Hecuba - live at the Cinefamily, 08.05.08

Here's some shots from Hecuba's live performance on the Cinefamily stage, filmed by Dublab for their ongoing series of live performance films called VisionVersions.

Pics courtesy of Olivia Wright.

LAist interview with Don't Knock The Rock's Anders tag-team

LAist has posted a new interview with Don't Knock The Rock co-curators Alison and Tiffany Anders...

"Shakma" in the news!

Sam Sweet, writing for the L.A. Weekly, just did a write-up of our August "Holyfuckingshit: When Animals Attack series. He even devotes a whole third of the piece to "Shakma"! Finally -- the baboon gets its due!!!!

For those who don't believe the hype, check it out for yourself -- watch the trailer below.

Betty At Large

Blogger Betty At Large was in attendance for our screening of Rockabilly 514 (part of Don't Knock The Rock '08) this past Saturday, and took some great photos of the theatre, as well as doing a nice write-up of our humble home, and also the Danny B. Harvey steel guitar demo we had before the film.

"Sylvia" teaser trailer

Here's a glimpse at "Sylvia", the very rarely-screened 1965 camp classic starring Carroll Baker and George Maharis, which we're showing this Friday, August 8th, at 10PM.

Rub-A-Dub reviewed!

Here's a review from LAist regarding our screening this past Thursday of director Steve Hanft's reggae documentary "Return Of The Rub-A-Dub Style", shown as part of our Don't Knock The Rock '08 series.

George Kuchar speaks!

In addition to having him curate our Summer "Camp" festival throughout all of July and August, we're also screening large handfuls of underground filmmaker George Kuchar's films from throughout the '60s to the '80s.

We presented an evening of some of Kuchar's NYC-made shorts back on July 6th, and this Sunday, August 3rd, we're doing an evening of his San Francisco-made shorts! The films will include: I, An Actress (1977), Wild Night In El Rio (1977), Prescription In Blue (1978), The Woman And The Dress (1980), Yolanda (1981), Cattle Mutilations (1983), and Insanatorium (1987).

Since he's not able to attend the events in person, George (in his typical fashion) made a video introduction to both the upcoming SF night, and last month's NYC night.

Check out some of George's films on-line here!

George's SF Films intro (1 of 2)


George's SF Films intro (2 of 2)


George's NYC Films intro (1 of 2)


George's NYC Films intro (2 of 2)

LA Weekly reviews Don't Knock The Rock 2008's Far East Punk triple bill!

Rena Kosnett of the L.A. Weekly's music blog Play reviews yesterday's Far East Punk triple feature here.

Gary Wilson show review

LAist did a nice write-up yesterday of the Gary Wilson event from a Don't Knock The Rock '08 screening two weeks back. Check it out here.



Coming up next week in our Thursday night Don't Knock The Rock '08 screenings are two different films: This Is The Life (directed by Ava DuVernay), chronicling the story of a group of teens who, starting in 1989, regularly met at the South Central L.A. health food store The Good Life and revolutionized hip-hop by innovating rhyme patterns, melodic concepts and lyrical styles used by many of today's biggest rap stars. Also next Thursday is Return of The Rub-A-Dub Style, which charts the dual history of reggae soundsystem culture in Jamaica and its renewal at L.A.’s weekly Dub Club, held in Echo Park.

Find out more about Don't Knock The Rock '08 here!

Earthless - live at the Cinefamily, 07.17.08

Last Thursday's live performance by the skull-shatteringly loud San Diego psych band Earthless, as part of the Don't Knock The Rock '08 festival, kicked ass. The cops even came -- we had 6 noise complaints from the band's sound shooting straight out the back patio -- but luckily the cops was very accomodating about the whole situation. Hadrian sez:

It turned out I was wrong when I told the police it won't be much longer until their set's over" I knew the set was supposed to be 45 minutes, but I thought there'd be a break between songs where I could subtly walk up and mention to them to cut the set short -- not knowing there were no songs. This band’s plan was to jam non-stop at peak volume. I waited and waited for the song to end, so I could cut the set short, but unfortunately their set was just too awesome to be interrupted. I really started to sweat. The only thing I could think of to do--which I ended up doing--was to walk up to the side of the stage with a dry erase board and write in all-caps: "COPS. END SOON." Their guitarist visibly laughed when he saw it, and I found out later that he was particularly happy about it all, since the band was having the whole set filmed for posterity. Best of all, it actually worked! Their set ended 5 minutes later, and I managed to get the night over peaceably, without bumming everyone out.

Thanks to Fidelis Fuchs for the photos, and Pimpadelic Wonderland for the great visuals behind the band.