Hello My Name Is BLOTTO: The Movie!

 

It is a broad and entertaining look at the career of the upstate New York rock band Blotto, who evolved from playing clubs and colleges to navigating the record business, MTV celebrity and national touring after their 1980 surprise radio hit “I Wanna Be A Lifeguard”. The film spans the origins of the band members starting as The Star Spangled Washboard Band in the 1970’s, their evolution to Blotto and heyday in the 1980’s, and their long afterlife up to the present. It’s a unique and joyous take on the timeless story of “trying to make it in show business” and can be enjoyed by anyone who ever had a dream.

Blotto experienced national success in the 1980’s through touring, record sales, radio airplay and exposure of their music videos on the new video music cable station MTV. The video for their hit song “I Wanna Be A Lifeguard” was the 36th video played on MTV their very first day, August 1, 1981 and received heavy rotation. It was followed up later with the popular music videos “Metalhead” and “You Can’t Fire Me, I Quit”.

The band had a wide and loyal following and was renowned for their engaging live shows. Any given night would find Bowtie, Broadway, Sarge, Cheese and Lee Harvey (mostly) good-naturedly lampooning a grab bag of musical genres including surf, pop, heavy metal, soul, country, punk, rockabilly, yacht rock and lounge bands. All were given witty sendups wrapped in catchy melodic arrangements. Blotto was a singular blend of five unique performers who did their own thing and defied simple characterization.

This film is the brainchild of Rob Lichter, aka Bert Blotto, a multimedia expert and longtime Friend of Blotto. He recorded performances and interviewed the band on and off over the last 25 years to capture the material to make this documentary. He also incorporated a vast collection of archival footage and photos going back as far as 1972. The result is a fun, lightly censored, self-effacing romp through the improbable life and times of the members of Blotto.