Again in 1996, younger filmmaker Ondi Timoner had an bold plan: She would observe 10 younger underground rock bands for one yr and movie them, as all of them reached for his or her respective grip on a brass ring of fame, success, and monetary solvency that—because of the world-altering arrival of Nirvana—all of the sudden appeared inside attain.
However because the venture, dubbed The Reduce, moved ahead, Timoner was drawn to the Brian Jonestown Bloodbath, a scuzzy gang of ’60s psych-pop revivalists from LA with two impossibly charismatic members—hyperprolific frontman Anton Newcombe and tambourine participant Joel Gion. And the BJM would not cease hyping a band from Portland, the Dandy Warhols, that trucked in a extra bubblegum glam sound, however have been a part of Newcombe’s foggy plan to foment a musical revolution.
So Ondi Timoner and her brother/ partner-in-film David Timoner determined to coach their cameras on the 2 musical acts as they made their play at mainstream success, following them each over the course of eight years. They captured the bands’ mutual appreciation flip right into a bizarre rivalry, because the Dandys started making waves and taking part in festivals in Europe, and the BJM continued to seek out new methods to self-destruct.
The ensuing movie Dig!, launched in 2004, was an unimaginable doc of the post-grunge musical panorama and a bleakly hilarious movie. For one, you get to look at the ego of the impossibly good-looking Dandys frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor go from comfortably massive to the dimensions of a small moon, as his band ranges up. On the opposite facet, we see the BJM’s prospects fairly actually collapse in a heap through onstage fights, altercations with viewers members, and Newcombe’s psychological well being spiral. Annoyed by the Dandys’ success, Newcome releases a 12-inch single with the chopping anthem “Not If You Had been the Final Dandy on Earth!” and sends the band a bundle that features shotgun shells with the names of the Dandys written on every one.
The popularity of Dig! was already sterling, with its many quotable strains—“You fuckin’ broke my sitar, motherfucker,” and “The Beatles have been on the market. I give it away”—changing into a part of the underground rock lexicon. The last word stamp of approval got here from each Taylor-Taylor and Newcombe publicly condemning the movie as pure sensationalism. (Taylor-Taylor might need a leg to face on if he hadn’t served because the movie’s narrator.)
Dig! is terrific and didn’t should be improved upon, however by some means, Ondi Timoner has carried out simply that with Dig! XX. Timed to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the unique movie’s launch, this super-sized model of the documentary provides 40 minutes of footage and new contextualizing voiceover from Gion—the aforementioned tambourine participant.
Outdoors of an eye-roll-inducing intro from Dave Grohl, the recent materials is unbelievable, including additional layers of hilarity and melancholy to the story. Timoner intercuts an unique clip of Taylor-Taylor badmouthing the group’s former drummer, Eric Hedford, for leaving the group with a brand new interview with Hedford rebutting every spurious remark. We additionally get classic footage of Newcombe, with a straight face and big pupils, insisting that he had telepathically collaborated on a track with Charles Manson.
Nonetheless, essentially the most essential addition to Dig! XX is a coda that fills in what occurred to each bands following the movie’s preliminary launch. Timoner touches on the post-BJM lives of a number of members and provides a nod to Dandys keyboardist Zia McCabe’s present, secondary profession as a realtor, however not a lot else has modified. Newcombe has gone on to reside a cushty, drug-free life in Berlin and continued to launch copious quantities of BJM music, however he additionally destroyed one other lineup of bandmates after clocking then-guitarist Ryan Van Kriedt within the head with a guitar onstage in Melbourne in 2023.
The great thing about Dig!, both in its unique kind or this amped-up one, is that your curiosity in both band isn’t needed so that you can discover the humor and pathos in it. The hubris on show all through—be it a shirtless Taylor-Taylor marching across the streets of New York, griping in regards to the main label system, or the admission that Newcombe blew cash meant to ferry the BJM to an business showcase on sitars—is universally fascinating. Whether or not they’re hovering or crashing, you gained’t need to miss a second of the journey.
Dig! XX screens at SIFF Movie Middle beginning Saturday, January 26.
This assessment was initially printed in our sister paper, Portland Mercury.
