The Decline of Western Civilization

We start with the circle jerks.

We talk group sex, wild in the streets, decline of Western civilization, repo man, Keith's experience doing Grand Theft Auto V, hosting the Channel X station.

I think part two eclipses part one in a way.

Just Keith is more comfortable.

In such a lopsided scenario.

Yeah, why would you?

I know we'll get to Decline, but in chronological, in that movie, Circle Jerks have been a band for maybe six months in Decline of Western Civilization.

I don't even know if we've been together.

Yes.

I think The Decline of Western Civilization, the trilogy alone, is an uncompromising and essential record of a specific time in the punk and rock world.

She wasn't an infiltrator.

She was one of them.

Fun fact, Penelope Spheeris was actually slated to direct but had to bow out because of scheduling.

Known for The Decline of Western Civilization, among other things.

Like, that would've been wild to see what she would've done with this movie.

It stars Mark Price as Eddie Weinbauer, Tony Fields as Sammy Curr, Lisa Orgolini as Leslie, uh, Doug Savant played Tim, and Glenn Morgan played Roger.

So I had dogs on the brain, and I thought about this line, "Take Jack, my dog, feed him if you can." Um, all I'm gonna say about The Band is that, you know, it's nearly Thanksgiving.

Uh, Thanksgiving's around the corner, uh, which means for those of us who celebrate, it's time to, for our annual rewatch of The Last Waltz, Martin Scorsese's documentary that was shot on Thanksgiving Day back in 1970-something, featuring The Band and a lot of their friends.

Uh, I believe that Jake and I are going to cover this movie in This Film Should Be Played Loud in November for Thanksgiving, which is our, for those of you who don't know, that's our video podcast, uh, available exclusively on Patreon, Disgraceland All Access on Patreon.

And then I will say one more thing about this, which is The Weight is in this movie, but The Weight is-- it doesn't take place at the full concert with, uh, with everything else that happens in this film.

I discovered this song just recently, actually.

I know very little about Fear.

But when I was watching the Penelope Spheeris documentary The Decline of Western Civilization while I was researching, uh, The Alice Bag and The Bags episode for Disgraceland, that's where I s- uh, heard this song for the first time, and I was kinda blown away by it.

It's, it's pretty great.

Okay

... uh, Penelope Spheeris made three documentaries, The Decline of Western Civilization.

The first one is punks in LA in the, in the early '80s.

The second one is the rise of, like, hair metal bands.

Intense doco, not relaxed doco

...

in the, in the decline of Western civilization, they follow a band called The Germs, who are fascinating.

Uh, one of the members of The Germs is Pat, uh, Pat Smear, who later joined Nirvana.

Yeah.

This is, um, the director Penelope Spheeris, and she was, had directed a movie called, uh, The Decline of Western Civilization, which is basically interviewing and showing punk bands in the pu- LA punk rock scene.

And then, um-

In the early days