Avant Garde

Sonic Youth/Nirvana…
THE YEAR PUNK BROKE 1991
Now Showing!

Sean

Published

September 2, 2011

Who were some of the biggest weirdos in Los Angeles circa 1983? I would have to say the SST massive & their extended family. Man, I’m glad I got to know them when I was younger, many of their ideas about art, or what we we thought punk was supposed to be, did not really start to make sense to me until I got older. Looking back on it now, the SST crew were more out there than the leather jacket/studs punks on Melrose. They were planting the seeds for the next movement that would change the face of rock & roll. One band that were inspired what was going down on the West Coast in this era was SONIC YOUTH, who released many of their early albums on SST. Then you had Dave Markey from SIN-34, who also happened to be a young film maker with a mind that was full of left of center thoughts. SONIC YOUTH had him direct many of their first videos, which he did only how Dave could do them. This is around the time when GRUNGE came on the scene, but it had not yet been exploited by the media. Thurston took a liking to a young band from the Northwest named NIRVANA. 1991 was the year that all of these freaks of nature decided to tour Europe together, & Dave Markey was on hand to capture all of the mayhem. The footage he caught on film has become the movie we all know, called “The Year Punk Broke 1991”. It’s a pretty rad fucking movie, because it’s made by freakaziods for freakazoids, if you know what I mean! When you watch this documentary, you will see unbelievable live footage of SONIC YOUTH, NIRVANA, DINOSAUR JR., BABES IN TOYLAND & many more. What really strikes me about this celluloid piece of history is the moments of unscripted humor that Markey was able to catch. So after the jump, check out this super epic documentary, “The Year Punk Broke 1991”!