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2. Revenge of the Mekons
Year: 2013
Director: Joe Angio
Revenge of the Mekons is the story of a band that simply won’t stop playing. Founded in 1977 by a group of British art students with limited musical experience,The Mekons have been stubbornly chugging along for nearly 40 years without taking a break—an achievement for any band, popular or underground.
Along the way, they released some of the most highly lauded records in punk history and demonstrated that the punk spirit cannot die even as the genre faded from the mainstream's view. This documentary chronicles everything from the band’s earliest demos to their most recent experiments—check this one out if you appreciate great musicianship and the triumph of the collective spirit.
3. Fresh Dressed
Year: 2015
Director: Sacha Jenkins
Fashion and hip-hop have always been intertwined—think Biggie’s COOGI sweaters, Pharrell’s oversized hat, or Kanye West sitting front row at NYFW. Fresh Dressed is a documentary that considers how deep that relationship really runs.
The verdict? In the film’s trailer, Kanye puts it best: “Being fresh” in hip-hop “is more important than having money.” Even haute couture can’t ignore the style influence of artists like Pharrell, Sean Combs, A$AP Rocky, and Marc Ecko, all of whom are interviewed for the documentary.
If nothing else, the film is also a way to get to know director Sacha Jenkins. The NYC native is a former Rolling Stone journalist and music editor of Vibe, producer behind 50 Cent: The Origin of Me and other TV programs, and performer in his own rock group. Oh, and he also went to the same junior high school as Nas, who produced the documentary.
4. Austin to Boston
Year: 2015
Director: James Marcus Haney
Music photographer and filmmaker Marcus Haney started his career sneaking into music festivals—over 50 of them, to be exact—for his debut documentary No Cameras Allowed. Haney’s latest film leaves viewers with the same exhilarating feeling of being somewhere they shouldn’t—this time, the back of a band’s tour bus.
For Austin to Boston, Haney follows four bands (Ben Howard, The Staves, Nathaniel Rateliff, and Bear’s Den) and their Volkswagen buses on a two-week cross-country tour. The 3,000-mile trip offers lots of opportunities for unique footage: you’ll see the band members set off fireworks, sleep in campgrounds and shitty hotels, screw up navigation and pretend to be a car when they’re craving drive-thru Whataburger. It’s fun, charming, and above all, satisfies every music fan’s childhood dream to tour as a band on the open road.
5. Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton: This Is Stones Throw Records
Year: 2014
Director: Jeff Broadway
Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton: This Is Stones Throw Records is like the litmus test for hip-hop fans: strewn with obscure references and inner-circle stories, only true hip-hop devotees will absorb its full impact.
While not everyone may know the entire story behind legendary hip-hop label Stones Throw Records, those who do will know it got started with Peanut Butter Wolf (Chris Manak) in 1996, and went on to sign the likes of Madlib, J Dilla, and MF DOOM.
The documentary doesn’t leave anything out in telling the history of the now 20-year-old label, from how the label’s interns (like Flying Lotus) rose to fame, to chocolate shrooming stories and the making of Madlib and DOOM's infamous Madvillainy.
Add on exclusive interviews with Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, Questlove, Talib Kweli, and Tyler the Creator, and you’ve got a film that’ll hold the attention of even the most knowledgeable hip-hop addict.
6. Jaco
Year: 2014
Director: Paul Marchand and Stephen Kijak
It is not an exaggeration to call Jaco Pastorius the greatest bass player who ever lived. In fact, it is widely agreed upon that he was the most influential, not just to other bassists but to popular music in general. Students of jazz study his intricate counterpoint and dynamic techniques, and fans of hip-hop will recognize his grooves, sampled countless times by producers old and new.
Jaco Pastorius is well-known. The details of his troubled life, however, are not. Produced chiefly by Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, Jaco is a biographical look at the life and death of the legendary musician and features interviews from the likes of Sting, Flea, Bootsy Collins, and Joni Mitchell. Check out this documentary to learn about the man who paved the way for artists like Flying Lotus and Thundercat.
7. The Other One: The Long Strange Trip of Bob Weir
Year: 2014
Director: Mike Fleiss
Before there were Juggalos or rave kids, there were Deadheads. If you’ve never met one, look a bit more carefully—the Dead were so big in the '60s and '70s that at least one of your friend’s parents had to be involved in the scene. In The Other One: The Long Strange Trip of Bob Weir, director Mike Fleiss tells the story of Bob Weir, the oft-outshined rhythm guitarist of The Grateful Dead.
By shifting the focus away from bandleader Jerry Garcia, Fleiss manages a unique and unexplored perspective on the band that helped shape American counterculture.
8. Janis: Little Girl Blue
Year: 2015
Director: Amy Berg
The pop music industry has a terrible habit of tokenizing, sexualizing, and commodifying the women that work within it. So many strong female voices have been dampened by the sexism systemically embedded in an industry that has historically relied on record sales as its primary source of revenue. However, as the streaming model establishes itself as the de facto standard for music distribution, there are perhaps more women than ever before consciously subverting the expectations laid out for them by labels and consumers alike.
These artists are picking up a thread laid out by performers before them like Amy Winehouse, Björk, Joan Jett, and, most importantly, Janis Joplin. Janis: Little Girl Blue is an epistolary journey through the painfully short life and career of America’s first anti-pop idol.
Directed by Academy-Award-nominated director Amy J. Berg and narrated by alt-folk artist Cat Power, this film is a must-watch for any music lover with an awareness of gender politics. Though Janis may be gone, her attitude, style, and voice will never be forgotten—Janis: Little Girl Blue makes sure of that.
9. Downloaded
Year: 2013
Director: Alex Winter
It’s getting harder and harder to imagine a time when a music streaming service would be seen as something new. Downloaded takes us back to those seemingly ancient times by tracking the creation of file-sharing service Napster. Founders Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker walk us through the history of the music library-sharing network, from its creation in a college dorm room to its thorny legal battles with the likes of Dr. Dre and Metallica.
In the process, director Alex Winter sheds light on the revolutionary impact of web streaming on the music industry, drawing commentary from Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, Sony Music Chairman Don Ienner, Mike D of the Beastie Boys, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, and other influencers. As the debate over the legality and ethics of streaming rages on today, it makes sense to look back to where the whole thing started—and Downloaded is the perfect way to do it.
10. The Art of Organized Noize
Year: 2016
Director: Quincy Jones III
Everyone from André 3000 to Metro Boomin' comes out for The Art of Organized Noize. The story of that one name is the story of modern hip-hop in the South—the combined talents of Rico Wade, Sleepy Brown, and Ray Murray were responsible for a whole new era of music production.
They did it from a place called "The Dungeon," converting a crawl space into a hotbed of musical innovation for artists they appropriately called their family. They spurred the careers of Outkast, Goodie Mob, and TLC to new heights, and it put Organized Noize on a music industry rollercoaster they're still riding.
11. Frank
Year: 2014
Director: Lenny Abrahamson
Frank is the story of a band's slow, steady disintegration. But it's a charming destruction—Michael Fassbender plays the titular character, a bandleader literally masked in papier-mâché.
A new keyboardist joins the band in muddy, mossy Ireland. They spend the next year recording their theremin-heavy album—tensions rise in heated, cartoonish fashion, but you end up really caring about the characters along the way.
Frank discovers the internet and is wooed into a trip to South by Southwest. It becomes a holy grail, but delusions of internet fame start to crumble almost immediately upon arrival—the quartet becomes a trio, then a duo.
Fassbender's performance is nothing short of incredible—he manages to be funny without showing his face, and Maggie Gyllenhaal is fantastic as the demonically vicious Clara.
