ON THE LASH: THE BUDDYHEAD MOVIE

It’s the birth of the internet, it’s the death rattle of the old world and its story of Buddyhead and The Icarus Line. It’s a time capsule constructed from over 250 hours of mini DV tapes and thousands of 35mm photographs shot between 1998 and 2005.

Co-directed by Travis Keller and Joe Cardamone

Produced by Shepard Fairey and Elgin James

Unseen footageand unheard stories featuring: The Icarus Line, At The Drive-In, Murder City Devils, Ink & Dagger, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, 400 Blows,, F.Y.P, Le Shok, Cave In, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Shat, Fugazi, Elliott Smith, Mars Volta, A Perfect Circle, Primal Scream, Kevin Shields, Autolux, Iggy Pop, Greg Ginn (Black Flag), Keith Morris (Circle Jerks), Queens of The Stone Age, The Distillers, Nine Inch Nails, Wesley Willis, Blink 182, The Get Up Kids, A Perfect Circle, Dead Meadow, Battles, The Evaporators, Jimmy Eat World, AFI, The Blood Brothers, Reggie and the Full Effect, Les Savy Fav, Bauhaus, Mike D, Andrew WK, The Neptunes, Fred Durst, Steve Aoki, Courtney Love, Axl Rose, Marilyn Manson, My Chemical Romance, Avenged Sevenfold, Korn, The Vines, Moby, Weezer, The Strokes tour bus, Stevie Ray Vaughan’s guitar, Calvin Johnson, Boy George, Bono and Nardwuar.

This is the film about me and my friends.

It was a time before Instagram, before Facebook, before any social media. It was before blogs, before Vice and before  Pitchfork and before everyone had a camera in their pocket. 

This is the story of Buddyhead.com, one of the first independent music websites on the internet as well as boutique record label. A DIY webzine that was getting 9.5 million hits a month, putting the music industry on blast via the gossip page, record reviews and interviews. And let’s not forget turning down $9 million dollars multiple times during the dot com bubble.

It’s also the story of the Los Angeles punk band The Icarus Line, the last true rock n’ roll gang in my opinion. A bunch of dropouts and misfits when they started, without a dime to rub together but they still managed to continuously put out art and travel around the globe multiple times over. A band that was a love letter to the Southern California underground which gave birth to them. This is the story of how they navigated the rough waters of independent and major labels alike, the music scene they infiltrated, the shows they played, the records they made, our travels around the world on tour and everything and everyone around us. 

This is my story about rock n roll, the music industry, art, the beginning of the internet, punk, Los Angeles, putting records out, doing it yourself, being on tour, friendship, drugs, not giving a fuck and being true to yourself despite what everyone else says. 

We were fiercely independent and stubbornly resilient.  We didn’t wait for permission.  We were making new friends.  And we were making fresh enemies.  It was us VS the world and we went in swinging. Courted and feared by major record labels. Too rock n’ roll for the punk establishment and too punk for the mainstream.  

And we were definitely… on the lash!

This is our story.

WHAT WE NEED AND WHAT YOU GET

Yep, this is the bit where we ask you for money.

As you know, making movies is an expensive business. Smaller projects like this just don’t happen unless you make them happen.  Our inspiration to make this project is not to create another visual wikipedia, this film will be an artwork that lands you in the room with us and the other artists we have shared time with. We want you to feel what we experienced.  So we are asking you to make this movie with us… 

Our goal is to get a directors cut to show the major streaming companies that already want first look.

YOU CAN HELP US MAKE THIS MOVIE

One of the main reasons we decided to fund this project through indie go go instead of corporate channels is to ensure we get to make the movie we want to make and the one you want to see. This is something we’ve wanted to do since the footage was shot over 20 years ago, so we wanna make sure we get it right. The doc will still probably end up on mainstream platforms but keeping with the spirit of Buddyhead and The Icarus Line we are going to whip up the unfiltered directors cut version first.  We’re dealing with hundreds of hours of footage and thousands of still images so having the time to assemble this properly is paramount. Another huge part of the process will be conducting interviews with all the musicians and artists that we crossed paths with to get their side of the chaos. And there’s even a couple stories that have to be animated. All these elements are important but take time!

