I'm lucky to live in a town with a great music scene. Notwithstanding the tough times that both bands and venue operators are facing in the wake of the pandemic (and the rip-off merchants who believe that their bottom line is more important than paying musicians a living wage), Melbourne has always had a healthy music culture as do many cities around the world. I'm talking about cities where music venues are plentiful, bands are playing all week, and punters with a myriad of tastes can find something to please them.
One of those cities is Tel Aviv.
Welcome to episode 101 of See Hear Podcast.
Tim is still away and Bernie was running the Rock 'n' Roll Jumble Market, but I had the company of Israeli director Amit Itzcar. He has directed a great documentary called "Furious And Fast: The Story of Fast Music And The Patiphone”. On one level it is a film about an independent record label (Fast Music) in the late 90s to the early 2000s. This was a time when there were nearly no such thing in Israel. Linked to this label was a club on the wrong side of the track in Tel Aviv that was home to many garage and punk bands. Some achieved worldwide fandom....some just got gigs at the club. I had to pose a question about musician Ami Shalev whose wild behaviour made me think of another musician we've discussed on the show....
On another level, the film is about the friendship of Amir Schorr and Jango – musicians both who started the label and the club after realising they didn't like the control of the major labels. A familiar tale in your music-loving city?
Amit and I spend time talking about the bands, the making of the film, and his “day job” at Tel Aviv Cinematheque....and his role in a number of video clips for the duo, Lo (Hebrew for “no”). Even if you haven't seen the film yet, I think there's plenty here you can enjoy about the discussion.
I send my gratitude to Yaniv Eidelstein who suggested this film to me, and who was responsible for the English subtitles for the film. Keep an eye out for it on the film festival circuit and hopefully, it won't be too long before it gets a VOD release.
You can listen to many of the Fast Music roster of artists in Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOQtVFukqZ_yD6vU8CuvSbQ/videos (the records are almost impossible to get a hold of nowadays).
You can watch the video clips Amit appears in for Lo at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrg3nKVmQ_TlBOgJoNF36-g
….and just for the fun of it, here's a Q & A at Cinematheque with Henry Winkler that Amit tried to moderate.....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfBlmVtIx54&t=2377s
You can keep up to date with when the film gets a screening near you at https://www.facebook.com/amitzcar
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