Bad Brains is unarguably one of the most influential hardcore bands and their whole history will be explained in this upcoming documentary. They have influenced not only a slew of hardcore bands but also have affected our culture as well. From collaborations with Supreme, Vans, and then to this documentary it is clear that the legacy of Bad Brains will continue to live on.

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CAPTURED on THE ITUNES MOVIE STORE (USA ONLY)

CAPTURED on AMAZON VOD (USA ONLY)

CAPTURED DVD on AMAZON (WORLDWIDE)

All images copyright Clayton Patterson.

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Thanks to STREETLOCAL 404 for the info.

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Bill McMullen’s work is at the locus of control between contemporary culture’s learned helplessness and mass production’s planned obsolescence. The seduction of immediate consumption, along with its resulting hand-to-mouth futurism, are analyzed by McMullen as one half civics lesson and one half the jouissance of the advertising age running its ultimate course. The tail-eating snake that hides in this era’s economic deluge becomes McMullen’s inspirational void from which both political and artistic action springs forth.

Hype, Hustle, Rip-Off is more than just a critical look at the learned obsolescence and planned helplessness of Post-Cold War capitalism. It is a glimpse at the post-pop art world’s potential trajectory—beyond the simple needs of political poster simulacra branding, venal location based parochialism, and the corporate shilling that uses a contrived cloak of cosmopolitan surrealism. McMullen’s work ultimately resonates because it does more than brand, copy, market, and elevate, since he understands that all of these actions are mutually exclusive.

Ultimately, Hype, Hustle, Rip-Off shows just how easy it is to be “had” by misinterpreting capitalism’s optical tools for cogent representations of unfeigned visual culture—and that the Ouroboros is actually all of us.

Bill McMullen is a student and purveyor of visual culture originally from San Diego, California. After moving to New York City in 1996, he spent three years as an art director and designer at Def Jam Records, leading to his influential working relationships with recording artists such as the Beastie Boys, Method Man, Guru, Luscious Jackson, Foxy Brown, DMX, Spank Rock, The Federation, and Bad Brains. He has created various packaging projects for the Criterion Collection and his latest projects include designing for Adam Yauch’s film distribution company, Oscilloscope, encompassing posters and packaging for documentary films such as Gunnin’ for that #1 Spot and FLOW. McMullen’s client list includes Nike, MTV, Span of Sunset, Adidas, Kid Robot, Burton, N.E.R.D., 2K Gingham, and Beastie Boys. McMullen attended San Diego State University and lives and works in New York City.

Bill McMullen ‘Hype, Hustle, Rip-Off’
The Constant Gallery
February 21, 2009 through March 28, 2009
Opening reception: Saturday, February 21, 6:00 pm-8:00 pm

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From a very personal point-of-view, 1979-1981 was a vintage era, coughing up a brace of darker flicks that apparently had something of an impact on the mindstate of elder ‘tastemakers’ (excuse me, I just threw up in my mouth a bit) of today. For the most part, they went wood at the box office, destined to cultdom, which would explain just why they don’t make ‘em anymore. I’m not so naive to kid anyone that for every ‘The Wanderers’ there wasn’t drivel like ‘The Apple’ aimed at youth groups, but lately everything’s been so self consciously kooky and referential, I almost yearn for a futuristic rock opera with biblical overtones. Almost.

It probably lies in the fact that some of the most underrated teen movies are genuinely pretty damned edgy – a 25 year old in a varsity jacket suffering a pre-graduation crisis? Fuck that. The makers of ‘Over The Edge’ (1979), ‘Times Square’ (1980), ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains’ (1981), ‘Pixote’ (1981) and ‘Christiane F’ (1981) went full throttle, and cast real teens as kids gone wild, proto riot grrrls, lesbian new wavers, tragic street kids and drug addicted prostitutes respectively. It made for some occasionally daft but memorable films.

‘Times Square’ reeks of cash-in but carries a few killer apps in its choice of casting. Runaway girls from different backgrounds go on the run and accidentally become the ‘big thing’ on the NYC new wave scene. Tim Curry plays a DJ who alternates between cool and being one of the most punchable performers of all time during a scene where the politician father of the richer runaway confronts him.

