PRESS & REVIEWS - 'Unknown Passage: The Dead Moon Story' - DOCUMENTARY, 88 MIN

Los Angeles Times - Pick of the Week
Friday, October 22, 2005
Even folks who don’t like rock & roll might be fascinated by Unknown Passage, a new documentary about the eccentric lifestyles of the legendary Oregon garage-rock trio Dead Moon. Not only do these Luddites stubbornly record everything in mono and press their own albums on vintage equipment, they live out in the woods in a Seuss-like mansion they built themselves (back in the hippie days, they tried living off the land in a tent in the Alaskan wilderness). Janis Joplin was an early fan of guitarist Fred Cole’s similarly raspy vocal style, after he hit the Sunset Strip with the Lollipop Shoppe in the mid-1960s. His bassist-wife, Toody, has been slinging it right back at him like a guttersnipe Patti Smith, with drummer Andrew Loomis solemnly mediating the tempos, ever since they first shacked up in the ‘80s as Dead Moon and began cranking out an endless series of wild-eyed psychedelic nuggets (“54/40 or Fight”) and stark balladry (“Dagger Moon”). (-Falling James)

Village Voice March 10, 2004:

While tracing the Nuggets-to-new wave history of a quirky Portland three-piece, Unknown Passage: The Dead Moon Story introduces a captivating mommy-rock icon in bassist Toody Cole.

SEATTLE TIMES, January 2005A "Happily Ever After" Punk-Rock Documentary

A good music documentary can sweep an audience over the threshold of personal taste: Whether or not you care for the music, you can get caught up in a good story. And while "Unknown Passage: The Dead Moon Story" isn't quite at the level of "Metallica: Some Kind of Monster" or "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" — two fine recent documentaries about bands in turmoil — it nonetheless provides an engaging portrait of a band that most decidedly is not in turmoil. Dead Moon, based in the Portland area, has been together since 1987, and at its core is an unexpected love story.

Married in 1967, young Fred and Toody Cole didn't even tell Fred's then-bandmates about their wedding — getting married wasn't quite the thing to do during the Summer of Love. Three kids, several grandchildren and many LPs later, they're still happily making music together — he plays lead guitar, she plays bass, both sing. Much of the film shows the two of them, smoking companionably side-by-side in the rustic home they built in the woods outside Portland, laughing as they look back on their life together.
Dead Moon, an old-school punk-style band that includes drummer Andrew Loomis, is the ultimate in independence: Fred and Toody cut their own records (LPs only) and release them on their Tombstone label. Though the band is little known in the U.S., Dead Moon has a large following in Europe, and filmmakers Kate Fix and Jason Summers tagged along on a recent tour. A young German fan explains his Dead Moon mania: It's an amazing phenomenon, he says, "that old people can be so cool."
Fred, a likable man with a crescent-moon tattoo on one cheek, smiles when he looks at his wife, remembering their initial meeting in a club so many years ago. They quickly became "pretty inseparable," he says — a rock 'n' roll version of happily ever after. - Moira Macdonald

The Oregonian, January 9, 2004:

Largely unknown in the States, Portland trio Dead Moon (longtime married couple Fred and Toody Cole and drummer Andrew Loomis) have built a cult fan base with the same sparse approach and fiercely independent ethos they've been working with since 1987. "Unknown Passage" chronicles a truly American success story about family bonds and defining achievement on your own terms, with a wealth of interviews, live concert footage and Cole family home movies. For all of the band's diehard commitment to a rebel-rock lifestyle (Fred Cole has the band's logo tattooed onto the side of his face), ultimately the film is a glowing love letter to autonomous determination and the traditional values of loyalty, hard work and sticking by your guns.
United States, 2004, 90 minutes, directed by Jason Summers and Kate Fix; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 17, Guild Theatre. -- Curt Schulz, Special to The Oregonian

Dusted Magazine, April 9,2004. Review by Tara Key of Antietam:

10 Current Sonic Statements- Unknown Passage: the Dead Moon Story – Josh and I went to the world premiere. As I expected to, I fell in love with them all over again. I knew the basic story and have experienced at close range Fred’s timeless weathered passion brimming griot stance, Toody’s rock hard thump and Andrew’s elastic-limbed loyalty, but EVERY band should see this / hear them. Especially the youngsters starting their quest. It was like going to church. Hearing the truth.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Rock on: The unusual success story of 'Dead Moon'
Foremost among rock 'n' roll myths is the one that it's not a suitable business for older men. Fred Cole, who had his first hit with 1965's "Poverty Shack," is still rocking hard at age 55.

