Garage Rock 101

The clever marketing team behind Toyota's Scion brand – in conjunction with the culture vultures at Vice – has finally decided to let people see it's first attempt at feature-length documentary making, New Garage Explosion!!: In Love With These Times.
The 75-minute overview of contemporary garage rock – which you can view on the Vice site (see link below) – is essentially a series of superficial artist profiles strung together to make the case that these eruptions of three-chord scorch arising from San Francisco, Oakland, Detroit, Memphis, Brooklyn, Detroit, Atlanta and Portland are actually all part of a much larger movement.
Using a steady stream of talking head style interviews intercut with brief performance clips, directors Joseph Patel and Aaron Brown with guidance from Yeti Magazine's resident rock expert Mike McGonigal attempt to explain how this groundswell of politically incorrect and musically inept activity known as "garage" grew in the absence of mainstream media attention while pointing out the links between the attitudes, motivation and output of Jay Reatard, the Black Lips, Oblivians, Gories, The Oh Sees, Clone Defects, Vivian Girls, Magic Kids, Pierced Arrows, Smith Westerns, No Bunny, Golden Triangle and others.  

After at least a year in the making, they've hit on three revelations:
1) kids will do what they want
2) garage rock is more about feel and energy than virtuosity
3) it's fun to make people dance even if it doesn't make you rich

While New Garage Explosion!! does a good job of spotlighting the work of a few key artists, it never gets up close and personal enough with the characters involved or the fans who love them to make for a truly compelling study. Ultimately, the film fails to convey the true excitement of the music – the nutty thrills, spills and ridiculous hilarity of it all. The end product could've greatly been improved by collecting bizarre and enlightening anecdotes from club bookers – in fact, one interview with Dan Burke at the Silver Dollar probably would've sufficed – but perhaps that may have made it a little too real.
Of course, if the whole film venture was merely a cynical marketing ploy to drive consumers to Scion and Vice websites in hopes of selling corny cube-shaped cars and cheesy club wear, then perhaps filmmakers Patel and Brown have done exactly what they set out to accomplish.

Watch New Garage Explosion!! right here