Staring Down At The Stars

DARRAGH McCARTHY’S CULT documentary, The Stars Are Underground, finally makes it into the shops this week on video.

Billed as “a low budget film in the tradition of Shellshock Rock”, it combines live footage from Jubilee Allstars, Pet Lamb, Female Hercules, Luggage and Bambi, with words of wisdom from such elder statesmen as Andy Cairns and Fugazi’s Ian McKaye who warns: “Don’t expect to make any fucking money.”

“Stars… is a film about dreamers, wannabe Warhols and shoestring svengalis,” says No Disco man Leagues in the sleeve notes. “A film about punk rock, country outlaws, decadent discordance and slackjaw stoners. It’s about people relearning the DIY process and starting to get it right.”

McCarthy – whose other credits include Ash’s X-rated tour diary, No One Said It Was Gonna Be Easy – succeeds in capturing the dynamism and low-budget bonhomie of a scene that didn’t require anyone’s permission to happen.

You can pick up a copy from Road Records in Dublin’s Fade Street, or by logging on to their www.roadrecs.com website.