Three TV Shows For Those of Us Who Can't Get Enough of Roadies

Roadies is my new favorite show.  Not just my favorite show airing now.  In just a couple of episodes it became my favorite TV show ever.  The Showtime series about life behind the scenes of a roots-rock tour was created by Cameron Crowe and perfectly captures the same spiritual fervor for music that made his magnum opus Almost Famous my favorite movie.  Unfortunately, the critics have not been impressed by the show at all.  That's okay because Roadies isn't for critics.  It's for and about fans; people who love music or anything else more than they can stand, who keep coming back to that thing that stokes their fire no matter how many times they get burned.  The enemy be damned, Roadies struck a chord with me and I would wager it did the same for a lot of other people.  If you love the show and want more, if you'll need something to fill the void after the season ends or even to get you to the next episode, I have a few suggestions for your melodic fix.

Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll

It's not as bad as it sounds.  The title of the FX series comes with a hint of irony.  Most of the characters are past-their-prime rock stars.  Their lives and careers get a boost when Heathens front man (series creator Denis Leary) Johnny Rock's daughter shows ups and takes over.  Gigi, played by Nickelodeon alumnus Elizabeth Gillies, turns the Heathens into the Assassins and inherits the lead singer position while Johnny Rock becomes the offstage songwriter.  Gigi quickly enters a relationship with Johnny's best friend and guitarist Flash (John Corbett).  Together with back up singer and Johnny's long-term girlfriend Ava (Elaine Hendrix) they make up a strange family unit that is creepily comfortable talking about sex with each other.  Meanwhile, the rhythm section, Bobby Kelly and John Ales, has quirky side adventures.  The biggest problem is that it's mostly written by old dudes like Leary who think Lady Gaga is just another pop star and don't realize she released the best rock album of 2011.  There's a fair amount of rock star debauchery but Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll is mostly about people who love music and who love each other.

Mozart in the Jungle

Mozart in the Jungle could almost have the title Sex&Drugs&Baroque.  Amazon's Coppola Family Production centers on New York's cutthroat, hard partying classical music scene.  Remember the lunch room scene in Mean Girls when the defining trait of the band geeks is that they're oversexed?  Mozart in the Jungle is about those grown up horny nerds.  The first episode features a montage of Saffron Burrows' cellist sleeping her way through the different sections of the orchestra.  The main character is Hailey Rutledge, an oboist played by Lola Kirke who joins the ensemble after a last-minute hungover audition.  She only gets the chance after a new wunderkind conductor, Golden Globe winner Gael Garcia Bernal, starts shaking things up after taking over from his jealous older predecessor played by the iconic Malcolm McDowell.  I'm still not convinced Mozart deserved the Best Comedy Golden Globe over Transparent but it's a really good show about people who care about making music.

Sonic Highways

Dave Grohl is just annoyingly talented and he's too likable to blame him for it.  The drummer for the iconic, world changing band Nirvana turned front man for America's best and most consistent rock band of the past two decades, the Foo Fighters, proved himself to be a good director with his 2013 rockumentary Sound City.  The film about a legendary music studio in Los Angeles was followed up by an HBO series.  Sonic Highways follows the Foo Fighters on the great American road trip as they record eight different songs in eight different studios, each track an attempt to capture the soul of the city it was recorded in.  The result is a concept album that might be the Foo Fighters' best work ever.  The accompanying series is a marvelous journey through the history of music in the United States.  In spirit Sonic Highways is the closest thing to Roadies next to Almost Famous.  It's for fans, by fans.  It's rock and roll and it's divine.