The Cramps Napa State Tapes
Description
In June 1978, they gave a landmark free concert for patients at the California State Mental Hospital in Napa, recorded on a Sony Portapak video camera by the San Francisco collective Target Video and later released as Live at Napa State Mental Hospital. Once back to the east coast, they played the revamped 1940s swing club “The Meadowbrook” in New Jersey, which had a huge stage and dance floor. Next they recorded two singles in New York City, which were later re-released on their 1979 Gravest Hits EP, before Chilton brought them back that year to Memphis to record their first full-length album, Songs the Lord Taught Us, at Phillips Recording, operated by former Sun Records label owner Sam Phillips.
On June 13, 1978, punk rock band The Cramps played a show at Napa State, a psychiatric hospital in the small town of Napa in northern California. Opening for them were The Mutants, an eclectic septet of art-school punks from nearby San Francisco. Seminal Bay Area art collective Target Video was also there to capture the show using one of the first video cameras available to the public, democratizing a medium normally controlled by mainstream media outlets. The resulting VHS tape of the show is one of the most legendary documents in music history and a cult classic tape. Both Napa performances have been fully remastered from the original reel-to-reel videotape. Screening in between the Napa performances is the short documentary We Were There to Be There, co-directed by Mike Plante and Jason Willis, which goes into the background of Target Video and how the Napa State show happened, with rare photos and interviews from people who were at the show. The documentary also explores the deep history of Napa State and how then-Governor Ronald Reagan’s policies regarding mental health facilities are still affecting people today.
Mike Plante is a filmmaker and festival programmer. He has directed the feature documentaries Be Like an Ant (2011) and the award-winning And With Him Came the West (2019), which premiered at MoMA Doc Fortnight and was released by Grasshopper Films to theaters and streaming. He has directed numerous shorts including The Masque (2012), The Polaroid Job (2016), which was acquired by The New York Times’ Op-Doc series and was nominate for a Critic’s Choice Award, and We Were There to be There (2021), co-directed by Jason Willis. He has produced feature documentaries by other directors, including Scrap Vessel (20019) and Giuseppe Makes a Movie (2014). Plante began working for film festivals as a programmer in 1993, and is currently a Senior Programmer for Short Film at the Sundance Film Festival, where he has worked since 2011. In 1998, he started writing and publishing the film zine Cinemad, which continues today as a blog and podcast.
Jason Willis is an award winning multi-media creative professional located in Tucson, AZ. Specializing in directing, editing, video and motion graphics, his diversified skills include stop motion, live action, graphic design, photography, and animation production. His short film Catnip: Egress to Oblivion? won the Sundance Audience Award for Best Short Film in 2013 and has been featured in a variety of publications including the Atlantic, USA Today, Buzzfeed and Roger Ebert’s Film Journal.
Purchase Here At This Link: https://grasshopperfilm.myshopify.com/collections/new-releases/products/the-cramps-and-the-mutants-the-napa-state-tapes-blu-ray
BLU-RAY INCLUDES:
• The Cramps at Napa State (remastered)
• The Mutants at Napa State (unreleased until now)
• “We Were There To Be There” (2021, 27 min.), a documentary by Jason Willis and Mike Plante
MIX TAPE SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Complete and remastered tapes of the Mutants performing at Mabuhay Gardens and the Oakland School for the Deaf
• “Mutants: Opposite World” (2023, 28 min.) — a brand new documentary about the band
• Cramps testimonials by Jem Cohen, Ian MacKaye, Lucy Sante, Kogar the Swinging Ape and Melissa Auf der Maur
• Napa State photos and history with archivist and writer Patricia Prestinary
• PMRC – Punk Media Research Center promo
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“Somebody told me you people are crazy, but I’m not so sure about that…. you seem to be all right to me.” So says lead singer Lux Interior of The Cramps, challenging the mainstream stereotype of the crowd assembled before him at the Napa State Hospital.
On June 13, 1978, the soon-to-be legendary rock band went to play Napa State, a psychiatric hospital in the small town of Napa in Northern California. Opening for them was the Mutants, an eclectic septet of art school punks from nearby San Francisco. Also in the van was seminal Bay Area art collective Target Video, there to capture the show using one of the first video cameras available to the public, democratizing a medium controlled by mainstream media outlets.
What resulted may be the most unique punk show ever, as the two bands played for the residents at the hospital, a rehabilitation facility that was skimming the danger of being shut down by former California Governor Ronald Reagan.
Later, in the early 1980s, Target Video released the footage of the show as “The Cramps at Napa State” worldwide on the brand new VHS home video format. It became one of the most seen rock videos ever, 22 minutes of the best of The Cramps songs in an incredible performance for a crowd of hospital residents and visiting punk rockers, too similar to tell apart.
The grainy black-and-white video footage also provided a vision of humanity to this world of mental health. The punks, also dismissed as outsiders to society, felt a camaraderie to the Napa State residents. The DIY release is still a cult movie in its own right, providing as many questions to who was at the show and how it happened.
This Blu-ray release presents for the first time the entire Cramps performance tape unedited with an additional song, remastered from the original ½” open reel video tape used in the video recording deck at the show.
Also presented for the first time: the previously lost footage of the Mutants playing at Napa State, also unedited and remastered from the original source tape. Both Napa performances have been remastered this year by Dino Everett at the Punk Media Research Collection, University of Southern California, HMH Foundation Moving Image Archive.
Included on the Blu-ray is the short documentary “We Were There to Be There” (2021, 27 minutes, directed by Mike Plante and Jason Willis) which goes in depth into the background of Target Video and how the Napa State show happened with interviews from people who were at the show and rare photography. The doc also explores the deep history of Napa State and how Governor Reagan’s tactics with mental health facilities are still affecting us today.
And more extras! Including a new short doc on the Mutants with new interviews with the band, and two previously unreleased Target Videos: “The Mutants live at Mabuhay Gardens,” which took place two weeks after the Napa show, and “The Mutants live at the Oakland School for the Deaf” with the band performing for deaf students.
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Founded in the mid-1970s, Target Video are a collective of artists working with film and video that captured the exciting California scene of artists and punk bands in San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles. Target filmed hundreds of live art and music performances along with events in their Bay Area warehouse. In the 1980s, they released full shows and various music videos on VHS and went on tours of screenings across America and Europe. Many of their video releases became instant cult movies, particularly The Cramps playing at Napa State Hospital.
(Total program running time: 72 mins., Not Rated)
Cite – https://loftcinema.org/film/the-cramps-and-the-mutants-the-napa-state-tapes/
