You Think You Really Know Me: The Gary Wilson Story

You Think You Really Know Me: The Gary Wilson Story is a documentary that details the life of punk-pop pioneer Wilson. Best known for his 1977 LP You Think You Really Know Me (only 2000 copies were pressed, and many of them were smashed over Wilson's head at shows), Wilson and his backing band, the Blind Dates, performed in makeup, often wearing things like beekeepers' hats, torn clothes, and sheets of plastic held together by duct tape. Wilson sometimes stopped the show to read poetry and was known to lead séances from the stage. New York's Motel Records' private detective discovered Wilson in 2002 living with his girlfriend in San Diego and playing keyboards with a local (name unknown) band at a Rancho Bernardo lounge. Motel is releasing a new record by the fiftysomething Wilson (who's lived in San Diego over 20 years now) in March. A video has already been shot for the single "Linda Wants to Be Alone."

According to a New York Times review of the movie last month, "Mr. Wilson's magnetism has lost some of its valence when you see the experimental films he and his friends made in their youth.... His ponytailed locks are thinner and grayer, and his antics seem twitchier and creepier....Indie-rock enthusiasts will find much to appreciate, however, in a film whose soundtrack is more enjoyable than its narrative. Gary Wilson and the Blind s, as his band was known, come off as pioneers of the suburban underground. They do for used record stores what R. Crumb and Harvey Pekar do for used comic book stores."

Footage of Wilson in the 74-minute documentary includes interviews conducted while he worked last year behind bulletproof plastic in a San Diego porn shop. Beck mentioned Wilson in 1996's "Where It's At," shouting out, "My man Gary Wilson, he rocks the most."