Programming Notes From All Over

You know, sometimes it's really true -- good things actually do come to those who wait.

In this case, I'm referring to a wonderful 2008 rock documentary you almost certainly have never seen.

Here's what I had to say about it at the website of Box Office Magazine at the time.

A love letter from two fans -- writer/director/producers Michael Stich and Fred Cantor -- to a semi-obscure rock group, America's Lost Band is a fascinating retelling of one of the great what-might-have-been stories of American music of the '60s. Those who saw them back in the day have long insisted that The Remains could have been as big as the Rolling Stones. This new documentary on their brief career is unlikely to do as well in theaters as the recent Scorsese-directed Stones vehicle Shine a Light, but it's all but guaranteed to have a long and well deserved success on DVD.

The Remains were more or less a footnote to rock history until relatively recently. Formed by four Boston University students in 1964 -- guitarist/singer Barry Tashian, bassist Vern Miller, pianist Bill Briggs III (the group's preppy heartthrob) and drummer Chip Damiani -- they quickly became the most popular live act in New England thanks to a prescient combo of volume, high energy, British Invasion smarts and American R&B moxie. Over the course of the next year and a half they had a couple of regional hit singles, got to strut their stuff on TV (notably an appearance on The Ed Sulllivan Show) and eventually wound up as the well-received opening act on The Beatles 1966 tour, just in time for the release of their one and only album. They broke up soon after, for reasons that have never been clear (and ALB does little to clarify). Over the years since, however, their name started to loom large in garage rock circles, and several critics -- including future Bruce Springsteen producer Jon Landau, who was an early and frequent booster -- helped keep the flame alive. Their album was finally reissued on CD to some interest in 1991, but it was the 1997 release of an often bootleged studio audition tape -- demonstrating that they really were the fire-breathing live act the legend suggested -- that convinced people there was more here than nostalgia. The band subsequently reformed for the occasional live gig, and they've been recording and touring off and on -- these are middle-aged guy with families and jobs, obviously -- ever since.

ALB, narrated by the J. Geils Band's Peter Wolf (another early fan), tells the story with what little archival footage survives -- grainy 8mm stuff from the Beatles tour and that Ed Sullivan appearance -- and with new behind the scenes footage shot over a period of two days in 2006, culminating in a rousing live performance at an L.A. record store. The Remains themselves come across as regular guys, simultaneously bemused by and proud of the fact that their music has survived, and their enthusiam for it and each other is infectious. If the film has a problem, however, it's a certain lack of drama. All four Remains today are happy, healthy, apparently prosperous and, in general, unscathed by rock-and-roll, which is nice for them but something of a let-down for anybody expecting Behind the Music-style dirt. (Tashian, in fact, has had a long and productive musical career, including a ten year stint as guitarist in Emmylou Harris's backup band.) If you can get beyond that, however, you'll probably be charmed by the story's happy ending -- rock pioneers getting the respect they deserve after all these years -- and the warmly affectionate way that Stich and Cantor let it unfold.

I stand by the above, but as alert readers have probably guessed, my prediction about the film's DVD(!) success was, shall we say, overstated; in point of fact, the film has never (up till now, and read on) made the transition to home video/streaming/et al.

I am happy to say that's about to change, however; more than 15 years after America’s Lost Band screened at the Nashville Film Festival and elsewhere, the rock doc will finally be made available to the general public, although as a re-edited 27 minute short and not as the feature-length film that I was lucky enough to see back in the day. (The backstory: There were some licensing costs/rights issues connected with the first part of the film—primarily related to Beatles footage/visuals—that held up distribution for all this time.)

In any case, ALB will start streaming nationwide April 8 on various PBS platforms the day after Connecticut’s PBS station, CPTV, broadcasts the television premiere.

Check, as they say, your local listings; I've seen the new version and it's WELL worth your time.

Oh, and in the unlikely case you're unfamiliar with The Remains, here's a track from the abovementioned studio audition tape.

Pretty cool, no?

Like I said -- check your listings and watch the film.