An Evening with Girls That Rock Pt. 1: The Stains & The Runaways
January 7, 2008
Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains (1981): This is another one from the “one that got away” file. Directed by record & movie producer Lou Adler (The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Up in Smoke, Brewster McCloud, founder of Dunhill Records, etc.), written by Nancy Dowd (Slap Shots, Hal Ashby’s Coming Home) and Jonathan Demme (director of Silence of the Lambs, Something Wild, Stop Making Sense and Sterling Gray’s Swimming to Cambodia), and starring both a young Diane Lane (The Outsiders, Lonesome Dove) and Laura Dern (half of David Lynch’s films, Jurassic Park), as well as a host of rock musicians — Fee Waybill from The Tubes, Steve Cook & Paul Jones from The Sex Pistols, and Paul Simonon from The Clash — this punk gem was never officially released in US theaters (apparently due to cold feet from the studio).
Corinne “Third Degree” Burns (Lane) made national news when she was fired from her dead-end fast food job in her depressed Nowhere, USA hometown. In a followup interview, she mentions that she’s focusing on her rock band, The Stains — her, her sister, and their cousin (Dern). Through a series of advantageous circumstances and clever media manipulation, Corinne manages not only to score her band a slot on a small-time national tour, but to build an almost overnight fan following with their distinctive look, and their sneer that they “don’t put out.” The film is as interested in the reactions of everyone around The Stains as it is on the insecurities of the band themselves: the sleazy managers, the all-too eager fans, the egotistical rockers (both old and young) on the tour all want a piece (in one way or another) of the girls. The question, of course, becomes how carefully these seemingly-confident young girls will walk the line between not putting out, and selling out all the way.
Despite still not being commercially available in any format, The Stains has become something of a cult classic — it was a mainstay on late-night cable in the late 80s and 90s, and draws big crowds at the occasional revival showing. This one’s made a definite impression on those that have seen it — This movie’s not camp, it’s the real thing.
to be preceded by clips of:
The Runaways Live in Japan (c. 1977): Pre-punk grrl rockers or elaborate “sex sells” marketing trick? You decide! Well, as much as the circumstances allow, anyway. An all-girl band from L.A. that hung out (underaged) at the legendary English Disco glitter rock club in the mid-1970s, they were produced and managed by Kim Fowley — a canny publicist and talented songwriter, but by all accounts an unpleasant human being. When their first record was released in 1975, none of them were over 17 — a fact the jacket of the record proudly displayed. And what pedigree! This is the band that gave us Joan Jett (that’s her on the right) and metal queen Lita Ford (next to Jett in red). It probably won’t surprise anyone that’s read this far that the real-life Runaways were at least conceptually (though not biographically) the inspiration for The Stains.
Like so many ’70s American pop acts, though, they made a much bigger splash in Japan than they did stateside, where they were largely dismissed as a gimmick act. Promoting their second album, they recorded a live record and a concert film in Japan — just as their bassist had a nervous breakdown. We’ll be watching footage from this period (parts of the movie, as well as some Japanese live TV appearances) that show off just how rockin’ The Runaways are (I’m a fan, I guess you can tell).
