I finally got around to watching my DVD of the "Beautiful Noise" documentary directed by Eric Green - and while much of it was what I expected, it was still great to hear the artists behind the music I've loved for so long discuss their influences, the scene they got lumped into and how their bands folded up shop, so to speak, as well as the current resurgence and interest in this type of music.I question how useful or entertaining this doc will be for the uninitiated to this style of music. For the rest of us, it's a great walk down memory lane, and with interviews from rock luminaries like Billy Corgan and Trent Reznor, a validation of what we've known all along.But my favorite part was the interviews of Kevin Shields and Alan McGee inter-cutting between each other as they talked about the recording process of MBV's "loveless" (they are basically ripping each other a new hole about the whole experience by recounting how, basically, they thought the other person was disrupting their lives, and in McGee's POV business). This just goes to show that history is determined by those who write it (or talk about it in this case).Personally, the most important outcome of watching this documentary was that it made me pull out all of my shoegaze/dreampop CDs to rip them into FLAC format so I could revisit it all during a long trip I have coming up.If you get a chance to see "Beautiful Noise", by all means do: the artists are interviewed in intimate settings where one gets the sense they were able to relax and really reflect upon the music they've made and their larger cultural impact. It was definitely worth the wait for this doc.

After months of anticipation, BN is finally available for download! As a long-time fan of the early dream pop, and having read all the great comments on Facebook, I had pretty high expectations for this film. Unfortunately, the film is bit of a let-down from my perspective. I had hoped for an in-depth look into the music and history. (I.e. cultural landscape, influences, studio techniques etc.), but instead, the film is comprised mostly of light interviews and a bit of old footage. Considering this thing was 10 years in the making, the filmmaker seems to have done very little research, or made any attempt to build a connection with the artists. I appreciate the ambitions here to cover a big spectrum of the music, but spending 2-5 minutes on each band definitely left me wanting more. He would have been better off focusing on one or two artists, like last year's "Made of Stone", which I enjoyed very much. The other issue I have with this film is the shallow interviewing. It seems that everyone who appears in the film was asked the same questions: When did you first hear about the band, and why do you like them? I would have learnt more if the artists were asked about their favourite food and colour :) This film is worth a viewing for anyone new to the genre, but any hard-core fan like myself will already be well familiar with the band chronology, and the music's dreamy, ethereal quality :/

Beautiful Noise is a well done documentary on a very specific type of music. I call it dream pop, some call it shoe gaze. All the bands documented are excellent, but I would have liked to hear about all the fans who came to their shows! There are no interviews from every day non famous fans. Also the bands do not talk about touring which to me is an important part of being in a band. There was so much going on in the early 90s cultural landscape, but there isn't too much mentioned about that. My favorite band Curve only gets a minute of mention. There was no mention about how different their music was and how bands like Garbage were influenced by Toni Halliday and Dean Garcia's music skills. I liked this film and watched it three times to get an idea of what more I would have liked to see.

Beautiful Noise is an amazingly intelligent, thorough, and detailed film that chronicles the formation of a style of music that many refer to as Shoegaze. The term Shoegaze was originally coined by a talentless hack of a "journalist", and was meant to disparage the lack of showmanship employed by these bands who preferred to let the music speak for itself, instead of prancing around on stage.The film does an excellent job of introducing us to the bands responsible for the birth of the genre, like the Jesus and Marychain, My Bloody Valentine, and the Cocteau Twins. They didn't set out to start a movement, they simply wanted to play THEIR music, but their unique style ended up having an influence on many other musicians.What they started, developed into a more cohesive movement in the late 80s and early 90s, with British bands like Ride, Catherine Wheel, Slowdive, and Chapterhouse using heavily effected guitar sounds and an overall mood that was influenced by the bands mentioned earlier.Beautiful Noise follows the chronology of the movement to weave an entertaining story and includes many rare interviews with members of the most important bands of the genre. There is also some excellent input from a few legendary musicians from outside the movement, like Robert Smith, Trent Reznor, and Billy Corgan, all of whom are fans, and most likely influenced these bands in some form, as well.Beautiful Noise never actually mentions the name "Shoegaze", and most of these bands would probably never consider calling themselves "Shoegaze". For me the term is merely a convenient way of grouping a bunch of bands that have obvious similarities. I like taking back the power of the word.If you're a fan of the genre or any of the bands in the film, Beautiful Noise is a must. If you are interested in music on any level, then Beautiful Noise is a must. It would be an wonderful introduction to this music if you have always been interested but never really listened to any of the bands. The film does such a fantastic job of capturing the essence and spirit of the movement and detailing the motivation and driving force behind the artists.I was lucky enough to see Beautiful Noise at a festival in Hollywood, and it's a shame more people haven't had a chance to see it yet. I can't wait for it to come out on Blu-Ray so I can watch it again and again.