It Happened But Nobody Noticed

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Here's the article from the New Haven Advocate:

Co-directed by J.L. Sonic and Eric Schrader.

Connecticut's own punk/new wave legacy is being immortalized onscreen this year. Stay tuned, though, because it could happen before you notice.

Last year saw the expanded CD reissue of Craig Bell's hallowed 1982 local-band compilation LP, It Happened...But Nobody Noticed. Wandering out of the live reunion show that greeted the rerelease, J.L. Sonic (a longtime punk club habitué now hiding behind this newfangled filmmaking moniker) wondered "Now, gee, where's the video?" In true DIY fashion (albeit with less salty vocabulary), the mild-mannered scenester saw an ad for a Wallingford public access TV production class and "I said, 'By golly, I'm going to get off this couch and that's what I'll do! So I toddled down there ..." At the studio, he partnered with Eric Schrader of the band Covin.

Countless phone calls, 35 in-depth interviews, a sweet poster by Todd Rogers and a 30-second online teaser later, It Happened ... is really happening. It documents the scene from its ignoble beginnings at the Shandy Gaff and the Snake Pit through Ron's Place (where much of the It Happened ... LP scene happened) to the 1988 demise of the Grotto. (The Night Shift in Naugatuck may merit its own spin-off doc.)

As of now, only one screening of It Happened ... But Nobody Noticed is certain — Sept. 6 at Lou Cox's Channel 1 skateboard emporium. The shop holds fewer than 100 people, so additional screenings and other venues are being sought. Sonic seems so chuffed about that single small screening at Channel 1 that a punk-pure "no future" may be fine with him — as long as the accompanying reunion concert at BAR works out, that is.

— Christopher Arnott