Official AGNOSTIC FRONT Full-Length Documentary "THE GODFATHERS OF HARDCORE" Begins Production
Official AGNOSTIC FRONT Full-Length Documentary “THE GODFATHERS OF HARDCORE” Begins Production – Coming Fall 2016
Featuring Years’ Worth of Never-Before Seen, Up Close and Personal Footage
Support the Project via Kickstarter – www.godfathersofhardcore.com
Earn Unique Prizes:
ESP Viper-100FM STBLK Guitar, backplate signed by AGNOSTIC FRONT
One-of-a-Kind AGNOSTIC FRONT Boots Etched Brass Pins
Custom Vinnie Stigma Ringtones
Limited Edition Agnostic Front Skate Deck
Personal Lower East Side tour with Vinnie Stigma
"Kickstarter Executive Producer" Credit
& More
A Film by Ian McFarland of McFarland & Pecci
Roger Miret and Vinnie Stigma are lynchpins of New York Hardcore (NYHC), and their band AGNOSTIC FRONT
played a key role in defining, shaping and establishing the cultural
code of conduct for the still-thriving movement. Film and music video
director Ian McFarland (Rungs
in a Ladder: Jacob Bannon, The Outlaw: Dan Hardy, The Problem Solver:
Joe Lauzon, Meshuggah, Killswitch Engage, Fear Factory, Agnostic Front)
is crafting an intimate portrait of these two men – two of the most
respected individuals in the 35-year history of hardcore punk music –
dubbed The Godfathers of Hardcore.
Miret
and Stigma have remained close friends through great adversity that
often threatened their very existence. Today, Roger and Vinnie are
primed and reaching into 50's and 60's, balancing jobs and families, in
addition to an upcoming touring schedule that will take them all over
the world. The Godfathers of Hardcore will serve as an
up-close-and-personal look into the lives of these different yet
inseparable musical icons, and in the process will illustrate the
tenacity, optimism and enthusiasm with which they both approach their
band to this day. Since the beginning, Miret and Stigma took on the
system with fists clenched, and throughout the decades, they’ve
maintained the powerful and youthful (if not as destructive) mindset
that started it all.
The Godfathers of Hardcore
is already in the midst of production and features intimate footage
captured by McFarland over the past several years, but to do the story
the greatest justice possible, director Ian McFarland is reaching out to
the band’s diehard fans, offering them a chance to join in supporting
the film via a new Kickstarter campaign: www.godfathersofhardcore.com (redirects to Kickstarter)
The Kickstarter campaign will take place over the course of the next few weeks (ending on May 17th) and features unique incentives such as an ESP Viper-100FM STBLK Guitar with backplate signed by AGNOSTIC FRONT, custom Vinnie Stigma ringtones, a limited edition AGNOSTIC FRONT
skate deck, a personal Lower East Side tour with Vinnie Stigma, and
even a "Kickstarter Executive Producer" credit on the film. The goal is
to raise $15,000, and afterwards, some amazing stretch goals will be
added (details coming soon).
Over
the next three weeks, McFarland will be adding more one-of-a-kind
incentives, in addition to giving updates on the project and filming.
McFarland adds, “Unlike a large
number of Kickstarter projects, our production team has already begun
filming the movie and have shot a good amount of footage. We need this
Kickstarter to help us with getting our film team over to Europe to
travel with AGNOSTIC FRONT at the end of May.”
Vinnie Stigma - AGNOSTIC FRONT (still from "The Godfathers of Hardcore")
Check out more BTS photos via @Ian_McFarland on Twitter and Instagram
As a part of a potent subculture, AGNOSTIC FRONT probably will never sit beside Aerosmith and the Beatles
in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Nor have they been showered with
platinum records or the rock and roll riches reserved for acts that
value popularity over integrity. Miret and Stigma are perfectly happy
with the niche they’ve carved for themselves, and the effect they’ve had
on an entire subgenre that had infiltrated both the counter-culture and
impacted the mainstream. A recent article in the New Yorker about
hardcore music quoted was named “United Blood,” after AGNOSTIC FRONT’s
first album. The band continues to play major slots on high-profile
international festivals and their recently-released album, “The American
Dream Died,” has earned the band some of its strongest reviews in
years.
