Growing up punk rock on the west coast in the 1970s, the New York scene seemed like a very exotic (and distant) flower indeed. This documentary does a half way decent job of documenting that scene and its influence on NY alterna-rock circa 2002. The interviews are great (especially Lydia Lunch and Michael Gira) and there's some stunning footage, BUT: I would dearly have loved to have seen complete performances instead of excerpts of Teenage Jesus, DNA, Suicide, and The Contortions. And speaking of which , where's James Chance--is he simply not speaking about the old days, or did the filmmakers simply drop the ball? As for the contempo bands, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs do seem to be carrying on the No Wave spirit to best effect, but Karen O is either one of the dimmest bulbs on the Christmas tree or just a terrible interview subject. All in all, Kill Y(ou)r Idols does just enough--but only barely.
Review of Kill Your Idols
