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(Austin,
TX) - Rock Opera, a comedic tale of the
underground Austin music scene, will have its theatrical world premiere
on Friday, September 3rd at the Alamo
Drafthouse Cinema, located at 409 Colorado
Street. The event will feature two screenings: the first
will kick off at 7:00PM with live music
from Voltage and the 9:30PM
screening will feature the Pocket
FishRmen, the bands will play a half hour set and the
movie will follow. Guest speaker Richard Linklater
will introduce the film's writer-director, Bob
Ray. Immediately after the each screening there will be a
short Q & A with the cast and crew. Rock Opera is Austin filmmaker
Bob Rayâs debut feature The screening is sponsored
by the Austin Cinemaker Co-op and co-sponsored
by the Austin Film Society.
Rock
Opera
premiered at the 1999 South by Southwest Film
Festival (SXSW), and according to SXSW organizers, "Rock
Opera could very well be the consummate SXSW film. Never
before has the underground Austin music scene been brought to such
glorious, pot-reeking life [Rock Opera] possesses that delicious
sense of the absurd for which so many indie films strive but very
few achieve. Rock
Opera could very well be the next Austin film to inherit
the low-budget crown worn by Slacker and El Mariachi."
Marc
Savlov of The Austin Chronicle
writes, "At once sublimely accurate in its portrayal of the
creepier end of the Austin music scene and scathingly hilarious,
Ray's film is a spot-on quasi-parody of the day-to-day existence
of struggling Austin musicians and their wayward ways."
Austin
360's Grant Tait writes, "Drugs,
rock 'n' roll and a brief nod to sex (toys). Violence, guns, foul
language and deadbeat slacking. All take front stage. So it's no
real surprise that this flick is so bloody funny( If you're not
easily offended, this definitely should be somewhere near the top
of your to-view list."
Rock
Opera
tells the story of Toe,
a local musician who struggles endlessly to put a tour together
for his band. Toe will stop at nothing to achieve his goal, including
betraying his friends and becoming an unwilling player in shady
drug deals gone bad.
Rock
Opera
was shot entirely in Austin and utilizes
some of Austinâs most infamous bands. The score was composed by
Kurtis D. Machler (local musician,
composer, engineer, and producer) and 16 Deluxe
and the soundtrack includes several bands that define the Austin
music scene including the Pocket
FishRmen, Voltage, Ed
Hall, El Flaco, the
Crackpipes, Tallboy, Squat
Thrust, Cherubs, the
Phantom Creeps, Antebellum, Honky,
El Insecto, Horseshit
Gunfire, Pong and more. Live performances
by the Fuckemos,
Pigpoke, Witchbanger, and the
only Grammy nominated, fire breathing, non-Austin band in the film,
Nashville Pussy showcase the gritty
punk rock underbelly of the "live music capital of the world."
The
film was shot during the hottest Texas summer ever recorded and
came to life with the aid of the local film community, the Austin
music scene and many clubs (the Continental, Ginny's Little Longhorn,
the Texas Showdown, the Bates Motel), stores (Scott's Pawn, Sugar
& Spice, East 1st Laundry, Pleasureland), and homeowners around
town.
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BOB
RAY IN THE NEWS