The Hidden Track staff last night headed to the Anthology Film Archives to attend the New York premiere of Les Claypool’s directorial debut, a mockumentary send-up of the jamband scene surrounded a fictional band called Electric Apricot.
The film’s at once an improvisational comedy in the Christopher Guest mold and a true-to-life character study that tackles the inherent hilarity of band dynamics, overzealous hippie fans, taper culture and the most obvious target — the festival.
Electric Apricot: Quest For Festeroo follows a four-man jamband into the studio and out on the road. We’re treated to a full history the band — Steve “Gordo” Gordan on guitar, Steve “Aiwass” Trouzdale on bass, Herschel Tambor Brilstein on keys and Lapland “Lapdog” Miclovich (Claypool) on drums — and their influences and motivations, and it’s in this slice of reality where most of the jokes come naturally. The music this fictional band created for the movie is also pretty funny, and “Hey, Are You Going To Burning Man?” will make even the hippies with no ability to laugh at themselves, well, laugh at themselves.
The whole film acts as one big inside joke, but inside that structure, there’s plenty that’ll make you chuckle. The jokes come fast and furious — well, for the first half-hour. But then the premise just goes on and on, and the comedy ceases to be…funny. The last hour of the film has its moments for sure, but as a full 90-minute feature, I’m not sure the movie properly sustains the joke. And whether intentional or not, there’s also an incredible lack of subtlety, and I thought Claypool’s sense of humor was better than that.
Look, nobody loves making fun of the so-called jam scene more than us. Sure we noodle along to the music, and who doesn’t dig free hugs, but there’s some serious comedy in this world (remember our SCI post?). But the film is pretty harsh on the jamband scene, and while that’s funny and all, Claypool is taking the piss out of people who have supported him more than Primus fans over the better part of the last decade. It’s not exactly biting the hand that feeds you, but it’s close. It’s like biting the hand of the person that malnourishes your dog.
But go check it out when it hits theaters this weekend — despite being mostly, as the kids say, “meh,” the cameos and obvious jokes alone are worth the ducats.
3 Responses
in a recent interview w/ MTV, claypool said:
“Are they parodying people who work at a paper supply company?”(referencing The Office) he asked, “Or are they portraying true characters in a certain setting? [‘Electric Apricot’] is an endearing look at the jam scene, poking fun at these people and how they look at their universe so seriously
The trailer lends itself to some instant laughter (the dude coughing trying to play a ‘didg’, the dude from Flight of the Concords’ “cube” dance moves) but I could totally see where obvious jokes are well…too obvious. While I am not one (hippy) that takes himself too seriously, I see where even I could be slightly offended and I could def. see where others could be offended. Claypool is a heralded musician, but a mock-rockumentary might not be is strong-suit.
Nice – “It’s like biting the hand of the person that malnourishes your dog.”
seriously Ace, I’m surprised P.E.T.A. hasn’t caught on to the STS9 scene… those cats win the prize for having starving K-9’s for pets