In 1971, three African American brothers who lived in Detroit — Bobby, David, and Dannis Hackney — formed a band. The three grew up surrounded by Motown music and initially started playing funk. However, The Who inspired David to pursue rock music and, upon becoming leader of the band, pushed the band’s music in a direction that was punk rock before punk rock even existed. However, after recording their first demo LP the band was turned down by every major label, often simply because of the band’s name: Death. Nevertheless, David refused to change it, even when Bobby and Dannis pleaded with him to do so. As a result, the trio only managed to self-release one 45 single before calling it a day several years later. Bobby and Dannis went on to form a reggae band, and David would die from lung cancer in 2000, though he insisted even until his death that one day people would discover their music.
Around 2008 record collectors started to spread the word about the ultra-rare Death single and how the band’s music defied everything known about the music that eventually led to punk. What followed in the lives of Bobby and Dannis was extraordinary, yet is exactly what David had been saying to his brothers all along.
A Band Called Death reminded me a lot of Searching for Sugar Man, and not just because the documentary similarly shows the burned-out husks of Detroit, the city with perhaps the greatest musical legacy in the United States. While Death’s story isn’t quite as unbelievable as Rodriguez’s, it does touch on the similar theme of visionary musicians who don’t receive the credit for their music until years afterward. Death’s music is worth noticing, sounding a lot like early Motorhead with Phil Lynott singing. Because of that, the biggest disappointment about A Band Called Death is that the documentary is actually a bit light on using Death’s music on the soundtrack. In fact, the documentary is actually less about the music and more about the relationship among the brothers, and later the relationships between Dannis and Bobby and their sons. While the relationships are obviously just as important, this does lead to some rather curious choices. For example, why did directors Mark Covino and Jeff Howlett — both making their first documentary feature — decide to show two minutes of Urian (one of Bobby’s sons) skateboarding? This has absolutely nothing to do with the narrative — why not show him practicing his music and carrying on the legacy of Death instead? — and it isn’t the only example of these off-topic choices. A lot of these scenes and the incidental music on the soundtrack could have been replaced with more Death music.
The documentary also features a few moments with talking heads to give testament to how mind-blowing Death’s music is for its time, including Alice Cooper, Henry Rollins, Kid Rock, Elijah Wood (?), Jello Biafra, Questlove, and Vernon Reid. That’s a pretty killer lineup, but unfortunately they don’t really have much to say — after all, like the rest of the world they collectively hadn’t even heard of Death until 2008 at the earliest. Questlove even insinuates that it is unfair that The Ramones get most of the credit for inventing punk as if The Ramones and other early punk bands stole Death’s sound, something incredibly unlikely which makes it only seem like Questlove doesn’t really know much about the band. Similarly, the documentary also opens with a clip of Artie Lange when he was part of The Howard Stern Show telling Stern that he read an article about Death. I love Artie as much as anyone else, but what does a clip of Artie saying “I read an article about this band” really add to the documentary?
When the various journalists and record collectors interviewed talk about Death their comments carry much more weight because they actually know a lot about the band itself (in fact, they’re responsible for the band being rediscovered). Again, what’s great about these interviews is that they focus on the music — something this documentary meanders from at points.
But as a whole A Band Called Death is worth seeing because the band and their story really deserve the attention. It’s not as good as Search for Sugar Man or Anvil! The Story of Anvil, but it’s a great first feature from Covino and Howlett.
Rating: This documentary will make you a fan of the band, but frustrate a bit for not using more of Death’s music (8/10).
A Band Called Death will be released on VOD and digital download on Friday, May 24 and theatrically on Friday, June 28.
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