In 1987, he started Dead Moon with his wife, Toody, and drummer Andrew Loomis. "Unknown Passage: The Dead Moon Story" is the saga of a misfit individualist who created his personal utopia on the outskirts of Portland, Ore.
Directors Kate Fix and Jason Summers begin by overdubbing snippets of obscure songs over archival photographs while narrating the highlights of Cole's early career. His bands, running the gamut from psychedelic bubblegum to punk rock, included The Weeds, The Lollipop Shoppe, Zipper and The Rats. In 1967 he married Kathleen "Toody" Conner, whom he eventually taught to play the bass because he was tired of bands breaking up over flaky bass players. (Editor's Note: Summers was misidentified in the original version of this story.)
" Seeing my mom and dad play rock 'n' roll in their 50s lets it be known that you're never too old to do what you love," says Weeden, one of the Coles' three children.
The film offers a background check on each member of the Cole family, as well as Loomis, who describes himself as having been a lost, wet kitten before Cole invited him into the fold. In high school, his literature teacher advised him that he "would be better off selling hot dogs on the corner than trying to get through school."
During a sweaty and intense "Dead Moon Night" at Belgium's Dour Festival, it becomes evident why the band enjoys such popularity in Europe. It's a stripped-down Led Zeppelin, born and bred in an American garage, playing music as if its life depended on it.
Fred Cole is an American success story for the new millennium. He built his own house and store, where he sells, repairs and invents musical instruments. Dead Moon has recorded and pressed 13 LPs and seven EPs in his home studio. When questioned by the filmmakers where he got the assets to build such an empire, he frugally replied, "We make $20,000 a year and spend $2,000 to live. The rest goes back into the business."
A 25th wedding anniversary ceremony in 1992 is a reminder that "Unknown Passage" is also a love story. Whether feeding nickels into a Keno machine for 72 hours or performing in the music-starved town of Bautzen, Germany, Fred and Toody Cole are a testament to the idea that life is all about the pleasure of the living.

From the NY Underground Film Festival Program:

Undisputedly written into the annals of rock history and dedicated to the most sincere methods of the DIY ethos, Northwest musicians Dead Moon (Andrew Loomis and Fred & Toody Cole) have intentionally cut out the bullshit, and left the major labels and "commercial success" behind.
Unknown Passage: The Dead Mood Story follows the band on the road and at home, chronicling lifestyle rock and rollers who happen to also be small business owners and grandparents. Beginning with footage of a 14 year-old Deep Soul Cole ("the white Stevie Wonder"), Unknown Passage tells the history of one of the most reclusive bands through their various garage, psych, folk, and punk rock incarnations.
Today, pressing their records at home, in a house they built from the ground up, Dead Moon run their own "frontier mini-mall," record label and music store, while in their spare time "keep one gig ahead of a day job" by touring through the US and Europe—with the occasional 15-hour penny-slots casino pitstop.
Here stands the triumph of a family of "old-west homesteaders" against corporate control and gracelessly growing old. Unknown Passage: The Dead Moon Story is Fred, Toody & Andrew’s Dead Moon experience, a culmination of their 40-year life in music and love. -Bill White

Independent Weekly (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill)

Oregonians Dead Moon play by their own rules, defying the commercial nature of rock 'n' roll, and living unique, autonomous lives. Fred and Toody Cole have stood out as underground heroes going on 40 years. Along with drummer Andrew Loomis, this couple's music has more gusto and bubbling vitriol than most fresh-faced, so-called "indie" bands. Kate Fix and Jason Summers, eloquently told their tales of the band in their documentary Unknown Passage: The Dead Moon Story, starting with Fred's beginnings as the "white Stevie Wonder," Deep Soul Cole, at age 14. Now, more than ever, we can all use some leather-vested maverick heroes. This is the real thing, folks, no bull. --Chris Toenes