Where Are You, Jay Bennett?

Wilco’s Jay Bennett rocks his own documentary from 

directors Gorman Bechard & Fred Uhter

WHERE ARE YOU, JAY BENNETT?, a feature-length documentary on the renown multi-instrumentalist and recording studio savant, will have its BluRay and pay-per-view release on April 19th, 2022 from MVD Entertainment, and four days later a very special Record Store Day release featuring the film on DVD along with Bennett’s last two albums Kicking at the Perfumed Air & Whatever Happened I Apologize available for the first time on vinyl.

As a member of Wilco, Bennett was a large part of the genius behind their three seminal albums. He joined the band prior to the recording of their second album, Being There, and subsequently co-wrote most of Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot with Jeff Tweedy (and has been called the sonic architect of both albums). Bennett was also instrumental in the recording of the Mermaid Avenue/Woody Guthrie sessions with Billy Bragg, and went on to a critically acclaimed solo career before dying tragically at the age of 45.

WHERE ARE YOU, JAY BENNETT? is one of the most intimate portraits of a musician ever filmed. Using a mixture of audio interviews with Jay, never-before-seen performance footage, animation, and extensive interviews with those who knew him best, directors Gorman Bechard and Fred Uhter give an extraordinary account of this fascinating artist’s life. We get a no-holds-barred history of how Jay Bennett helped create one of the greatest rock trilogies of all time, and an honest look at the other side of the narrative that had been created in the media once Bennett had been asked to leave the band.

“At the time of his firing, Jay’s behavior was cast in a negative light. But there are always two sides to every story.” Bechard explains. “In this film, we show just how instrumental Jay was to Wilco’s brilliance. How Bennett and Tweedy together truly were one of the greatest collaborative teams in rock history, but also how they were both perfectionists who needed to push boundaries. Ultimately, that was simply not sustainable in a band setting.”

The 104-minute film, funded completely through KickStarter, is an insight into a piece of American musical history exploring Bennett’s life, his influences, his art, his obsessions, his vices, music, recording, and, of course, Wilco and their unfortunate split.

“The animation by Ed Gendron brings to life these amazing interviews with Jay,” Uhter says. “To be able to hear his voice, to have Jay himself tell his side of the story, talk about how records were made, and what role he played… it’s a priceless piece of music history.”

Bechard is the filmmaker behind 2011’s COLOR ME OBSESSED, A FILM ABOUT THE REPLACEMENTS, which The Village Voice called the “rock version of Rashomon,” and Rolling Stone dubbed one of “The Seven Best New Music Documentaries of the Year.”

For more information please visit:

www.WhatWereWeThinkingFilms.com 

www.JayBennettDocumentary.com 

Who Is Lydia Loveless???

"Who Is Lydia Loveless"

on DVD November 24th 

Proof positive the future of rock & roll is alive and well in 

a brilliant 5-foot tall spitfire from Columbus, Ohio

Lydia Loveless documentary and limited-edition live vinyl-only EP 

from Color Me Obsessed director Gorman Bechard 

Wonder who Lydia Loveless is no more!

Filmmaker Gorman Bechard, who has chronicled three of the most influential bands in the history of rock and roll with documentaries about The Replacements, Archers of Loaf, and Hüsker Dü's Grant Hart is turning his camera towards the future with his new film, Who is Lydia Loveless? The feature-length documentary follows Lydia Loveless and her band into the studio as they record their album Real. Along with a chaotic super-charged home-town live performance shot specifically for the film and extensive interviews with Loveless and her band, the rock-doc will delve into the realities, financial and otherwise, of a working musician on the brink of major success. It will examine what it's like to be a woman in the mostly sexist rock & roll world, dealing with cellphones in your face as you sing a heartbreaking tune, piracy, streaming services, and of course answer the question: Who Is Lydia Loveless? "Lydia is the future of rock and roll," director Bechard explains. "She straps you onto an emotional roller coaster of love, lust, drunken mistakes, a little stalking, a lot of heartbreak, an you're left breathless, stunned, happy to have taken the ride." Music journalists from SPIN to Rolling Stone have likewise raved, with her albums always finding their way onto many year-end Best Album lists. "I'm excited to work with Gorman," says Loveless. "He's very passionate about music and about the true meaning and spirit of rock and roll."

