Shellshock Rock, Electric Purgatory, Pennebaker, Maysles, 30thCentury Scott, Kill Yr Idols, American Hardcore, Be There to Love Me, We Jam Econo, Armstrong & Ivers' Nightclubbing Series,,,
Television
Tex cartoon
Books
Velvets to the Voidoids, Please Kill Me, Chronicles, G V Lachman's Turn Off Your Mind ...
Heroes
John T Davis
The Stars Are Underground's Details
Status:
Single
Ethnicity:
Other
Zodiac Sign:
Capricorn
Occupation:
documentary film
The Stars Are Underground is in your extended network view more
About me: Low budget documentary film in the tradition of John T. Davis' "ShellShock Rock"about Dublin DIY/Hardcore scene released 1996. Mexican Pets, Jubilee Allstars, Ian Mackaye, Andy Cairns, Wormhole, Cruiser, Female Hercules Tension, Pet Lamb, Luggage, SunBear others...
...................................................................... In 2000 Leagues, then presenter/producer on essential alternative music show NoDisco (RTE TV Cork) wrote a companion piece to the VHS release of Stars.... on Folkrum Records. It is printed in full below.
Leagues is currently one of the main movers behind Foggy Notions Magazine and will always be the author of the fantastic The Humours of Planxty.
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"In 1996, filmaker Daragh McCarthy directed a documentary inspired by the noises emanating from Dublin’s independent rock scene. At the time, we didn’t know if this urgent groundswell in activity was destined to be just an ephemeral phenomenon or whether it was the foundation for a future infrastructure. All we knew was that it was some of the best and most pro-active music making in a country other wise smothered by corporate bandwagoneering and post-U2 tail-chasing. The Stars Are Underground was, quite simply a film crying out to be made. In retrospect, it has become a prescient foretaste of the depth of fine music being made in Ireland, four years later.
Stars… is a film about dreamers, visionaries, wannabe Warhols and shoe-string svengalis. A film about punk-rock, country outlaws, decadent discordance and slack jaw stoners. It’s about people relearning the DIY process and starting to get it right. Releasing their own records, making their own videos, designing their own sleeves, organising their own events and basically doing the complete opposite to those who so willingly bowed down to the industry before them. But this documentary doesn’t wallow in underground romance. It details with the day-to-day hands-on banalities of being in a band, the lure of the corporate dollar and the struggle to be heard.
The music ranges from brash and formative excorcisms of anger, to sophisticated, aspirational creations, to probing, vehement experimentation. Jubliee Allstars’ initial releases on their own Hi-Tone label and Dead Elvis, sound as fantastic as the first time they shambled revolutions round your record player. As does Wormhole’s low-slung primitive hypnosis and Luggage’s muffled and debonair series of Eps on Blunt Records. And Female Hercules and Bambi and the Great Western Squares and Pet Lamb and The Idiots and Mexican Pets. Some of them have gone, some still here, in one form or another.
Label owners and media-mouths such as Colm O’Callaghan, Dan Oggly and Eamonn Crudden have their say too, discussing the naivete that fuels these records, and questioning the magnitude of the independent structure.
International figures such as Therapy’s Andy Cairns and Fugazi’s Ian MacKaye express words of wisdom and, well, words of simple enthusiasm. The latter warns us not to expect to make any money in this industry.
But what’s probably most satisfying about The Stars Are Underground is how the artists themselves define this whole time with a sense of community. It’s almost politically incorrect to use the word “scene” these days, but whatever it was , this time and place, it was where connections were made that ring true to this day.
The year 2000 has already seen several great Irish records, and all going according to plan, 2001 will be better again. The roots lie here in this film, and for those aware or interested in these facts, this is essential viewing.
A low-budget film about a low-budget scene. It won’t be forgotten quickly."
Leagues
October 2000
Who I'd like to meet: to view "The Stars are Underground" part 1 click below
to view " The Stars are Underground" part 2 click below
to view "The Stars are Underground" part 3 click below
to view mexican pets "subside" directed by Liam McGrath click below
to view Female Hercules "Inside U" Directed by dMc click below
to view Jubilee Allstars "please don't give up on me" directed by dMc click below
to view Tension "Tactics" directed by dMc click below
to watch Pet Lamb "Where did your plans go?" directed by Michelle Spillane click below
KnockanStockan
Independent Music Festival is back!
July 24th, 25th, 26th
Blessington Lakes, Co Wicklow
Tickets onsale now through the website: www.knockanstockan.ie
65 euro 3 day's includes free camping.
Over 125 bands on 4 stages.
Check out the line up!
Have a great day and thanks for letting us post this...
CD's are available mail order from theracketeers. com From April the album will be out in record shops in Germany on Cannery Row Records and by then it will also be available digitally from the usual outlets such as iTunes, Amazon etc...
For €50 you can plug your gig, your album, your label, your band or even your mother if ya wanted - for a whole f**king month!!!
You can choose the ad to either go on-line or in the mag, or €75 quid for both.
We’ll not only put your block ad (50 x 30) in our mag and into the hands of 20,000 people but also on our home page which receives an average of 5,000 unique visitors each month.
See if Hotpress will do the same for ya. HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!
If you want no one to know about you please ignore our contact details below:
Hello there The Stars Are Underground and a happy new year!!, just wanted to let you know that we'll be playing a rootin-tootin session down stairs in Whelans of Wexford street this friday night, doors at 8 and all for a recession busting €10 only (ignore the whelans website) We'd love to see ya'll there
