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 Post subject: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Fri Feb 24, 2012 8:45 pm 
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Full article here:

A Rock Life, After the Hammer Falls
By TOM ROSTON

NEAR the start of the documentary “Last Days Here,” the co-director Demian Fenton asks Bobby Liebling, the lead singer of the band Pentagram, “Have you ever done anything else besides rock ’n’ roll?”

“Nothin’,” Mr. Liebling mumbles, sitting on a couch as he inhales from a crack pipe. “Yeah, this,” he adds, gesturing toward the pipe. “Drugs.”

On that first day of shooting “Last Days Here,” which opens on Friday in New York, Mr. Fenton and his co-director, Don Argott, interviewed Mr. Liebling for five hours in a hot room strewn with cigarette butts, eight-track tapes and broken 45’s; there was blood on the floor. Mr. Liebling, now 58, who wore bandages on arms ravaged by decades of heroin use and rubbed raw by compulsive scratching, played his band’s music on a stereo, from Pentagram’s hard-rock inception in the 1970s through its pioneering doom-metal phase in the ’80s, while he talked, smoked cigarettes and crack, nodded off and apologized.

The filmmakers were, unsurprisingly, concerned. “We didn’t want to document this poor guy dying in his basement,” Mr. Fenton said.

Sean Pelletier, Mr. Liebling’s on-again, off-again manager, was also in the room that day. “He was so nasty and wasted,” Mr. Pelletier said. “He was this person who no one would want to root for on screen. But I thought: ‘Finally, someone’s going to tell his story. And maybe we’ll get him out of here.’ ”

“Last Days Here” is the latest in a string of rock documentaries that not only aim to lift audiences but also to revive the faded careers of their subjects. The trend started with “Anvil! The Story of Anvil,” released in 2009, an account of a sad-sack Canadian heavy metal band that never achieved front-line success but continued to rock on for decades nonetheless. Told with affectionate humor, “Anvil!” depicts the band members as heroes dedicated to a music they play loud, hard and occasionally with sex toys. Sacha Gervasi, the director and a screenwriter who had been a roadie for Anvil 20 years earlier, portrayed the band with an empathy that has since led to its renaissance.

“Do It Again,” from 2010, directed by Robert Patton-Spruill and produced by Geoff Edgers, is a love letter to the Kinks, depicting Mr. Edgers’s unsuccessful bid to reunite his favorite group. Last year’s “Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone” brought fans up to speed with that Los Angeles punk-funk-ska band, which peaked in the ’80s and continues to mix it up in the mosh pit, albeit more gingerly. And at the Sundance Film Festival in January, “Searching for Sugar Man,” about two fans who try to learn whatever happened to the ’70s rocker Rodriguez, earned an Audience Award and comparisons to “Anvil!”

What distinguishes “Last Days Here” is what’s at stake. In 2006 Mr. Fenton, 36, and Mr. Argott, 39, Philadelphians who also play in a Black Sabbath-inspired band called Serpent Throne and who have collaborated — with Mr. Argott as director and Mr. Fenton as editor — on previous documentaries like “Rock School” and “The Art of the Steal,” heard “rumblings from the underground,” Mr. Fenton said, about Mr. Liebling’s condition.

Mr. Fenton, a fan of Pentagram’s brooding sounds, approached Mr. Pelletier with the idea of making a film about the singer, who was struggling to record a new album and get his life together. In addition to his decades-long drug addiction, Mr. Liebling had toiled in obscurity and had an uncompromising attitude that sometimes put him at odds with his revolving cast of band mates and producers.

A year before “Last Days Here” began shooting, Mr. Liebling overdosed during a gig in Washington. Though he made it onstage, he had to be propped up and collapsed before singing a line.

Despite the grim prospects for both the film and its subject, Mr. Fenton and Mr. Argott spent the next four years driving from Philadelphia to Maryland, where Mr. Liebling still lived with his parents, documenting his struggle to get clean, his tumultuous relationships and his moribund career.

“I was ready to die,” Mr. Liebling said in a telephone interview. “So I didn’t give a damn about being filmed.”

