I AM A GENIUS (AND THERE'S NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT IT)

I AM A GENIUS (AND THERE'S NOTHING
I CAN DO ABOUT IT)

A film about situations with R. Stevie Moore
by Arnaud Maguet & Hifiklub

co-production : Parallel Factory
design : Hatch Show Print & Arnaud Maguet
texte : Philippe Robert

DVD 84mn + EP vinyl 4 songs
300 copies
As soon as technology made this possible, many musicians started recording in their homes, solely in order to be able to listen to themselves and to improve their technique; at the time other musicians, with these same homemade means, were inventing an art worthy of the Spectorian Wall of Sound. As for self production, the only market accounting for this, no one waited for the advent of punk rock to try a hand at it. Even in the era of 78s, anonymous musicians were already recording as easily as if they were having their picture taken; this was before liberated jazzmen set down to work, followed by the redneck rockers of the psychedelic era. The do-it-yourself spirit was gradually spreading. Don’t expect the worst: the best was often part of the history written by these wackos intent on leaving a trace. Amongst them, R. Stevie Moore was one of the only ones to stand the test of time, in spite of some crackbrained blunders -like one of Jandek’s next-door neighbors, without the doldrums. In 1984 the magazine Actuel had crowned “Everything You Always Wanted To Know About R. Stevie Moore (But Were Afraid To Ask)” record of the year, while Rock & Folk had introduced its author as the latest crazy scientist along with the like of Kim Fowley, Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart. Moore's Martian syntax had always spread and been transcribed through a gigantic production somewhat equivalent to instructions to the young generation on how to dynamite the record industry. In France, Arnaud Maguet and Hifiklub appreciated him so much that they ventured into the kingdom of country music along with its mentor, inventing as they went a previously unheard mixture of Nashville and the Riviera, a mixture of class and lo-fi rusticity.

Philippe Robert