In-Tense Touring & Magic Umbrella Films are proud to present the premiere Australian screenings of a new film about one of the greatest rock'n'roll bands most people have never heard of, entitled 20 YEARS IN THE CRYPT: EMBEDDED ON TOUR WITH DEAD MOON.
In 2001 filmmakers Jason Axel Summers and Kate Fix teamed up with legendary Portland rock band Dead Moon to film the documentary Unknown Passage - The Dead Moon Story. The filmmakers were welcomed into the world of the band as if members of their family. They soon found that unlike many artists, with Dead Moon there is no curtain to pull back and peer behind: they always were and are that face they presented as artists to the world. Their earnestness was undeniable, and their electrifying performances and connection with audiences over nineteen years made them rock and roll legends. Jason and Kate shot 180 hours of film & video, all but what was used for the Unknown Passage documentary remaining “in the can” (or CRYPT!) …. until now!
This new film revisits the performances that Jason & Kate captured on tour with Dead Moon, most of it never presented to the world. We also see fun and interesting footage of a less formal nature, just hanging out and traveling with the band. This film is meant to be a window back in time for fans of Dead Moon, new and old.
20 Years in the Crypt: Embedded on Tour with Dead Moon follows Jason Axel Summers' recent documentary on Australian underground rock'n'roller Stuart Gray (aka Stu Spasm, of Lubricated Goat) entitled I Should Have Been Dead Years Ago.
From their formation in 1987 to their eventual demise in 2006, Dead Moon were the greatest cult rock'n'roll band in the world.
Portland, Oregon based, they were championed by the likes of Pearl Jam and Mudhoney, and they famously turned town a US tour with Nirvana in '92 having already committed to a 20-date run in New Zealand. True DIY heroes, they had their own record label (Tombstone Records), their own musical instrument store, their own studio and even their own vinyl cutting lathe (the same one on which the Kingsmen's "Louie Louie" had been originally cut).
Dead Moon were led by singer/guitarist/songwriter Fred Cole, whose roots went back to the '60s Los Angeles Sunset Strip scene and his band the Lollipop Shoppe, whose classic 1968 single "You Must Be A Witch" subsequently appeared on various Pebbles and Nuggets compilations (and was later covered by the likes of the Lime Spiders and Stiv Bators). Fred's acquaintances back in the day were the likes of Neil Young, then of Buffalo Springfield, Arthur Lee of Love and Sky Saxon of the Seeds (with whom his band shared a manager), but by the early '70s he'd turned his back on the music industry, married and moved to the wilds of Oregon, where, some local bands later, he eventually formed Dead Moon with his wife Toody Cole on bass.
The only band in terms of actual shared personnel to bridge the '60s American garage era and the late 20th century punk/garage/early grunge scenes, Dead Moon released more than ten albums and toured the world non-stop for the best part of two decades. They were particularly loved in Europe and here in Aus/NZ.
With such a great story, an endless supply of Cole songs that sounded like lost late '60s classics, and a passionate, primal sound that would have made them a great double bill with both any number of other classic rock'n'roll bands including Led Zeppelin and Crazy Horse, Dead Moon should have been huge. Indeed, they should have been on the cover of every English music mag around the time that the White Stripes were, but they'd probably been around too long already when the critical taste for raw rock'n'roll appeared again, and it was not to be. A stunning 2CD compilation on Sub Pop, Echoes of the Past, came out came out as the band was winding down in 2006, and more recently a series of reissues and a 2023 live album recorded on that first New Zealand tour in 1992, Going South, has made the band's music more readily accessible than ever before.
The passing of drummer Andrew Loomis in 2016 and then of Fred Cole himself in 2017 has done nothing to dim Dead Moon's shining light. Indeed, they have more fans now than they had when they were around, and 20 Years in the Crypt: Embedded with Dead Moon will provide new generations of fans with a chance to see the band they missed and old fans a chance to recapture the feeling of seeing this amazing band live.
EXCLUSIVE AUSTRALIAN SCREENINGS MARCH 2025
Sunday March 23 - The Piccadilly Cinema, Adelaide
(w/ live solo acoustic performance by Sunee Holland before the film)
Sunday March 30 - The Dendy Cinema, Newtown, Sydney
(w/ live solo acoustic performance by Blackie - Hard-Ons - before the film)
Sunday April 13 - Cinema Nova, Melbourne
(w/ live solo acoustic performance by Joel Silbersher - God, Hoss, Tendrils, Fancy Weapon - before the film)
