Music, musings and miscellanea

Art films by definition are weird, indulgent enterprises that rarely make an impact beyond a director’s group of friends. But when those friends go on to spark a cultural movement, the films become a visual document of a unique place and time.

Llik Your Idols documents the Cinema Of Transgression, a group of ’80s New York-based filmmakers who charted a bizarre and twisted course. Directors like Richard Kern and Jon Spencer inspired and were inspired by the city’s concurrent no wave musical movement.

Like the films, no wave was a direct attack on the audience and is described in the documentary as both “fast Chuck Berry riffs” and “punk without the commercial crap.”

Music and film began to intersect when acts like Foetus and Lydia Lunch (who also starred in many of the flicks) began providing soundtracks for directors. Together, these artists lit the fuse that exploded and quickly became ’90s cliches through the work of Larry Clark and Natural Born Killers.

Sonic Youth, whose Thurston Moore is interviewed in the film, are hands-down the most successful group to come out of this scene. But as Moore points out, they were a product of the other bands and the films surrounding them. They’re an easy entry point for the uninitiated, but, for those inspired to delve deeper, the DVD includes two films from current scene practitioner Nick Zedd.

This review originally appeared at Chartattack.com