Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 08:14:46 AM

Login with username, password and session length

Mike Judge Presents: Tales from the Tour Bus Season 1

Started by Small Man Big Horse, September 24, 2017, 04:47:02 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Small Man Big Horse

This is Judge's latest, a partially animated anthology about Country singers, currently showing on Cinemax. Each episode's 28 odd minutes long and the first at least is a mix of comedy and tragedy as it tells the story of Johnny Paycheck, who spent a fair amount of time in jail, hung out with hell's angels, and reportedly snorted $16 million dollar's worth of cocaine. An animated Mike Judge narrates it all and it's extremely charming stuff, despite the craziness of the tale.

DukeDeMondo

Really enjoyed this, cheers for the tip SMBH. I hadn't heard anything about it. It helps that the ballad of Johnny Paycheck is so rich. I wonder who else is going to be featured.

Hugely entertaining stuff, anyway. Will definitely be watching the rest.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: DukeDeMondo on September 26, 2017, 04:04:15 PM
Really enjoyed this, cheers for the tip SMBH. I hadn't heard anything about it. It helps that the ballad of Johnny Paycheck is so rich. I wonder who else is going to be featured.

Hugely entertaining stuff, anyway. Will definitely be watching the rest.

I'm really glad you liked it, I haven't been able to find a full episode list but this Rolling Stone interview mentions some of the forthcoming names, along with the fact that a potential second season could cover rap and metal:

QuoteWhen Mike Judge began work on Tales From the Tour Bus, a new country-music docuseries for Cinemax that premieres on September 22nd, he did so with a mission. "I like converting people who don't like country into going, 'OK, maybe this is OK,'" he says. So the Silicon Valley, King of the Hill and Beavis and Butt-head mastermind began collecting the wildest, most hilarious stories about Waylon Jennings, Tammy Wynette, Jerry Lee Lewis and other hellraisers he could from their friends and family and animating them.

"We're trying to make it less like a history lesson and trying to find the crazy, funny stories that haven't always been out there," Judge says. "A lot of country-music documentary stuff that's been on TNN and CMT has been very polite. But a lot of the stories I've heard are more gnarly than Mötley Crüe stories."

Judge, who grew up in Albuquerque and developed a love of country after spending time on Navajo reservations with his archeologist father, had entertained the idea of making a George Jones biopic years ago but grew cold on the idea and abandoned it. His interest in country storytelling was rekindled after sharing stories he'd heard about Johnny Paycheck, the diminutive Charles Manson lookalike who sang "Take This Job and Shove It," with his friend Rich Mullins, the bassist for stoner rockers Karma to Burn and a producer on the series. "Rich was saying none of these stories are on the Internet, and maybe it would be a good idea to do a documentary," Judge says. "I said, 'Yeah, whatever,' and he didn't give up."

Mullins tracked down the Adams brothers, a trio of musicians who'd backed up both Jones and Paycheck, and conducted hilarious interviews with them, convincing Judge to do the show. "I thought, 'Maybe we'll do it the way PBS did with jazz and blues, where we did mini documentaries about country singers," Judge says, also pointing to the Ginger Baker documentary Beware of Mr. Baker and a cartoon mini-doc about Prince and Questlove as inspirations.

Although only two of his subjects are living (Jerry Lee Lewis and Billy Joe Shaver), Judge found enough bandmates and past associates (including Lewis's cousin/former underage bride) who were willing to share compelling tales to make the series work. "The Adams brothers helped me find the tone for the show," he says. "When Gary is talking about Johnny Paycheck shouting, 'I'll be out in two weeks,' as he's being hauled off to jail for however many years, that was the tone." Judge laughs. "These guys are just ornery as hell and ballbusters. I find people who are sort of half-genius, half-dumbass to be my favorite people."

Many of the stories, such as the time Jerry Lee Lewis crashed his car through the gates of Graceland to see Elvis, lend themselves naturally to a cartoon look but Judge's team animated nearly all of the series, including the interviews. Originally, he'd set out to make a more traditional documentary, but between Cinemax asking for more animation and a series of interviews that were poorly shot by former producers on the show, he decided to illustrate the interviews as well. "We were stuck with it but I liked the way the interviews looked so it worked out," he says.

Now that the first season is done, he's considering expanding Tales From the Tour Bus to tackle hip-hop and heavy metal in the future. "I think the next one would be the beginning of gangster rap," says Judge, a friend of the Geto Boys. "Seeing the N.W.A movie, which was great, I know that there's a lot of other amazing stories that I've heard firsthand that I think are really fascinating. I would love to do that next."

http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/features/tales-from-the-tour-bus-mike-judges-country-music-history-romp-w503523

Blumf

Thanks for the heads-up from me too. Nice little docu series.

Wiki lists:
Johnny Paycheck, Jerry Lee Lewis, George Jones and Tammy Wynette (two parter), Billy Joe Shaver, and Waylon Jennings.

Wonder if they'll do Buddy Rich at some point. I think there's supposed to be some stories about him (the famous angry rants)

Small Man Big Horse

God I love this series, especially when I pretend that it's Hank Hill narrating it rather than Judge. Jerry Lee Lewis was the subject of the second episode and again it was a fascinating insight, I thought I knew a lot about him but there were still a lot of stories which were brand new. Plus it did address his marriage to his thirteen year old cousin by having her as one of the talking heads.

Frustratingly it does appear to take a while for each new episode to appear online, but the third is now up on demonoid and lime torrents at least.

JoeyBananaduck

This sounds well worth a look. Cheers SMBH, will report back if I find it over here!

