Using the No Wave bands showcased in Eno’s “No New York” compilation as a pivot, S.A Cary’s documentary “Kill Your Idols” investigates New York City’s art-punk scene, the tenuous generational connections between its past and future stars and its unflinching DIY ethos.
Starting with Suicide’s Martin Rev, Cary interviews the who’s who of No Wave from a chain smoking Glenn Branca through to a wonderfully cynical Lydia Lunch. The movie progresses chronologically with interviews from Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo through to the new guard of Liars and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Though these bands encapsulate 30 years of existence and rarely share any stylistic similarity, their common ground is locality and the belief in the redemptive power of music.
Though it’s a couple of years old I’m posting about “Kill Your Idols” now because for one week only Pitchfork TV is hosting the doco absolutely free for your viewing pleasure. So for those who haven’t seen it, I highly recommend you click this link. Prepare for some Strokes slagging, free form freak outs, and Karen O’s remarkably restricted vocabulary (like, you know). I watched it in one sitting at 2am two nights ago, got inspired, tried to record some sweet noise guitar straight into my MacBook, listened back to it, then deleted the file. I haven’t touched my guitar since. Did I mention I can’t play guitar at all? Maybe I should try and start a No Wave band.
