Darby Crash
Acting
Biography
Darby Crash was an American punk rock vocalist and songwriter who, along with long-time friend Pat Smear (born Georg Ruthenberg), co-founded the punk rock band the Germs. He committed suicide by way of an intentional heroin overdose. In the years since his suicide at the age of 22, the Germs have attained legendary status among punk rock fans and musicians alike, as well as from the wider alternative rock and underground music community in general. Crash has come to be revered as a unique and talented songwriter; his myriad literary, musical and philosophical influences, which varied from Friedrich Nietzsche and David Bowie to Charles Manson and Adolf Hitler, resulted in lyrics that were unusually wordy and impressionistic in the realm of punk rock at the time, immediately setting Crash and his band apart from most other Los Angeles punk groups that sprang up in the late 1970s.
Known For
The Los Angeles punk music scene circa 1980 is the focus of this film. With Alice Bag Band, Black Flag, Catholic Discipline, Circle Jerks, Fear, Germs, and X.
The Decline of Western Civilization
This captures a performance of Los Angeles punk icons, Germs, performing live at The Whiskey A Go-Go . The remaining portion of the film are taken from The Decline of the Western Civilization.
Germs: Caught In My Eye
An impressively original, multi-media retrospective of one of punk rock s most controversial and hugely influential bands, The Germs!
Media Blitz: The Germs Story
In 1977, artist Joe Rees founded Target Video, a guerrilla documentation project capturing underground music and art. Rees, along with Jill Hoffman, Jackie Sharp, and others, filmed bands in studios, clubs, parties and on the streets, driven by a shared vision and deep love for the underground. The result was a massive archive that preserved a raw, unpolished moment in cultural history. Embracing the scene in all its electric immediacy, Target documented an explosive era in music and art. It cemented a place in history for bands like the Screamers, the Avengers, and the Dils while capturing iconic early performances by Talking Heads, Iggy Pop, the Cramps and many others.
Target Video: Underground Forces Vol. 3
Performances by Killing Joke, Germs, Screamers, Flipper, Silvertone, Subhumans, The Gun Club, DOA, Dead Kennedys, John Cooper Clark, Jaks Skate Team, Raybeats and Throbbing Gristle-Discipline from Target masters.