Seeing as it was intended to be some kind of post-punk ‘Saturday Night Fever’, and director Allan Moyle was told to excise scenes of overt lesbianism between the two leads, and pretty much all involved washed their hands of it. The Manic Street Preachers covered ‘Damned Dog’ as performed in the film on their debut album, back when they were good, and trying to be Hanoi Rocks rather than dadrockers. Robin Johnson’s performance is stunning, possibly one of the debut greatest screen performances of all time – she convinces as someone mentally ill without getting all ‘I Am Sam’ or adopting the Brad Pitt twitch, and after this film…pretty much MIA. Someone even dedicated a site to locating her.

Allan seemed to have some wilderness years, before helming the same mix of zeitgeist and simplistic plot devices (school nerd is actually a pirate radio DJ of some note when darkness falls!) with ‘Pump Up The Volume’ in 1990, which had an excellent soundtrack that included a pointless but interesting MC5 cover by Bad Brains and Henry Rollins.

But if it’s neon fonts, Tim Curry, ‘Down In The Park’ and ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’ you’re after, well, you’re in luck.

‘Ladies and Gentlemen….’ has as much to mock as to admire within it running time. On the plus side, t’s got a supergroup with Paul Simenon, Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Ray Winstone in, and it maintains a certain charm. Saved from obscurity last year by a DVD reissue, complete with commentary, it was shelved from cinema release after completion. The 1998 Grand Royal article with contributions from Thurston Moore and Courtney Love cemented the hard-to-find status. The scene where Diane Lane gets aggravated and creates a formula for the group however, is pretty remarkable. There’s a good piece on it here, but the aforementioned magazine article from director Sarah Jacobson remains one of the most interesting ‘making of’ articles I’ve ever read. Sarah was a tireless campaigner for the movie’s recognition, making documentaries about it, and sadly passed away at the age of 32 in 2004. She had a point. It’s a heavy-handed plot, but it’s puncuated with unexpectedly gritty moments.

According to apochryphal sources, ‘Christiane F’ glamorised heroin use, but it’s hard to see how an ulcers and all depiction of drug use and the squalid ins and outs of the Bahnhof Zoo could be in any way aspirational. Maybe it’s the unintentional teutonic style everyone sports, maybe it’s the oddly leniant parenting the titular Christiane is subjected to. Maybe it’s the Bowie appearance. Thomas Haustein is excellent as Christiane’s boyfriend and went on to act in absolutely nothing again, making Robin look prolific by comparison. The scene where a desperate junkie leaps into a toilet cubicle steals our hero’s stash and promptly injects it into his neck in front of a shocked old lady is as good a drug PSA as any. ‘Trainspotting’ and ‘Drugstore Cowboy’ don’t even come close.

‘Pixote’ was directed by Hector Bibenco who earnt himself an Oscar for ‘Kiss Of The Spiderwoman’ and is almost unwatchably grim, depicting the struggle of a homeless boy bouncing from children’s homes to the street, and the increasingly desperate scenarios he finds himself in. It’s one of Harmony Korine’s favourite film, and it’s clear that the use of an unknown cast from the areas in question and unflinching style had a vast influence on ensuing releases at home and abroad. Fernando Ramos da Silva, a newcomer who (are you noticing a depressing trend here?) never went on to any real film career is astonishing in the title role, seemingly ageing scene-by-scene, like ‘The Painted Bird’s narrator or Aleksei Kravchenko in ‘Come And See’.

da Silva was hailed by the critics, but, by all accounts made little money. Critical plaudits don’t necessarily pay the rent. In 1987 he was shot dead by the police. His short life is dramatised in the 1996 film ‘Who Killed Pixote?’. There’s a news report of his death here. It’s particularly depressing, but makes for a sobering epilogue to the ‘Pixote’ plot.

Another thing that leaks the four films above is the situations they place their young actors in. While I’m opposed to censorship, these films would maintain their appeal without the more questionable moments, and it’s the moments of nudity and sexuality that led to them being buried in favour of more populist depictions what are allegedly the happiest days of your life.

With the recent hoo-ha surrounding ‘Notorious’ which carries a whiff of missed opportunity and straight-to-DVD about it, the Darby Crash biopic ‘What We Do Is Secret’ at least attempts to depict the golden era I’m talking about. While the film is, going against the bandname, more than a little sterile, any film with a dramatised Claude Bessy is at least worth watching once.

However, this footage, and the dumb notion of replacing Darby with some guy from ER for shows, pretty much sums up what’s wrong with everything nowadays. An SUV mounting that curb would have benefited the planet.

I blame Freddie Prinz Jr.

