Music Documentary as Transmedia Storyworld

The
transmedia
documentary
GET IT ALL
OUT

the
improbable
musical
journey of
John
Creighton &
Stick
Against
Stone

When the former soundman for an eclectic
‘80s post-punk band rediscovers tapes of
their earliest, most powerful and
innovative songs - he sets out to re-create
those songs 30 years later.
2

• That’s the story behind the transmedia documentary
"Get It All Out" - mapping the journey of producer Will Kreth
– a man haunted by the long-lost songbook
of the Pittsburgh-originated group
Stick Against Stone.

• What began as a standard music doc in 2008, has since
emerged into a storyworld containing a 13 piece orchestra,
live concerts in New York City, a new 12 song album (due
Oct. 2012), an eBook and a remix contest – all preceding
the eventual documentary film (due in 2014).

© 2012 - MediaGroove LLC.
3

Overview
 Timeline
 Stick Against Stone ORCHESTRA Project
 Who was John Creighton?
 Who was Stick Against Stone?
 A Window in Time – post-punk (what makes this
story interesting, unique and still relevant?)
 Rock Against Reagan - cross-country tour – 1983
 What Survives?
 Why a Transmedia Music Documentary?
 Where does a Melody live?


Documentary Timeline
2008
 Documentary production & interviews begin – with an archive of John Ongoing:
Creighton’s personal papers (e.g. - lyrics, poetry, music, drawings)
obtained for the project – fostering the concept of an eBook. Feeding the
2009 iterative Social
 2 songs from the Stick Against Stone songbook are re-recorded in NYC Media
with the help of original saxophone player Bob Wenzel Feedback Loop
 Doc interviews continue (with more than 40 people in 17 US cities) – via Facebook
Fan Pages,
2010 getitalloutmovie.
 Producer Will Kreth begins working with founding drummer Richard com blog
Vitale to reboot the band in NYC. Sadly, Richard dies in July. postings,
 “The Index of Directions” – recorded between 1981-1982 - is MediaGroove
released in July on iTunes & Amazon (their first-ever album release) YouTube
 Scanning of John’s personal papers and artifacts (for both the film Channel,
and the eBook) begins Twitter
 By October, Kreth decides to find new musicians to play and re-
record the music, and invites Bob Wenzel to participate


Documentary Timeline (cont.)
2011
Ongoing:
 Rehearsals of the “Stick Against Stone Orchestra”(SASO) begin in
January with 8 musicians (including Wenzel) in the Lower East Side Feeding the
of NYC for 2 concerts that summer iterative Social
 Swelling to 13 (including 2 more former members) the SASO Media
performs shows in Manhattan and Brooklyn in June and July Feedback Loop
 Immediately following the shows, the SASO goes into a recording – via Facebook
studio in Brooklyn to capture the new song versions for a 12 song Fan Pages,
getitalloutmovie.
album
com blog
2012 postings,
 “Live at Danny’s Pub” – a recording from a show in 1982, is MediaGroove
released in February on iTunes and Amazon YouTube
 Development & curation work on the eBook for iPad and Android
Channel,
devices begins Twitter

 “Get It All Out” by the SAS Orchestra is slated for release on Oct.
22nd (on LP, CD & Digital)


Introducing… the
Stick Against Stone
ORCHESTRA
2011 – present
• In January 2011, with the help of music
director David Terhune, the 13 piece SAS
Orchestra began rehearsals that
culminated in 2 live performances in NYC
David Terhune – in June and July. Both shows were filmed
co-founder of NYC’s
“Loser’s Lounge” (3 HD cameras) for “Get It All Out”

7

Rehydrating the
Songbook –
the Stick Against Stone
ORCHESTRA

Performing live at Von King Park, Brooklyn, NY – July 9th, 2011

8

The Songbook

Between 2009 & 2011, 16
songs (from a catalog of
nearly 80 tunes) were
transcribed, performed and
recorded in NYC.

9

Who
was
John
Creighton?

10

Who was John Creighton?

