If It's Too Loud...

We're obviously huge fans of Sarah Shook & The Disarmers here at If It's Too Loud..., and I've been gushing about Gorman Bechard's Lydia Loveless documentary for the past two years. Once I saw that his new documentary about Sarah Shook & The Disarmers was having its world premiere at the Boston Independent Film Festival, I knew I had to clear out my plans to check it out.  It's going to be pretty easy to draw comparisons to Who is Lydia Loveless? and What it Takes: film en douze tableaux  as it is to compare Lydia Loveless and Sarah Shook & The Disarmers, so let's get that out of the way now. Both are directed by Gorman Bechard. Both are about bands fronted by a female with mostly older male band members. Both play a version of alt country heavily infused with rock and punk. Both are on Bloodshot Records. The main difference between these films is structure and subject matter. Who is Lydia Loveless? had three acts: The first focused on Lydia hers...

Sarah Shook & the Disarmers's Sidelong was my #2 album of 2017. Since they just released an album last year, I assumed we'd have longer to wait for a follow up. Turns out Sidelong  was released in 2015 and last year was a reissue (Whoops!), so we have a follow up coming out soon. Right now we can hear the first song from the new album, "Good As Gold." If you liked Sidelong , you're going to like "Good As Gold." It's more of the rock n roll country punk that we loved from the previous album. "Good As Gold" is decidedly more mellow than most of our favorites from Sidelong , and it's definitely more melodic. It's showing a definite growth in songwriting, and has us even more curious than we were before. Plus, it's a great way to ease your more mainstream friends into Sarah Shook & the Disarmers. You can watch the lyric video for "Good As Gold" below. Sarah Shook & the Disarmers's new album, Years , w...

Rock documentaries usually fall into two categories: Looking back on an artist's entire decades long career or fluff pieces meant to cash on in a pop star's peak money making window. Director Gorman Bechard's previous two films about Grant Hart and The Replacements definitely fits the former category. That's what makes  Who is Lydia Loveless? so unique: It takes the standard rock documentary format and goes in a completely new direction. You might wonder how they can film an entire film with the life story of a musician in her mid-20s. They don't. Loveless' life story fills up maybe 20 minutes. You learn about her being raised on a farm and homeschooled. You learn about her teenage band with her two sisters and her father playing drums. They then cover the fact that she recorded her first album when she was 16, and her solo career up to the present day. The rest of her band is also profiled, which truly fits into Loveless' introduction of "We are Ly...

Gorman Bechard, director of such critically acclaimed rock documentaries as " Color Me Obsessed, a Film About the Replacements," has found his newest subject: Lydia Loveless. I'm personally thrilled to find more about one of my favorite 2014 musical discoveries, and I'm also excited by such an esteemed director focusing his attention on such fantastic newer artist. Titled "Who Is Lydia Loveless,"  the film seeks to answer just that, delving into her early upbringing, life on the road, being married to a bandmate, dealing with sexism in the music industry, and if she's rock 'n' roll, country, or punk. The project is currently in the Kickstarter phase, so they're looking for our help. There are the more standard rewards (an advance copy of the film, signed vinyl, handwritten lyrics) and the more unique (a chance to be right up front for the filming of the live performances to be used in the film, interviewing Lydia Loveless and Gorman Bechard...