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The other cat who did a lot of the flyer’s was another OG friend Kevin Crowley. Our parents were tight and later in life he was super in to hardcore punk rock all Six 3, 200 pounds of him ( A bit after me, I was a skin head for like 3 weeks than went back to being a skater duesch). Good guy/bad skin wonder what ever happened to him as well? His Abused flyer’s were more memorable than the band some might say even. Me and Kevin used to take the train home to BK together and get a lot of weird looks from the L7’s riding the iron horse but that’s the beauty of being a punk rocker in high school at least it was back then.
If you dug NYHC you’ll dig this nuff said peep the ancient Beastie Boys flyer’s in there. Wonder who did those? There so bad there genius……Young and the Useless……….You had to be there to understand I think. The Young and Useless were Adrock and Dave Skilken’s band. Skilken passed away in the early 90’s he was a motivating force in the Beastie Boys posse and a brilliant dude thinking he might have done those flyer’s. He rocked and left us way to early………NYHC shit was so fresh back then……

Kevin Crowley I believe did that one….Fucking ET I would choke that herb out to….Dam aliens

Sean Taggert’s handy work for sure…..Loved his stuff and loved the Cro-Mags….They were like a biker gang or some shit….they rolled in your town tore shit up,knocked dudes out stole ther chicks and left…..Cro-Mags tours were legendary

How craze is this? This is definitely the John Berry pre rap Beastie Boys days……..Shit is so dope….One more TR3 that shit was olllld skoool…I saw Madness there…The Dammed…….Bad Brains…..Stage was like a foot of the ground…..Place was so cool….John Bloodclot was security picture that….

Another Crowley jump off….he had a really Heavy Metal magazine style….A7 was this shitty little club on ave a and 7th street it’s now Niagra…..Saw a lot of good hardcore shows there over the years…….

Classic Sean Taggert right here….His shit was always funny to me half tongue and cheek his OG t shirts were sick he did some really dope sick of it all flyers wish I could find some…

For more classic Sean Taggert flyer’s and more ya know the drill peep my site:

http://www.danteross.com/blogs/dante/2008/11/16/og-nyhc-flyers

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“The band was first founded as a jazz-fusion ensemble called Mind Power, with singer Sid McCray, in the mold of bands such as Chick Corea’s Return to Forever and John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra. In 1978 McCray introduced the rest of the band, who were already interested in bands such as Black Sabbath, to punk rock, including the Dickies, the Dead Boys, and the Sex Pistols.”

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The Converse Century Concert Series made its latest stop in Chicago last night with N*E*R*D taking the stage alongside the legendary hardcore punk band, Bad Brains. This special $10 show took place at the House of Blues in Chicago and as expected, the show was another sellout for Converse’s special concert series. Midway through N*E*R*D’s set, Pharrell Williams invited Bad Brains to the stage to perform two songs for the enthusiastic attendees. And like the last stop in Philadelphia (which we covered here), wearers of the Converse brand were treated to a special autographs session and meet-and-greet with the performers. Be on the lookout for the next stop!

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Converse kicked off their Converse Century Concert Series last night In the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, PA. The show was headlined by the legendary Sonic Youth and it was held at the Theatre of the Living Arts and with the show costing a mere $10, it was a definite sell-out. In addition to the Philadelphia show, Converse is slated to produce shows in Chicago, San Diego, and San Francisco with more acts participating. Sonic Youth headlined this show in Philly, but other acts that will be participating include: Bad Brains, The Hold Steady, N*E*R*D, The Black Keys and more. And like the Philadelphia show, the upcoming concerts will also be shows with reduced prices. Converse’s goal is to bring great shows at smaller venues for a more intimate feeling for the fans. Wearers of Converse were ushered in for a meet-and-greet with Sonic Youth, so just a heads up for those attending future shows.

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“Craig Wetherby has been on a traveling exhibition across the US, Europe, and Asia to showcase his recent Manik collaboration and his photographic works. His iconic images have captured artists such as Ghostface Killah, Slick Rick, Method Man, Gwar, Bad Brains and more. Wetherby’s most recent solo exhibit, The Good Life!, in New York was a huge success drawing over 1,000 people in its one night at Milk Gallery. The show was a smash hit with many of Wetherby’s limited prints being sold out. Now Wetherby is coming to Los Angeles for a show at Zune LA on August 30th, 2008. Screening his photos on skate decks and walls, this is a show that’s sure to attract those with a discerning, yet fun, photographic eye.”

Thanks to Juxtapoz for the info.

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Info: HB Via Houyhnhnm.

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