Roky Erickson documentary now out on DVD
When I watched You're Gonna Miss Me at the SXSW premiere last year I had heard of Roky Erickson, but I had never really listened to his music and I had no idea of the troubles he had been through in the last decade or so. Two of my great friend happened to be the producers of the documentary and I was there at the premiere to help celebrate the happy occasion with them. Then the film started.
It’s amazing how much Roky had suffered while in the “care” of his mother. In a sense, this musical genius was wasting away and if it wasn’t for his brother Sumner helping out, who knows what would have happened to Roky. It’s inspiring to know that he’s back and playing music again. Because of the documentary, I bought a recent compilation of his music (I Have Always Been Here Before), both solo and with the various bands he played with over the years.
While the doc was on the festival circuit, I put together and maintained the website for the film. The version(s) I put up have been taken down (but here’s a snapshot from the Web Archive of the first version of the site) and replaced by another. Watch the trailer at the site, and you'll definitely get sucked in to his story.
The reason I bring this up is that the documentary is now available on DVD, and it seems to be packed with loads of extras. So, congrats to my friends; I know they've looked forward to this day for a long time.
Update: Via coudal’s Fresh Signals blog, a new music video for Spoon’s song “The Underdog” directed by You're Gonna Miss Me’s director Keven McAlester. More of his music videos here.