Guitarless guitarists put on airs

IN the opening moments of the documentary film “Air Guitar Nation,” a performer who calls himself Bjorn Turoque delivers a surprisingly straight-faced explanation for his virtuosity with the invisible ax. “People ask me, ‘Why air guitar?’ ” Turoque says. “I say, ‘To err is human. To air guitar is divine.”

It’s an appropriate enough tone setter for the loopy but humanistic film that opens Friday for one week at the Landmark Nuart Theater in West L.A.

Although “Nation” chronicles the U.S. Air Guitar Championships’ birth in 2003 -- before then, it was a strictly noncompetitive, bedroom-mirror affair -- the movie’s dramatic narrative coalesces around two contestants and their clash of passion, pride and imaginary six-strings. David “C-Diddy” Jung, winner of the East Coast semifinals, and his nemesis/runner-up, Turoque (birth name: Dan Crane), try to one-up each other in terms of stage presence and “airness” on a quest to capture for America the world air guitar championship title in Oulu, Finland.

“It’s the last pure art form,” says U.S. Air Guitar Championships co-founder Kriston Rucker, who also executive produced the film. “It’s something you can’t commercialize -- because it’s invisible.”

The documentary won an audience award at the South by Southwest music festival, among other film-festival accolades. But its hard-rockin’ soundtrack and the energetic machinations of several dozen wannabe Eddie Van Halens provide a better reason to see “Air Guitar Nation”: Judas Priest’s “You Got Another Thing Comin’,” Boston’s “More Than a Feeling” and Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades” all get, um, aired out in the film.

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‘Ghost’ busted

While the Bay Area’s “hyphy” hip-hop movement still hasn’t lived up to its early hype as the second coming for West Coast rap, controversy surrounding the movement continues. And a recent hyphy video has bubbled up from YouTube to rankle the corridors of power in Hollywood.

The clip for Oakland rapper Mistah F.A.B.’s “Ghost Ride It” has been banned from all media outlets and yanked from cyberspace for its use of props and logos from the movie “Ghostbusters” (“ghost bustas” is Northern Cali slang for police). It seems that Columbia Pictures, which owns the rights to the film franchise, has threatened legal action because the video features “Ghostbusters’ ” signature Cadillac ectoplasm-mobile and a likeness of its anti-ghost icon in several scenes. Before Columbia sent F.A.B. a cease-and-desist letter, an unedited version of the video reportedly received more than 600,000 YouTube views.

Then there’s the larger issue surrounding the practice of “ghost riding,” one of hyphy’s cultural touchstones. As is explained in the lyrics and video for “Ghost Ride It,” “ghost riding” requires the driver of a car to exit his vehicle while it’s still in motion, dance and posture wildly, then leap back in -- activity that came under renewed media scrutiny after two men died in separate ghost riding incidents in December.

The rapper expressed to SOHH.com his surprise at Columbia’s legal threats. “It was supposed to be light-hearted and fun,” he said. “I wanted to pay homage to the movie because I used the [‘Ghostbusters’] sample.”

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Land of the Spree

The Polyphonic Spree may have temporarily shelved the multicolored ecclesiastical robes (that is, the ones that made many people suspect the group’s two-dozen-some members were actually a musical cult) in favor of quasi-military garb (albeit adorned with symbols of peace) befitting its third full-length album, “The Fragile Army.”

But the Dallas-based orchestral pop massive has hardly forgone the positive outlook, strings-brass-choir-rock sound and collective spirit that made it a crowd-pleasing cult sensation.

“Army,” set to hit record stores and download websites in June through the Spree’s new distribution deal with TVT Records, finds the group again with its heart on its sleeve, but this time in the service of reflecting the troubled American political climate.

“It’s beautiful and painful all at once,” the group’s co-leaders and songwriters Tim DeLaughter and Julie Doyle said in an announcement. “Kinda like life.”

chris.lee@latimes.com