See Hear Podcast

As See Hear closes off it's fifth year of existence, we present a corker of an episode for you (if we do say so).  Back in May 2017, we had a fine old time discussing one of the greatest films about sticking the finger to authority, Rock And Roll High School. Now, we finally get the opportunity to speak to its director, Allan Arkush. Allan has directed a wealth of films and TV shows....but we invited him on to talk about his favourite rock and roll films, as well as his time working at the Fillmore East, the bands he loves, his own rock music films and TV (R&RHS, Get Crazy, The Temptations, Shake Rattle & Rock, Fame), and Trailers From Hell. Unfortunately, Bernard was ill and couldn't join us (get better soon, Bernie), but Tim and myself held up the fort and were enthralled to listen to Allan's stories of his musical life and the films he is passionate about yep...we're unashamed fanboys). A HUGE thanks to Allan for being so generous with his time and the enthusiasm he gave. You can download the show by searc

When most people think of the sixties from a musical perspective, there’s a number of bands that keep popping up ubiquitously. There were thousands of bands that may have had a regional hit or two, but had little impact at any further level. Lenny Kaye’s Nuggets release in the early 70s made an attempt to anthologise a number of the garage bands, and there have been many more that have done fine work to bring some great, but forgotten music from this era to music fans’ attention. Film director Jordan Albertsen has taken it one step further. Welcome to episode 58 of See Hear Podcast. Bernard and Maurice invited Jordan to discuss his 2018 documentary about a band that put frenzy into sixties rock and roll, The Sonics. They were originally out of Tacoma in Washington. They had regional hits with The Witch, Psycho and Strychnine, but were largely unknown outside of Washington. The documentary not only brings their history into focus, but also reveals why they had an unknown (to them) fanbase in Europe, the modern

In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson had pushed for the passing of the Civil Rights act, making segregation in America illegal. The governor of Mississippi, the law and the KKK vowed to keep doing things their way, and continued to perpetrate violence on the local African-American population. They also made life extremely difficult for students from the northern states committed to the Summer Project which was devoted to getting African Americans in Mississippi to register to vote. The powers that be in Mississippi didn't like "outsiders" interfering in their business. Three students, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were all murdered by the local law representatives.   Quite separate from these tragic events, three young blues fans from the east coast and three from the west coast went searching in Mississippi for their blues heroes Son House and Skip James who had not been heard from for many years. They were naive about the events of the Civil Rights movement and their own danger. Their hope

The history of cinema is littered with films that have nostalgia for a simpler time in the writer or director’s life. Often they’re done with quite a bit of distance which creates a sense of wistfulness.   Then there’s Dogs In Space.   Welcome to Episode 56 of See Hear Podcast.   This month our beloved Tim was relocating to Toronto after many years in Seoul, so he took the month off from gasbagging about movies while settling in. Bernard and I settle in the second of our requests for the year. Michael Benton, film studies lectuter at Kentucky College requested we tackle the 1986 film from Richard Lowenstein Dogs In Space based on Lowensein's recolletions of the wild and fun times living in a share household in the inner suburb of Richmond in Melbourne. The house is populated with punks, hippies, a lothario quoting socialism, and the worst sounding punk band around. The film is less of a narrative and more a slice of life. Unlike other films devoted to nostalgia (like American Graffitti), Dogs is set in the ve

    Many of us have an ambition to grow older with our sanity intact....doing it gracefully is often the antithesis of what's expected of a rock musician.   For See Hear podcast episode 55, Bernie, Tim and Maurice invited Michael Grodner onto the show for a conversation. Michael is the director of 2017 film, The Icarus Line Must Die. The story focuses around real life musician Joe Cardamone. He was the lead singer and creative force behind LA post-punk band, The Icarus Line. Joe is now at the “ripe old age” of 37. He is still unsuccessfully trying to get labels to listen to his band, but he's also dealing with a very supportive yet concerned fiance' who needs him to earn some money for them to put food on the table, band members quitting, spoiled rich kids wasting his studio time, fatally ill friends.....oh, did I mention there's a psychopath sending Joe anonymous death threats? Another exciting day in the life of a rock musician!!!!   The See Hear crew speak with Michael about the LA punk scene, working with

