gear – classic drug texts such as Michael Hollingshead’s The Man Who Turned On The Worldtogether with Maslow, Huxley, John C Lilly and Albert Hoffman; a chapter called Magic Mushrooms and the Meaning of Life, a stonking Owsley (the acid king) interview and access to the Drug Library.

Even further out there is The Vaults of Erowid (www.erowid.org) documenting the complex relationship between humans and psycho-acti. The mind as last frontier.

Doctor Hoffman’s Last Bi-cycle Ride
Psychedelic rock opera movie in the making marking the day the swiss chemist synthesized LSD. Freaky day-glo graphics. (www.concentric.net/~moviebam/dochof.html)

Jimi Hendrix

Hendrix was the psychedelic guitarist – he had the otherworldly chops, an earthy beginning in Black and native America, the army (the establishment maan) and the R & B chitlin circuit and an off the planet lyrical perspecti and is well served by Univibes (www.univibes.com) the Irish based magazine (38 issues) and online e-zine wherein his live shows are dissected and meetings with other notables (Arthur Lee and Frank Zappa) documented.

The Electric Prunes
San Diego’s punning 1960s psych-pop hitmakers’ The Electric Prunes (www.electricprunes.com) made it big in 1967 with I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night and Get Me To The World On Time; two chunks of giddy inspired chart psychedelia. With one genuinely great album (Underground) to their name cult status beckoned. They’re well served by this smart tidy group site thick with interviews, EP links, a discography, detailed bio and lots of period photos and posters. No music downloads.

Timothy Leary
1960s acid guru and latter day cyberspace champion Tim Leary’s (www.leary.com) ashes were shot into space with those of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and an assortment of boffo space lovers where they’ll orbit earth for up to ten years before crashing home like a shooting star. That little gem together with Leary’s FBI files, selections of his writing and media spanning fifty years and a neat art gallery feature on Leary’s tuned in personal site – a little bit of his mostly decent soul hanging up there like a star in an electronic heaven.

Ken Kesey
Hippie, author, non-conformist, counterculture mover and critic Ken Kesey (www.intrepidtrips.com) was the original psychedelic hoon. Hence the update on the restoration of Kesey and his Merry Pranksters’ day-glo bus Furthur plus lots of neat unpublished Kesey writing.

Syd Barrett
Pink Floyd’s founding guitarist/hit songwriter, Syd Barrett (www.sydbarrett.net) – one of the original 1960s acid casualties – gets the full archival treatment – collected articles, lyrics and up to date news with Pink Floyd and Barrett links.

1960s Poster Art
Randy Tuten’s eye popping 1960s psychedelic poster art (www.musicman.com) for the Bill Graham Presents organisation (who ran Fillmore East and West Ballrooms in San Francisco and New York). Thumbnailed and downloadable.

Ugly Things
Mike Stax’s peerless 1960s garage and psych-punk rag online (www.ugly-things.com) bristling with cool links, features, pics and attitude (and a story on Andy Anderson by yours truly).

British Psychedelia
“Humbly we offer you the colours…and more.” Comprehensive site (www.marmaladeskies.com) featuring biographies, band pics, original ads, guide to current reissues, era films and press clippings from the British Psychedelic era from the completely obscure to the Bee Gees!!!

The Chocolate Watch Band
San Francisco’s cult 1960s rockers (www.chocolatewatchband.com) who shared geography, a few stages and an appreciation of illicit highs, but little else with the Bay area big timers. While their heads were in the clouds, their wigged out R&B kept their arses firmly on terra firma. Lots of unique pictures and the best band biography ever on this three-album psychedelic era oddity.

Hippy Rock Festivals
There’s good vibes, knee deep mud, shonky gear and bearded-weirdy acid blues acts galore on this obsessive site (http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/ebony/546/festivals/) dedicated to hippy (and after) era rock festivals including the 1967/8 Festivals of the Flower Children at Woburn Abbey, Hyde Park Free Festivals and the Grateful Dead in Britain and Egypt.

Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers
Gilbert Shelton’s pot addled counter-culture cartoon characters’ Fat Freddy, Freewheeling Franklin and Phineas Phreak are some of the most memorable of the time. Meet them here at the home of their longtime publisher Rip Off Press (www.ripoffpress.com).

Now this is something – a huge 1500+ archive of rock n roll features (www.rocksbackpages.com) from the mid-1960s on edited by Band biographer and former Mojo editor Barney Hoskyns. The Psychedelic sixties are well represented by the Psychedelic Newsletter; a free monthly online zine. Class rock writers galore including Mick Farren (Social Deviants/now SF writer), Gene Sculatti and Greg Shaw. Coming soon – Radiobackpages – live shows and interviews from rock radio archives.

