• Oscilloscope Laboratories
• Michael ("Flea") and Clara Balzary

This week, I watched two new punk-rock documentaries, both available on DVD, which offer an interesting study in contrasts. The Other F Word revolves around punk-rock fathers, while Last Fast Ride centers on a punk-rock provocateur…who also happened to be a mother. Women directed both films, which are set primarily in California in the 1990s, but the similarities start to fall away at that point.

I didn't expect to enjoy Andrea Blaugrund Nevins' feature-film debut, The Other F Word, because I have no interest in bands like NOFX and Blink-182, and nor do I have a vested interested in parenthood.* Granted, I've always found the parent-child relationship fascinating, but too many filmmakers have a hard time illuminating the complexities. That isn't a problem for this director, who's gathered up a particularly forthcoming combination of subjects, including bass player Flea (Fear, Red Hot Chili Peppers), singer Ron Reyes (Black Flag), and singer/author Jim Lindberg (Pennywise), whose memoir, Punk Rock Dad, inspired the project.

*Not counting my own parents, who certainly took a vested interest in me...for better or worse.

• Oscilloscope Laboratories
• Ron and Jasmine

First things first: I've always had a soft spot for Flea, and I always will. I've never met him, but I've read enough interviews and seen enough of his on- and off-screen work, including Bruce Weber's Let's Get Lost, to know that he has a lot of heart and a lot of charisma. Hate his slap bass-playing all you want, but it's fun to watch him play, and I've never seen anyone move quite like that. His buoyancy, though, stems from a dark place. Like many of the fathers in The Other F Word, he had a crappy childhood, and ran away from home at 12. The character he plays in Penelope Spheeris's Suburbia is, essentially, himself.

So, he's gone out of his way to be the father to his piano-playing daughter that he never had. It's hard for him to talk about the transformation, and he almost breaks down a time or two, but once you meet Clara, who comes across as a poised, no nonsense 24-year-old, you can tell that he means every word.

Reyes and Lindberg also seem like great dads, but they took different routes to get there. Reyes, who was known as Chavo when he appeared in Spheeris's The Decline of Western Civilization, dropped out of Black Flag when the gig violence became too much to bear. Since then, he's been running a print shop in Vancouver and raising three teens with whom he enjoys a close relationship.

• Oscilloscope Laboratories
• Darla and Michael ("Fat Mike") Burkett

Lindberg, on the other hand, was an active member of Pennywise while Geoffrey Franklin's camera was rolling. The father of three, who dyes his hair to maintain the punk-rock image, had spent a significant portion of the past 20 years on the road, but after the band's last world tour, he packed it in. Though he's since formed a new outfit, he makes it clear that 219-day tours are a thing of the past.

Others speakers include Art Alexakis (Everclear), Lars Fredrickson (Rancid), Jack Grisham (TSOL), Tony Hawk, Mark Hoppus (Blink-182), and Tim McIlrath (Rise Against). From the audio commentary with Nevins, Lindberg, and Alexakis, it's clear that the filmmaker, a mother of three, genuinely enjoys these acts.

From watching her movie, I didn't gain a new appreciation for their music, but I do have a new appreciation for the participants as parents. That said, NOFX's Fat Mike, who isn’t all that fat, might want to stop indulging his little lady's every whim lest he end up with the world's most insufferable punk-rock princess.

Also, Blaugrund Nevins, who released the film through Adam Yauch's environmentally-conscious Oscilloscope Laboratories, doesn't censor any of these gents, so "father" is hardly the only "f word" in play—just the way I like it.

Next: Last Fast Ride - The Life, Love and Death of a Punk Goddess, a film about Marian Anderson. Featuring Tim Armstrong and narration by Henry Rollins.