If documentaries such as 'Punk Rock Movie','The Decline Of Western Civilization','D.O.A:A Rite Of Passage',etc told the unvarnished truth of late 1970's/early 1980's Punk Rock,and carried over to later day rock docs such as 'Hardcore Underground U.S.A.' & '1991:The Year That Punk Broke', Scott Crary's 'Kill Your Idols' goes beyond & tells the tale of the late 70's,early 80's "No Wave" post punk noise scene in New York City. When Punk threatened to become homogenized into "New Wave" by the early 80's,a scene rose,Phoenix like,from the near wreckage of Punk to become "No Wave". It was the musical answer to a form of neo Dadism,where bands such as DNA,Sonic Youth,The Swans,Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel,to mention but a few,scraped & scratched a Freddy Kreuger like glove across the Cerebral Cortex of audiences at venues such as CBGB's,Max's Kansas City,etc.,pretty much until the end of the 80's/early 90's,when the scene seemed to implode upon itself (although some of the participants,as most of them preferred to not think of themselves as musicians, still played around at one point or another). Kill Your Idols tells it's sordid story in two parts. The first half of the film tells it's tale from the original mainstays of the No Wave scene (we get first hand testimony from the likes of Lydia Lunch,Thurston Moore,Lee Ranaldo,Michael Gira,J.G. Thirlwell,Arto Lindsay,and others),while the second half is a commentary of the next wave of N.Y.C. noise bands that are currently packing the clubs (the Yeah,Yeah,Yeahs,as well as others). What do the original denizens of the noise scene have to say about all of this? Find out for yourself. Scott Crary,besides directing this outstanding,albeit scathing rock doc, also photographs & edits. Well worth seeking out if you're a fan of early,as well as later day Punk Rock,Experimental,Avant Garde,Noise,New Music,etc. Not rated by the MPAA,but contains pervasive strong language & a bit of quasi-pornographic footage from some of the New York underground films of Richard Kern,Nick Zedd,etc. that is not for innocent eyes.