Sundazed Records
The best and most consistent of the 1960s re-issue heavyweights (www.sundazed.com) plundering the prodigious back catalogue of the time. Heaps on the label’s re-issues plus an online e-zine penned mainly by Cream Puff War editor and liner note specialist Jud Cost. Anyone for Kennelmus – Psychedelic Surf in the Arizona desert?

Hippy by Numbers
Talk about merchandising the dream. Absolutely everything you need to know about becoming and staying a Hippy. Scary. (www.hippy.com)

Easy Rider
Retrace the Easy Rider route traveled by Captain America in the classic 1960s movie. (www.thirdage.com/features/living/trip/easy/html)

The Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead corporate site (www.dead.net) overflowing with guff about the endless Dicks Picks live re-issue series, the whereabouts of the extended Dead family, Phil Lesh (bass) and Mickey Hart (drums) homepages, DP7 audio samples, set lists and a live show log.

The Jefferson Airplane
Doorway to the world of the Jefferson Airplane (http://grove.ufl.edu/~number6/Jefferson.Airplane/airplane.html). They of White Rabbit fame. If you can’t do without the complete lyrics and chords, unedited re-issue liner notes, set lists and some classic Airplane photos; check in here.

Love
The late Bryan MacLean (www.bryanmaclean.com) was second guitarist and songwriter in pinnacle psychedelic act, Love. He was the more together one of this notoriously wild LA act and it shows here. Love and MacLean re-issues are all meticulously present and available together with a huge photo and concert poster gallery, music samples and damn near every recent article, review and obituary on MacLean.

Kent State
Kent State shooting victim Alan Canfora remembers the 1960s, too well, it seems, on this obsessive and intricately detailed paean to the day the Vietnam War came home to Ohio’s Kent State University leaving four students dead (http://home.sprynet.com/~acanfora/). Everything remotely connected to the event and other similar shootings in this exhaustive site.

1960s Radicals
A clearing house site (www.proactivist.com) dedicated to 1960s (and after) radicals including Abbie Hoffman, Angela Davis and Cesar Chavez and events including the Kent State killings (which actually happened in early 1970). Links galore.

Gimme an F…
Red dyper baby Country Joe MacDonald (www.countryjoe.com) was responsible for that naughty chant at Woodstock. He was also a popular folk-rock/acid rock guitarist and singer in San Francisco act Country Joe and the Fish. You get all the by-now-expected bumf (Politics, Music, Whales… as Joe puts it) plus a link to his cool Ragbaby e-zine and a day by day roll of the US Vietnam War dead.

Wavy Gravy
Dunno ‘bout you but trusting an aging hippy in a horrid tie die shirt standing on his head (the image that greets you) doesn’t come naturally. Brave it and indulge yourself on this busy site (http://users.aol.com/wgeneral/wavyhome.html) hosted by former Woodstock MC (both times)Wavy Gravy (Hugh Romney), an early beat,  sometime actor, comedian, third World health activist and “genuine mahatma of the cosmic giggle.”

Withnail and I
It’s 1969. The summer of love is over and and somewhere in wet Camden in 1969 Withnail and I contemplate their overflowing kitchen sink and lack of readies to buy booze in one of the best British movies made about the 1960s (www.gemini.org.uk/Twins/Films/Withnail/withnail.htm.). You get the complete script, cast list, quotes and a fascinating precis together with stills from the movie and an interview with writer/director Bruce Robinson and actor Richard E. Grant.

Borderline Books
Vernon Joyson’s indexes of obscure Garage Punk (white R&B) and Psychedelic Punk (acid influenced R&B) acts (borderlinebooks.com) indexed alphabetically and regionally, including a mostly accurate New Zealand section.

The Byrds
Somewhere in their genre-creating 1960s burst The Byrds popped out Eight Miles High – psychedelia personified – a soaring sitar ridden 1967 hit with a sly druggy lyric. This career span site (Byrdmaniax.com) has real newspaper immediacy, soundbytes and articles from the 1960s on about the group.

Woodstock
The whole Woodstock myth in easily digestible chunks. (www.woodstock69.com).

Nixon and Elvis
The 1960s didn’t die at Altamount they carked it when Elvis greased his way into Nixon’s Whitehouse in December 1970, ratted out The Beatles and dissed the hippy culture. Elvis would be forgiven (he was on drugs after all) but Nixon? No. He was the hippy nemisis. Their worst nightmare in the presidency. Check out that famous meeting here in photos and text. (www.nara.gov/exhall/nixonelvis/index.html)

Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet (Beefheart) (www.beefheart.com) sliced and diced the blues with insane intent and produced some of rock’s most disturbed and inspired music then retired to the desert to paint, an enigma.

