If you like to f**k and you prefer your love songs to be filled with big p*****s, full contact vaginal hygiene and s*****m licking, then lemme hip you to the smooth sounds of Larry Pierce. Larry’s your average smalltown family man who, nearly fifteen years ago, picked up a guitar and began penning his own songs in a musical genre that would later be referred to as dirty country. With song titles like “I Like to F**k,” “Worthless C**t” and “She Makes My Peter Stand Up,” this ain’t your grandmammy’s country music. In fact, since making their debut in truck stops all across the country, Larry’s indpendently produced records featuring these hilariously potty-mouthed tunes have achieved cult status and the man is revered as the Master of dirty country music by lovers of bad taste everywhere.
Found Footage Festival peeps Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher spent the past few years (off and on) with Larry to get to the bottom of the man’s story and it’s his story that makes up most of the first third of this documentary, presenting us with a totally normal guy who just happens to sing like he’s a trucker teaching sex-ed to a bunch of salty old pirates. He’s a guy who loves sex and he’s brutally honest about it in his music and he’s got an amazing wife who supports his dirty brand of country. But once we get to know Larry for a little bit, we’re then introduced to a few other acts in the dirty music biz for a little context. These acts include filthy mouthed pianist (huh-huh-huh) Dr. Dirty who comes off kinda like Rowlf the Dog with a raging hard-on, the one and only funky Blowfly who may actually have beaten Rudy Ray Moore in creating rap (this is something that should be investigated), and old school party band Doug Clark’s Hot Nuts. These acts are brought before us through performance and interview footage, peppered with insight from various authors, critics and music nerds, creating a fairly in-depth and eye-opening history lesson on raunchy music. So yeah, lovers of sleaze, this is a history lesson you’ll have no problem staying awake for.
Once the film has tucked a nice (and dirty) history lesson under our belts, Larry Pierce’s story unfolds into full-blown drama. He finds himself being forced into an early retirement from his factory job of 30 years and suddenly his whole world is thrown into an upheaval, but the dirty country stays strong. And it’s a good thing as a dirty rock band called “–Itis”, who normally take to swinging around fake penises on-stage at their shows, track down Larry as they’re gigantic fans of his and invite him to do shows with them, thus spreading the holy word of the great Larry Pierce further. This portion of the film again presents plenty of great performance footage and you get to know Larry even more, so even if you don’t like the guy’s tunes you’re still pulling for him. He’s the hero of the story and you want to see this guy receive all of the fame he so rightfully deserves.
Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher have given us a tremendously entertaining (and educational) film that recently blew people away at SXSW, earning it an Audience Award. This accolade makes sense as I believe this film speaks to a lot of people, even if you’re not a music lover or an appreciater of XXX rated humor. It’s all about the little guy getting out there and doing what he loves and in the end getting himself some major props.
But if you are a dirty sonofabitch, then this may be one of the best films you see all year.
Larry Pierce, he’s a drug against Emo.