The supportive relationship that developed between filmmakers and subject is evident on screen: Mr. Fenton, along with Mr. Pelletier, is named in a contract in which Mr. Liebling promises to stop smoking crack or else give up his record collection. “The goal was always to see Bobby pull himself together,” Mr. Argott said. “There is that line where you ask, ‘Wait, am I a friend or a filmmaker?’ With intimate character pieces like this one, that line does get blurred.”

Mr. Liebling, who said he cried while watching “Last Days Here,” wishes his music were more prominently featured but said he believed that the documentary told a “touching” story. And it’s storytelling that ultimately drove Mr. Fenton and Mr. Argott, despite any personal investments. “Bobby had to be a character to us,” Mr. Argott said.

That sentiment is shared by Chris Metzler, a co-director of “Everyday Sunshine.” “We wanted our film to be successful for Fishbone,” he said. “But also for us as filmmakers.”

And yet, in the real world, not all subjects have happy endings. The results for these documentary stars have varied.

“Sacha made a movie, and it changed our world,” said Robb Reiner, the drummer of Anvil. “Everything changed completely.” After opening for AC/DC, playing “The Tonight Show” and maintaining a robust tour schedule, the members of Anvil have realized their dream: they no longer work day jobs and have become full-time musicians.

“Everyday Sunshine” and the band it portrays have not achieved the same level of popular success. Fishbone released an album and played shows close to the film’s release, and while it is enjoying an “upswing,” according to Norwood Fisher, a founder of the band, “things are better, but still not easy.”

And unlike Anvil, whose triumphant tour accompanied more than 50 screenings of “Anvil!” around the world, Pentagram has no scheduled coming-out party, though the band’s comeback album, “Last Rites” (Metal Blade Records), was released last April. Perhaps that’s partly because of the nature of Pentagram’s music, which is best played in dark shadows, at decibels too loud.

“It’s doom metal,” Mr. Pelletier said, referring to Pentagram’s current status. “There’s a gray cloud over us all of the time.”

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 Post subject: Re: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 2:36 am 

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Location: Austin
one of the film makers wears a badass Kyuss shirt in one scene

oh and the doc is depressing as fuck, but I dug it


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 Post subject: Re: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 3:07 am 
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HOLY SHIT THIS FILM IS OUT NOW!!!?
FUCKING AMAAAZING IT WOULD SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY!


Awesome

Image

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 Post subject: Re: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 10:22 am 
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I need to see that Fishbone movie. Chim Chim!

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 Post subject: Re: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 4:08 am 
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didn't know it was Serpent Throne guys that did the doc.
those guys are awesome.

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 Post subject: Re: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 1:07 pm 
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Mr Neutron wrote:
didn't know it was Serpent Throne guys that did the doc.
those guys are awesome.


I somehow had missed this bit of info as well...looking forward to seeing this.


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 Post subject: Re: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 11:23 pm 

Joined: Sat Dec 04, 2010 8:22 pm
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how would anyone feel comfortable with people getting all up in your business? they think they deserve to know about him?


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 Post subject: Re: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 10:30 am 

Joined: Tue May 10, 2011 10:39 pm
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dong ytown wrote:
how would anyone feel comfortable with people getting all up in your business? they think they deserve to know about him?


I think it probably feeds into most people's egos to have cameras following them around like they're all important.


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 Post subject: Re: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 11:41 am 

Joined: Wed Dec 08, 2010 4:06 am
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Location: Zurich
Iron Krullet wrote:
dong ytown wrote:
how would anyone feel comfortable with people getting all up in your business? they think they deserve to know about him?


I think it probably feeds into most people's egos to have cameras following them around like they're all important.


especially the crack addicts.


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 Post subject: Re: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 3:43 pm 

Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2010 12:13 pm
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Demian is an acquaintance and Pellet is a friend, and I remember the first time they went to interview Bobby... Sounded pretty grim.

Good luck to those guys, they worked really hard on the doc. I'm only vaguely familiar with Pentagram but I'll be checking this out for sure.


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 Post subject: Re: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 11:12 pm 

Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2010 11:54 am
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Cool. It's the way to do it these days--the documentary thing--granted that you want to bare your soul for everyone to see.


