Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone

One of the films I most regretted missing at STIFF this year was the documentary Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone. So I was pretty happy to see it was going to be coming to the Grand Illusion theater for a week starting on Friday.  The film embraces the fact that there are a subset of bands whose live show is so strong that it will forever diminish the feel of their recorded sessions. Personally, the top of that list of bands will always be The Ramones. Much as I enjoy their albums it always feels like a weak memory of their performances. More germane to this discussion is the manic but tightly orchestrated harmonic chaos of Fishbone playing live. We're taken on a ride through their origin story, the band's rise and fall, and into the present day as the diehard members deal with frayed but enduring friendships and compulsive need to keep playing for audiences.

Everyday Sunshine starts with the thesis that Fishbone is a band apart - due to their broad mix of styles, influence on others, and of course the strength  of their live performances. It also provides a more in depth view of how a band can fall apart over the years. Something we hear about all the time - though few films deconstruct as well how it happens. The film begins with a series of talking heads espousing the skill and importance of Fishbone. It's hard to imagine a more diverse set of supporters on display. Ranging from front-men of the Circle Jerks and the Minutemen, Ice-T straight through to Branford Marsalis.  For a band that can be lazily categorized into a punk-ska bucket the influences of Fishbone pretty diverse. One admirer describes it as "I've seen them do every style ... In the same song."  Or in the more direct words of Ice-T, "It wasn't rock, it wasn't metal, it wasn't hip hop, it wasn't funk, it was just some different shit." Everyday Sunshine visually mimics that polyglot of techniques telling the story of Fishbone through a blend including talking heads, cartoon animation, moving photo recreations, voiceover and several other styles I've likely forgotten. It's a well matched approach and fills on gaps that may exist in archival video materials. There's not a lot to dislike with the exception of Laurence Fishburne's voice over. That just felt incredibly stilted. If you don't like music documentaries Everyday Sunshine may not entirely change your mind - it's deeper than many but will feel familiar in many ways.  It's not my favorite genre truth be told. But Everyday Sunshine held my attention.  My only lasting complaint is that for the life of me I can't get their song Party at Ground Zero out of my head now.

My review it its entirety is available over at Three Imaginary Girls