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Filmage: The Story of Descendents/All (Blu-ray)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Epitaph Records Review written by and copyright: James-Masaki Ryan (19th October 2015). |
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The Film
 “Filmage: The Story of Descendents/All” (2013) When thinking of “the most influential punk bands”, artists like The Clash, The Ramones, Sex Pistols, The Buzzcocks all come to mind for most. But there was one band from California that formed in 1977 to that created a signature sound and influenced countless bands with its original style and sound: Descendents. Their punk attitude was not about a middle finger to the system like many other bands, but songs about love, breakups, teen angst, food, and the simple things in life without a major agenda. They didn’t have the hair and leather jackets like the other punk bands out there. Their looks were nerdy, geeky, and plain with their iconic lead singer Milo Aukeman wearing glasses, band members wearing pretty much their plain clothes of t-shirts and jeans. But by “not” having a look and “not” having a sound or lyrics like others, they in fact made a sound that “outsiders” identified with. Their first 4 independent albums Milo Goes to College (1982), I Don't Want to Grow Up (1985), Enjoy! (1986), and All (1987) are considered classics, with every fan disagreeing on which is the best one. With the departure of Milo Aukeman, the band changed their lineup and also their name as “All”. All released a slew of albums independently, Allroy Sez (1988), Allroy's Revenge (1989), Allroy Saves (1990), Percolater (1992), and Breaking Things (1993) but none of them matched the success or acclaim of Descendents. They were signed to the major label Interscope in 1995 to release their album Pummel, although it did not do as well as hoped and they immediately left the label. In 1996 Descendents reformed to release a new album Everything Sucks, their first in 9 years which saw minor commercial success and cemented them back in the critical spotlight. Throughout the following years the members switched from playing as Descendents and All, with All releasing Mass Nerder (1998) and Problematic (2000) and Descendents releasing Cool to Be You (2004). But no matter what, All was always considered “The band that is NOT Descendents”, like the underdog or a side project even though that was not the intention. The first 4 minutes of the documentary film “Filmage” is a rapid fire basic history of Descendents and All, so it may leave you wondering, is there that much more to say in a 90 minute documentary about the band? And the answer is definitely “Yes”. First off, Descendents and All have always had 3 or 4 members for its lineup but altogether in its history Descendents has had 9 members in total and All has had 6 members in its history. The filmmakers were able to interview almost all the members for the film, with the exception of Descendents original guitarist Frank Navetta, who died in 2008, and second guitarist for Descendents Ray Cooper who declined, but appears in archival footage. The lineup changes are constant with the only member who has been with both bands through the entire run is drummer Bill Stevenson, starting Descendents at the age of 15, and as everyone says in the documentary, both bands are essentially led by Bill, the drummer which is a rare case in any band. Although “led” may not be the correct term since the songwriting is by every member, so not each member contributes not just musically as a player but also as a writer and artist, so Bill as the “backbone” of Descendents and All is a more appropriate title. Lead singer Milo Aukerman is essentially the face and image of Descendents with his black rimmed glasses and geeky look, as well as the inspiration for the “Milo” caricature featured on almost every album by Descendents. It was always known to the band that for him, studying science was his main focus in life more than music, and when Milo decided to quit the band in 1987 to concentrate on studying fulltime, to many it was the end of the band. As for the other members, for the first 4 albums there were 4 different bassists and 3 different guitarists so the lineup was consistently different, but with each new member bringing a little something to the band, rather than just a replacement musician. It was a big cause for celebration in 1996 with Milo’s return as well as their next reunion album in 2004. But those in-between years, the “other” band All just could not sustain the level of fandom of Descendents and that seriously hurt Bill especially, as he really put everything he had into the band’s sound, just as much as he did for Descendents. The fans just didn’t care or just didn’t know. Fans that knew yelled comments to their new lead singer “You’re not Milo!” (which All had 3 different vocalists in total over time). Others had no idea that All and Descendents were pretty much the same band under another name. There have been bands such as that in the past, like The Rolling Stones and Jamming With Edward, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Grinderman, but those were side projects that were experimenting with a different sound from the main band unlike Descendents and All. And it’s true, there is no such fan that will say “I prefer All more than Descendents”. There just isn’t one out there. But in defense, All did have some great albums and they had a great mascot to rival Milo with “Allroy”, although when their major label debut “Pummel” was released in 1995, the Allroy character didn’t appear on the cover, confusing fans even further if this was some other band named “All”. Though it should be noted their previous 2 albums also dropped Allroy from the cover as well. The band says one great thing that came from the major label deal was the money invested in building their own recording studio, The Blasting Room, which is still used today. The film goes through everything in a linear fashion with no stone unturned, from Frank destroying all his instruments and moving to Oregon, Tony being 34 when he joined the band when the others were still teens, Scott and Chad’s pressures of being new vocalists, the band members living in dirty deplorable environments, Bill’s near death experiences and him becoming extremely emotional talking about his father, and how the members moved from California to Missouri for financial and logistical reasons. It’s amazing that the band members have such affinity for each other, including members who were replaced and members who replaced others. It seems time makes everyone grow up, although ironically, the Descendents second album was entitled “I Don’t Want to Grow Up”. Besides the interview footage with the band members, there are interviews with other musicians: ones who were there when they were starting such as Mike Watt of The Minutemen, Joe Nolte of The Last, Keith Morris of Black Flag, and with artists that were inspired by the band such as Dave Grohl from Nirvana and Foo Fighters, Fat Mike of NOFX, Mark Hoppus of Blink 182, Mike Herrera of MxPx, Joey Cape of Lagwagon, Jim Lindberg of Pennywise, and also with various members of Bad Religion, Face to Face, Rise Against, and many more. Interspersed are archival footage from old VHS home videos, fan videotapes, vintage television appearances and music videos, as well as some creative animation sequences to bridge the gaps. Everything you ever wanted to know about Descendents and All is here, and it is one fascinating tale. Note: This is a region ALL (no pun intended) Blu-ray, playable on any Blu-ray player worldwide.