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 Post subject: Re: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:39 pm 

Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2011 8:05 am
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Not really familar with Pentagram either, tbqh, but this all just sounds interesting. I DL'd some of their material. Good songs sound is crappy, bad recordings and most of the recordings that sounded better the song just isn't there. I guess I should just DL the video when it comes out, or is there a most recommended album?


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 Post subject: Re: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 2:29 pm 
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I recommend that you first buy the album Pentagram- Relentless. That's probably the best place to start with this band.


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 Post subject: Re: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 3:05 pm 
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I'm pretty sure Dinger knows which Pentagram album to start with.

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 Post subject: Re: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 5:10 pm 
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In case all of you NYC/New Jersey area hookers didn't know, this opens up at IFC Friday night, click the link for full schedule-
http://www.ifccenter.com/films/last-days-here/

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 Post subject: Re: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 8:09 pm 

Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2010 11:10 pm
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going to try and check this out this weekend!!!!!


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 Post subject: Re: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 10:25 pm 

Joined: Sat Dec 18, 2010 9:29 pm
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Leto II wrote:
Not really familar with Black Sabbath, are they good? What is a good album for me to start with if I desired to listen to Black Sabbath?


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 Post subject: Re: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 11:05 pm 
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I wonder how Bobby feels now about this coming out since he's turned the 180 and has what appears to be a pretty cool life - on the other hand maybe he'll show up at the NY screening! :)
I kinda don't want to watch it never having witnessed his heroin crack-o pitfalls. It would be, like, too real, man, to actually see it. Anyway, keep touring the Pentagram out West, pronto, Bobbo! More swag too!

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 Post subject: Re: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 1:38 pm 

Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2011 8:05 am
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Bongzilla wrote:
Leto II wrote:
Not really familar with Black Sabbath, are they good? What is a good album for me to start with if I desired to listen to Black Sabbath?



yah yah, I get the whole n00b hazing schtick. I'm aware of these classics, been smoking to them since an early age. Just trying to get hip to the newer generation acts and lot of the obscureness that gets buried up over the years. That's why I look up to you l33ts to help me out!


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 Post subject: Re: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Fri Mar 02, 2012 6:41 am 
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Location: New York
Just got my ticket for this evenings late showing at the IFC Film Center in Manhattan. I'm really interested in seeing what type of audience shows up since the film had write ups in both the NY Times and The Village Voice this past week.

Could get ugly (in the best way possible)...........................


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 Post subject: Re: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 10:23 pm 

Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2010 11:10 pm
Posts: 111
I went to the friday night show at 955 and the directors were in the audience. bobby made an appearance for the earlier show.

really, really good doc. but bobby is so freaking lucky to have people around him that care for him. if not, he would of been dead years ago.

so worth seeing.

mostly artsy people at the show but the earlier show seemed to include a lot of different type of people.

PAY FOR ALL YOUR SINSSSSS!!!!


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 Post subject: Re: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 4:17 am 
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Thanks for the report

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 Post subject: Re: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 3:49 pm 
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"the co-directors, Dan Argott and Demian Fenton, have given numerous promotional interviews in anticipation of the film’s New York City release this Friday. It’s great that D.C. has one-upped New York City again, seeing as the film finally proves Pentagram's superiority over any metal band in the entire musical history of the five boroughs."

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blog ... nevermind/

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 Post subject: Re: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 10:24 am 
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The only thing the DC Metro area one-ups any city in is having the largest population of passive-aggressive wieners of any city in The United States. When something good does emerge from there, a majority of the populace could give a fuck/show absolutely no support for it. It's no surprise that a majority of talented people from the DC metro who produce cool/interesting music/art/ect. do not stick around and end up moving elsewhere. Hardly anyone in the DC area cared about or paid attention to Pentagram throughout their existence, so it's not exactly a shocker that the documentary is not showing down there imo.

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Last edited by L. Ron on Thu Mar 08, 2012 11:08 am, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Liebling Documentary Makes the NY Times
PostPosted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 12:55 pm 

Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2010 12:13 pm
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Opens Friday night in Philly and the directors will be there for 2 screenings! Fuck yeah....


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