The vinyl release, Live From the Documentary Who is Lydia Loveless?, is an exclusive Record Store Day release featuring 6 tracks recorded at a hometown performance in Columbus, Ohio.  Bechard's three previous music docs have all won critical praise. Rolling Stone called Color Me Obsessed, A Film About The Replacements one of "The Seven Best New Music Documentaries of the Year."  The Seattle Times raved about the "raw power and mesmerizing hooks" in his Archers of Loaf concert film What Did You Expect? While Every Everything: The Music, Life & Times Of Grant Hart was labeled "beautifully sad" by The Village Voice.  He is currently in post production on documentaries about Wilco's Jay Bennett, as well as newly-signed Bloodshot Records recording artist Sarah Shook and the Disarmers. Bechard is also the filmmaker behind the ASPCA-award-winning animal welfare documentary A Dog Named Gucci. Who is Lydia Loveless? will be released on an extra-filled DVD and streaming services from MVD Entertainment Group on Friday, November 24th, 2017. Live From the Documentary Who is Lydia Loveless? (which includes a copy of the DVD) will be available as a Record Store Day exclusive on that same day. For more information please visit: www.WhoIsLydiaLoveless.com   Pre-order the DVD at MVDshop.com or on Amazon Trailer: https://vimeo.com/149648442  # # #

Who Will Toss My "Salad Days" ?

Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC (1980-90) coming to DVD on September 18th, streaming now on Vimeo The critically acclaimed documentary chronicling the rise of punk rock in Washington, DC  Check out an exclusive clip at IndieWire and the trailer below It's about punk, a whole decade of it, now you get why I posted this...

Scott Crawford and Jim Saah's Salad Days: A Decade of Punk In Washington, DC (1980-90) has been selling out screenings in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, Chicago, and more. The documentary film that examines the early DIY punk scene in the Nation's Capital. It was a decade when seminal bands like Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Government Issue, Scream, Void, Faith, Rites of Spring, Marginal Man, Fugazi, and others released their own records and booked their own shows-without major record label constraints or mainstream media scrutiny.  Contextually, it was a cultural watershed that predated the alternative music explosion of the 1990s (and the industry's subsequent implosion). Thirty years later, DC's original DIY punk spirit serves as a reminder of the hopefulness of youth, the power of community and the strength of conviction. Director/writer Scott Crawford is a music journalist, musician, and graphic designer. As a teenager in the DC suburbs, he started a fanzine called Metrozine that documented much of what was happening in the DC hardcore punk scene in the 1980s.  "The DC punk music scene that I grew up with in the 1980s has always been a big part of who I am," says Scott. "I interviewed a lot of these bands for the first time over 30 years ago while doing a fanzine. Approaching them all again decades later offered a type of perspective and reflection that I wanted to capture in a film." Crawford was also quoted in both Dance of Days and Banned in DC - the two most definitive books on the early DC punk scene. In 2001, he launched Harp Magazine and served as its Editor-in-Chief for over seven years. Crawford also launched the online music portal Blurt in 2009. Serving as Director of Photography, Saah is a native of Washington, DC who has worked professionally in photography and video for over 25 years. He has shot for a variety of publications and websites ranging from the Washington Post to Rolling Stone. He's also an experienced videographer whose credits range from union organizing films to music documentaries. Recent films he has worked on include movies about the bands Wilco, Death Cab for Cutie, and Eddie Vedder. On a side note, OBEY and Shepard Fairey were heavily influenced by the DC hardcore scene. Shepard has used numerous DC hardcore legends such as Ian Mackaye of Minor Threat and Fugazi, Henry Rollins of State of Alert and Black Flag, and Bad Brains in his artwork. When hearing that Crawford and Saah were planning a West Coast release of their film, OBEY wanted to get involved. They created this T-shirt which is on sale now (along with other cool Salad Days merchandise)HERE. Quick Facts: * Salad Days reached its Kickstarter goal in 6 days. * Features never-before-seen photographs and performance footage of dozens of DC punk bands. * Interviews with Ian MacKaye, Henry Rollins, John Stabb, Thurston Moore, Dave Grohl, and others * Original score by guitarist Michael Hampton (SOA, Faith, Embrace, One Last Wish) DVD Pre-Order:  http://bit.ly/1T3e709 Blu-ray Pre-order:  http://bit.ly/1INahXL  Amazon:  http://amzn.to/1faxxTO