Rural Rock'n Roll comes back to It's roots

Rural Rock'n Roll is a one-hour movie filmed about Humboldt and it's music scene. Focusing primarily on the punk, rock, and indie scenes, Jensen Rufe showcases all the trials and excitement of playing in a small town band, featuring bands such as, The Ian Fays, The Ravens, The Buffy Swayze, and Eureka Garbage Company.

The documentary has toured all over the country. Rufe, who wants to eventually make this into a reality show about local music scenes in small towns, has worked on projects like the Simple Life and Real World. He's also done other documentaries like, The Ugliest Fountain In the World (Without a Doubt) and In Search for the Famous Hoosier Breaded Pork Tenderloin Sandwich.

Rufe will be bringing his film back to its place of origin for a special screening at the Accident Gallery, and will include half an hour of previously unreleased footage.

Drummer and singer from The Eureka Garbage Company, a band featured in the documentary, Chris Colland, said in regards to the unreleased footage, "I think this will make it a little more honest."

Colland has nothing but love for Rufe, considering they have been longtime friends. "People got catty, saying 'how come that band got focused more than me.' I think he did paint a positive view of the scene."

Colland has an interesting take on the entire scene as well as how the documentary depicted it. "It's a cool thing. Is it a great depiction of this scene? I don't know, it may be a little off-centered. I'm just speaking as being a member of one of the bands featured in the movie."

Melissa Medina, lead singer for the Ravens, felt the film took the Humboldt music scene places it never could have gotten.

"A lot of us work full time jobs and don't have the time to tour," Medina said. "He's (Rufe) taking the documentary to different film festivals and we are getting recognized out of town. He's brought some of us to places we wouldn't normally go."

Medina feels like the film hasn't really changed people's attitudes here, "we are all pretty much down to earth bands and honored to be apart of Rural Rock'n Roll."

Colland feels slightly different. "It's played everywhere from San Diego to Seattle, the film has gotten a better reaction outside the community than in. It definitely hasn't done anything for us," he said we a tinge of sarcasm and a wink.

One band that has felt the love from Rufe's documentary is the Buffy Swazy's, Eureka's glam rockers with a style all their own have been able to play shows in towns that the film is playing in.

Jesse Pearson, Buffy Swazye's lead singer said, "We've played in Nevada City last year, and a lady who had a radio show at UC Davis really liked our show and wanted us to play, that's something we still may be able do to."

So Buffy Swazye got some good exposure and some great shows, and Pearson thinks people should see the documentary for the following reason, "It's funny, ya know, there's some good humor in it. It's not too serious."

Be the first to comment on this article!

Add comment


I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Enter the characters in the image above:

log out