The Doors
Jimbo, Ray, John and Robbie – The Doors – ladies and gentleman – one of rock’s most mythologised groups. (http://home.wish.net/~thedoors.htm/). Fan site.

The Hippie Trail
Let Sara take your hand and lead you down the late 1960s/ 1970s hippy trail through India, Nepal, Bali and Laos (http://etropolis.com/Lars/Sara/index.htm).

Groupie Central
The naked truth on rock’s most unreserved fans (www.groupiecentral.com) – complete fact files on the girls, news and gossip (of course), most frequently Asked questions and a history of groupies in print and on the screen.

Mojo
Premier British monthly covering music with style and insight (www.mojo4music.com).

Wonderwall
Not Oasis, but a 1967 British flick (www.wonderwallfilm.com) featuring George Harrison’s first solo effort as the soundtrack; a director fresh from the Cuban Revolution (Joe Massott), Jane Birkin, you know, all the swinging 1960s accessories, plus a compelling Director’s guide to the film re-issue. Quicktime video and audio downloads.

Soft Machine, Gong…
The Canterbury Scene (http://perso.club-internet.fr/calyx/) was England’s fey arty response to the San Francisco scene. A knowing flower blossoming around Canterbury University in the late 1960s.

Dr Hunter S Thompson
Hunter wasn’t a hippy, he wore shorts and sneakers with socks and had a heart full of napalm, but he helped define the era nonetheless. He was in Haight-Ashbury during the Summer of Love. He rode with the Hells Angels. Freaked with Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters and munted out seriously while penning the era’s most fitting eulogies including Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas. Order your Hunter S Thompson action figure here. (www.cornboy.com/hst/index.html)

Consummation – July/ August 2011

Killing Bono – Neil McCormick – 2003

Originally entitled I Was Bono’s Doppelganger this dryly funny account of life in Bono’s real and imagined shadow provides strong insights into the Irish and London music scenes over the last three decades. Now a movie.

Carlos The Jackal (dir: Oliver Assayas) – 2010

Condensation of European TV series about high profile urban terrorist. Nice companion piece to The Baader Meinhof Complex.

The Grateful Dead – Cream Puff War – 1966

Sounds like Love peaking on LSD.

Slanted and Enchanted: The Evolution of Indie Culture (Holt) – Kaya Oakes – 2009

I feel so connected with this era it’s a shock to find the wider international experience ignored completely ultimately making this only a partial explanation of the time. Extra marks for connecting it to previous generations (in US).

Dark Night Walking With McCahon  – Martin Edmond (AUP) – 2011

Melding of the influential painter’s work and later days with Edmond’s life.

Mr Nice (dir: Bernard Rose) – 2010

Howard Marks’ life as an international hash smuggler. A little flat, but some nice acting from Rhys Ifans and Chloe Sevigny as the central couple.

Revenge Of The DVD

Scouring the cheapie bins in the Warehouse at The Base (and later at JB Hifi in Barton Street) had the same thrill as sifting second hand record stores (remember them?) did in the 1980s. Knowing that like the sea those bins would give up their treasures eventually. And rarely at more than ten dollars a pop. (originally published on Mysterex).

Teen Rebellion

1/ Over The Edge (Jonathan Kaplan) – 1979

2/ Rock n Roll Highschool (Alan Arkush) – 1979

3/ Heathers (Michael Lehmann) – 1988

4/ American Graffiti (George Lucas) – 1973

5/ Fast Times At Ridgemont High (Amy Heckerling) – 1982

6/ Quadrophenia (Franc Roddam) – 1979

7/ The Warriors (Walter Hill) – 1979

8/ Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater) – 1993

9/ Detroit Rock City (Adam Rifkin) – 1999

10/ The Wanderers (Philip Kaufman) – 1979

Cult Movies

1/ Badlands (Terence Malick) – 1973

2/ Phantom of The Paradise (Brian De Palma) – 1974

3/ Fitzcarraldo (Werner Herzog) – 1982

4/ Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby) – 1971

5/ Burn! (Gillo Pontecorvo) – 1969

6/ The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy) – 1973

7/ Walker (Alex Cox) – 1987

8/ Talk Radio (Oliver Stone) – 1988

9/ Drugstore Cowboy (Gus Van Sant) – 1989

10/ Garden State (Zach Braff) – 2004

11/ The Station Agent (Thomas McCarthy) – 2003

12/ The Big Lebowski (Joel Cohen) – 1998

13/ Swingers (Doug Liman) – 1996

14/ High Fidelity (Stephen Frears) – 2000

15/ Up In Smoke (Lou Adler) – 1978

16/ Two Lane Blacktop (Monte Hellman) – 1971

17/ Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola) – 1979

18/ Withnail and I (Bruce Robinson) – 1987

19/ Altered States (Ken Russell) – 1980

20/ Get Carter (Mike Hodges) – 1971

21/ Salvador (Oliver Stone) – 1985

22/ Catch Us If You Can (John Boorman) – 1965

23/ The Party (Blake Edwards) – 1968

24/ Peeping Tom (Michael Powell) – 1960

25/ A Fistful of Dynamite (Sergio Leone) – 1972

26/ John From Cincinnati (TV series) (David Milch) – 2008

27/ A Boy and His Dog (LQ Jones) – 1975

28/ The Knack…and How To Get It (Richard Lester) – 1965

29/ The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (Renny Harlin) – 1990

