// Category Archive for: DVD/Blu-Ray Reviews

The Sacred Triangle: Bowie, Iggy & Lou, 1971 – 1973

By Christian Lipski

In 1971, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Lou Reed had careers that were in various states of stagnancy: Bowie’s a one-hit nonentity, Iggy’s a flaming wreck, and Lou’s a fading flower. Using testimony from eyewitnesses as well as music journalists, The Sacred Triangle aims to illustrate the bonds that tied together three of the most interesting entertainers the 1970s had to offer.
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Brian Wilson: Songwriter 1962-1969

By Christian Lipski

Each new documentary about Brian Wilson or the Beach Boys adds another drop to the ocean of product already available. Many of them are the same old story, with poorly-researched information and no original music. This is most certainly not the case with Brian Wilson: Songwriter 1962-1969. At three hours of interview and analysis spanning two discs, the new release from Sexy Intellectual stands head and shoulders above its peers.
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Night Of The Living Dead: Reanimated

By Less Lee Moore

In the intro to the Night of Living Dead: Reanimated DVD, horror host Count Gore De Vol refers to the film as “quite the exquisite corpse.” It’s a wickedly good double entendre and one that is also rather accurate.

For those who have not seen the original Night of the Living Dead . . . okay, I must interrupt myself at this point to ask you, “why the hell not?” It’s one of the most influential horror films ever, not to mention one of the earliest works in the Zombie Canon. It was even remade in 1990 by special effects guru Tom Savini and has been quoted and referenced in every piece of zombie media since.
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Black Sabbath: The Secret History Of Black-Jewish Relations

By Hanna

The goal of Black Sabbath: The Secret History of Black-Jewish Relations, a compilation released by the Idelsohn Society For Musical Preservation, was to “gather the US history of Black-Jewish relations into a selective pop musical guide.” While a lot has been published about black and Jewish musical influences, there hasn’t been an actual musical guide to Jewish music by black artists, and this is what the Society set out to accomplish.

Of course, it’s slightly less universalist in its approach than that; Black Sabbath focuses on the ’30s through the ’60s, a time of enormous racial oppression for both groups, and also a time when the cultural exchange between the two was especially great. This really shines through in this compilation; for all that it’s only one CD. It is an amazing effort and even more amazing in that it succeeds.
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GOLD: Before Woodstock, Beyond Reality DVD

By Matt Keeley

GOLD: Before Woodstock, Beyond Reality is a 40-year-old lost film starring a comedy hero, Del Close. Like another film by a comedy hero, Savages (a Merchant-Ivory film written by Michael O’Donoghue), it’s a noble failure.
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The Rolling Stones 1969-1974: The Mick Taylor Years DVD

By Danny R. Phillips

It would’ve been easy to make a documentary about The Rolling Stones’ golden age (Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main Street) completely flattering and slanted. That is not what the makers of this DVD did.

They recognize glaring mistakes (the two or three albums past Exile) as well as acknowledge The Stones’ experimentation and expansion into country, due in no small part to the presence of guitarist Mick Taylor (who had just left The Bluesbreakers) and Gram Parsons (The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers) and his own fast friendship with Keith Richards as both drug buddy and musical touchstone.
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John Lennon: Rare and Unseen DVD

By John Lane

The problem with the release of The Beatles’ Anthology video in the late ’90s is that it has spoiled Beatles fans the world over. Add to that the ever-flowing river that is YouTube, which has made curiosity-seekers even more complacent. Want to see a Beatles 1966 press conference? Bingo, with the click of a button you have your pick.

Perhaps it is the veritable abundance of organized material available to the average and dedicated fans that makes the DVD release of John Lennon: Rare and Unseen all the more disappointing and confusing. If I was in the eighth grade and had not yet seen the release of the Anthology or the birth of YouTube, then I might consider this DVD to be a kick. As it stands, maybe I’m just too jaded.
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Kinks Kommentary: CD, DVD, And Live Reviews

By Ann Clarke

My fandom with the Kinks goes back as far as pre-school age. They are the reason I love and obsess over music as much as I do, and they raised the bar of excellence for my tastes to follow throughout my life.

They are not a recent fad with me. I didn’t decide they were great once I heard The Village Green Preservation Society, like bullshitting journalists out there claim to give themselves street-cred. I even obsessed over them during the ’80s when it wasn’t cool to like them! So, my reviews come from a lifetime commitment of love and knowledge. . . which are going to be exceedingly honest. The following reviews are listed in chronological order based upon when I first observed them.
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Suburbia Collector’s Edition

By Less Lee Moore

One weekend in 1986, a friend of mine invited me and a bunch of other freak friends over to watch Suburbia, Penelope Spheeris’ quasi-documentary look at the early ’80s punk scene. My memory is fuzzy on the details of the plot; I mostly remember being disturbed by the other movie we watched, Faces of Death. I do remember that everyone else in the group, some of whom looked somewhat similar to the punk teens examined in Suburbia, were merciless in mocking it; to this day, I still recall the particular scorn they heaped upon the T.R. “gang” depicted in the film, T.R. standing, of course, for “The Rejected.”

I had not seen Suburbia again until this latest Collector’s Edition DVD, so like with Rock ‘n’ Roll High School‘s reissue, I was curious to see if the movie was actually good (or what actually took place in the movie). I think it’s actually worse than I remembered.
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I Need That Record! The Death (Or Possible Survival) Of The Independent Record Store

By Less Lee Moore

I Need That Record! purports to be a “documentary feature examining why over 3,000 independent record stores have closed across the US in the past decade.” But it’s much more than that. In truth, the film does a splendid job of not only showing the causal links that led to this somewhat alarming situation, but also asking, answering, and ultimately, allowing its viewers to weigh in on what this really means.
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