Films about bands are supposed to follow the arc of forming, start out awful, get better, create personal or artistic friction, achieve success, then implode just as the world can't get enough of them.   Then there's Leningrad Cowboys.   For See Hear podcast episode 54, Bernie, Tim and Maurice discuss Aki Kaurismaki's 1989 film Leningrad Cowboys Go America about a band from Siberia in the era of glasnost attempting to break into America. They are led through “the promised land” with a clueless manager and followed by their village idiot (who just may be the cousin / brother no one wants to talk about). They play to unreceptive audiences while travelling across America to play at a Mexican wedding, but is that of any importance to them?   The crew discuss music as the air we breathe, adapting to one's environment, the ruling class / working class divide, onions, Elvis quiffs, carrying a stiff around, and rrrrrrrock & rrrrrrroll.   You can download the show by searching for See Hear podcast on iTunes or downloa

Get ready to dust your broom and sing the blues. See Hear podcast episode 53 is ready for your aural pleasure, and the focus is one of four films Takashi Miike directed in 1998 (!!!), Blues Harp.   The film tells the story of two young men, each with very different goals in life. One is a member of a Yakuza clan who has dreams of heading becoming boss, the other just wants to cruise by life and take pleasure at playing his harmonica. After Chuji helps Kenji out one night, Kenji feels honour bound to protect his new friend from dangers that lie ahead as he gets drawn into a plot of deceipt and backstabbing.   When people think Miike, they typically think of his confronting films like Audition, Visitor Q, or Ichi The Killer. Films like The Happiness of the Katakuris, The Bird People in China, Zebraman and Blues Harp show there's a diversity not always discussed. Blues Harp may not be well known, but it is a film of incredible maturity. Miike uses every technique in his storytelling arsenal to build on what is e

  Everybody's talkin' about See Hear episode 52....at least we hope so, because One download is the loneliest podcast you'd ever hear..... Unfortunately, Tim was not available to record, but Maurice and Bernie once again welcome wonderful film blogger Kerry Friistoe to discuss the 2006 documentary from John Scheinfeld "Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)?" Nilsson started out as a perfectly groomed writer of songs that blended baroque pop with English music hall. His initial albums came out during a period in America where popular culture was undergoing change - he rebelled by recording old fashioned tunes with both heart and cynicism (no wonder he and Randy Newman got along). He earned the admiration and respect of a multitude of musiciansand the recod buying public.  He evolved to a rock performer via his most famous album, Nilsson Schmilsson. This earned him accolades and afforded him the opportunity to drink, run lines of coke and have regular parties - a long way from his early

Hi, how are you? See Hear episode 51 is available for your earholes.     Bernard was unavailable to join us, but Tim and I were really thrilled to have fantastic film blogger Kerry Fristoe join us to discuss Jeff Feurzeig’s 2006 documentary, The Devil and Daniel Johnston.     Daniel Johnston’s story has so many facets to it. Prolific songwriter, artist, musician, DIY promoter of his work…..sufferer of bipolar disorder and manic depression, obsession with an unobtainable muse, deep religious convictions who feared Satan was after him. On top of that, he faced the pressure of someone in the spotlight after celebrity endorsement – a frightening prospect for anyone, never mind a fragile character like Daniel.     The film somehow manages to provide a well-rounded picture in under two hours about who Johnston is. It doesn’t paint him as a saint, nor is it emotionally manipulative. He could be honest and endearing, but he was capable of selfish and frightening acts as well. Jeff Feurzeig gives us an objective accou

It’s 1991. The Western world has been going through a 1960s music nostalgia revival over the previous decade and a very strong Doors revival in particular. It seemed like a good time for Oliver Stone to make a biopic about Jim Morrison.     Welcome to episode 50 of See Hear podcast. We celebrate this small milestone (which took us a little over 4 years to get to) by talking about both Oliver Stone’s film and the band that it is based on.     We discuss narcissism, historical accuracy versus dramatic license, bad poetry, Ed Sullivan, the perfect storm that was the musical stylings of Densmore, Kreiger and Manzarek, and the similarity between something Jim Morrison allegedly did in Florida with something GG Allin definitely did….discussed waaaaaayyyyy back in episode 1 of See Hear.     On the occasion of our 50th episode, we do about 10 seconds of reflection. If you’ve been listening to the show right from the beginning, thank you….we love you madly (see what I did there????) If you’re recently on board, welcom

