So the new year has arrived - and possibly with hangover in tow - the perfect time to just hang (sorry) and maybe take in a movie or two. Let me suggest a couple of rock docs.

First up, The Future Is Unwritten, made by Julien Temple, responsible for other rock flicks like Glastonbury, Stones At The Max, and 3 Sex Pistols movies including a new one this year called There'll Always Be An England. While The Future Is Unwritten can be safely filed with the rest of the movies made about the rise and fall of the CLASH, it really focuses around Joe Strummer and quickly moves us thru his childhood and his time with his first real band, the 101'ers. From there, we're told of his first meeting with three other blokes - and the CLASH is born. The movie does a real good job keeping events in order with both historical footage interspersed with campfire interviews of folks that were in and out Strummers life. Its a rock cliche, but Strummer was a tortured soul, trying to come to grips with his band becoming HUGE worldwide all while not seeming like a "sell-out" to his peers. After the CLASH finally collapes, we see him bounce around and become kind of a gypsy, all while realizing he has become an "adult" and is responsible for a family. Its then he really falls into a creative streak and starts making the music he had been hearing in his head for so long, sans the conflicts and creative differences he had been dealing with while with the CLASH. We lost Strummer too soon, and this is a fine tribute worthy of your 2 hours (another hour of uncut campfire interviews are bonus material).

In the last couple days, while on my new (Craigslist purchase) bike trainer burning off the several holiday meals consumed, I watched DIG. I thoroughly enjoyed this grittier look at how two bands, The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols, came to be. The two leaders of these bands, Anton Holcombe of the BJM and Courtney Taylor of the Dandys, are good friends at the start of the movie but we see their friendship weathered as one band (The Dandys) rises to stardom while the other (BJM) struggles to keep its members from punching one another out on stage. Its a well-worn tale of a band  (The Brian Jonestown Massacre) that could've been so much bigger if the front man and creative center could've kept it together. While The Dandy Warhols get signed to a major label (not always a good thing), we see the BJM blow it time and time again with the blame usually (and rightfully so) pegged on Anton Holcombe, a manic genius. The film contrasts BJM coming to blows at showcases that were set up by friends in the music industry to help Holcombe get his band signed by a major label while The Dandy Warhols take control of their own destiny (ie: not content with the job Capitol records had been doing to promote them) and become a HUGE band in the UK while carving their niche here in the states. Even after BJM gets a deal with the independent but important TVT imprint (the house Trent Reznor built), we see Holcombe squander the gift of a brand new personal recording studio and become unable to finish the album he's supposed to be making as he becomes a smack addict (yep, cliche rears its ugly head). I'm sure arguements have ensued about how BJM is the BETTER band and deserved success more, but its all in the eye of the beholder - The Dandys wanted it and pursued it and have since built their own label and put out another genre bending disc this year. Brian Jonestown Massacre continue to record and tour, and the continued availablity of all their early records (via the small Bomp label) is testiment to the huge underground following they built. A quick search of Amazon turned up all the important ones including Give It Back!, Their Satanic Majesties Second Request, Take It From The Man!, and the one TVT disc, Strung Out In Heaven. DIG....and Be Indie.