6 Behind-The-Band Documentaries To Watch After the Backstreet Boys Movie
Ready to relive the glory days of 1999? The Backstreet Boys are back (alright!) in the new documentary, Backstreet Boys: Show ‘Em What You’re Made Of, which follows the once-dominant boy band as they record a new album and prepare for their 20th anniversary world tour. Director Stephen Kijak also explores the Boys’ pre-fame early years and captures moments of interband tension on camera. If you’re not already a (lapsed) fan of the Backstreet Boys, the film won’t exactly convert you, but at least it provides a sense of who they are and where they came from. Here are six other behind-the-music documentaries about contemporary bands that may give you some new jams for your Spotify playlists.
Barenaked in America (1999)
Famous Canadian Jason Priestly tags along with his homeland’s biggest music export since Alanis Morrisette, the Barenaked Ladies, on the American leg of their Stunt tour. Although it’s mostly a straightforward tour diary, the film does subtly point how extensively the band had to alter the zany look and kooky sound that defined their early records in order to achieve mainstream American success. And, 16 years later, we’re still impressed by Ed Robertson’s lightning-fast rhyme-spitting on “One Week.” (Barenaked in America isn’t available for streaming, but can be found in its entirety on YouTube)
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart (2002)
Compelling proof that even established bands aren’t immune to record label pressures, director Sam Jones captures a defining moment in the career of alt-rock outfit Wilco. While recording their album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the group parted ways with Warner Music Group’s Reprise label and explored alternate means to get the record out to the public. The director’s choice to film the movie in black-and-white makes it a striking departure from most modern-day rock docs. (I Am Trying to Break Your Heart is available on Amazon Instant and iTunes)
Dig! (2004)
For her debut feature, director Ondi Timoner drew on seven years’ worth of footage to craft a wildly entertaining tale of two bands: the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre, fronted by Courtney Taylor-Taylor and Anton Newcombe, respectively. Taylor successfully navigated the Warhols’ into the mainstream, while Newcombe stubbornly refused to compromise, even when it might have benefitted Massacre’s long-term ambitions. Both musicians have since expressed their displeasure with Dig!, accusing Timoner of distorting certain events. Still, the film’s depiction of the tough choices bands sometimes face as they attempt to balance business and artistic concerns rings absolutely true. (Dig! is available on Amazon Instant, Google Play and YouTube)
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (2004)
Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s two-and-a-half hour portrait of a band in the midst of a professional and personal crisis is one of the genre’s all-time greats, right up there with classics like Don’t Look Back and Gimme Shelter. Granted remarkable access by the members of Metallica, the directors record some revelatory confessions and unique observations about how great (and not-so-great) songs come together. You don’t even have to like Metallica’s brand of heavy metal to love this movie. (Metallica: Some Kind of Monster is available on iTunes and we talked to Berlinger in the fall for the doc’s 10th anniversary.)
Watch the trailer for Some Kind of Monster:
Beats, Rhymes & Life (2011)
A Tribe Called Quest super-fan Michael Rappaport catches up with the members of the influential straight-out-of-Queens group as they prepare to reunite a decade after their 1998 break-up. Celebrating their accomplishments, while also probing the fault lines that led them to disband, Rappaport paints a warts-and-all portrait that fills in a key part of hip-hop history. (Beats, Rhymes & Life is available on Amazon Instant, Google Play, iTunes, YouTube and Vudu)
Shut Up and Play the Hits (2012)
LCD Soundsystem picked Madison Square Garden in New York as the location for their Last Waltz-like farewell concert, and tapped Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace to shoot the event for posterity. While the film mostly follows the titular bit of advice, the directors do cut away from the band’s hits to explore frontman James Murphy’s conflicted feelings about calling it quits. The Band, of course, famously reunited several years after The Last Waltz, albeit minus founding member Robbie Robertson. We’ll be curious to see if LCD Soundsystem re-appears in a few years time. (Shut Up and Play the Hits is available on Amazon Instant, Google Play, iTunes, Netflix and YouTube)
Watch the trailer for Shut Up and Play the Hits:
Image credits: Shooting Gallery, Plexifilm, IFC Films, Sony Pictures Classics, Palm Pictures, Oscilloscope Pictures, Palm Pictures
