With all our reporting on this year's Toronto International Film Festival, we couldn't help thinking about the world premiere of our own film - KURT COBAIN ABOUT A SON - at the festival one year ago. 365 days ago - to the minute - as I write this, we were still celebrating and dancing at the very fun party we had at the Drake Hotel. It's hard to believe that the film that I had in my head for so long, had now been public for a full calendar year, and I'm glad that soon (three weeks from tomorrow), it will finally open at the IFC Center in New York.
Six years ago in New York was a landmark moment in the making of my first film, GIGANTIC (A TALE OF TWO JOHNS), and as I write this, my producer/partner Shirley Moyers and I were eating a very late dinner, still basking in having wrapped our shooting with They Might Be Giants, after they had played an midnight in-store performance at the Greenwich Village Tower Records (now closed). They were celebrating the release of their new album, Mink Car, which was released the next day, September 11. Not thinking anything particular of that night - other than the fact that we were wrapping our work with the band - we ended up capturing their cover performance of the Cub track "New York City", which ended up being an emotional moment at the end of the film that no one could have predicted.
And today, September 11, 2007 - bringing it all full circle - Barsuk Records releases Kurt Cobain About A Son: Music From the Motion Picture. It's a record that I'm very proud of, since choosing the songs for the film were one of my favorite parts of making ABOUT A SON. And I'm grateful to all the amazing artists who allowed us to use their music in the film and/or on the soundtrack.
I hope you'll check it out.
Here's an excerpt from Ned Raggett's review at the OC Weekly:
Set to a variety of images and filmed segments of the towns in which Cobain lived and worked, the film features a soundtrack containing no music from his band, but instead mostly draws on those performers and peers from whom he took inspiration. As such, it functions almost as a ghostly, Cobain-hosted radio show, with occasional snippets from the tapes interspersed among the songs, most clearly when his discussion of Scratch Acid leads into that group’s demented semi-ballad “Owner’s Lament.”
Soundtrack producers Linda Cohen and AJ Schnack (the film’s director) do an excellent job at sequencing the soundtrack, giving new context to many numbers. Hearing Creedence Clearwater Revival’s still-thrilling “Up Around the Bend” helps show how Cobain took inspiration from the group, while placing it between Bad Brains’ frenetic hardcore classic “Banned in D.C.” and Half Japanese’s goofy sex song “Put Some Sugar On It” rescues the Creedence number from the dull classic-rock universe in which it’s been mired for years. Meanwhile, the cover of Beat Happening’s “Indian Summer” by Death Cab for Cutie/Postal Service singer Ben Gibbard that closes the disc gently reveals how the general play of Cobain’s influences continues.
Once again, here is the tracklisting:
Steve Fisk & Benjamin Gibbard — Overture
"Never intended" [interview excerpt]
Arlo Guthrie — Motorcycle Song
The Melvins — EyeFlys
"Punk rock" [interview excerpt]
Bad Brains — Banned in D.C.
Creedence Clearwater Revival — Up Around the Bend
Half Japanese — Put Some Sugar On It
The Vaselines — Son of a Gun
Butthole Surfers — Graveyard
"Hardcore was dead" [interview excerpt]
Scratch Acid — Owner's Lament
Mudhoney — Touch Me I'm Sick
"Car radio" [interview excerpt]
Iggy Pop — The Passenger
Lead Belly — The Bourgeois Blues
R.E.M. — New Orleans Instrumental No. 1
"The limelight" [interview excerpt]
David Bowie — The Man Who Sold the World
Mark Lanegan — Museum
Benjamin Gibbard — Indian Summer
Oh hey, cool to see the review mentioned! Hope you enjoyed it, and look forward to catching the film as I can.
Posted by: Ned R. | September 17, 2007 at 05:29 PM
Is the name of Sade's new album called Love Supreme? The site references the name twice but never says it's the name of the Album, here's the link; New Sade
Posted by: Sade | September 11, 2009 at 10:15 AM