AP Film Studies: Idol Chatter

The filth and fury of Kill Your Idols.

MOMENT OF TRUTH: Art-punk band Liars in Scott Crary's 2004 documentary.
By AP KRYZA

Ten years ago, director Scott Crary unleashed Kill Your Idols, a documentary that dove deep into New York's sweaty underground to chart the evolution of the punk and no-wave movements. 

Shot, compiled and edited by Crary on borrowed (or stolen) equipment, the film features archival footage and interviews with ’70s-era bands like Suicide, Theoretical Girls, and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, in addition to groups they influenced, including Sonic Youth, Swans and Liars. From there, it moves into a discussion of the bands’ legacies—and, naturally, older artists whining about the soullessness of modern music. 

With the movie currently touring indie theaters ahead of a DVD reissue—it hits the Clinton Street Oct. 19-23—WW spoke with Crary about the film's enduring appeal.

 

WW: The film talks a lot about musical legacy. What about the film's legacy?

Scott Crary: I'm a bit baffled the issues are still so relevant. I did think there would be a topical expiration date.

 

You were in your mid-20s. Was it overwhelming to meet these artists?

I perfected an effective interview technique early on: I'd feign naiveté. I'd play dumb. It baits their vanity. It makes them arrogant. And when people are arrogant, they're being honest. So even if I was chuffed to have Swans' Michael Gira sitting at my kitchen table or Teenage Jesus' Lydia Lunch ringing me at 2 am, my little strategy forbid me from ever letting on to the fact.  

 

In the film, older musicians complain about the new generation. Is this a cycle?

Culture does seem to have stagnated. It's bizarre we're all still sitting around brooding to the Doors or even to Joy Division, like it's got even the remotest rebellious edge left. Imagine Jim Morrison sitting around obsessively engaging with culture that's 40 or 50 years old like it's still innovative.

 

Many older bands express frustration with the preening and the manufactured image of modern artists. Didn't they do the same?

It's a question of will. Are you in control of the preening and role playing? Is it empowering you, or are you being puppeteered by some fashionable obedience or corporate co-opting? Lunch and a lot of the no-wave musicians were imbued with the wisdom—and neuroses—of genuine trauma. There's the divine madness in them. When Suicide's Alan Vega sneered, you might have actually found yourself bloodied shortly thereafter. You sure as hell wouldn't reach for your iPhone to Instagram and tag his #antics. You'd feel a little intruded upon, which is precisely how all the best art should make you feel.   


About modern acts, Lunch says, "There's nothing important that they're doing."

I think Lydia says those things out of compassion. She's calling them to arms. Telling them they're capable of something more profound…for their sake, and for the sake of their audiences.


Also Showing: 

  1. Speaking of groundbreaking music from the ’70s, that era also gave us the Talking Heads, who in turn gave us the best concert film ever made, 1984’s Stop Making Sense. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 9 pm Friday, Oct. 17.
  1. Dario Argento’s masterpiece Deep Red compiles all his trademarks—a hauntingly jazzy score by Goblin, nightmare color schemes, balletically filmed murder and fever-dream pacing—into a gloriously macabre mosaic. 5th Avenue Cinema. 7:30 pm Friday, Oct. 17. Free.
  1. With Twin Peaks’ impending return, now’s the time to catch up on David Lynch’s battier works, such as the polarizing Lost Highway. 5th Avenue Cinema. 7 and 9:30 pm Friday-Saturday, 3 pm Sunday, Oct. 17-19.
  1. David Cronenberg’s 1986 take on The Fly might be one of the grossest body-horror flicks ever, but the Vincent Price-starring 1958 original does a tremendous job of instilling dread with little more than a dude in a gigantic insect head. Academy Theater. Oct. 17-23.
  1. In Gremlins 2: The New Batch, director Joe Dante threw out the small-town horror of the original for a rollicking satire of big media. So like Network, but with more green-monster-on-executive fucking. Laurelhurst Theater. Oct. 17-23.
  1. No Halloween season is complete without the joy of introducing a first-timer to The Shining and ruining their sleep for the next week. Hollywood Theatre. 6:30 pm Saturday, Oct. 18.
  1. 1922’s Nosferatu gets live, original orchestration. Whitsell Auditorium. 7:30 pm Sunday, Oct. 19.
  1. Repressed Cinema unearths two films by ’70s schlockmaster Andy Milligan, The Body Beneath and Guru the Mad Monk. Expect low-budget blood, monsters, sex and other beautiful things. Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm Tuesday, Oct. 21.

WWeek 2015

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