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Post by Admin on Mar 22, 2019 17:47:12 GMT
As Andy Warhol famously never said: “In the future, every arena-sized music act of the 20th century will get its own ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ for 115 minutes.” The truth of those apocryphal words was obvious even before the execrable Queen biopic grossed almost a billion dollars; the age of infinite content doesn’t offer enough bandwidth for actual creation, so most of our pop culture has to be exhumed from the past (a phenomenon made literal by the sustained explosion of true crime stories). It was all fun and games — sequels and reboots — until someone figured out that music could be a magic bullet for mainstream biopics, and then — wham! — the next thing we knew, Rami Malek had won Best Actor for cosplaying as Freddie Mercury in a movie that supposedly directed itself (speaking of Wham!, it’s only a matter of time before Richard Madden is cast as George Michael in “Freedom” or “Last Christmas” or whatever that cash-grab would be called).
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Post by Admin on Mar 27, 2019 17:48:35 GMT
Making The Dirt into a movie was never going to be easy. Music journalist and icky-guy whisperer Neil Strauss’ 2001 book turned hours of interviews, as well as photos, found texts, and a scanned telegram from Lita Ford, into a mostly definitive autobiography of Mötley Crüe, the hard-living quartet that ruled the Sunset Strip for the bulk of the 1980s. The book’s lengthy road to Netflix's ever-expanding content repository (it debuted there Friday) began in 2006, when MTV Films and its corporate sibling Paramount Pictures bought the rights. Studios and directors played hot potato with the property until 2017, when the streaming-video giant plucked it, and director Jeff Tremaine, out of turnaround. Tremaine, along with screenwriters Tom Kapinos and Amanda Adelson, had a lot to work with; then again, carving 431 pages of detailed yet drug-and-orgasm-addled memories from multiple narrators into a studio-length biopic is a daunting task. Strauss’ tome veers from high highs to low lows as vocalist Vince Neil, guitarist Mick Mars, bassist Nikki Sixx, and drummer Tommy Lee—as well as various friends and foes—recount the band’s come-up and subsequent redemption cycles (there were quite a few) in almost pornographic detail, which Strauss relays with enthusiasm. Try to take in this passage, in which Neil recalls the culinary offerings of their flophouse near the Sunset Strip rock mecca Whisky A Go-Go, without feeling at least some sensory reaction: The kitchen was smaller than a bathroom, and just as putrid. In the fridge there’d usually be some old tuna fish, beer, Oscar Mayer bologna, expired mayonnaise, and maybe hot dogs if it was the beginning of the week and we’d either stolen them from the liquor store downstairs or bought them with spare money. Usually, though, Big Bill, a 450-pound biker and bouncer from the Troubadour (who died a year later from a cocaine overdose), would come over and eat all the hot dogs. We’d be too scared to tell him it was all we had.
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Post by Admin on Mar 29, 2019 17:15:39 GMT
The long-awaited MÖTLEY CRÜE biopic "The Dirt", based on the band's 2001 New York Times bestselling autobiography, debuted last Friday, March 22. The band immediately became the top searched topic on Google Trends with a 4300% spike in searches. Streaming partners have been quick to support the film's soundtrack and MÖTLEY CRÜE's catalogue with the Global Marquee feature on Spotify, and Apple Music building a dedicated Mötley Super Room. The payback was instant, with a 570% stream increase on Spotify, a 900% stream increase on Apple Music, and Apple iTunes downloads growing 2027%. Amazon, with triple-digit streaming growth, is benefiting from sales of the book being back at #1 music book, and MÖTLEY's Deezer streams are up 669%. The Mötley Essentials playlist is now charting higher than Drake Essentials on Apple Music. The effect is being felt globally in 150 markets with top 10 iTunes charts around the world. Early returns show the movie at 85% audience score at Rotten Tomatoes, on par with "Bohemian Rhapsody"'s 87% and ahead of "Black Panther"'s 79%. It is changing perceptions too, as women are enjoying "The Dirt" just as much, if not more than men, giving it a higher grade (7.4/10) than their male counterparts (7.1/10), according to an IMDB survey. The cautionary tale aims to deglamorize the sex, drugs and rock n roll lifestyle led by the notorious rockers. It unflinchingly portrays domestic violence, drunk driving and drug addiction to a mass audience.
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Post by Admin on Apr 6, 2019 17:41:29 GMT
Former Motley Crue A&R exec Tom Zutaut discussed Pearl Jam and Nirvana fans being to blame for critics trashing ‘The Dirt’ film in a new Billboard interview. Were you surprised at the negative reviews focused on the film’s treatment of women? “Actually, I expected it to be a lot worse than it is. I find most of these criticisms are coming from millennial and grunge people. It’s the higher end of the millennial age group that missed the ’80s and really their first musical experiences were with Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Coldplay. They seem to be the ones [with] the largest #metoo axe to grind on the movie. On the other hand, I think that it’s an appropriate discussion to have. I really believe that women are equal, should be treated as equals and they should be paid as equals. If this movie opens up the discussion, I think it’s a discussion that’s good to have. I would also say that having lived through the ’80s, sometimes it’s difficult to apply what’s politically correct in 2019 to what happened in the ’80s or early ’90s.” Is there anything you’d like to add about The Dirt, or your time with the band? “Everybody thinks Guns N’ Roses were this really dangerous band, but Guns N’ Roses actually had a moral fiber and a moral center to them. Of all the bands I worked with, Mötley Crüe were literally willing to push anything to the breaking point…I think that they were willing to push anything as deep and dark as it could possibly go, to the limits of the human psyche. If you use your imagination and understanding of that, there’s a certain terror and exhilaration in a group of people that are willing to push the boundaries to the absolute limit.” Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx was asked about Pearl Jam in a new Kerrang interview. Kerrang asked, “The explosion of Nirvana in 1991 did great damage to Mötley Crüe. Was it fair that you were lumped in with bands such as Poison and Warrant?” “I have to say that I don’t think that Nirvana and Pearl Jam killed the bands you mention, I think that they killed themselves. They were making copycat music. We, on the other hand, simply imploded. Forget about the lifestyle for a minute – the thing that ultimately allowed us to pull ourselves through was the music that we made, and how good we can be when we really put it together.
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Post by Admin on Apr 22, 2019 17:09:20 GMT
Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx said in a recent Kerrang interview that bands look like ‘bankers’ now, yet aren’t making any money compared to real bands like Aerosmith who were living a lifestyle filled with addiction when they were younger. “I’m very grateful. I’m surprised that all four of us are still alive. I wake up every day and look around and see that I’m a father, and that I’m married, and that I have all these projects that I’m involved with. I’m working on a musical right now [of The Heroin Diaries]. I’m working on another book. There’s a couple of other things that I’m doing that kind of cross-pollinate with each other. So, I kind of exist in this creative bubble and I can look back [on addiction] and say, ‘That is something that will never happen again.’ I also don’t think it will happen again in rock’n’roll.
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