Melbourne cinema institution The Astor Theatre has just released its new calendar, and for fans of Australia’s musical heritage there’s a double that you won’t want to miss.
On Wednesday September 11th, the home of the double feature will be showcasing two incredible music documentaries, Blokes You Can Trust – the Cosmic Pyschos documentary, and Autoluminescent – the Rowland S Howard documentary.
The Cosmic Psychos are essentially an Australian punk rock institution, the Melbourne underground act have spent thirty years touring and playing hard, with thirteen albums and a wealth experience under their belt.
Iconic label Sup Pop! released their second album when the band fell into the ‘Seattle’ scene of the late 80’s amidst the likes of Pearl Jam, Mudhoney and The Melvins. Never quite finding the mainstream success of their grunge counterparts, the band managed to tour heavily in the USA and Europe thanks to a large and devoted fan base.
But it wasn’t all shits and giggles. A heavy falling out with drummer and founding member Bill Walsh resulted in a line-up change and a bitter dedication on their new album with the song ‘Kill Bill’.
They’ve been ripped off by several record labels, and dealt with the tragedy of the passing of guitarist Robbie Watts in 2006. But the band continues through all its adversity to remain strong to this day with Dean Muller on drums and John ‘Mad Macca’ McKeering from the Onya’s taking care of the guitar duties.
For what had been initially a self-financed project, Director Matt Westo turned to fans and the highly anticipated documentary feature on Australian punk legends the Cosmic Psychos raised its $28,000 goal with Australian crowd funding site pozible.com, yet another win for the crowd funding model.
Following the screening of Blokes You Can Trust will be Autoluminescent, a documentarty that is both enlightening and information in illustrating Howard’s struggles as an artist.
Howard got his start in music in the Melbourne underground scene of the late 1970′s. He is perhaps most famous for his work with the infamous The Birthday Party, of which he was a crucial part. His abrasive, utterly unique and distinctive guitar sound and style were highly innovative on a sonic level, and contributed greatly to the overall confrontational nature of the band, lead by Nick Cave.
The solo artist played his last show to a sold out crowd at St Kilda’s Prince of Wales in 2009 before dying on December 30th from liver cancer, a struggle of his later life that was beautifully chronicled in the 2011, Richard Lowenstein and Lynn-Maree Milburn-directed documentary.
The incredible double feature occurs on Wednesday 11th September at The Astor Theatre in Melbourne. One ticket will cost you $10 and gets you into both films. Visit The Astor Theatre online for more details.
