(thanks, thurna!)

Still one of the best “music scene” documentaries and a must-see if you’re a “scholar” of 80’s alternative music (translation: someone who likes some mighty fine and varied music), Tony Gayton’s 1987 film Athens, GA: Inside/Out is a quirky and fun blast of great music featuring famous up and coming and obscure bands strutting their stuff in a free form style that makes the film quite compelling even to this day.

Amusingly enough, I have extended family in Macon and Savannah and while I’ve not been down that way in decades, watching this documentary sometime around 1990 on tape made me want to buy a bus ticket and head down to Athens just to check out a few clubs. I didn’t, however (my loss), as I had more real life things to take care of and had this film on tape and a copy of the soundtrack on cassette to time me over and keep my eyes and ears very happy…

If you don’t know any of the band here other than R.E.M., you can be assured that if you show up for them, you’ll love everything else you’re going to see and hear. In the film, we get some performances by them as well as a nice chunk of time with the band members as they talk about Athens and some of their favorite things to see and do in the city. But this isn’t entirely their show as local artists get in some screen time and the film ends up being a really cool visual vacation in and around the area. You’ll see a teeny tiny bit of B-52’s, some great full tilt performances from Time Toy, The Squalls, Bar-B-Que Killers, Love Tractor and a few other bands. While I like the whole film equally, the two energetic Flat Duo Jets performances stand out as the most fun to watch. Some younger viewers may see FDJ as a sort of rockabilly version of The White Stripes, but these two guys were there first and maybe do what they do better.

Granted, the film’s fluffy center and too-dreamy artsy atmosphere of oddball perfection may rankle some nerves raw. There’s no band versus band angst, everyone seems so darned NICE and approachable to the point where there’s a scene where different band members gush about Pylon and their influence for a bit and you almost feeling like yelling at the screen because no one has anything negative to say. Granted, we’re in an era now where band fights mean too many faked” reality” TV shenanigans or in more tragic cases, actual guns coming out. So perhaps this film truly does capture a part of the country where artistic success wasn’t measured in piles of money and material goods. The guys and gals here all seem fine with minor to moderate success and there’s even a story of one band turning down a big gig with U2 in favor of keeping themselves lower key and I guess somewhat more respectable.

Like many documentaries, the intriguing thing here is the time factor. You get the sense that filming seems to have taken a few years and was done in bits and pieces, making the editing process either a total nightmare or more like piecing together a really goofy jigsaw puzzle. I’d gather there’s a storage locker somewhere with some film cans of stuff that wasn’t used, but overall this makes a fine bit of music history from the mid-80’s worth tracking down. In case your interest is piqued, this one was available only on VHS tape for a while in what I think was a low production run, but last year a DVD/soundtrack CD was released by Omnivore Recordings, so you may be able to find it there or on eBay if you’re lazy and don’t like looking at some cool obscure bands over at the Omnivore site.

You may not want to buy a bus ticket afterwards, but your ears will definitely be happy little campers on the sides of your head while your eyes will be trying to write a thank you note. At least that’s what happens when I watch this one again…