Matt Yglesias

15 Responses to “Anvil! The Story of Anvil”

1. Tyro Says:
   May 18th, 2009 at 1:03 pm

   This sounds a lot like a Marty DeBergi documentary I saw many years ago.

2. Freddie Says:
   May 18th, 2009 at 1:28 pm

   I’ve read a lot about them since that documentary started to get publicized…. Now are we certain, I mean really certain, that this isn’t a really elaborate Spinal Tap-style joke?

3. rea Says:
   May 18th, 2009 at 1:33 pm

   Now are we certain, I mean really certain, that this isn’t a really elaborate Spinal Tap-style joke?

   Well, the fact that, in th emovie, the band goes to Stonehenge is . . . suggestive.

4. Edward, the mad shirt grinder Says:
   May 18th, 2009 at 1:58 pm

   My guess is that Matt posted this as a test to see how long it would take for someone to make a Spinal Tap joke.

5. Eric k Says:
   May 18th, 2009 at 2:03 pm

   I’m with Freddie, having seen the previews and read a bunch of articles I’m still not sure if they are real or an elaborate spoof.

   I was in highschool in the early 80s and remember all kinds of 1 hit wonder (and a lot of not even 1 hit!) bands that came and went I tend to think if these guys were at all remotely popular back in the day (if they even had a video that was in MTV rotation) I’d have seen them. Your mind tends to remember all kinds of useless crap from your teen years, I remember all kinds of songs I heard in the 70s and 80s, shoot I remember nothing bands like Accept or Suzi Quatro.

6. Bloix Says:
   May 18th, 2009 at 2:18 pm

   “Robb Reiner”? You know that Rob Reiner made Spinal Tap, don’t you? A random review of several hundred Google hits shows nothing about this band before 2008. I’m skeptical.

7. Dave Weigel Says:
   May 18th, 2009 at 2:27 pm

   It’s not a hoax. I found a 1988 review of an Anvil concert (at the 9:30 Club) in 30 seconds of Lexising. Before the internets it was not hard to sink into obscurity.

8. Shine Says:
   May 18th, 2009 at 2:30 pm

   I’ll say this, if it’s a hoax, then a lot of people have come on board and stayed on the train, including a lot of small time people with no incentive to play along, but perhaps greater incentive to expose the hoax.

9. honestpartisan Says:
   May 18th, 2009 at 2:47 pm

   The makers of the film seem to be very conscious of Spinal Tap; aside from the Stonehenge trip, there’s a shot of someone turning an amp up to 11. Having made that nod, Anvil is a great movie on its merits (even if you’re not a metal fan).

10. Rob Mac Says:
    May 18th, 2009 at 3:06 pm

    This nostalgia for mainstream and wannabe mainstream 80s metal bands confounds me. As someone who lived through that era in high school and college I can tell you that there was nothing cute or neat about the vast slag heap of terrible “metal” that era produced. It was just very very bad music, made and enjoyed by a bunch of meathead douchebags, and with a huge marketing force behind it.

    While I don’t doubt that the story of the guys in Anvil is interesting, the world does not miss yet one more lame-ass 80s metal band.

11. Richard Cownie Says:
    May 18th, 2009 at 3:20 pm

    “The makers of the film seem to be very conscious of Spinal Tap; aside from the Stonehenge trip, there’s a shot of someone turning an amp up to 11. Having made that nod, Anvil is a great movie on its merits (even if you’re not a metal fan).”

    It’s a great movie. They embrace the Spinal Tap references,
    but in the end it’s something else altogether: a beautiful
    rounded portrait of a lifelong friendship between two very
    sweet and talented people with a shared dream; and of what
    a musician’s life is like for the 99.9% who don’t make it
    big but carry on doing what they love.

    It’s worth looking up the story of the director, Sacha Gervasi,
    as well, which also belongs in the “truth stranger than
    fiction” file: he roadied for Anvil as a teenager, was a
    drummer in an up-and-coming band, wrote the screenplay for
    “The Terminal” movie (Tom Hanks), and dated a Spice Girl.

    Anyhow, go see it.

12. Alistair Says:
    May 18th, 2009 at 5:22 pm

    I went to see Anvil! a few weeks ago. To our surprise, the director showed up to give a intro before the film and a Q&A session afterwards. It was pretty unusual because it was a 10pm showing on a Wednesday and was unannounced.

    Anyway, one of the questions he addressed was the constant Spinal Tap references. The Robb Reiner coincidence is just that. Otherwise, the director made a conscious choice to give the movie a “is this real or a hoax?” tone. He said that at one point during filking, his cameraman actually pulled him aside and asked him if these guys are for real or if it is some elaborate joke. It’s not, though. They’re a real band with an extensive, if marginal, catalog: http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:gifyxqw5ldae

13. Gordon Says:
    May 18th, 2009 at 8:26 pm

    Anthony Lane gave this film rave reviews in the New Yorker a few weeks ago:
    http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/film/anvil_the_story_of_anvil_gervasi

14. novakant Says:
    May 19th, 2009 at 6:14 am

    if it’s a hoax, then a lot of people have come on board and stayed on the train, including a lot of small time people with no incentive to play along

    Amazon would have to be in on it as well .

15. dtradio Says:
    May 21st, 2009 at 11:56 am

    To add fuel to the non-hoax flame, Anvil did indeed get heavy airplay in ‘82 with “Stop Me” (1050 CHUM, 104.5 CHUM-FM, 107.1 CILQ). They were the poor man’s Triumph (who were the poor man’s Rush).

    Then again, Spinal Tap has released an actual half-serious album (Break Like The Wind). There are no “hoax” bands any more (see: Metallica’s “Some Kind Of Monster”)