AGNOSTIC FRONT’s
past legacy is perhaps even more praiseworthy than their present
accomplishments. The movement the band pioneered has had a profound
effect on millions of fans and musicians, as well as skateboarders,
bikers and other individualists who refuse to accept the status quo. In a
landscape of increasing apathy and complacency, the messages AGNOSTIC FRONT
presents are as relevant today as they were in the ‘80s when the band
members were impoverished, scrappy and ambitious, often fighting for
their very survival as well as the perseverance of their volatile but
highly inspirational band.
Back
in the ‘80s, Miret and Stigma roamed the dangerous streets of NYC’s
Lower East Side, fighting those who got in their way and laying down the
gauntlet for the music they believed in and were willing to defend with
their lives. At the time, they had no idea that the band that meant the
world to them and the culture populated by runaways, street kids,
punks, skinheads and other social misfits would also resonate with a
generation of other music fans and musicians including Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, Anthrax’s Scott Ian and Pantera’s Phil Anselmo, not to mention Cremaster’s Mathew Barney and electronic guru Moby.
Roger Miret, 50 (vocalist), a Cuban-refugee from an abusive home and
Vinnie Stigma, 59 (guitarist), a second-generation true-blue New York
Italian, found each other on the rough streets of NYC in the early
1980s, becoming fast friends and developing an unbreakable bond.
Together, over the next three decades, they became the “Godfathers of
New York City Hardcore” - creating a vehicle through which three
generations of fans could grow, scream and band together as one in the
face of diversity, violence and discrimination. Through the strength and
bonds of brotherhood, Roger and Vinnie birthed something larger than
themselves – they birthed a revolution.
Along
the way, they experienced some of the most harrowing blows a band can
endure, including various line-up changes, Roger’s incarceration and the
subsequent collapse of the band. After Roger was released in the late
1990’s from New York’s Wallkill Correctional Facility, Roger and Vinnie
reunited, picking up right where they left off. Still touring and
recording today, AGNOSTIC FRONT is the very embodiment of
hardcore: endurance, perseverance, brotherhood, strength against
oppression and the will to keep going, obstacles be damned.
ABOUT DIRECTOR IAN MCFARLAND:
Ian
McFarland is a documentarian as well as a music video and commercial
director. He was born from a background as a musician and editor. Ian
brings a particular understanding of structure and pacing to his
fascination with human stories. He has created Emmy nominated and award
winning documentaries that have screened in film festivals and have been
picked up for major distribution worldwide and aired on major networks
like ESPN, PBS, NESN, MTV, VICE, and Logo. Ian has directed national
campaigns and developed corporate projects for brands such as The Boston
Celtics, The International Trademarking Association, Aquent,
Gymnasium, Merrill Lynch, Care.com, Lifestyles Condoms, Titleist, TIAA
CREF, Fidelity, Currensee, WGBH, Atlantic Records, Century Media,
Roadrunner Records, Nuclear Blast Records and many more. He has also
produced and directed over forty seven music videos for multiple Grammy
Nominated International acts and his work was voted in the Top 25 Hard
Rock music videos of 2006, 2008 2009 and 2010 on MTV. Most recently,
the Killswitch Engage track "In Due Time" which McFarland and Pecci
directed a music video for, was nominated for a 2014 Grammy alongside
Black Sabbath and Anthrax. In addition, McFarland has been the bassist
of Boston hardcore band Blood For Blood for the last 18 years.
twitter & instagram @Ian_McFarland
ess ? for keyboard shortcuts.
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Read the full story at UnRatedMagazine.com
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