Movies/DVDs
The Stone Roses – Made of Stone – Review
It’s a fantastic documentary of the Roses’ reformation in 2012 after 16 years off the map. Director Shane Meadows’ incredible access to the band enables him to chronicle everything from their first reformed rehearsals (shot in reverent black and white) through their multi-night homecoming shows in front of more than 200,000 fans.
Pagan Metal – A Documentary – Review
An endless stream of backstage/on-the-bus interview snippets intercut with handheld-in-the-front-row live footage. As a snapshot of a sampling of bands in the genre, it works fine. The bands interviewed (Turisas, Korpiklaani, TYR, Finntroll, Leaves Eyes, and others) are universally nice, even as Bill Zebub drags the questioning into his predictable banality.
Black Label Society – Skullage – Review
Heavy on the big guitar riffs you’re used to from his work with Ozzy, but with better songs, from “All For You” and “13 Years of Grief” to the seriously soulful “Dead As Yesterday” and his signature tune “Stillborn,” which is featured four separate times. Outside of these picks, the songs are sometimes bland, with Wylde often relying too much on his distorted vocal tricks, but the disc is a fine primer for the curious,
Metal Retardation – Review
Metal Retardation reiterates what metalheads knew long before the rest of the world caught on after the first season of The Osbournes: That metal musicians are usually pretty cool guys and girls. Being interviewed by ‘zine guy/”filmmaker” Bill Zebub, though, is enough to melt anyone’s patience, so this DVD full of goofy video interview outtakes is really a testament to the saint-like tolerance of metal legends like Peter Steele, George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher, and the king of cordiality, King Diamond.
Goth Kill – Review
First-time writer/director J.J. Connelly does exhibit some artistic use of the camera, but he seems more interested in indulging the goofy tendencies of performance artist Flambeaux and Fuse’s Mistress Juliya’s bit part as a “Demonatrix.” The 70-minute story follows an Inquisition priest who makes a deal with the Devil while dying and is reborn in modern day Manhattan to terrorize the Goth scene.
Iggy Pop – Lust For Life – Review
This documentary carries a buncha footage from 20 years ago with Ig, some choice Stoogeliness, and interview footage with guitar player Ron Ashton. It’s great. The offhand feel and frankness of it is wonderful to hear, esp. from Mr. Ashton. If you did drugs, talk about it (lids of Marijuana!), good and bad.
The Yardbirds – The Story of The Yardbirds – Review
The Yardbirds were one of the bands that created what was to become “hard rock.” They amped-up blues, cut it with psychedelic pop and a teenage impatience that came to define garage rock. They were great, focusing on a great singer/harmonica player and guitars played by Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and the amazing Jeff Beck.
Johnny Winter – Live Through the ’70s – Review
The video format allows for the twin pleasures of being able to see the band work in tandem as a single unit and also, in lighter moments, to admire/be horrified by some of the fashion disasters – see the leather top-hat/beard/platform shoe ensemble Johnny’s rocking in the 1973 Connecticut footage. Johnny is widely considered to be one of the finest rock guitarists of his time, and the opportunity to not only hear him live but actually be able to see him play, as well as the ample glances at the gear itself that the disc allows, makes this disc an ideal gift for the guitar nerd in your life.
The Little Rascals – The Complete Collection – Review
The compilation boasts all 80 shorts, uncut and restored to perfection, and hosts talented child actors who portray the unforgettable characters, Spanky, Alfalfa, Froggy, Weezer, Pete the Pup, Miss Crab Tree and more. No filmmaker has come close to Roach’s unique approach of portraying kids being kids through the magical performances of Our Gang during a forgotten era called the “golden age.”
Lydia Lunch – Video Hysterie: 1978-2006 – Review
The music has a menacing cool urban ’50s heroin vibe jimmied through a less-polite take on the ’90s Tom Waits/Cop Shoot Cop wheezy industrial/song writerishness whittling down decades of sounds and centuries of art and truth. She speaks a common language; just a little rougher and less patronizing than most of us are used to.
Hanoi Rocks – The Nottingham Tapes – Review
Straight-up live show from one of the bands linking The New York Dolls and the hair metal thing. Not up to Gun N’ Roses’ attack level, which approaches the classic Aerosmith rocker metal, more roots rock and roll, but hell, singer Michael Monroe plays saxophone and does so live. Included are decent, catchy songs bereft of the studio gloss and flat recording that always irked me about these guys’ discs. I remember a live one that seems to follow this track listing pretty closely.
Dead Boys – Return of The Living Dead Boys: Halloween Night 1986 – Review
On Halloween night, 1986, the Midwest’s hammering punk legends Dead Boys showed up to collect their beer money. It’d been seven years since the band threw in the towel: The record industry couldn’t sell punk as rock so moved into “new wave” and “power pop.” This was a terrible moment in our country’s history .
Punk’s Not Dead – Review
Some interesting and important bands are touched on; but really, it belongs to the pedestrian (Oi!) Brit punk stuff that fell out of the the ’77 Clash/Pistols duel and the arena punk Epitaph/Fat records was to hoist onto the world starting a dozen years later via the advertising/fashion/skate culture of the southern half of Cali-for-ni-ay.
Tad – Busted Circuits and Ringing Ears – Review
Tad was a band. It started as a guy, Tad, who made his first single by himself, and then got together a unit that was the most “grunge” of the grunge bands. Pure, uncut, hard rock riff action without Soundgarden’s and Alice In Chains’ links to metal, Mudhoney’s salt blast garage howl, or Pearl Jam’n’Nirvana’s reanimation of classic rock balladry.
Linda Linda Linda – Review
Four Japanese girls in a band together are set to perform at their big high school’s festival when one of the girls gets injured and can no longer play guitar and controversy ensues. Most of the decisions happen slowly and painstakingly, with lots of passive aggression going on in the process, as is usually the case when dealing with band politics, and especially high school band politics.