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Monday, October 15, 2012

History / #1 Fan / Film Sample This, a Documentary About Incredible Bongo Band, Coming Soon

Posted by on Mon, Oct 15, 2012 at 10:30 AM

Now this looks like an interesting music documentary. Incredible Bongo Band were a crack group of session players led by MGM Records exec Michael Viner and featuring King Erisson, Jim Gordon, Mike Deasy, and Perry Botkin Jr. They cut a couple of amazingly funky and fun instrumental records—1973's Bongo Rock and 1974's Return of the Incredible Bongo Band—that have been sampled to death by hiphop and electronic-music producers for decades, especially "Apache." ("It grabbed me when I was 5 years old and it never let go," says Grandmaster Flash in the movie.)

Judging from this great trailer, a fascinating story germinated behind these hastily recorded party platters that became the cornerstones of hiphop and drum & bass. Sample This is directed by Dan Forrer and narrated by Gene Simmons (huh?). It's opening Oct. 21 in Austin, Texas. No Seattle premiere is known at this time.

Here's a promo blurb to whet your appetite:

If not for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, it might never have happened. The gunshots that rang out in the Ambassador Hotel kitchen in June of 1968 started a music revolution. It's the story of a band that never was, a cult movie and revolutionary music from the streets of New York. A pop culture odyssey that includes Charles Manson, a former Beatle and an infamous mobster.

They had me at "If."

Tip: DJ Suspence

 

Comments (5) RSS

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Kathy Fennessy 1
What a bizarre narrator choice! Looks like the film is premiering at the Austin Film Fest next week.
Posted by Kathy Fennessy http://kathleencfennessy.blogspot.com/ on October 15, 2012 at 10:42 AM
2
Yes, Austin, World Premiere Sunday the 21st of October 2012 I looked it up. Have been hearing about this film all day from everyone, looks like it is going to be great. Incredible narrator choice. Gene Simmons besides having a great speaking voice is a music historian and knew all those guys from way back in the day. He is from New York, was in the music scene during the beginning of the punk scene and all the scenes after, was there with his band when the New York Dolls were big and when the dance scene came along which led to hip hop and rap. He knew Michael Viner for years in Los Angeles. Been reading a great book given to me by a radio friend all about New York music history. This film coming out now looks like total syncronicity, seems to be bringing the East Coast and the West Coast scenes together and telling the whole story, can't wait to see it. When is it coming to Seattle or Portland or Vancouver???

Posted by Film Fan on October 15, 2012 at 9:43 PM
3
Yes, Austin, World Premiere Sunday the 21st of October 2012 I looked it up. Have been hearing about this film all day from everyone, looks like it is going to be great. Incredible narrator choice. Gene Simmons besides having a great speaking voice is a music historian and knew all those guys from way back in the day. He is from New York, was in the music scene during the beginning of the punk scene and all the scenes after, was there with his band when the New York Dolls were big and when the dance scene came along which led to hip hop and rap. He knew Michael Viner for years in Los Angeles. Been reading a great book given to me by a radio friend all about New York music history. This film coming out now looks like total syncronicity, seems to be bringing the East Coast and the West Coast scenes together and telling the whole story, can't wait to see it. When is it coming to Seattle or Portland or Vancouver???

Posted by Film Fan on October 15, 2012 at 9:52 PM
4
As I live in the U.K I would be very interested to know if this film will be shown here ,if not when will it be available on DVD worldwide or on the internet,it would mean a lot to me for many reasons , thankyou.
Posted by Grooves on January 30, 2013 at 1:37 PM
5
Excited to find out about this film but equally destroyed by the lack of info on local screenings or at least marketing.
Posted by Tugboatinvan on March 23, 2013 at 7:53 AM

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