Two bits of graffiti stand out from my youth in Portland, one read 'Satyricon is a Manson conclave' and the other, 'Poison Idea.' Eventually I learned what these things meant, Poison Idea was Portland's iconic punk band - weighing in at about 1300 pounds - and Satyricon was a place where you could see serious up-and-coming bands, and possibly get stabbed with a fork by some weird chick. Nirvana played a few shows there, as did contemporaries in the band Tad, fronted by Tad Doyle, himself no slouch in the weight department.

Busted Circuits and Ringing Ears is an appropriate title for this rock-doc about also-ran band Tad, every bit as heavy, grungy and challenging as more successful groups from the same era (late '80s to early '90s) and region (Seattle) such as Nirvana, Mudhoney and Soundgarden. No surprises in this rock-doc, most of them are comprised of archival footage, interviews both contemporary and historical, music videos and home videos, as is this one. And there are few surprises in the story of Tad, either, most rock stories are the same; work your ass off and get shafted by the system. The only variables are how high up the greasy pole you can climb before sliding quickly down while watching that one-percent grabbing the brass ring before self-destructing. Ahh, rock and roll.

Busted Circuits demonstrates how Tad, (both the band and the man) hit all the marks: black-hole heaviness, regional adulation, riding the weird zeitgeist to European tours, (with Nirvana - co-headliners) big-label deals, world-tours, drugs, booze, pot, indiscriminate droppings from labels, acrimonious breakups and ultimately quiet senescence in peaceful homes thinking about what could have been.

It's a great movie, with very cool interview subjects like Sub Pop impresarios Poneman and Pavitt, Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, Soundgardener Kim Thayill, Producer Jack Endino, and others. Footage of the Tad crew taking bong hits backstage, guzzling Jack Daniel's and pounding their gear into submission mocks other bits where clueless Parisian interviewers ask about the Seattle scene and it's all very emblematic of the whole deal. Sure it was great that Cobain gave voice to the desperation hopeless teens felt growing obsolete in Aberdeen, but did the backwater Pac NW really need to become a fad? Couldn't bands like Tad have grown old gracefully, rocking heavier, with fewer drugs, into old age, instead of getting sucked up and spit out by the hype machine? Busted Circuits plays it cool like the real rockers around here do - finally simply showing Tad and bassist Kurt meeting up sweetly after seven-year's absence - still heavy, still real.

The DVD

Video:
In 1.33:1 fullscreen ratio, some of the footage is matted, but plenty isn't. Aside from the contemporary interview footage, much of what is on display here is as raggedy as the sound coming from a guitar amplifier's speaker cone that has had a screwdriver shoved through it. Obviously video fidelity isn't really the point here, just seeing the footage in any form is love for those who remember (or still are) fighting their way through mosh pits. Additionally, colors vary depending on the quality of the available footage. Who cares?

Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio does justice to the music (by and large very heavy) even though this stuff wasn't recorded with anything more than stereo in mind. All around, though, interview audio is clear and easy to understand, and the music sounds great (if pummeling grooves, horribly overdriven guitars and guttural screaming is your thing- and if it isn't, why not?)

Extras:
Five Tad Music Videos are the exclusive extras, each of varying quality. The early ones are rough and clunky but the songs are better, the later ones more smooth, but the songs a little smoother, too. Since a documentary is sort of a meta-extra as far as movies are concerned, the videos included seem totally sufficient.

Final Thoughts:
Busted Circuits and Ringing Ears is as good as they come, with great interviews - both funny and poignant - from those who were there, and good, gritty concert footage. Plenty of cleverly blended in band-on-tour home movies makes you almost feel like you were there (I never caught Tad, as math-rock was more my thing) and interspersed music videos in amongst make you begin to understand the unreality attendant to a band on the rise. While Tad isn't a band with the widespread appeal to make this a blockbuster DVD, hardcore fans, grunge enthusiasts and rock music scholars - and especially anyone who came up during the scene - will totally cop to the fact that this DVD is Recommended.

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