grantss A documentary on the rivalry between two rock bands. On one hand we have The Dandy Warhols, and its leader Courtney Taylor-Taylor, and on the other The Brian Jonestown Massacre, lead by Anton Newcombe. They used to be close friends but their differing lifestyles and ambitions, especially that of Anton Newcombe, have forced them apart, to the point of being enemies.Great musical documentary. Shows well the different paths bands can take and how success changes relationships, ambitions and perspectives. Also shows how destructive success can be, especially the self-destructiveness of drugs.Some great concert footage and some great music too.

Michael Radny If you are a fan of The Brian Jonestown Masacre and the Dandy Warholes or either, there is no doubt you will like this. Possibly my favorite music documentary, Dig! explores the gritty rivalry between Anton Newcomb and Courtney Taylor-Taylor as there success polarizes and tensions draw between them. Raw and insightful, Dig! gives a deep look inside the not so glamorous view of the music business and the backstabbing and the internal band fights involved. Good for fans but non fans may find little point in viewing, but who cares. Fans will have a blast with this little masterpiece of a film.

cheesecrop Dig! is a very interesting look at a love/hate relationship between two bands, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and the Dandy Warhols. It begins around 1995, and ends around 2002/2003. The documentary is narrated by Courtney Taylor, who happens to be the singer for the Dandy's. He gives a picture of his own group as not being up to the standards of the other, while openly praising the BJM leader, Anton Newcombe.The footage shows Newcombe as being a control freak. At the same time, it is clear he has some talent. Despite this, he tends to sabotage his own chances through some ill-timed decisions. My personal take on the situation is that Newcombe is simply frightened of what pressures success might hold. At some level, he lacks the confidence to take the next step.At the same time, he is clearly jealous of the success that the Dandy Warhols manage to have. The Warhols are slightly more conventional, which makes them appear as the lesser talent. That being said, both bands state that they are attempting to make some sort of musical "revolution", at the beginning. Later in the documentary, one of the Dandy's hits the nail on the head regarding the BJM, noting that revolutions don't work when they stay underground. It's a telling line, as both bands started near the end of a true period of musical upheaval, in the early-to-mid 90's.In the end, neither group ever quite reached the stage of provoking any sort of musical "revolution". Being bands of that particular period, they both made solid, credible rock music, something that we could use a lot more of. That alone makes the film worth a look. It is a truly odd piece, with the more commercially "successful" (if that's what you can call it) group desperately making concessions to the other. The Dandy's are denigrated for their success, while the BJM are given praise, despite the fact that little gets through to back this up. I guess this is supposed to be an "art vs. commerce"-styled logic, but neither art nor commerce is really served here. At the same time, it's incredibly interesting...

Ali Catterall To suggest Anton Newcombe of the Brian Jonestown Massacre could also use some therapy is putting it mildly. In Dig! which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, we watch him and his band self-sabotage over seven years, while ex-friends and contemporaries The Dandy Warhols rise to comparative greatness (a mobile phone advert, anyway).What elevates Dig! above its contemporaries is the immense, near-biblical comic-tragedy being played out: a depressingly honest treatise on art versus commerce and compromise. For all his "look at me, I'm a bloody genius" posturing, Newcombe is in fact revealed to be a singularly gifted, if immensely troubled, musician - far more talented than his rival, the Dandy's Courtney Taylor who narrates the picture. If Newcombe is Dennis Hopper, Taylor's Peter Fonda.Even sadder, Taylor appears to realise this, evinced by his weary, self-loathing voice-over: he knows his band won the battle - but at what cost? In truth, they sold out, made Indie-Lite records, kept their teeth nice and clean, and probably brushed their hair twice before bedtime - thus winning record contracts and a large tour bus. And jettisoning all credibility in the process. Newcombe, on the other hand, lives in filth, is continually busted, beats up fellow band members on stage, kicks hecklers in the head - and is last glimpsed in Dig! being ferried away by police, having lost the right to see his child.Two of the best films about rock's subculture have been directed by women: Penelope Spheeris's The Decline Of Western Civilization and this one – an instant classic the moment it was released.