The Movie:

Co-directed by Mark Covino and Jeff Howlett in 2012, the documentary A Band Called Death tells the story of three brothers from Detroit who, in the early seventies, started a band. While Motown was ruling the city at the time, these kids started off playing funk but soon wanted nothing more than to play rock n roll. Made up of band leader David Hackney on guitar, Dannis on drums and Bobby on bass and vocals, they were influenced by the likes of The Who, The Beatles and Alice Cooper. After their father Earl passed away, the victim of a drunk driver, David started becoming increasingly spiritual in a lot of ways and he convinced the other two to change the band's name to Death. And so they did. And inside the family home in a room upstairs their mother let them practice from 3pm until 6pm each day, much to the dismay of the neighbors.

As they practiced, they started to get some attention. These kids were writing songs that dealt with spirituality but so too were the writing songs with a political angle. Not only that, but they were taking the Motown influence that they grew up with and mixing it up in interesting ways with ‘white boy music,' and so we hear a lot of MC5 and Stooges style pre-punk working its way into their sound. As the band got better, David spearheaded their efforts to get a record deal. A visit to a local studio got them in the door and a demo was recorded and then shopped around to different labels. The pressed a single and handed it out to radio stations to get some publicity moving but it didn't work. None of the labels would bite because at the time the general consensus was that nobody would listen to a band called Death. They were given an offer on the condition that they changed their name, but David convinced the others to stick to their guns and the others agreed, always promising to back one another no matter what.

With their hopes more or less dashed they moved to Vermont, but again came up against rejection time and again. When they finally dead change their name to The Fourth Movement, David's spiritual side was playing such a large role in what they were doing that a local newspaper review slagged them for preaching. And that was more or less the end of it. David moved back to Detroit and the other two stayed in Vermont and started a reggae band called Lambsbread while making ends meet with other jobs. David would pass away in the early 2000s but before he did he gave his brothers the master tape, telling them that after he was gone, people would come looking for their music. Shortly after, that 45 that was pressed thirty some odd years ago started going for big money in collector's circles. Some MP3s were uploaded online and people started asking about this band, if there were any other recordings around and what their story was. When the Bobby Hackney's son heard one of the songs played at a party and instantly recognized his father's voice, the blinders came off. Death's album was released, the band reformed with Lambsbread's guitar player filling David's shoes, and a band that had faded into obscurity without anyone realizing what trailblazers they really were had finally received some well-deserved recognition.

This is as much a story of family and of brotherhood as it is about an obscure rock band being rediscovered long after their initial attempts at making it. We learn firsthand in their own words why the Hackney's chose the path that they did and we learn in no uncertain terms just how much their late brother David meant to them and how his spiritual side had such a huge impact on Death. The Hackney's come across as sincerely nice guys, and as very appreciative of the cult resurgence that has occurred since their recordings were unearthed. Their enthusiasm is infectious and their graciousness truly humbling. Even now, having been back together for a few years and played quite a few shows (often with their sons' band Rough Francis, named after their Uncle David, opening for them) they pay tribute to David and dedicate their performances to him. These guys know and respect their roots, the understand and continue to respect the importance of family and that's so obviously a huge part of what makes this band as interesting as it is.

The movie itself is very well made. There's a load of archival photographs here and some video clips as well, some of which document the band some of which offer a glimpse into the Hackney family's life (a wedding video, for example). There are interviews here with family members, with those who helped to get that old 45 record to the label that would reissue the demo, with musicians like Henry Rollins, Jello Biafra and Mick Collins and Ben Blackwell (of Detroit's The Dirtbombs). We also hear from the guys at Groovesville about recording those demos and shopping it around and get to check out the studio where it all happened, surprisingly unchanged since the early seventies. Plenty of interesting photographs are used throughout to document the history of the group, many of them having been manipulated digitally to give them a 3-D effect or a sense of movement (the trail of smoke off of David's cigarette swirls from the bottom of the screen to the top, for example). This gives the movie some nice style and makes it more interesting to look at had it just been assembled out of talking head interview clips. Of course, there's a lot of music used very effectively throughout the entire movie, much of which is from the Hackney's various projects and some of which is just some fitting music that works in the context of the story. It all comes together, it all works and A Band Called Death turns out to be a great mix of ‘truth is stranger than fiction' biography and simultaneously a touching story about one family's journey through the ups and downs of the music business.

Video:

A Band Called Death arrives on Blu-ray in a 1.78.1 widescreen presentation with AVC encoding in 1080p high definition. Shot on digital video cameras but making extensive use of VHS sourced archival footage and plenty of older still photographs from throughout the Hackneys' lives, quality is understandably a bit all over the place. The newly show footage looks great, it's nice and colorful and detailed, while the older archival bits are understandably rough around the edges. Many of the photographs that are used have had different foreground elements separated from the background elements to give them a 3-D effect, which actually works really well and helps to make the visuals more interesting than they would be otherwise. The transfer itself is solid, however, just be prepared to accept any faults that exist with the source material and enjoy the movie. The disc is nicely authored showing no serious issues with compression or noise reduction. All in all, a pretty nice image given the origins of the movie itself.