Event

URGH! A MUSIC WAR in 35mm

Monday, July 16 @ 7:00 PM / Music Box Theatre
URGH! A MUSIC WAR
Directed by Derek Burbidge 1981
Co-presented with CHIRP 107.1 FM
Pop quiz: who is the best new band of the 1980s? Gang of Four? Steel Pulse? The Go-Gos? Surf Punks? Whatever your taste in under-the-radar sounds, URGH! A MUSIC WAR has you covered. Unabashed propaganda for the new wave of rock n roll on the rise at the head of the Reagan era and soft promotion for Creative Consultant Miles Copelands I.R.S. Records (to which several bands featured in the film were signed), Urgh! captured, on 35mm and with multichannel sound, some of the most exciting musical acts of its era live in early, prime form. Keeping interstitial material to a minimum, URGH! provided each of its 24 bands the space of a single song to leave an indelible impression before moving along. Showcasing in equal measure bands that were both on the precipice of breaking through as well as those who broke up or fell off the map almost immediately (anybody heard from The Alley Cats lately?), URGH! has endured as a vital time capsule of its musical moment, presented in hi-fi with relatively little corporate intervention (save for the Dead Kennedys being booted from the soundtrack release for their inflammatory name). So please join us as we present, on the big screen (deep breath!), Devo, Echo & the Bunnymen, X, 999, Klaus Nomi, Au Pairs, Oingo Boingo, UB40, The Cramps, Gary Numan, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, XTC, and many more in the musical event of 1981. (CW)
96 min. Lorimar Productions 35mm from Warner Bros.
Short: The Fleshtones in Soul City (M.Henry Jones, 1977) 2 min 35mm from Anthology Film Archives, Preserved by Anthology Film Archives with support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.