This documentary came out last year, but is now getting posted on Youtube by fans…for free, and c’mon there is no reason it shouldn’t be, it wasn’t about the money. So, if you still don’t quite understand how special and cool the American hardcore movement of the early eighties was, or if you just want to feel all warm and tingly with nostalgia, you can do so for free. Some names are suspiciously absent from the film, most notably the Misfits and Dead Kennedys (perhaps because of the internal lawsuits). The Minutemen were not mentioned or shown much either except for some interviews with Mike Watt, but I guess they have their own movie. The film does a nice job however of condensing a seething moshpit full of information and media into a pretty concise time line of events. There is a wealth of great old footage and some really great inside information on some of the key events that really kicked off a huge movement, ignored for the most part by the mainstream industry. Long live the Bad Brains…

American Hardcore (part 1)

American Hardcore (part 2)
American Hardcore (part 3)
American Hardcore (part 4)
American Hardcore (part 5)
American Hardcore (part 6)
American Hardcore (part 7)
American Hardcore (part 8)
American Hardcore (part 9)
American Hardcore (part 10)

Like I said the Minutemen were pretty much absent from the American Hardcore video…They were probably one of the most influential bands to me (as a young punk bass player anyway). Here is a trailer clip from their documentary, which features alot of the same faces from the AH doc.

The Minutemen We Jam Econo:

The Minutemen DVD: We Jam Econo