My first reaction was, oh my God, I cant handle it. Now, when I see people in young bands I tell them not to trust each other. This new sleekness doesn't make "Decline, Part III" any less a gritty tour de force, however. What happened in our Western world began 6,000 years ago in a gardena battle between two religions. This much can be said, nevertheless. Steven Hanseter: Im forty-nine years old, never been a smoker, never been drunk. For a lot of fans, the most exciting part of the Decline set is Part III, which documents homeless squatter-punks dealing with violence, addiction, and death. They offer definitive looks at turning points in underground music while showing both the upsides and downsides of fame often with a sense of humor. 1999-2021 PopMatters Media, Inc. All rights reserved. The documentary earned Spheeris the opportunity to direct This is Spinal Tap, which she turned down because she didn't want to mock her beloved heavy metal.She chose to make Decline II: The . Penelope Spheeris began her career in the early '80s with The Decline of Western Civilization, an aggressively political and energetic chronicle of the late '70s L.A. punk scene featuring bands like Black Flag, X, and The Circle Jerks. And then she was similarly inspired for 1998's The Decline of Western Civilization III when she saw packs of kids walking down sidewalks in L.A. "I looked at them and said, 'Jeez, that looks like a whole other punk movement going on,' so I stopped them and said, 'What's up with you? Home > > See David Wrights 2015 review at Memoria Press here. At the end of 1995 the band came to an end. Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox! Were doing gigs, we recorded a live album last year, and played some shows in Germany and Switzerland. Its cheaper to live in Vegas, and theres lots of work out here and a great club scene. Barrett was one of the great writers of philosophy and ideas for the intelligent layman. Each disc has its own collection of bonus features. Eyeball is also around but I see him a lot less. IBM had approached the Rolling Stones and said: Well give you guys two million dollars if you let us do the title [Voodoo Lounge CD-ROM]. the decline of western civilization collection. Spheeris has spent much of the past 20 years directing Hollywood fare such as "Wayne's World," and her professionalism shows in the synaptic firing of sound bites over visuals and the abrasive but seamless juxtaposition of scenes. Attempts were made to get me to include more of the mainstream, successful bands, but that wasnt really what interested me. We were the number-three video with I Hate Kissing You Goodbye in September 1991, but right around then Nirvana released Smells Like Teen Spirit. User Reviews. Then, in the early nineties, I got this job, via my friend Bruce Kirkland who had a multimedia company called Second Vision. It continued to dominate the cultural discussion for years after its publication. The arrival of "The Decline of Western Civilization Collection" as a pristine extras-filled box set from Shout Factory this week is to budding punks what a new "Star Wars" movie is to . We found all the complete original interviews, additional live performances, re-edited them, cleaned up the film, added commentaries And thats whats coming out.. Western civilization refers to the art, literature, culture, and enduring ideas that emerged from the eastern Mediterranean basin in the centuries before the common era, that developed in myriad forms through the Middle Ages, and that ultimately took modern shape after the Renaissance. 3. With Myke Chambers, Stephen Chambers, Eyeball, Flea. fascinating. I wouldnt have changed it for nothin in the world. But not everybody's rock . I know. And that has kind of evolved into my current band, Spiders And Snakes, where weve really embraced our seventies roots. No one will be interested, studio executives told her. Here are three that help explain what is happening with our culture. The Metal Years, and Decline of Western Civilization Part III, a soul-crushing documentation of the gutter punk lifestyle of homeless teenagers in the 90s. My hair started getting longer, I wore leather pants, bracelets, eyeliner and all that, but I liked a good nights sleep and drinking orange juice at breakfast. I wasnt sure, at the end of Chriss interview, that I even had an interview but, you know, it wasnt me that gave him the vodka. As stand-alone documents, they respectively capture the nascent aggression of California hardcore, the poofed-hair pomp of Hollywood heavy metal and the squalor of life as a gutter punk. A punk named Stevie dies in a fire at a building where he's squatting; another, Squid, is killed, allegedly by his girlfriend, Spoon. Being on stage in Tuff was a licence to kill, as far as getting girls. She means it, man, and the saddest part is that she's . I asked Anna to come work for me because I needed help with some other things with our life here and she said, I will come to work for you but only if the first thing we do is put the Decline DVDs out,' Spheeris recalled. Its like, youre stealing my identity. You just point a camera at him and off he goes. Government corruption and . It is the third film of a trilogy by Spheeris depicting life in Los Angeles at various points in time. But I noticed that Metal Edge was listing contact details for artists by email. It was just me not wanting to do it and preferring to do other things and then Anna coming to me and saying, Mom, youve gotta do it.'