Some Kind Of Monster is one of those docs that has perennially sat near the top of my rental queue, without ever quite making it to a slot that would actually send the disc hurtling towards my home. That’s not for lack of interest: I’ve constantly heard that the film is as great as the album it focuses on is terrible. Since then the band that has put out a record that went back to basics and, though it was mastered for shit and was far from perfect, turned out to be a real return-to-form from them. They’ve even softened on their conservative views of distribution/use that made them seem so out of touch for so long, having quietly put their singles up on iTunes in 2006 and more recently allowing the use of their catalog in the independent film Hesher.
Now, amidst the mostly baffled reactions to their odd metal-meets-spoken-word collaboration with Lou Reed called Lulu, comes news that the band is looking to make a 3D-shot feature film. There aren’t any details indicating if this is some kind of weird metal opera, or simply a rock doc/concert film in the vein of U2 3D or Bieber’s Never Say Never 3D, just that they plan on paying for it themselves and that they’ve hired Charlotte Huggins (Journey To The Center of the Earth) to produce.
The band long ago lost its claim to any edginess or counterculturism, but it would still be weird to trek to an IMAX theater and shove yellow glasses on my face to watch a big splashy 3D concert of Metallica. Maybe there’s something more interesting rattling around in their heads, but this seems like a further push towards a future where our every aesthetic experience has to course through a camera and back out of a screen before we see it. Just last Friday I was at a Doug Stanhope show where the comedian let loose on a guy recording the set, lamenting the loss of all those spontaneous, unforgettable moments that are now lost because everything is being recorded, always. I’m not against concert documentaries as a rule by any means, but this band has an (by all accounts) introspective and potent behind-the-scenes film out there already. Who knows, maybe another really personal film is in the works, or they’ve got other cool plans for a uniquely cinematic concert experience… but I’d rather them just hit the road and kick out some tunes, ya know?
What do you guys think? See any potential here?
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7 comments
Would love to see a trippy, Pushead imagery-filled 90 minute long Metallica video in 3D. That would be. Fucking. Amazing.
How did KISS not do this already?
They’re bored, artistically/sonically moribund -since maybe even the …Justice album- they’ve way too much money for any band and they’re approaching middle-age with maybe another 30/40 years to go. What else can these settled family men do except blow some cash every now and again. Best thing would be to quit and go into something else entirely. Jason Newsted was right to get out.
Isn’t this something new entirely? I have no problem with them doing these little side projects. Hell, who can blame them, if I was making music for 30 years I’d want to switch it up too.
And no, Jason Newsted was not right. Sure, he gets royalties still, but by the time you finish reading this sentence Rob Trujillo will have made a million dollars just for being “that new bass player.”
What’s Jason doing nowadays? Nothing important to anyone outside of his little niche of fans.
Conversely, how great is the new Megadeth stuff? Time really told on *that* one, huh?
Not as great as Peace Sells.
So it’s all about money and fame/notoriety is it? What a lame argument.
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