Video
The film is presented in 1.78:1 in 1080p in the AVC MPEG-4 codec. Interview segments shot in high definition look quite good for the most part with color and detail, but are not exactly consistent since the interview environments were completely different. The image looks good for the most part, but as expected the vintage footage looks pretty terrible on a 1080p screen. It shouldn’t be too faulted since that is how the footage looked and no remastering could make it look any better.
Audio
There are 2 soundtracks on the Blu-ray disc: English LPCM 5.1 English Dolby Digital 5.1 The lossless LPCM surround track sounds excellent, but almost unnecessary. Interview segments are all from the center speaker while the surrounds are used for the music. Since the music was originally recorded in stereo, it is evenly balanced in the left and right areas with surrounds being echoes of the left and right rather than a full duplicate of the left and right speakers. The music sounds great in lossless but loses a bit of the edge in the standard Dolby Digital track. It should be mentioned that the film starts automatically after the Blu-ray is inserted and defaults to the Dolby Digital track, so have the remote handy if you have a system capable of decoding the LPCM 5.1 track. There are optional English, French, Portuguese, Spanish subtitles for the main feature. The subtitles are in a white font and are quite small in size. There are some issues with the subtitle track: sometimes words are cut off and I did catch some minor misspelling such as “Cruz Records” being spelled “Cruise Records” in the English track. There is one portion in which fans are interviewed and the foreign language segments have burned in English subtitles.
Extras
"Bonus Cut" deleted scenes (49:06) There was a lot of footage shot for the movie that didn’t make it in the final film. Here is a compilation of interviews, archival footage, and some funny outtakes. 1.78:1 1080p, In English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo with no subtitles "The Lombardo Short" featurette (10:39) Tony Lombardo gets a little more extended screentime including talk about the TonyAll album and being older than everyone else while sitting in front of his vast movie and record collection. A little bonus with Tony performing “Suburban Home” acoustically. 1.78:1 1080p, In English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo with no subtitles "The Stevenson Monologues" featurette (9:39) Though Bill Stevenson got the most screentime in the film deservedly, here is more footage from his interview at The Blasting Room talking about everything from his relationships with the members, religion, and more. Also there is a funny “pee” moment. 1.78:1 1080p, In English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo with no subtitles "Filmage Liveage" (7:34) Footage of Descendents playing live proved that men in their 50’s can still rock as hard or even harder than kids half their age. In the short 7 minute 36 seconds they blast through “I’m the One”, “I Like Food”, “Bikeage”, and “I’m Not a Loser”. Too bad it’s only in 2.0 stereo sound. 1.78:1 1080p, In English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo with no subtitles Theatrical Trailer (2:19) 1.78:1 1080p, In English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo with no subtitles DVD Copy The DVD is region 0 NTSC, playable in any DVD player worldwide. It has the same extras content as the Blu-ray, just in standard definition and the sound in Dolby Digital 5.1. So what is missing? I'd love to have had a collection of music videos of Descendents and All, as there are clips shown in the documentary but not entirely. Also no commentary or input from the filmmakers. It must have been both exciting and also logistically difficult getting all the participants together. The extras focus on the music rather than the making-of the movie, unfortunately.
Packaging
The 2 discs are packaged in a standard Blu-ray case with inner artwork of Milo and Allroy together. On the Blu-ray disc itself is artwork of Milo and the DVD disc is artwork of Allroy.
Overall
“Filmage” is definitely one of the best and most fascinating music documentaries out there. It’s not a simple straightforward story of a few guys patting themselves on the back but of a group of young guys that were just having fun with music, unknowingly changing the face of the punk music scene and creating the influential pop punk sound. Hardcore fans will dig it, casual fans will be intrigued, and non-fans might even become fans after watching the film. Highly recommended to… All. “Enjoy!”
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