Dexter Romweber came to notice as the Silvertone guitar-wielding, attitude-laced vocalist for the rockabilly-thrash outfit The Flat Duo Jets, a sometimes duo, sometimes trio gathering of guitar, drums and bass. Tony Gayton directed Two-Headed Cow, a fine documentary of the ups and downs of Dexter Romweber's life and music. It's now out on DVD (MVD Visual 5259D) and I took a look this past weekend.
It's a quilt of interviews, live footage, band banter, and interviews that tell poignantly the story of an underground rocker who hit the edge of fame and fortune and didn't quite get there, then psychically melted down for a time, only to re-emerge to try and resurrect his life. Dexter is a very intelligent cat and his narrative account of the situation he found himself in is moving.
What's not exactly standard with music DVDs is the fact that Two Headed Cow works exceptionally well as a documentary. It's a story filmed over 18 years, bringing home the personal difficulties of talent facing a brutal world. In the end you come away with a feeling that you have experienced first-hand Dexter's 18 years of struggle and triumph, struggle and failure, struggle and re-emergence from total burn-out. It's a heroic story in its own way, and a very absorbing film. Recommended.
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