. Shellenberge agreed. The mother-daughter duo are now working together on a fourth Decline film, which Spheeris said is still about punk, but also involves another kind of music. Part III arrives with additional interviews with the kids, some behind-the-scenes footage, and a longer version of the conversation with Red Hot Chili Peppers bass player Flea. I dont have the budget. So I agreed to do the interview. Get The Latest IndieWire Alerts And Newsletters Delivered Directly To Your Inbox. Filmmaker Penelope Spheeris looks back as her L.A. rock trilogy readies itself for a box-set reissue. The movie got so much publicity that it couldnt have hurt anybodys careers. Western civilisation is a similarly slippery concept. The Decline of Western Civilization includes never-before-seen footage, new interviews, and even performances that didnt make the original cut. She did her films justice. The collection, which has been restored using 2K technology and includes commentary from Dave Grohl, extended interviews and more, marks the first time the films have been made available officially on DVD. It was heartbreaking, really, she said. And thats the part also that really upset me.. And we faked the spilling of the orange juice. We did do an Odin reunion in 2003, played a Monsters Of Rock Cruise ship, and a bunch of other gigs, but I dont think wed do that again. But between their notorious on-screen appearance in a hot tub and the films release, the band had broken up, with guitarist Jeff Duncan going on to join LA metal linchpins Armored Saint, of which hes still a member. The Decline of Western Civilization Parts I + III plus Penelope Spheeris in Person! It is the third film of a trilogy by Spheeris depicting life in Los Angeles at various points in time. A disturbing social commentary on homeless . People really remember the movie, especially Chris Holmes drinking the vodka in the pool, and the guy from Odin sitting in the hot tub saying that if he didnt get as big as Robert Plant he was gonna kill himself. Like hunting down a rare vinyl record or an out-of-print fanzine, scoring a copy of the 1981 documentary required a rabid degree of dedication in exchange for street cred. That one cost five-hundred thousand. The film premiered at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Freedom of Expression Award. Muslims were introduced to modern Western philosophy during the time of Western colonization, when they were not emotionally or mentally ready to absorb it and were generally skeptical of anything Western. Mike Myers is incredibly talented but he was also unbelievably difficult to work with. The Asbury Revival, Emotionalism, and Group Psychology, 3 Books That Explain the Decline of Western Civilization, American Girl and the Historical Nostalgia Trap, Attentiveness as Service: The Virtue of Noticing, Not Your Schools Reading List 8: Adventures, Spies, and More for Young Boys. Of all the bands to emerge from the Sunset Strip of the 80s, few had as many future superstars as London members of Guns N Roses and Cinderella passed through. I said, 'I am Penelope.' I do wish where was a little more about Part III. Elektra kept us on the road. It was screened at the Cannes Film Festival and the Chicago Underground Film Festival, where it received a jury award. At that point my answer was, DVD is dead, its too late.'. "I had to grow my hair out." That was difficult, because Nadir was hungry to have one of those heavy metal record deals, but chasing deals by trying to prove how metal you are wasnt where I wanted to be at. While the Los Angeles punk scene comes across gritty and raw, The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years, depicts a scene that is bloated, almost a caricature, and, in 1988, was only a few short years from imploding and collapsing in on itself. After a few weeks the club was packed. The sequence with Ozzy, thats not really his house. But then I saw Mtley Cre on the Shout At The Devil tour and Van Halen on the 1984 tour. Sure, the film gave London a huge push. I still play a lot with Spiders And Snakes, but I have a medical condition, Parkinsons, which makes it hard to control your muscles. Movie Info. Roberts / November 7, 2016. But eventually, as the Sunset Strip's version of metal ascended, she realized she had the makings of a sequel 1988's The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years. God instructed Adam to obey his Word . 