Morrison Lard

That first episode about Paycheck was brilliant.
Thanks for the heads up, smbh.

maett

bump for season 2 which is reveling in the world of funk with George Clinton and Rick James, quite a few clips on youtube (possibly full episodes but chopped up into 2 minute segments)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxQydcK83Z8&list=PL03EPejMMk9rQw7_sngN9dWYRvQyRivKC


Malcy

I've not caught up with series 2 yet but I've been downloading them ready for a binge. Really liked the first series.

MortSahlFan

Both season are good.. I wish he'd do another "Beavis and Butthead" one day! Wouldn't mind if he did Rock for Season 3, maybe Jazz -- they have a ton of great stories.

Clownbaby

I like me some Mike Judge and I somehow hadn't heard of this

ASFTSN

I think this has been under-promoted a bit, thanks for the thread!

I only watched the Johnny Paycheck one and it was excellent - and has got me listening to his music oustide of Take This Job and Shove It, so that's another plus. He certainly seems like he was a worrying little man!

willy crossit

This programme is fantastic. I've been racing through them, best new thing I've watched in ages

ArtParrott

Is anywhere showing this in the UK? Seen some clips on YouTube and looked in the usual places and one hooky streaming site but no dice. Any help appreciated?

Small Man Big Horse

As far as I know it's not on any UK channel but you can download it via RarBg or ReleaseBB.


Vitalstatistix

This is bloody brilliant! Thank you to SMBH for highlighting it. I've not seen it mentioned anywhere and nobody I've recommended it to has heard of it, which is a shame.

I hope Judge keeps it going forever. And does every genre.

Season 16: Ambient drone. Those lads were crazy!

Watched the first series earlier in the year; just starting the second now and its just so so amazing. I think its great that they've not gone too obvious and chronicled the excesses of overly familiar genres like rock or hiphop.

Im watching it on Showbox; a great app available for android. Look into it.

Hmmm. The end of the second Rick James had me squirming a bit; the biographer guy and to a lesser extent James's old bandmate appear to be excusing him for serially sexually assaulting and torturing muultiple people. "He was a tortured soul; so torturing was all he knew" type of reasoning which is immensly fucked up.

"The crack made him crazy" is also in no way a viable excuse. He kidnapped someone and tortured and raped them for 20 hours. It was a very ugly end and to me put a massive downer on everything that had come before and certainly dissipated any sympathy for James and his untimely ending. And the show treated it all with a bit too much ambivalence for my liking.


Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Misspent Boners on December 16, 2018, 04:48:11 PM
Hmmm. The end of the second Rick James had me squirming a bit; the biographer guy and to a lesser extent James's old bandmate appear to be excusing him for serially sexually assaulting and torturing muultiple people. "He was a tortured soul; so torturing was all he knew" type of reasoning which is immensly fucked up.

"The crack made him crazy" is also in no way a viable excuse. He kidnapped someone and tortured and raped them for 20 hours. It was a very ugly end and to me put a massive downer on everything that had come before and certainly dissipated any sympathy for James and his untimely ending. And the show treated it all with a bit too much ambivalence for my liking.

I know what you mean, it's kind of strange as the first episode is a huge amount of fun and all rather lighthearted, but then the second covering his downfall is bleak stuff, and I think it could have judged him a little harsher. But that's the only complaint I've got about the series, I'm a bit behind right now but just watched the fourth one and it was a delight, I especially loved the LSD hallucinations when James Brown fires Collins because he thought his guitar had turned in to a snake, and it's amazing they were able to play so well most of the time considering how high they were.

NoSleep

Because Season 2 is currently being streamed on Now TV, the Guardian have published this today:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/apr/15/mike-judge-interview-beavis-butthead-silicon-valley-tales-from-the-tour-bus

Have to thank SMBH for introducing this to me; both seasons are lots of fun.

Sin Agog

Cheers fer the bump.  Hadn't heard of this one, but I knew it would be for me the moment a belching Swamp Dogg showed up.  I know he's most renowned for being on several worst album cover of all time lists, but he's a great musician, damnit!  Looking forward to watching some more.

SteveDave

Quote from: Sin Agog on April 15, 2020, 05:38:32 PM
Cheers fer the bump.  Hadn't heard of this one, but I knew it would be for me the moment a belching Swamp Dogg showed up.  I know he's most renowned for being on several worst album cover of all time lists, but he's a great musician, damnit!  Looking forward to watching some more.

I was unaware Swamp Dogg was in this! What episode is he in?

PlanktonSideburns

stumbled upon this last night, - thought it had a mike judge vibe but didnt know it was him!

George clinton and his mates all done like king of the hill characters was a brilliant thing i had no idea i needed until it was thrown at me

Osmium

Quote from: SteveDave on April 16, 2020, 01:34:02 PM
I was unaware Swamp Dogg was in this! What episode is he in?

Season 1 episode 1. Watched it last night after the bump caught my attention and can only echo the praise.

Sin Agog

Quote from: SteveDave on April 16, 2020, 01:34:02 PM
I was unaware Swamp Dogg was in this! What episode is he in?

The very first episode about outlaw country musician Johnny Paycheck.  Favourite moment in the episode is when Swamp Dogg describes him as having a 'teeny-weeny peeny'.

Or what Osmium said.


Sin Agog

I don't know how in fuck Mike Judge managed to extract such dry hilarity from all of these musicians.  It could be something unique to the two genres he's covered so far, but most musicians are hardly more engaging than footballers when being interviewed, but I've laughed a ton at this.  Plus, hearkening back to HBO's Ricky Gervais Show, there's a weirdly specific joy out of seeing an anecdote in which someone voices multiple characters get animated.

ArtParrott

"The singer gets the most ass but if you can play and sing you get more ass... please don't tell anyone I said that"