40 Nights of Rock & Roll
Meet Steve LaBate and Scott Sloan, Film-Making Rock ‘n Roll Road Warriors
Two gentlemen, one Jeep, a mighty stretch of pavement, and one rock show every night for forty nights on the road. That’s the basic premise behind 40 Nights of Rock & Roll, the documentary that Steve and Scott of Southgate Studios are creating after an epic cross-country quest. Scott and Steve give great interview, so we won’t waste time with a boring intro. Let’s just say that we may have to steal Steve’s sangria-soaked party at the Wren’s Nest idea…
Dearest tumblr pals…
stay tuned. For the next 44 days, we’ll be posting the original 40 Nights of Rock video blogs, a year to the day after they were drunkenly thrown together at 3 a.m. in the seedy highway-stop motels and disheveled crash pads of America.
Above: Scott
But, first, a note: These short videos are not our film. They are merely chaotic, flip-cam-shot road diaries, replete with shitty, overloaded onboard audio and jittery speed-freak-channeling cinematography. Still, most of them are pretty damned entertaining. Collectively, they tell a wild, debauched tale of rock & roll on the road in these United States of America.
Above: Steve
If you missed them in real time last year, now’s your chance to come along with us as we visit a different band in a different town every night, interviewing them, filming their performances, getting in wacky predicaments, almost killing each other, and along the way taking a vivid, sweeping, panoramic shot of what rock & roll on the road is all about in this strange new millenium.
Cheers,
Scott & Steve
3rd Eye Blind’s Stephan Jenkins, from Steve LaBate’s book-in-progress 40 Nights of Rock & Roll: A Life-Affirming Death March through the Heart of Rock Music on the Road in America.
RELATED LINKS
- “The Road of Rock Continues with 3rd Eye Blind”
- 40 Nights Day 2 video blog, feat. Scott & Steve before and after their interview with Stephan Jenkins at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Julietina,
thanks for checking out 40 Nights of Rock! You’re our 200th follower, which means you win a free 8x10 black & white glossy Of Montreal photo, taken during the filming of 40 Nights of Rock & Roll. Email us at dressedtoshoot@gmail.com and we’ll figure out how to get your prize to you!
Cheers,
Steve & Scott
RELATED LINKS
“200th Follower Gets Free 8x10 Of Montreal Glossy Pic”
(via julietina)
Sitting at my desk at the new Southgate Studios for the first time—glancing out at the brilliant golden sunshine reflecting off the rippling pond out back like a hail of holy sparks, my clothes still sticky with beer and sweat from last night’s rock show, tinnitus echoing in my blistered eardrums as I sip a Beam & Coke—I feel equal parts Henry David Thoreau and Gary Busey. We’re charting new waters here at Southgate headquarters—Transcendental Depravity. It’s important to create while surrounded by a proper mix of the sacred and the profane. And we’re not short on either ‘round these parts. - 40 Nights of Rock producer Steve LaBate on the grand opening of Southgate Studios East
This is the concept fart for the first “40 Nights of Rock & Roll” t-shirt. Who says whiskey is good for nothing? -Sloan
Today marked the deadline for our route (albeit tentative and subject to disaster and change).
It looks like we’ll be starting on the east coast, swirling about mid America, trucking up the west coast, and finishing in Denver CO.
Hopefully the price of gas stays down, we’re looking at 13000+ miles in 40 days!
Finding consecutive shows with all different bands in reasonably drivable stretches does require some time… We are trying to leave some nights open, as we know that it will not be hard to find music in places like Milwaukee and L.A.
The Jeep is not happy today, looks like it needs a head gasket as well (in addition to the radiator, water pump, and thermostat from before last weeks 3700 mile test run from CO to IL to GA and back…)
I think the Jeep is going to need a name for this project, as we will be at her mercy.
Sloan
