TOWNCRAFT (88113100083)

Every city should have it’s own music scene, whether it’s Punk, Metal, Jazz or Country. Local music scenes help keep music alive and they bring likeminded people together to have fun, to create and to live. This outstanding package (DVD + two CDs + 56 page book) focuses it’s sights on the Little Rock, Arkansas music scene and not only proves that local music scenes are vital to the community but also shows that the world missed a lot of great times in Little Rock during the late ‘80s and early ‘90s (and beyond). Although I lived through the original Punk and New Wave scenes in L.A. and O.C. during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, I’ve always had a desire….a NEED…to explore music and scenes that had passed me by as I grew into ‘adulthood’. Within the first few moments of this film, I was hooked and fascinated. Not only did this Punk scene happen in Little Rock a good decade after it had taken over the major East and West Coast cities, but it helped to keep Punk alive when all but a few labels had given up on it years before. With actual footage from gigs and interviews with the scene’s key players, Towncraft explores the attraction of the music, the power of expression and the importance of community all in one package called a ‘music scene’. Apart from Econochrist and Trusty, not many of these bands made it outside of their local scene and many of them deserved to. The two CDs span 20 years of Little Rock’s scene and features many of the bands that are included in the film plus so much more. 40 tracks, each filled with more spirit than a high school cheerleading team! The book features memories and short essays by many of the scene’s key players , photos and more. If you are a local music supporter, a Punk fan, an Alternative fan of just like music, you must own this. If you miss the local music scene of your youth, then you’ll find yourself whisked back to a time when music was life and life was all about music. It looks like those times never ended in Little Rock. I’m booking the next flight out there! (MATSON FILMS)

reviewed by the Minister of Information - Stephen Schnee