Info

Austin, Texas is known the world over as a rock ‘n’ roll Mecca where many a gang of true believers has spawned in the neon-splashed Lone Star puddles of its nightclubs, experimenting with tri-chord permutations of Telecaster terrorism in hopes of striking upon the Now Sound that makes the kids move in a way they’ve never moved before, the primordial rumble of a generation clawing out from the elemental soup and finding its voice when life slaps it on the ass and crude first words howl through amplified steel: “LOUIE LOU-EYE!”

This concert film mixtape documents key exponents of the Austin underground garage scene in the dives and house parties where the Live Music Capitol’s working musicians forge their creative visions. Fetishistic attention is paid to the aesthetic codes, occult symbolism, and exotic plumage of the new American mating rituals on parade in the modern haunts of youth. By turning an anthropological eye on this subculture in its natural habitat, Mondo Fuzz sees heartbreak, joy and rage returned to their purest vehicles of expression in janglin’ Jaguars, screaming stompboxes and Mexican Strat’s.

director bio:

Andy Ray Lemon founded and programmed the Austin Underground Film Festival, co-curated the monthly Spider House Cafe cult film series Feral Cinema with the Austin Chronicle’s film critic Marc Savlov and Charles Lieurance of Decaying Hollywood Mansions, worked as videographer for Austin Psych Fest and Troma Films, and has covered film for the Onion AV Club, the San Antonio Express News, Cashiers du Cinemart, and ILuvVideo.com. He’s guest curated films for festivals including Art Outside in Austin and Kinemastik in Malta, and his award-winning short films have been screened at festivals around the country. Previous credits include the viral short ‘Exhibit A: Leary Vs Hicks’ (as Penny Dreadful) which explored artistic theft in the world of stand-up. Mondo Fuzz is his debut feature. Inspired by seminal films like The Decline of Western Civilization, Athens GA Inside Out and Urgh! A Music War, the resulting ‘teensploitation trashterpiece of subterranean sinema’ was made on a video clerk’s wages and doubles as a time capsule of a town undergoing the violent growth spurts on its inevitable path to generic metropolis. Each band is given a single track epitomizing their energy and unique style. Like a garage rock Alan Lomax, he opted for field recordings over studio cuts wherever possible and used a variety stocks in an aesthetic that mixes 80s direct-to-video splatter fare, 60s verite, industrial films, and late night cable access anarchy.