10 september 2010

one nine nine four


On April 5th 1994, the man who brought underground alternative music into the mainstream, Kurt Cobain, was found dead from a self inflicted shot gun wound to the head. In the same year a little known band out of the bay area in Northern California called Green Day released ‘Dookie’ which would go on to sell over 19 million copies worldwide. In the same year another band from Orange County in Southern California called The Offspring released ‘Smash’ and went on to have the highest selling independent record of all time on independant punk label, Epitaph. If ‘Grunge’ died in 1994 with the death of Kurt, Punk was now the biggest musical style in the world and was reborn into a new body through the likes of Green Day, The Offspring, Blink 182, Bad Religion and the hordes of successful bands on indie labels like NOFX, Pennywise and Rancid. This film documents the 90’s incarnation of ‘punk rock’ from the dark days of the mid 80’s to the resurgence of the East Bay punk scene, the Socal surf and skate movement to the eventual start of the Warped Tour. We follow the stories of the artists, labels, managers and producers that were part of punk rocks most successful time period… Ever.