Justin Jackson – Rosetta: Audio/Visual

December 25, 2014 • self-released

I love that this exists. Not many bands get their own documentary, especially when they're not huge mainstream acts, and when one that's already one of your all-time favorite bands gets one it's fantastic. Audio/Visual is more or less a brief chronicle of the band's history, from their formation to the present day, as well as some insight into Translation Loss Records and the relationship between the two. As someone who's followed the band way on the outside for almost ten years, it's really neat to see how their timeline and their experiences were going during that time.

It's really interesting to see the breakup of a band from its label from both sides at once, and a bit sad as well, as it's clear both sides wanted to make things work but the business got in the way so much it tore everything apart. The last third of the film, where Rosetta is making The Anaesthete and stressing over if they will even be able to continue as a band, is a surprisingly tense section (even knowing how things went) and makes for great film. It was pretty cool to see some details about their lives outside of the band as well, and the interviewees get lots of opportunities to philosophize and talk about their personal feelings and experiences, giving the film a very personal and intimate feel at times.

If you've seen any metal documentary before, on a technical level there isn't much to surprise you here. Plenty of interviews with the members, their friends, and their label, all paired with some nice concert footage, in-studio footage, and some montages of scenes of Philadelphia and around the world as they tour. The use of stock footage—mostly old clips of manufacturing plants—was a really great way to add some atmosphere and personality to the story.

As far as indie documentaries go, this one is very well-made and does a great job of presenting its material, especially for a topic that's kind of niche. (Or maybe I just underestimate how big Rosetta has gotten, which is entirely possible.) Even to people who aren't familiar with the band, it still paints a great story of a band struggling to make ends meet while keeping their creative vision intact, something that anyone who's into music can appreciate.

Official site

Minor Threat – Live

1988 • Dischord Records

I often wish I'd been around in the early '80s to have experienced the hardcore punk scene as it flourished. Alas, I was born too late, and all I have is the albums and videos documenting what happened then. In 1988, Minor Threat put out one video of their concert at the 9:30 Club on June 23, 1983, followed by a DVD version in 2003 with a bit of extra footage. The video isn't mind-blowing or anything but it's definitely a fun and interesting look at punk days of yore.

The tape starts off with a very early show from 1980, with very grainy and muddled footage of only one track, "Minor Threat". It's an interesting thing to see (Ian MacKaye has hair!) but it's a poor rendition of the song, so nothing special to see here.

The real good stuff is in the second show from 1983, after the band had acquired a good fanbase in D.C.; yet the concert still has a real intimate feeling. MacKaye is very talkative and seems to know most of the audience by name, so his banter is pretty entertaining, like showing off how he lost weight or talking about a friend's car accident or giving out lost shoes. (It's more interesting than it sounds.) Despite all the craziness going on onstage—people jumping on and off, mostly—the guitarist and bassist keep themselves together and play really well (as does the drummer, but he doesn't have people jumping on him, it looks like). One of my favorite moments from this show is when MacKaye invites a random girl from the audience to sing the chorus of "Filler", it's oddly heartwarming.

The sound quality definitely isn't bad for the time and place; the guitar is a bit hard to hear sometimes but the rest of it is mixed well considering it definitely wasn't a very professional job (there are times when one of the cameras cuts out and we only get footage of the audience and worse audio). They play most of their best songs (although considering their small discography, they probably play most of their songs in general) so it's basically like a best-of runthrough. I also liked hearing some of their less-known ones that I don't listen to as often.

Sadly the video does drag a bit—after all, just watching a show is a lot less exciting than being there, so forty minutes of the same thing happening tends to get a bit boring after a while even if the songs are really good. It's a minor complaint, and it happens a lot with me when I'm watching concert videos, so it's not a big deal.

Unfortunately I only have seen the footage from the VHS version for some reason (you'd think people would be putting DVD rips on the Internet and not VHS rips, but there you have it). The DVD has an entire concert on it not seen on the tape plus interview material which I would really like to see; perhaps I will finally get a copy of that one day. Still, even though it's not the best concert video I've seen, and I'd rather listen to Minor Threat's studio output over this, it's still a really cool piece of punk history and fun to watch once or twice.

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