Gweek 022: The Fishbone Documentary

[Video Link] In this episode of Gweek, I interviewed Chris Metzler, the co-director and co-producer of the new documentary Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone. Chris co-directed another terrific documentary a few years ago called Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea, and I interviewed Chris about it here for Boing Boing's Get Illuminated podcast.

I like this new documentary just as much as their first. Variety says it "uses clever touches and resists self-pity in casting the band's misfortunes." The reviews in the media so far have been very positive.

If you live in Los Angeles, don't miss the screening that will include a Q&A with filmmakers and band at the Laemmle Sunset 5 on October 21st. See a list of all screenings here.

Everyday Sunshine is a documentary about the band Fishbone, musical pioneers who have been rocking on the margins of pop culture for the past 25 years. From the streets of South-Central Los Angeles and the competitive Hollywood music scene of the 1980's, the band rose to prominence, only to fall apart when on the verge of "making it."

Laurence Fishburne narrates Everyday Sunshine, an entertaining cinematic journey into the personal lives of this unique Black rock band, an untold story of fiercely individual artists in their quest to reclaim their musical legacy while debunking the myths of young Black men from urban America. Highlighting the parallel journeys of a band and their city, EVERYDAY SUNSHINE explores the personal and cultural forces that gave rise to California's legendary Black punk sons that continue to defy categories and expectations.

At the heart of the film's story is lead singer Angelo Moore and bassist Norwood Fisher who show how they keep the band rolling, out of pride, desperation and love for their art. To overcome money woes, family strife, and the strain of being aging Punk rockers on the road, Norwood and Angelo are challenged to re-invent themselves in the face of dysfunction and ghosts from a painful past.

Download Gweek 022 as an MP3 | Subscribe to Gweek via iTunes | Subscribe via RSS | Download single episodes of Gweek as MP3s

• [Hiland Hall]

  fishbone are about to do a live instore at Amoeba Music Hollywood in about 20 minutes…
  oh yeah…its streaming from their site Amoeba.com Also.

• [Guest]

  I saw them almost 20 years ago. With Phish. not joking. 

• [Genre Slur]

  Saw the Canadian premiere in April. Angelo came and did his thing, while Norwood and the rest of the guys stayed at the Ship and Anchor and drank. Awesome film.

• [hillx075]

  Probs my all time favorite band. Guess I *do* have something in common with Andrew Breitbart.
  http://www.dennismillerradio.com/b/Breitbart-Endorses-Fishbone/-320023056292289825.html

• [mypalmike]

  Saw them live just once back in the early 90′s.  One of the highest energy shows I’ve ever seen.  It’s too bad their records never came close to capturing their live sound or energy.

• [Joe Smith]

  Fishbone==Pricks.

  I loved them as a teenager.     Was thrilled when they came to my campus in the mid 90′s.     Moreso, I was lucky enough to be a doorman at our campus venue they played at.      They headlined with some psuedo-metal band called Biohazard or something like that.    Mid concert, the bands got into it with the staff over the venue’s no crowd-surfing rule (Insurance/licensing)..   They drew upon anti-authoritarian sentiments in the crowd basically incited them to riot against the staff.    Things got out of control..      And eventually Fisbone and Biohazard stood down, and so didthe crowd.       It was the 2nd worst event in 3 years of working door.      

  Very unenlightened to have a handful of men with a microphone incite a crowd of hundreds to riot against a dozen  $10/hr student workers.    Yea, fight the man!!

  F*** Fishbone.

  • [HandsomePete]

    Wow, that sounds oddly like a rock concert.

  • [ahmacrom]

    I saw them at the Volcano in the 90′s in Kitchener, Canada. The bass player got into a tiff with his girlfriend and when they got on stage, 2 songs into it, he started swinging a stand like a dervish. It hit and knocked out a young girl in the front row. (My friends girlfriend). Then he started destroying the sound system with his bass and the show is cancelled.  Really crazy night when the girls lawyer dad shows up and wants to take a piece of the bass player’s hide. Holding a bloodied cloth to her head and having the lead singer sit with us was surreal. But man do they have some tunes!

• [Godfree]

  They played at UC Santa Cruz (Porter College) in ’86, if I remember right. Right after Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. It was epic. Too bad about their later history; I guess the documentary could’ve been called “When Problems Arise.”

• [Smart E Pantz]

  Is it impolitic/inappropriate/impolite to say that I have an extremely RARE, awesome, original, really nicely silkscreened concert poster announcing a Fishbone show at Pratt Art Institute, Brooklyn, that I would part with, for a price?  You tell me.

• [Their feldspars]

  Laurence Fishbone?

  • [William Joseph Dunn]

    I’m glad I wasn’t the only one thinking that.

• [billstreeter]

  I saw this movie about a year and a half ago in a hotel room with Angelo Moore. As I recall the Fat Albert style animations of the stories about the band origins were pretty inspired. I wish I could remember more of it, I wasn’t in the best frame of mind to remember too much at the time ;)