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FALL SALE!! Save $5 on the Live at The Smell DVD!!
Live at THE SMELL DVD ::Featuring:: a fundraiser for The Smell, and a toast to its... scent Runtime 2 hours, All-Region DVD, 6-panel Digipak, release date Sept 2009. Premiere Screening and DVD Release Party will occur at 8pm on Thursday August 27th
Featuring over 2 hours of live bands from Los Angeles and beyond, "Live at The Smell" captures the live energy that pumps through LA's legendary independent DIY all-ages venue. Recorded in high-quality audio and video over a month period in Fall 2008, the DVD gives you the feeling of being immersed in one of the many gigs presented there each week for over 10 years. The music is clean and powerful, the footage is raw and wild, and the energy is LIVE. Presented on a gorgeous 6-panel Digipak with superb all-mural photographs by Wild Don Lewis and liner notes by Jim Smith (owner / operator of The Smell), "Live at The Smell" is a collector's document, something you won't want to miss. Even if it gets on NetFlix, even when you find it on your favorite torrent site, it won't be the same as holding it in your hand. 6 murals are represented - featuring artists Cali deWitt, Jesse Spears, and some unknown dude from the 80s when it was a caballero bar. The bands featured on this movie are the cream of the indie-alt-rock / experimental bands that play the club on a regular basis: Mae Shi, Foot Village, Ponytail, Abe Vigoda, High Places, Gowns, BARR, No Age, HEALTH, Captain Ahab (in order of appearance). Culled from 20 hours of live concerts, the movie is at times slick broadcast-quality so to speak, and othertimes fuzzy and blown out, all the while with clean and loud audio, mastered by Mike Lastra. We harnessed the sun and the moon for a little while with all our mighty little cameras, and we bring you their shining lights and their madness in all our audiophonic fidelity. Proceeds from the sale of this DVD will help support The Smell's operations, so buy them while you can. The Smell is a money-losing for-profit venture; its profit is in the heart of the LA freak-noise-punk-art-music scene. "The music has been stuck in my head for all the time we've been working on this project. Now it will be stuck in yours too." Bob Bellerue, director Features: ordering: wholesale welcome, get in touch via email more info and ordering:
Filmmaker's blurb: If you ain't never been there, The Smell is an all-ages DIY venue in downtown Los Angeles. It's fairly large warehouse venue space, with tall ceilings and lots of wall space for beautiful murals (some going back to the 80s from previous businesses, some made expressly for this movie - one of the toilet lids now says Live at The Smell), with a gigantic PA and room for 200 to make the room's acoustic work better. Shooting there was a wild ride on a crazy train, but somehow we pulled it off with IMHO killer results. Tho the results are never going to be as good as it was in the room those nights.... Every band's segment had some technical difficulties (mostly on the bands' side LOL but not all), but it is the liberated and righteous nature of the venue and the community that comes through. The performers are in their element, with less concern for being stars and more about riding the wave of the moment with style and fire. There were no shots to line up, no script, no plan, except capturing what we could as well as we could without interfering with the show, ready to hit record when the band is about to take off... When Brad of The Mae Shi did a flip there was no chance to line up better shots for the landing. When Abe Vigoda's audio got lost for the first half of their set, there was no one to blow dry their hair so they could start over looking refreshed. (The Gowns were the only ones to not have had an audience, but it was either this way or not at all, due to scheduling constraints. So the awkward 1980s music video vibe of their segment was the lesser of two evils. Still, I don't notice anything lacking, and I hope you can tell them how good they are, cos they are great people and great artists. In fact, tell all the bands how rad they are. Go to their shows and give them your vegan treats and CDrs and t-shirts and TAKE OVER THE WORLD) For all the possible problems of working on the fly like we did, the results surprised and impressed all of us. The audio is clean, clear, and rocks hard, recorded by Elton Turner, mixed by myself, and mastered by Mike Lastra. The video features many pre-HD formats but is cut expertly by editor Adam Cornelius, featuring the best of the shots from the 3-or-4 cameras shot each night from the stage or immersed in the crowd. The music has been stuck in my head for all the time we've been working on this project. Now it will be stuck in yours too. If you haven't been there, you owe yourself a visit. The clouds won't part as you walk through the doors, angels and demons won't fly by you enticing you any more than usual. It's just a place in downtown LA weathered with rich creeps and homeless saviors, but for many of us it is something close to church/home/clinic/soup kitchen. Venues come and go, but Jim Smith and The Smell are going nowhere fast, and taking us all along. Give thanks to everyone, and that includes you. GO MAKE SOME MUSIC!!! Bob Bellerue, August 2009
some photos by Wild Don Lewis. more info: wilddonlewis.com
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