Rat & Co will be giving a live performance at the upcoming CLIPPED Music Video Festival at The National Film and Sound Archive this Friday . In support of this event the band members have put together a list of the 5 best movies about music or musicians.
Dub Echoes (2008)Josh: I love Dub Echoes. It takes you on a journey of early pirate radio, through the Jamaican reggae revolution and into Dub music scene in England, which gave birth to all styles of electronic music. It's also hugely inspirational from a music production point of view. I'm kinda obsessed with analogue recording rigs.
Miles Ahead (2015)
Nic: One of the best films about a musician I have seen was the 2015 romance/drama "Miles Ahead". I thought the way Miles Davis was interviewed and portrayed through a Rolling Stone reporter mixed with a huge night of partying and boozing seemed fitting and interesting - not your typical biographical. Also, Don Cheadle's performance was super convincing to say the least.
Style Wars (1983)
Josh: Although it's not entirely about music, Style Wars is a great insight into the birth of graffiti, hip hop & break dancing on the streets of New York in the early 80's
John: Standing in the Shadows of Motown has to be one of my all time favourite music documentaries. I remember being shown it in high school as part of VCE and we watched it with a massive stereo system set to eleven. I had never fully understood Motown as a genre prior to watching the doco. The tones, rhythms and characters I heard on that day exposed me to a world of music I had never considered. The unsung story of the Funk Brothers and James Jamerson. This is why I watch this amazing documentary with my VCE students today.
Funk Brothers:
Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton (2014)
Josh : Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton is a fantastic doco on the rise of Stones Throw Records, which is considered the birth place of current day West Coast hip hop from the likes of J Dilla, Madlib & MF Doom.