3o/ Bubba Ho Tep (Don Coscarelli) – 2004

Warhol

1/ Factory Girl (George Hickenlooper) – 2006

2/ A Night With Lou Reed (Clark Santee) – 1983

2/ A Walk into The Sea – Danny Williams and The Warhol Factory (Esther D Robinson) – 2006

3/ Lou Reed – Rock n Roll Heart (Timothy Greenfield-Sanders) – 1998

4/ The Velvet Underground – Velvet Redux Live MCMXCIII – 1993

5/ Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol (Chuck Workman) – 1990

6/ I Shot Andy Warhol (Mary Harron) – 1996

7/ The Basketball Diaries (Scott Kalvert) – 1995

1960s/ Music/ Counter Culture/ Aftermath

1/ The Weather Underground (Sam Green) – 2002

2/ A Technicolour Dream (Stephen Gammond) – 2008

3/ Freedom Express (Bob Smeaton) – 2005

4/ Joe Cocker – Mad Dogs And Englishmen (Pierre Adidge) – 1970

5/ Guerilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst (Robert Stone) – 2004

6/ Brian Wilson Presents Pet Sounds Live in London (John Anderson) – 2005

7/ The Last Waltz: The Band and Friends (Martin Scorsese) – 1978

8/ Love: Forever Changes in Concert - 2003

9/ Slade in Flame (Gavrick Losey) – 1974

10/ Patty Hearst (Paul Schrader) – 1988

Pre-punk/ Punk and Post-Punk

1/ Out of The Blue (Dennis Hopper) – 1980

2/ Sid and Nancy (Alex Cox) – 1986

3/ The Filth and The Fury (Julien Temple) – 1999

4/ Westway To The World (Don Letts) – 2001

5/ 24 Hour Party People (Michael Winterbottom) – 2002

6/ Human Traffic (Justin Kerrigan) – 1999

7/ Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (Julien Temple) – 2007

8/ Control (Anton Corbijn) – 2005

9/ The Devil and Daniel Johnston (Jeff Feuerzeig) – 2005

10/ Joy Division (Grant Gee) – 2007

11/ Patti Smith: Dream of Life (Stephen Sebring) – 2007

12/ John Lydon’s Megabugs (Alex Beetham) – 2004

13/ The Great Rock n Roll Swindle (Julien Temple) – 1980

14/ Made In Sheffield (Eve Wood) – 2005

15/ Repo Man (Alex Cox) – 1984

16/ Dexy’s Midnight Runners: It Was Like This Live – 2004

17/ Devo: Live 1980 – 2005

18/ It’s Alive – The Ramones (various) – 2007

19/ The Young Ones – series one and two (Geoff Posner) – 1982 – 1984

20/ The Punk Rock Movie (Don Letts) – 1978

21/ Sex Pistols – Live at The Longhorn – 1999

22/ This Is England (Shane Meadowes) – 2006

23/ End Of The Century: The Story of The Ramones (Michael Gramaglia/ Jim Fields) – 2005

24/ Rude Boy (Jack Hazan/ David Mingay) – 1980

25/ Mayor of Sunset Strip (George Hickenlooper) – 2003

26/ The Complete Jam – The Jam – 2002

27/ Live! Tonight! Sold Out! – Nirvana – 2006

28/ The Early Years Live – The Dead Kennedys – 2001

29/ Live In Glascow – New Order – 2008

30/ The Who – Live At The Isle of Wright Festival 1970 – 2004

31/ It’s All Gone Pete Tong (Mike Dowse) – 2004

32/ Scott Walker – 30 Century Man (Stephen Kijak) – 2006

33/ Saint Etienne Presents Finisterre (Paul Kelly/ Kieran Evans) – 2005

The Inner Teen

1/ Outside Providence (Micheal Corrente) – 1998

2/ Empire Records (Allan Moyle) – 1995

3/ The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang (Tim Skousen) – 2006

4/ Revenge of The Nerds (boxset) – 2009

5/ Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff) – 2000

6/ Superbad (Greg Mottola) – 2007

7/ American Pie Presents Beta House (Andrew Waller) – 2007