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Dandy Warhols Call 'Dig!' a 'Dishonest' Documentary

  • Posted on Jul 21st 2009 4:00PM by Dan Reilly
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In 2004, filmmaker Ondi Timoner released the documentary 'Dig!' which followed the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre as they searched for mainstream success. Narrated by Warhols frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor, the movie portrayed the bands both as friends and rivals, often painting an unfavorable picture of BJM singer Anton Newcombe. In a visit to the Spinner offices, Taylor-Taylor and Warhols drummer Brent "Fathead" DeBoer revealed their true feelings on the film.

"It's a good thing to have gone away because it was a very dishonest experience," Taylor-Taylor says. "It's not a very true movie. There's a lot of acting and a lot of 'Well, we don't have a story. Let's make one up.'" One of the band's biggest gripes is with the timeline of the movie -- the Warhols were recorded for eight years while BJM was filmed for 10 months, yet they claim everything was depicted as happening concurrently. "It's a fantastically compelling movie because it's all about awfulness and on a Jerry Springer level, it really works," Taylor-Taylor says. "I was very uncomfortable during that time because I had to play along and I didn't know what to say in interviews. You can't say 'Look, it's not true' because it was this big documentary, 'the best rock and roll documentary ever.'" Taylor-Taylor isn't exaggerating the film's hype and acclaim -- it won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance festival in 2004.

Fathead, for his part, agrees. "Ondi has 1,998 hours of footage that nobody saw and she could have taken it and made a really respectful show about two really talented bands working very hard and making great records," he says. "It could be a feel-good story, like here's where they're born, here's where they recorded, here's how they've grown together, and here's where they are now. But she just snagged a couple hours of just the worst behavior." Indeed, the film focuses on much of the negativity, including a famous BJM showcase where Newcombe fought a bandmate and kicked an audience member. "The character she chose for him is unflattering," says Taylor-Taylor. "We have never seen Anton get in a fight, ever."

In the end, the band is happy not to have to answer many questions about the film these days. "It's nice now that we've got all this other s--- going on," Taylor-Taylor says. "The movie came out and really led to the wrong idea about what we care about and what the hell we do. It was a mess." They've also seemingly come to grips with how someone can distort reality through film. "You could follow my mom around for seven years shooting 2,000 hours of footage and make her look like a psycho," Fathead says. "Really, she's a lovely fourth grade teacher."

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SeeIt Loud

DiG! is possibly the best music documentary ever. If I was on a deserted island and could only take 5 movies with me then DiG! would be one of them.

There's never been a soundtrack available for the film, but you can now get the playlist and select songs on MusicFilmWeb.

http://www.musicfilmweb.com/db/film/dig/

October 14 2011 at 6:12 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply
fuck

Hey, if nothing else they gained tons of fans from that movies release... as soon as I saw Dig I got really into both bands. I still haven't been able to see the Dandy's which is quite a shame but I have listened to the fuck out of all of those albums. Earth to...is the shit as well..

They need to do like a ten year anniversary thing for dig...I'm sure they will....talk to everybody some more...give us a little more of that 2,0000 hours of film.

and really? they only filmed the bjm for ten months? I thought all of they're segments were a little strange fitting...

In any case I still like it and still show it to everybody and they continue to love it and get into bjm and the dandies as well..

I can see how Courtney and Anton would be pissed...Courtney looks like a huge douche in the movie, but you know he's not because he wrote Boys Better.

I still don't know why they didn't feel at the time they couldn't stand up and go "hey we think the direction this movie is going is stupid." that's what most rock stars would have done that didn't like the shit they were doing. And by the time the movie came out the Dandies were already big enough to say they weren't pleased with the documentary.

July 24 2009 at 5:49 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

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