[youtube]http://youtu.be/1rpuzz1R0bQ[/youtube]
Of all the bands that make it (whatever “making it” means these days, anyway), there are countless more that come really close and flame out. That’s what a new documentary, Rye Coaltition: The Story of the Hard Luck 5, examines. The New Jersey band started 20 years ago and released three albums independently before being courted by major label Dreamworks Records in 2003. They recruited Dave Grohl, who was a fan of the band, to produce their fourth album, Curses. Dreamworks was eventually folded into Universal, and the band opted to release Curses, still their most recent album, back in 2006 after finding themselves without a label. The documentary promises to reveal the rise and fall of the band, who are still occasionally active.
“When we were making the record, I’d listen to it and go, goddamn, these guys, they’re so much better than most other band [rock] bands in the world,” Grohl says in an excerpt from the documentary,which premiered yesterday on Pitchfork. Jack Black also makes a cameo in the film, which you can see above. Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme and Steve Albini are among the others that appear in the doc.
Rye Coalition will be playing a DVD release party on Saturday, December 13 at WFMU’s Monty Hall in Jersey City. Black Wail, a band which, well, features this writer in it, will open. You can get tickets here.
The Story of the Hard Luck 5 will be released on DVD on January 13.