WE’RE KEEPING IT DIY

In the place of a movie studio we prefer to run this through you guys, the people that were there while it was going down or found us after the fact. The ones that laughed at the reviews and gossip. The ones that blasted the records. The ones who were on the scene or at the shows on tour. Even those of you who missed it and want to know what life was like during the last gasp of rock n roll before social media. 

We have always operated under the corporate radar even though they have been fooled into funding some of our projects (only when we didn’t have to compromise). The spirit of what ON THE LASH is runs all the way back to films like Cocksucker Blues, The Year Punk Broke, DIG!, Decline of the Western Civilization and The Kid Stays in the Picture. There will be no talking heads or footage not of the time, so there’s nothing to pull you out of the story.   In a time where art continues to be watered down for mass appeal our doc is a reminder of what a poke in the eye punk rock hearts can be to the sanitized establishment.  

AMERICAN PRIMITIVE AND LOST ANGELES

Over the last decade we have built our own production company, American Primitive, producing over 40 music videos and other visual content. It’s been a full time operation. We have our headquarters Lost Angeles here in LA fully equipped to edit, score and mix sound. And we have a tight team of talented psychos that we love to work with and make this movie an modern day underground classic that the culture needs. 

For those who donate: we’ve got some cool perks, experiences and production titles.  If you need to figure out a way for your parents to jump start your career in the movie biz you have found it!  The more you donate to make this project happen, the closer friends we become. Let’s make this happen bestie!

If you are not in a position to donate, you can still help the cause out by spreading the word about our campaign. Tell people you know that might care and share the link. We appreciate ya and any help you can through our way.  This is the way independent voices survive in America. 

Got Questions?

We’ve answered some common questions in the FAQ section below. If you don’t find your answer then please contact us directly at info@americanprimitive.org

MEET THE DIRECTORS

TRAVIS KELLER BIO

Travis Keller is an American artist and founder of Buddyhead. As a photographer he documented the LA underground punk scene from 1997-2005 and has toured with bands such as The Icarus Line, Nine Inch Nails, Primal Scream and A Perfect Circle. His work has appeared on albums by At The Drive-In, The Criminal’s, Face to Face, Shat, Jimmy Eat World and Ink & Dagger. As Buddyhead Records he has released over 50 independent albums including releases by The Dillinger Escape Plan, Murder City Devils, Radio Vago, Text(Refused) as well as both the “Gimme Skelter” and “Buddyhead Suicide” comps that feature artwork by Raymond Pettibon along with rare and exclusive tracks by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Mudhoney, Primal Scream, Iggy Pop, Le Tigre and Wire. He has shot and directed music videos by artists such as Mark Lanegan, Prayers, Cauterizers and Joe Cardmone. As a music journalist he has been published in Vice, Alternative Press, Heckler and Kerrang. As an all vinyl DJ he has performed on three continents and at Coachella, Detour fest, Desert Daze and Fuck Yeah Fest. In 2009 he was featured as the cover story for the LA Weekly. He has released two photo zines and is currently compiling this first anthology photography book and memoir.

JOE CARDAMONE BIO

Joe Cardmone is an East Los Angeles native and a creative tour de force who cut his teeth fronting the post-hardcore/ noise rock band The Icarus Line at the turn of the century releasing 10 full length albums, which culminated in his lead role in the award winning independent film The Icarus Line Must Die in 2017. He has since focused on a solo career releasing two full lengths and a collaborative album with Mark Lanegan titled Dark Mark and Skeleton Joe. He has also worked as a producer for and collaborated with artists such as: Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, Ian Asbury, Annie Hardy, Pink Mountaintops, James Williamson, Jesus and Mary Chain and more. Cardamone is also a producer, visual artist, and filmmaker who directed over 25 music videos and short films over the last 5 years. In 2021 he directed and wrote a feature length visual album called Quarentina.  He is currently in pre production on his first narrative feature.