Chibson USA – known for its wildly popular guitar gear memes on social media – has released its first feature-length documentary, which focusses on Robert Plant's “favorite band”.
Dread Zeppelin: A Song of Hope is currently free-to-air via Chibson’s YouTube channel, and it tells the story of, erm, a Led Zeppelin reggae cover band that is fronted by an Elvis impersonator.
It’s a match made in heaven, in truth. If there was ever a band that embodied the Chibson spirit – the lovable lunatics that have brought you the Humbuckle, the treasure map guitar, and cease/desist toggle switches for Gibson Les Pauls – it most certainly has to be them.
“Here’s what's great about Dread Zeppelin,” journalist Kyra Phillips quips at one point in the doc. “They create this illusion. They want people to look at them and say, ‘Is this for real, or is this a joke?’”
Steel Panther’s pun-loving vocalist Michael Starr narrates the film, which, across just shy of 90 minutes, “chronicles the unlikely journey of the ’90s cult sensation… a band known for their revolutionary mashup of Led Zeppelin’s music with a reggae beat, led by the unforgettable 300-pound Elvis impersonator.”
The thing is, the documentary smartly touches on the fact there is more than just satire behind the band and their Dracula-meets-Elvis singer: they rose to fame in the late ’80s as the “comedic break” between rock and grunge, and offered a reprieve during a period when “people were looking for something authentic”.
As the trailer shows, they’ve also been described as “anti-rock ’n’ roll” during their time, with many people clearly failing to see the appeal. At one point, a news anchor asks them: “What would be worse, if someone told you you were lousy musicians or lousy comedians?”
Yet, despite the adversary they faced, Dread Zeppelin achieved impressive success, and a host of oddball hybrid bands have followed in their wake – most notably Elvana, an Elvis-fronted Nirvana tribute.
Chibson USA trawled through “hours of unreleased archival footage, personal tape recordings, and hundreds of unpublished photographs” to put the documentary together. It also features sit-down interviews with various band members and others who have been caught up in their madness along the way.
“Chibson USA is proud to bring this incredible untold story to the digital screen and celebrate a band that changed the face of satire in music,” it says.
Head to the Chibson USA YouTube channel to watch the doc in full.