There are two sides to every story. We at See Hear HQ decide to look at both sides of the contentious question as to whether record collectors (and by extension, collectors of any physical item) are archivists or hoarders.   Tim, Bernard and Maurice are joined by Professor Michael Benton from Bluegrass Community College in Lexington, Kentucky for episode 49 of See Hear to talk about two films that explore record collection from two very different angles.   Australian film maker Edward Gillan’s documentary from 2003, “Desperate Man Blues” is a snapshot of the record collecting activities of Joe Bussard from Maryland. Bussard has been collecting old country, blues and jazz 78s from the 1920s through to the 1950s. At the time of filming, he had anything from 15000 to 20000 records. His knowledge of what we currently call Americana is unsurpassed. He has a genuine joy in listening to and sharing the music he has spent a lifetime collecting.   On the other side of the coin, Toronto documentarian Alan Zweig’s first

See Hear is ready to start the new year with a musical sci-fi road film….but nothing like Hope / Crosby / Lamour films.   Bernard, Tim and Maurice are once again joined by Mike White of The Projection Booth to talk about Cory Mcabee’s feature film debut from 2001, The American Astronaut. It’s all too easy to describe this film as a mashup of styles (usually starting with “David Lynch meets….”). The truth is Cory Mcabee has come up with something unique while acknowledging films he obviously loves. The narrative covers Sam Curtis – delivery man for hire who has to make a series of trades before he can collect a reward. All the while he has a nemesis chasing him around the universe waiting to forgive him…so he can kill him….. and people burst into song. Sounds straightforward? It ain’t, and yet it is. The story is very accessible, but the devil is in the details.   The crew had a fun time with this film and we thank Mike requesting it be covered and joining us to discuss it.   You can download the show by searc

See Hear Podcast comes to the end of its fourth year of existence. Slowly but surely, we’ve been bringing you discussions about all manner of music-related films since January 2014.   To celebrate, Tim, Bernard and Maurice want to party like its 1986. We are joined by one of the two creators of the film / time capsule known as Heavy Metal Parking Lot, Jeff Krulik. Jeff and John Heyn hung out for 2 hours in the parking lot of the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland on May 31 1986 just prior to a Judas Priest concert. They went armed with a camera, a microphone, four U-matic tapes, and the bravado to ask the teens / early twenty-somethings about their love for heavy metal music. The result honestly captures the joy these fans had at celebrating a particular time in their life. The film doesn’t romanticise their youth, nor mock it – it is simply a record of a night. There are truths that can be applied to any community worldwide.   Jeff and John went on to make further short films of a similar nature investigat

Do you like wearing leather overalls? Do you know what it means to be young tonight? Have you ever blown up a motorcycle by shooting a cap gun at it? Are you a one man stud? Have you ever been in a sledgehammer fight? If you answered yes, no, maybe or “outta my way, stupid” to these questions, then See Hear episode 46 is for YOU. Tim, Maurice, Bernard welcome the hugely enthusiastic Lily Sockmonkey (although she’s Janine to her non-film friends) to her podcasting debut to talk about Walter Hill’s 1984 film, Streets of Fire. Ellen Aim is a rockstar kidnapped mid-concert by a biker gang in a (might as well be) lawless era that is caught in a time warp between the 1950s and the 1980s. Her ex-boyfriend is joined by a soldier of fortune and Ellen’s current wet (Billy) fish boyfriend to rescue her from the clutches of the gang led by a sociopath. The See Hear crew discuss the acting, film parallels, Walter Hill, two Beatle connections, bombastic musical excess, Flashdance, and The Blasters. Speaking of The Blasters

Welcome to See Hear 45. We all love movies and we all love music in movies (it’s partly why you listen to this podcast, right?) Film scores can be bold and bombastic or quiet and subtle. Either way it’s a strong part of the film watching experience. It seems crazy that until 2017, there hasn’t been a major documentary (that we’re aware of) dedicated to the art of film composition and the people who devote their lives to emotionally manipulating you more than what you actually see on-screen via their music. Matt Schrader is the director of a great new documentary called “Score: A Film Music Documentary” that looks into the process of film score composition, how it’s evolved, interviews with a number of its current practitioners, and the psychology behind how viewers perceive the on-screen action when music is playing (sex, chocolate and music all produce the same rush in your brain, apparently). Bernard, Tim and Maurice were very excited to have Matt come onto the podcast and discuss making the film and his ow

