The Sparks Brothers - documentary

 

Directed by Edgar Wright, this documentary tells the tale of Ron and Russel Mael, the brothers who front and lead the group, Sparks, which at times consisted solely of the two of them, but more often is a full band. Growing up in the 60's in Los Angeles, the brothers put together various musical projects before Half Nelson caught the ear of Todd Rundgren, got a record deal and, at the behest of the label, changed their name to Sparks, abbreviating the label's suggestion of The Sparks Brothers.

Through many random contacts and enthusiastic fans, they eventually moved to London for a period, where they were teen idols for a while - I had no idea that they were that popular overseas, with screamin' girls and crazed fans - before returning to the States and beginning their first chameleon-like musical change by attempting to become their version of a more straight-ahead rock band with albums like Big Beat (the tour I saw them with where Ron, as sitting stock still the entire show, smashed his piano bench and the end and fell into the PA wires, almost taking down the entire huge speaker towers!). That didn't last long and they went into a more electronica direction and then into 80's dance music, with the help of the likes of Geiorgio Moroder! From then on, they continued in a more dance oriented direction, which wasn't quite as interesting for me, but kept them going, although their finances and popularity ebbed and flowed over the decades.

The documentary features extensive interviews with the brothers, who are both intelligent and charismatic, as well as band members, collaborators (members of the Go-Gos and Franz Ferdinand, to name a couple), producers, managers, fellow musicians and fans, giving a good overview of their lives and career.

The documentary is really well done and quite sympathetic to the subjects, although there is only so much of the music that I now what to explore that I didn't already know. Regardless, a fun watch!