THIS FRIDAY'S 40 BANDS 80 MINUTES! I.E. PREMIERE & MONDAY'S ANAVAN SHOW NAMED TOP EVENTS OF THE WEEK!!!

The press has picked up on the historical and TOTAL ROCK GREATNESS of the 40 BANDS 80 MINUTES! Inland Empire premiere at the Old Baldy Brewery in Upland this Friday night.

The I.E. Weekly selected the event—which starts at 8pm and features Health, Anavan, Whitman, Abe Vigoda and a surprise “mystery” band from the movie (who have reunited specifically for this premiere!)—as the don’t-miss movie & music extravaganza of the week:

“March 6, 2006 was a pretty fascinating night at the Il Corral club in Hollywood. In the span of seven hours, 40 bands congregated to play two-minute sets apiece of noisy, arty, thrashy, jazzy, metal-y music—the ultimate in short-attention-span sonic theater, preserved forever on digital video, then spliced together into this documentary directed by the appropriately-named Sean Carnage. His film is a fascinating ogle from the first band, Captain Ahab, who blurt “This song’s called ‘Punch Yourself in the Crotch as Hard as You Can!’” From there, the ride never lets up—an acoustic folker strums and sings behind a panda bear mask. A raggedy girl warbles off-key into a mic as a beatbox blares behind her. A guy pounds a drum kit with one hand while playing and holding a trumpet in the other. Four dudes sit on the floor and intensely knock walnut shells (or something) around—a very poor man’s drum circle. Another guy just stands there a reads an L.A. Times while distortion effects zing around him. Then there’s the guy who makes a sandwich with his feet, and the kids in the crowd practically beat one another up over who gets to take a bite (yeah, that is pretty gross). Some of this stuff works tremendously—it’d be a pleasure to see one of the better bands such as Veer Right Young Pastor go the full 80 minutes. Other bands, though, are only interesting because of their name (Dog Shit Taco! Slutty Knuckles! Toxic Loincloth!). But there’s plenty to absorb in 40 Bands 80 Minutes! —so much that it’ll leave you wishing you could’ve been there a year ago. This, at least, is the next best thing.”

40 Bands 80 Minutes! screens at the Old Baldy Brewery, 271 N. Second Ave., Upland, (866) 377-6853; www.oldbaldybrewery.com. Fri., 8 p.m. $5.
-Rich Kane

PLUS: The L.A. Weekly selected the first installment of Anavan’s month-long stint programming Sean Carnage Mondays as a MUST-SEE concert! Woo-hoo!!

So c’mon and join in—you’re invited!

Here are the pertinent visual reminders:

THIS FRIDAY