Modeselektor

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'We Are Modeselektor' Documentary Now Free To Stream

75-minute documentary charts the fascinating rise of the influential German DJ/producer duo

Brian Haack

GRAMMYs

Dec 5, 2017 - 12:22 pm

Groundbreaking German electronic duo Modeselektor gave their fans a special gift this week, releasing the fascinating feature-length documentary We Are Modeselektor in its entirety for free to Electronic Beats TV's (EB.tv) YouTube channel.

Originally shot in 2013 in collaboration with EB.tv, the 75-minute film chronicles Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary's early years as outlaw DJs in the 1990s East Berlin underground electronic scene. Speaking to now-defunct indie music blog The Red Alert in 2007, Szary explained, "After the Wall came down, everywhere in Germany and especially East Germany there was a lot of chaos, anarchy, … So [the authorities] didn't interfere when someone put up a pair of speakers in an abandoned building …and threw a party."

Equal parts dark, inviting, abrasive, melodic, and absurd, Modeselektor's signature sound has always paid equal respect to the pair's underground heritage and iconoclastic obsession with defying genre classification.

This resistance to categorization is undoubtedly informed by the social upheaval that permeated East Germany during Szary's and Bronsert's formative years.

"You wanted to be different, to have your own style," the pair explained to The Red Alert's Adam McKibbin. "Sometimes you had the feeling that you could build your own society. Everywhere was a feeling of breakup and a feeling of depression at the same time. Mixed feelings, insecurity and big hopes everywhere."

We Are Modeselektor traces these formative years against a backdrop of found footage and personal stories Szary and Bronsert share as they tour their childhood neighborhoods and adolescent stomping grounds, cracking jokes with family and friends all along the way in their characteristic absurdist humor.

In more recent years, Szary and Bronsert have partnered with longtime friend and collaborator Sascha Ring, aka Apparat, touring as the avant-garde electronic supergroup Moderat, which readers of respected underground blog and club calendar aggregator Resident Advisor voted the "No. 1 Live Act Of The Year" in 2009. (Modeselektor themselves also made that list, at No. 7.)

Following an extensive world tour in support of their third studio album, 2016's III, Moderat announced in September that they would be taking a hiatus and return to separately performing as Modeselektor and Apparat for the foreseeable future.

We Are Modeslektor is also available on DVD & Blu-Ray via Szary and Bronsert's independent label Monkeytown Records.

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Yeah Yeah Yeahs

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Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Trailer Released For New Documentary

Documentary will come packaged with the band's forthcoming reissue of their GRAMMY-nominated debut album, 'Fever To Tell'

Brian Haack

GRAMMYs

Oct 2, 2017 - 5:46 pm

The music scene in New York City was on fire in the early 2000s, and GRAMMY-nominated rockers Yeah Yeah Yeahs were one of the groups most inextricably tied to that wild and unexpected period of sonic creativity.

Alongside the forthcoming reissue of their GRAMMY-nominated debut album, Fever To Tell, the band will also release a short documentary film of their 2003 U.K. tour, which is titled There Is No Modern Romance. In a press release announcing the album reissue and documentary, the band refers to it as, "a mini film documenting our near downfall."

Available Oct. 20, the reissue package for Fever To Tell will include the albums first vinyl pressing in 10 years, a copy of There Is No Modern Romance, a selection of unreleased tracks and recordings including the band's very first-ever demos, as well as photos and "other fun memorabilia."

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Lady Gaga Reveals Hidden Habits, Intimate Moments In New Doc

Some of the six-time GRAMMY winner's most intimate and vulnerable moments will be shared in a new Netflix documentary

Brian Haack

GRAMMYs

Sep 7, 2017 - 2:14 pm

Little monsters and entry-level Lady Gaga stans alike will soon be able to see an intimate portrait of the six-time GRAMMY winner in a brand new documentary biopic on the singer's life, daily activities, and hidden habits.

Gaga: Five Foot Two was filmed behind the scenes during the recording and roll out for the singer's most recent album Joanne. The film comes from director Chris Moukarbel, known for his HBO documentaries Banksy Does New York and Me @ The Zoo, the latter of which charted the strange lifecycle of Internet fame.

The teaser for Gaga: Five Foot Two promises to show, "Lady Gaga as you've never seen her …at her most vulnerable moments as she pushes through chronic pain, heartbreak and produces a soul-blooming album."

The film premieres at Toronto International Film Festival, which kicks off today, and will be available on Netflix starting Sept. 22.

