Thursday, July 17, 2008

Netflix recommendation: The Devil and Daniel Johnston

Whoa. I just watched a documentary on this guy from the Austin music underground and am blown away by the story.

I know nothing substantial about music. I'm not going to pretend that I can be any judge as to the songs Daniel Johnston wrote (is writing). His voice is a screechy high-pitched awful and he doesn't play his instruments so much as bang on them. It's like modern art -- best when translated by someone who knows what they are talking about.

If you're like me, the only bit of his work you're familiar with is a piece of his art that became kinda well-known for some reason or other.

Still, the story of a young, creative guy who seems to be making the scene and then goes dangerously bonkers is told well in this movie from 2005. I put it on my movie queue as a random choice.

I'll add it was much better than the film on Townes Van Zandt, which made me want to give up independent documentaries on not-so-well-known-musicians-who-eventually-lose-it.

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