What we do is secret

We first heard about this last year, as The Bronx, one of our summer faves, had been reported to play Black Flag in this biopic about Germs frontman Darby Crash. The film has Shane West (the rock n' roll doc from ER) playing Darby, and Rick Gonzalez as Pat Smear. Bijou Phillips rounds out the band as Lorna Doom. Trailers for the film, What We Do Is Secret, are available here.

While we were never terrible fans of the Germs, we do find the early L.A. punk scene fascinating. The contributions of hardcore, to punk and the counterculture in general, are mostly underappreciated. A lot of histories and narratives basically say "Things were cool until Black Flag and the hardcore kids showed up". Yes, bands like Black Flag and the Germs marked a dramatic change, not only in terms of musical style (less garage rock camp, more UK noise) but also in terms of audiences, drawing a crowd that was a lot younger and less educated than the former college scenesters.

Supposedly the movie opened in L.A. a few days ago, but no word on when it is going to be making it our way in Calgary. You can be sure that it will make one of our Kino Matinees!