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Logic

Photo: Christopher Polk/Getty Images

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What Does Logic's Daily Life Look Like? Find Out In Netflix's "Rapture"

The trailer for Netflix's new lifestyle doc series explores the daily lives of your favorite rappers

Brian Haack

GRAMMYs

Mar 29, 2018 - 6:00 pm

Netflix's new lifestyle documentary series "Rapture" launches this week on Mar. 30. The eight-episode series explores the day-to-day experiences of a group of hip-hop artists, exploring the landscape of rap culture in 2018. The series trailer premiered today, teasing the show's upcoming spotlight on Logic.

The brief clip sees shots of the GRAMMY-nominated rapper playing a grand piano, rapping on stage and interacting with fans, intercut with slices of interviews discussing his childhood struggles and rise to fame.

Alongside Logic, "Rapture" will feature segments focused on other young MCs such as A Boogie wit da Hoodie, G-Eazy, and Dave East, as well as established industry icons such as Nas, Rapsody, 2 Chainz, and Just Blaze.

As well as his placement in the new Netflix doc series, Logic has continued to make headlines in recent weeks with his well-received feature verse on a new remix of GRAMMY-winner Sam Smith's "Pray," lending an up-tempo rhythmic crossover vibe to Smith's more somber piano-driven meditation on religious themes and imagery.

Logic's latest tour hit the road earlier this month, with support from rappers Kyle and NF.

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Heather Parry, Diddy, Scott Goldman, 2018

(L-R) Heather Parry, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Scott Goldman

Photo: Rebecca Sapp/Getty Images

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Diddy & Heather Parry On 'Can't Stop Won't Stop' Doc | "Required Listening" Podcast

Latest episode of the GRAMMY Museum's podcast features an in-depth discussion with the GRAMMY-winning music mogul and the head of Live Nation about the development of 'Can't Stop Won't Stop: A Bad Boy Story'

Brian Haack

GRAMMYs

Mar 8, 2018 - 2:18 pm

From the early 1990s to the present day, GRAMMY-winning multi-disciplined rapper/producer, label executive, actor, and global entrepreneur Sean "Diddy" Combs has become an industry legend.

Listen Now: "Required Listening," Episode 7 With Diddy & Heather Parry

Diddy leveraged his once-nascent Sony Music imprint label Bad Boy Entertainment into a diversified business empire that touches everything from music recording, release and promotion to independent lifestyle brand ventures like clothing lines and premium distilled spirits. His impressive rise to power from an unpaid record label intern to imprint label owner to music industry mogul — along the way becoming the second wealthiest hip-hop artist in history (recently dethroned from the No. 1 spot by Jay-Z) — has now been encapsulated in Can't Stop Won't Stop: A Bad Boy Story, an intriguing feature-length documentary film that is the subject of the latest episode of "Required Listening," the music podcast produced by HowStuffWorks and the GRAMMY Museum in partnership with the Recording Academy.

Produced by Live Nation film/TV division head Heather Parry, the film also centers around the Brooklyn, N.Y., show dates of the 2016 Bad Boy Family Reunion Tour, which saw Diddy rejoined with artists such as Lil' Kim, Faith Evans, Carl Thomas, French Montana, and others whose careers he helped build in the early days of Bad Boy Entertainment. Director Daniel Kaufman has described the documentary as, "a fierce pursuit of the American dream."

"[The film] really just really shows the embodiment of the dream and the hustle, and you get to see that through an unfiltered lens." — Sean "Diddy" Combs

"I think the title's so appropriate," said Parry of the film. "Because Puff literally doesn't stop, doesn't take no for an answer. I would sum it up like it's a beautiful, legendary history of a man that just doesn't quit …and I think that is the American dream."

Reflecting on how she got involved in the project, Parry explains that she and Diddy first met over two decades earlier, when she was interning at MTV. Years later, when the time came for Diddy to put together his Bad Boy Family Reunion Tour, Parry herself had just started the then-brand-new Live Nation Productions film division of the entertainment conglomerate. When the word came down that Live Nation would be promoting Diddy's tour, the decision to put a crew together to document the experience almost made itself.

"We moved at lightning speed. We decided to do [the film] and we had like three weeks to find a director, and put it on it, and go." — Heather Parry

"I think of my biggest records, or hits, or success has been when the audience is able to be vulnerable," Diddy explained, responding to GRAMMY Museum Executive Director and "Required Listening" host Scott Goldman's praise for the depth of insight and emotion the film was able to achieve. "I knew if I was going to step out in this type of medium …I just wanted to tell the truth."

Digging deeper into the broader goals behind creating Can't Stop Won't Stop, Diddy added, "I wanted to change the narrative, just in general, of how hip-hop is perceived, and also – we as black men and women – how we're perceived based on what we see through media or the constant images of negativity that we see. I wanted to change the narrative and show the new narrative of strength, of black strength, of black excellence, of shining a positive light on the positive things that we do, the magic that we have, the brilliance that we have, and do it in an unapologetic way."