3 Imperial incompetence and chance could be added to the list. Thats why I went to Chicago and played with the guys in [industrial band] Pigface. With the box set slated to come out on June 30th, the director selected 10 clips from all three Decline of Western Civilization films and explained what they meant to her in the pages that follow. In the late 1990s it was released on CD as well. Starting decades ago, many people, especially in the universities, lost faith in the Western civilization narrative. I went online and googled "eugene decline of western civilization". I couldnt see any point in sitting round writing the same thing again. I found the clip! Takes on Hollywoods Bias Against Women Directors (and Women Directors Respond). She put us in the movie and it absolutely put us on the map. Germs singer Darby Crash appears on the soundtrack album cover. You poured over the footage of the Germs, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, and more, noting how they lived, how they dressed, the fuck you attitude they flaunted by their very existence. The Decline of Western Civilization's third installment features the LA hardcore punk scene of the 1990s. It was accurate. Global intensive and extensive human economic activity in the context of accelerating debt are identified as major causal factors precipitating decline. I went to school with the guys from Alice In Chains. Filmmaker Penelope Spheeris looks back as her L.A. rock trilogy readies itself for a box-set reissue. Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. Hitting the streets in 1981, the original Decline of Western Civilization dove head first into the whirling mosh pit of the Los Angeles hardcore punk scene. by Leor Galil June 26, 2015. Most classicists believe that a combination of factors including Christianity, decadence, the metal lead in the water supply, monetary trouble, and military problems caused the Fall of Rome. Key Scene 2: Darby Crash and girlfriend Michelle laugh about finding the dead body of a house painter. "I'm an abortion that couldn't get paid for." We participated in all of that stuff that was going on. "If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would . Many of the film . The third film, The Decline of Western Civilization III (1998), chronicles the gutter punk lifestyle of homeless teenagers in the late 1990s. Like many of the bands featured in The Decline Of Western Civilization Part II, Odin were already legends in their own minds by the time the film crew arrived. Let's talk about this trend. I dont know what I was thinkin. Blooms tour de force recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. They were looking for a David Lee Roth, Vince Neil type, which I was. All those years later, the films remains a rite of passagerequired viewing materialfor new generations interested in punk rock, including Foo Fighters front man Dave Grohl, who was such a fan that he got in touch with Fox and volunteered to record the DVD commentary. I made this video to explore what happened to the bands that feature prominently in the cult film The Decline of Western Civilisation Part ll: The Metal Year. I'm gonna make The Decline Part Three,' she recalls. The promotional poster for The Decline (and the record cover of the soundtrack album) featured a close-up frame of Germs singer Darby Crash supine on stage with his eyes closed. "In a dying civilization, political prestige is the reward not of the shrewdest politician, but of the man with the best bedside manner. And if Ive left anything behind when Im dead, its a document that a lot of people should know about., READ MORE: A.C.L.U. Id never written my mom a letter. As Ipsos Mori's Social Research Institute reports: "The assumption of an automatically better future for the next generation is gone in much of the west.". I didnt want to do it because I knew it would be painful. The film was ostensibly a followup to her first documentary, 1981's The Decline of Western Civilization, which focused on an earlier Los Angeles scene, the punk of the late 70s and early 80s. I love you, Chris.. Essaying the pop culture that matters since 1999. There used to be a lot books about the decline of the West. But now that we are well on our way to everything these writers warned us about, we dont hear that expression much anymore. Musicians interviewed include Keith Morris (Black Flag, Circle Jerks) and Flea (Fear, Red Hot Chili Peppers). Faster Pussycat broke up in 1993, because the whole scene had changed. These are their stories, in their own words. This summer were going to ride our motorbikes down to Florida together.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvEa_IFt9yg. Taime Downe: When Faster Pussycat started, Mtley and Ratt had already taken off, and newer bands like Poison were playing the Strip. Its not the taste that turns me off, its what it does to you. I spent my own money on it and I couldnt get it released, you know, without a gun to my head to give up the rights to the other ones. Ideas Have Consequences, by Richard Weaver. Four years ago I told my daughter Anna that I wanted her to come and work for me. Brought up in her fathers travelling carnival, Penelope Spheeris was the ideal person to turn the camera on the three-ring circus that was the 80s/90s Sunset Strip scene. Some days I cant get to rehearsals. But I like that it's done. By the time The Cathouse was up and running we were off, constantly touring. There is no future in mind for anyone here. 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