Saturday, March 08, 2008

GIRLS ROCK

"Girls Rock" is a documentary film opening in limited release tonight about a music camp for young girls. They form bands and write songs - in one week. "It doesn't have to be polished" they're told, and with genuine rockers like Carrie Brownstein of the band Sleater/Kinney coaching the kids, you get some real Shaggs-gone-punk moments of musical loveliness, like this one featuring Palace (pictured), an 8-year old hellion, on lead vocals:


Palace: "San Francisco Sucks Sometimes"

Another furious rocker finds a moppet declaiming, "With every passing day/It becomes clearer to me/That the only way to live/Is with nature's beauty/and harmoneeeeeey!"

The Bookworms: "The World Becoming A Wasteland"

"We'll Destroy Our Destination" slows things down to an atonal, rhythm-less grind.

Some critics bemoan the film's heavy-handed girls-as-victim messages sprinkled throughout the film. Perhaps the filmmakers thought that simply showing these gals singing and playing their hearts out wouldn't be enough justification for a film...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can I just say this blog rocks?

Mr Fab said...

Yes, you can.

-april said...

That song is awesome! That movie gave me happy tears in my eyes. If you want to pass on the Girls Rock message to a young gal in your life, give her the "rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls" book which Chronicle Books is publishing in June.
check it out:
http://www.chroniclebooks.com/girlsrock/

Anonymous said...

The guitar on The World Is Becoming A Wasteland was played by my daughter, Blaine, who was 9 at the time. She will be attending Camp for the 7th time this summer. Thanks for the smile!!