NEWS

Germs Movie ‘What We Do Is Secret’ Screens In L.A.

If you’re in L.A. this weekend and interested in checking out a flick about one of the most effed up dudes in punk rock history (which means he was really effed up), then head over to the Los Feliz 3 Friday and Saturday. They’re holding a couple special screenings of “What We Do Is Secret,” a biopic about the legendary punk band The Germs and their extraordinarily disaffected lead singer Darby Crash.

Crash founded the group in 1977 with his friend Pat Smear (later of Nirvana and Foo Fighters). They couldn’t really play their instruments at first, but gained a good deal of attention all the same (this tends to happen when your singer likes to cut himself on stage). After three extremely influential years, during which they released one studio album, the band fell apart in 1980 after Crash overdosed on heroin as part of a suicide pact—all of which is documented in the film. Fun stuff, right? This weekend, the cast and surviving members of the group will be attending the evening screenings at the Los Feliz 3. Watch the trailer below…

The ‘Unwritten’ Documentary Of The Clash’s Joe Strummer

The Clash (l to r): Topper Headon, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Joe Strummer

Before MTV and Clear Channel radio made punk rock about as dangerous as a box of kittens, there was The Clash, a group so raw and in your face (pause X 2) that their own label refused to release their first record because it wasn’t “radio friendly.” Last Friday marked the 32nd anniversary of their first show, and today comes the DVD release of an award-winning documentary on their lead singer Joe Strummer called The Future Is Unwritten.

Narrated through interviews with Strummer’s pals like Johnny Depp, Courtney Love and Melle Mel, Unwritten follows the self-proclaimed “punk rock warlord” from his childhood to his untimely death in 2002, and includes his theory (sure to have the Surgeon General going nuts) that people who don’t smoke shouldn’t be allowed to enjoy art made by cigarette smokers. Check the trailer for Unwritten after the jump.