11

Politics in Action
• A remarkable man and remarkable
music – rescued from the dustbin of
time
– As a character, John Creighton is certainly
just one life. But his story - as told
through interviews with those who knew
him and were deeply influenced (to this
day) by his creativity, his ideals, and his
Hunger Action Coalition – passion – that is where we’ve found A Story
Pittsburgh, PA
Worth Telling.
– John basically “lived his politics” – at a
time when many of his peers in their 20s
Where were either distracted or high, John
John volunteered to help feed and clothe
worked people in his community

Thomas Merton Center for Peace
and Social Justice – PGH, PA 12

Who was
Stick Against Stone?
• Stick Against Stone was a post-punk/leftfield band
from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; that later resided
in Brooklyn, New York; Eugene, Oregon and San
Francisco, California and remained active (in no
less than six incarnations) between 1980 and
1990. Although a post-punk band, the band
experimented with no wave, world music, free
jazz, reggae, funk, rap, dub, African, and art-rock
in their music. 13

A little-known musical window in time
– For a brief period (1979-1982)
the intelligentsia within the
fan community of punk rock
and post-punk embraced a
panoply of genres (reggae,
dub, African, avant-garde
jazz, hip-hop, funk and world
music)
– Some of these fans became
musicians themselves (e.g.
Stick Against Stone)

14

Experimentation: Post-Punk Era
• A period of time notable for its blending of
global musical cultures, stylistic signifiers,
cross-pollinations, appropriations, borrowing
of rhythms, wholesale theft of beats, and
mash-up of messages
• (e.g. - Talking Heads & Eno borrowing from Fela’s
Afrobeat, Byrne & Eno practically inventing
modern sampling and rights clearances with “My
Life in The Bush of Ghosts,” the borrowing of
gamelan rhythms by Robert Fripp/King Crimson,
Blondie borrowing from hip-hop & disco, Afrika
Bambaataa sampling from Kraftwerk for “Planet
Rock,” countless rock/pop/New Wave artists
borrowing from reggae.)
• Perhaps most notable in the breadth of their
“adoption” – The Clash

15

A subculture that valued progressive Social &
Political Ideals over Punk Nihilism
– Spurred by the messages of racial equality
and social tolerance from the Rock Against
Racism movement and the 2-Tone ska
subculture in the UK, young, mostly college-
educated US kids who appreciated the
energy of Punk (but not its nihilistic
tendencies) and were drawn towards the
new multi-ethnic, experimental & eclectic
sounds coming out of London, downtown
NYC, west Africa and Jamaica – and their
messages of unity, social justice and anti-
Apartheid (in particular)
16

Rebelling within the Rebellion
• Unlike their 3-chord guitar slinging punk-rock
peers, Stick Against Stone initially reacted to
the movement by picking up different
instruments (esp. horns & percussion) to
create their unique sound
• With complex, raw horn arrangements, call
and response vocals, multiple songwriters,
propulsive drums, percussion and bass – SAS’s
mélange of influences created a diverse, edgy
and memorable songbook of material.
17

Rock Against Reagan
Tour
In 1983, the 3rd version of the band moved to
Bed-Stuy Brooklyn (where they briefly lived with
Bad Brains) – then drove across the country in a
big yellow school bus as part of a multi-city,
Yippie-sponsored music & protest tour called
Rock Against Reagan – (with opening slots for the
Dead Kennedys, MDC and the Minutemen) –
before resettling in Eugene, Oregon

18

RAR tour (cont.)
• Stick Against
Stone’s cross-
country Road trip
– October &
November 1983

• A Yippie funded
series of concerts
in college towns
and major cities
across the U.S.
between 1983 &
1984 (culminating
in the 1984
Republican and
Democratic
conventions

Performing live at the State Capitol Building, Olympia, WA, October 1983

19

What Survives?

20

Why a Transmedia Music
Documentary?
With a narrative stretching back 30+ years,
hundreds of pages of personal papers and
artifacts scanned, hours of new and
archival video & audio recordings, a live
band performing to choreographed
multimedia video projections in 2013, Get
It All Out is a complex story - perfectly
suited to transmedia storytelling/curation.

21

Where does a melody live?
• Get It All Out is a meditation on the DNA-like persistence of rhythms
and melody in the hearts of those that experience it. It celebrates
the lives of the unknown musicians who created an authentic, rich
songbook of material that had been lost to time, yet revived after
decades through the new SAS Orchestra. This power of song to
connect and transcend friends, to flow between rivals, lovers, loners,
survivors – and to evoke a collective memory of the departed – frames
and carries the story forward.

• The evanescent, yet surprisingly durable quality of a beautiful,
hummable song – a beautiful melody - restored to the present, while
much else has decayed or disappeared around it – and the promise of
affecting a new generation of listeners – remains the dream nucleus of
“Get It All Out.”

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Music Documentary as Transmedia Storyworld

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