After months of development, I am ready to announce my new film project, “AMERICAN DREAMS”!
This project has been several years in the making…
It began as my thesis at the David Lynch film school while I was attending there, 2018-2020, and was once called “IN THE LAND OF GOOD OAKS,” as readers of my book “KEEP MUSIC EVIL: THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE STORY” will remember.
“Good Oaks” was not without success, as the controversial Sitgreaves County publicity stunt which propelled Gorky to the cover of the Arizona Republic two weekends in a row (and helped flip Arizona blue in 2020) began to attract attention from important industry players.
The script then went through a period of development with some of the creative team behind Purple Rain before I had to split from those guys for their sheer disrespect and unprofessionalism on tangential projects. They say never meet your heroes. I say don’t trust them either.
Then, in January of 2023, my creative partner and Gorky co-founder Ben Holladay died of Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Disease, a rare genetic lung disorder, a week after our dream producer agreed to produce the soundtrack.
“In The Land Of Good Oaks” died with Ben. I tried to get another version of the film going, but it just wasn't working out.
I moved to Portland, Oregon, to be closer to my family and network. In December of 2023, my friend Zia McCabe of the Dandy Warhols invited me to a music policy forum where I met then-city council candidate Jamie Dunphy and joined the incredible organization MusicPortland.
They were fighting Live Nation at the time, and I'd never experienced a music community quite on this scale before. I would be lying if I didn't say my initial reason for joining the fight was to try and pull off another “Sitgreaves,” but as I learned how wonderful and good-hearted Portland's music community was, I laid aside my aspirations and learned to serve without an incentive. This time, I fought for what I felt was the right thing to do.
We fought valiantly, but then the land was stolen. We didn't ‘lose’.
We were bullied into it, and because of the rules of performative political correctness, some were forced to apologize for things they didn't do.
I refuse to acknowledge a ‘loss’ in that fight. To do so is to admit that the opposition defeated us soundly, and I believe they--the Portland Metro Chamber and Prosper Portland, who conspired with Live Nation on the steal--are among the worst civic organizations in the United States.
While falsified accusations of racism led to the land theft in Portland, that isn't where everyone should be focusing. The racism is a smokescreen, a fluke, a distraction to keep Portlanders' eyes averted from the grifting by the city's corporate elite.
Racism is just one part of a larger toolkit that Live Nation, really and truly one of the worst organizations in the world, uses to justify its land grabs.
Avoiding the truth, that the developers manipulated racism, empowered Live Nation to completely dominate the proceedings, and we were bulldozed.
These good people at MusicPortland and the Music Policy Council who I consider friends were the targets of a coordinated attack, and I watched helplessly as they wrestled with the consequences of these falsified accusations. It was like one after another, they felt some manner of guilt or responsibility about it. To me, it was plain as day what was going on around me, and it made me sick to think that a group of people could do this and get away with it so easily.
So I worked as a canvasser for Jamie Dunphy's campaign, knocking on doors and talking to folks throughout Portland about how they'd like to see the city change. At the same time, I lobbied with MusicPortland to engage every candidate we could on music policy and fighting Live Nation.
During this period, Gorky became a policy think tank and lobbying org instead of a band.
In the end, co-organizing with MusicPortland and knocking on doors for Jamie not only got Jamie elected, but it got an entire pro-music city council elected for the first time in the city's history. Our efforts were so successful, that the city's political class were embarrassed to admit that we'd outshined them.
Notably, the Gorky PDX Music Voter Guide was the most accurate voter guide released last year, in terms of endorsed candidates-to-election ratio.
However, unlike my experience in the Arizona Legislature, none of what I did for the City of Portland during this time was bullshit. This experience, which has been an adventure, taught me that community can heal grief, and now that we have a pro-music city council, and the Live Nation fight here is all but over, it is time I take what I have learned, what I've experienced, and do what I actually do.
I am not a policymaker. I am not a politician. I am an artist. And yes, sometimes I use shock. Because it works.
When David died earlier this year, I remembered everything he taught me about being true to my ideas and I realized that the truest idea I have now was to show the people of Portland, the country, and the world the truth of my experience through my art.
It was time to return to the film Ben and I were going to make together, and give it a new birth. A new life.
As David Lynch taught and believed, a disruption of consciousness is sometimes necessary for evolution.
More soon!