Toller, Brendan - 2004F

Brendan Toller (04F) had a "wildly productive" year after graduating from Hampshire in May 2008.

Brendan's Div III "I Need That Record! The Death (Or Possible Survival) of The Independent Record Store" a documentary examining why over 3,000 independent record stores have closed across the U.S. features interviews with Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Mike Watt (Minutemen), Ian MacKaye (Fugazi), Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Group), Noam Chomsky and more.

"I Need That Record!" attracted attention from Pitchfork, The Onion, Dazed and Confused Korea, and Paste Magazine. Since August the film has screened at music festivals and theaters from Sacramento to Copenhagen. Recently "I Need That Record!" was accepted to Noise Pop 2009- a film and music festival in San Francisco, KRAAK Brussels 2009, and Club Transmediale Festival 2009.

Brendan has also taken on video projects at Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace! Record label. Brendan's web series "Election 2008: Artists Speak Out" gathered pre-election thoughts from Sonic Youth, Curt Kirkwood (Meat Puppets), Matt Valentine & Erika Elder, Joe McPhee and Hampshire alums Aaron Mullan 94F (Tall Firs), Eugene Mirman 92F, Byron Coley 74F, Matt Krefting 99F, and David Russell 91S. The series was featured in Wire magazine.

Brendan is currently working on a host of video projects including a documentary on noise rock trio Magik Markers. "It has always been a dream of mine to be a music documentarian and Hampshire really helped to provide me with the skills, knowledge, and drive to do that in Div III and beyond."

Ineedthatrecord.com
Election 2008: Artists Speak Out