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5 friends start a band, slug it out for 13 years, finally get signed by a label, get a name everyone knows to produce their album, only to have their album become unreleased due to their label being bought by another label that wasn't interested in them.

Another rock doc about a band that was "almost famous". This is, sadly, not a unique story, many bands have been through the major label shredder and not come out better from it.

Rye Coalition was always a New Jersey band I hated to like. They were a good band, who wrote good songs, but they were also kinda pompous dicks, to me, as well as others. To the film's credit, it shows them being assholes on numerous occassions, and doesn't try to hide that side. But it also shows a more human side to the band, one that I never witnessed. It shows the trials and tribulations of trying to make it, coming close, getting some breaks, but not others.



"The Story of The Hard Luck 5" is a cautionary tale about signing with a major label...sadly an all too common story.

That is why, if you are just starting a band, a film like this should be required viewing so you can see what you are getting yourself into if you want to be more than a local band.

If you've been slugging it out in a band for years and feel burnt out, like you have the worst luck, you can commiserate with this story and see you are not alone.

That said, this film constantly states they have the worst luck of any band, but the truth is there are bands that have similar series of events, and even more that would love to have their "bad luck": signing with a major label, having Dave Grohl produce their album, and getting to tour with the Foo Fighters, that's a dream. Yeah, it sucks that their major label was bought out by another that refused to release their album (later it was released on an indie label to much less fanfare then it deserved), and that they never made copious amounts of money, but "the hard luck 5", had better luck than a lot of bands.

The DVD comes with lots of bonus footage that did not make the documentary, as well as some live performances

ryecoalitionthemovie.com