Monday, October 10, 2005


Well, I expected DIG! to be a lot funnier than it turned out to be. I also expected The Dandy Warhols to come out of it a lot worse than they do. Wrong on two counts straight away. It’s a much darker piece than I imagined, quite depressing actually. Never having been a fan of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, this sort of underpins all of the shortcomings I figured their records had. Of course there were flashes of accidental sonic brilliance but ultimately this paisley underground with a shot of Altamont never really hit any spot for me. There’s a part in the movie where Anton Newcombe goes to disrupt a DW’s gig wearing rollerskates and a Davy Crockett-type bunnet. He looks ridiculous and he cannae go his skates. Actually he looks like Mike Nesmith on The Monkees. No dis intended. DIG! is worth seeing but couldn’t exactly be filed as entertainment. Jonestown is like Primal Scream with a performance artery bypass. I don’t feel that it’s kosher. Whatever modicum of talent Newcombe possesses, the destructive aspect towers over it. Anyone who has had to deal with an addictive personality will recognise that. The Dandys’ on the other hand went the corporate route and it seems to have worked for them. They’ve enjoyed a little more than the designated 15 minutes. Whether they deserve it is neither here nor there, they put in time at the office and made the compromises. The dying embers of the music industry, desperate to hang on to former glories can be felt choking all through the movie. It doesn’t make pleasant viewing or bode well for its future.