Hello everybody…….See Hear episode 44 here….. Every music scene has its local heroes….those musicians who are a well-kept secret from the rest of the world, but gig goers wish more people knew about them. Melbourne film-maker Chris Franklin has made it his mission to document musicians in his local scene. Bernard was absent, but Tim and Maurice invited Chris to talk about his latest short film in adherence to that mission, “Chris Wilson – Live At The Continental”.  Melbourne musicians Chris Wilson and Shane O’Mara along with pianist Jex Saarelaht released a beloved album in 1994 called “Live At The Continental”. (The Continental Café’ was a favourite haunt for the best local and international songwriters and musicians). Franklin shows Chris and Shane recalling the circumstances behind that album, but ended up putting together something more broad and substantial. Even if you don’t know who they are, their commonality to any musician is the great art that is created when honesty, humour and trust overrides com

We Are The Best! We Are The Best! No it's not the See Hear theme song. It's the name of this month's film under discussion. Can you imagine two grown men talking about a film on which the plot revolves around three teenage girls forming a punk band and only one of them has any musical chops? Imagine no further because Maurice is joined by Hank Hellman to do just that. The notions of friendship, being an outsider, sticking it to parents (not always deservedly) and chocolate ice cream are all universal themes, so the gents qualify to discuss Lukas Moodyson's 2013 film based on a graphic novel by his wife Coco. The film is funny, honest, scattered, and most importantly realistic. This is not a Steven Spielberg tale of growing up and "learning something" in the dying moments. It's about 3 friends having fun, getting jealous, not always doing the right thing by each other, and standing up for themselves in small ordinary ways....you know....real life!!!! Bernie and Tim were not available since they were practising

  Time to put your cup of tea to one side, pull up your trousers and return to the wonderful era in an alternate universe when Rutlemania ruled. The film selection for See Hear episode 42 was requested by Barry Knobel, “The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash” released in 1978. The film is (very probably) the first ever mockumentary about the Pre-Fab Four. Monty Python member Eric Idle along with ex Bonzo Dog member Neil Innes devised a TV show sketch featuring a band from another dimension where the more famous Liverpudlians don’t exist. Gary Weis of Saturday Night Live offered Idle the opportunity to give the characters a fully blown film. Wisely, it was made to look like a documentary rather than a narrative piece. Tim, Bernard and Maurice are joined by Rutle fan (and story editor for another of our favourite films, Good Vibrations) Colin McKeown. We discuss the art of parody on one band vs parody of a musical culture, American vs British comedy, Pythons, SNL, attention to detail, song parody, and the disgrace th

Settle down, See Hear listeners. Class is now in session. Tim, Sticky and Maurice take time out from dissecting frogs, picking fights with the jocks and giving lip to the principal to talk about the Roger Corman produced, Alan Arkush directed 1980 film Rock ‘n’ Roll High School. Is it just another b-grade drive in movie about teen rebellion or is there something more going on here (umm….yes there is)? This is the tale of one girl’s devotion to The Ramones, her determination for them to play a song she’s written, and her fight against the school administration who are repulsed by all things rock and roll. Who will win the battle of the wills between Mary Woronov and PJ Soles. We discuss the tradition of films and TV shows set in schools and the perception of the teacher as inspiration or villain, why the film is an open love letter to music without stylistic division, Corman’s original intentions for the movie (going even earlier than his desire to capitalise on the Saturday Night Fever craze), and how to make

See Hear is about to get nostalgic for episode 40….or maybe not.   There are two sorts of people in the world – those who love the FILMS of Woody Allen and those who can’t stand them.   Among those who love his films there are two sorts of people – some prefer his early zany films about relationships, morality the universe and our place in it, and bouncing boobs. However, there are those who prefer his mid-period Fellini / Bergman style dramas / comedies about relationships, morality the universe and our place in it, but with no bouncing boobs. (Does anyone prefer his latter-day films?)   Tim, Bernie and Maurice are joined once again by Frank Santopadre of Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast to discuss 1984’s Broadway Danny Rose, a film that combines the best elements of the former and latter styles of his filmography. Woody plays Danny Rose, a loyal theatrical agent for acts no one else wants to handle. It looks a has-been singer who he manages (there’s the musical connection, folks) is on the brink