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I just picked up two recent releases, of note.

LOU REED - BERLIN



This is a straight forward concert, without any distracting fluff...just the Facts !

JOY DIVISION - "THE DOCUMENTARY" directed by Jon Savage



It's a great film, and very intelligently presented in a social context, so as to get a flavor for EVERYTHING that was going on behind the scenes. Well produced too.

Led Zeppelin Live At The Royal Albert Hall, 1970, Shot by Peter Whitehead brings out the power of the group and the wild audience of what looks like school kids .

Rumour has it that Peter Whitehead also filmed Led Zeppelin Bath festival performance of that year!

Big Time
Stop Making Sense
Neil Young Live In Berlin is at least funny - It's on the TRANS tour, be warned.
Cat Power's "Speaking For Trees" - Hour and a half+ static shot of Chan playing in the woods. Often times the sounds of the woods completely take over her music. It's borderline Jewelled Antler Collective stuff (for anybody familiar - The Blithe Sons/Franciscan Hobbies/Thuja).

Here's an excerpt.

Artforum has an excellent new issue devoted to music video, getting the opinion of a wide range of individuals, all complete with sample videos to illustrate the argument.

Considering that the man is also a professional photographer, it would have been nice if Artforum had talked to Matt Mahurin.

Shynola are back with a lovely video for Coldplay's Strawberry Swing

http://www.babelgum.com/3022304/coldpla ... swing.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I know it might not be everyone's cup of tea here, but has anyone else managed to catch Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage on cable (more specifically, Palladia or VH1 Classic)? I love the band, but don't consider myself a huge fan as some are, but I came away from watching it with a deeper respect for what they do.

That Rush doc is great. If you get the DVD, on disc two there are some really cool, rare performances. A couple with the original drummer. If you get a chance go see the current tour. They are doing the entire Moving Pictures album for the first time ever.

I know. Can't afford it now but I'd seriously consider seeing them when they tour the next album, Clockwork Angels. The band has described it as very musically diverse, and it sounds like the title track will be a return to a more progressive style. The last album, Snakes & Arrows is a good heavy record, both musically and lyrically.

The new Foo Fighters documentary is really, really good. And I'm not even a big fan of their music.

flyonthewall2983 wrote:The new Foo Fighters documentary is really, really good. And I'm not even a big fan of their music.

Yeah, I kind of lost track of their album work after "There's Nothing Left To Lose" (fantastic singles band though), but this documentary kind of inspired a Foo renaissance in me. This documentary was a lot more honest about their ups and downs and near-breakups than I expect from this upcoming Pearl Jam doc. I could probably listen to Dave Grohl talk about anything for two hours and be amused, though.

Zumpano wrote:This documentary was a lot more honest about their ups and downs and near-breakups than I expect from this upcoming Pearl Jam doc.

You're right. I was ultimately disappointed with it, as it didn't change my perception of what they did much. I'd define myself, at best a moderate fan of theirs. I felt the same way about Tom Petty and Rush before I saw their documentaries, but after watching them I dug deeper into the music. All I did the morning after seeing it was put "Given To Fly" (their best song, IMO) on the iPod during my walk.

It wasn't without it's highlights though. The TicketMaster stuff was interesting and amusing at times. It also made good use of the controversial Andy Rooney 60 Minutes segment about Kurt Cobain. The generation gap is often ugly and ignorant from both sides, and I've never tried to take much part in it, but I felt Andy was getting at something deeper than "you kids don't know how good you have it" underneath all the dancing he was seemingly happy to do on Kurt's grave. The telling sign of this was when he was quoting a girl's grief and saying how gladly he'd trade his age for hers. I read that with some sincerity buried beneath the contempt he was showing.

I was somewhat disappointed from PJ20, mainly because it didn't try to "go deep" in some of the more interesting places.

They really glossed over the drummer issue in an almost throwaway fashion. Which is too bad, since they all have interesting and inherently dramatic stories: the Pete Best/Stu Sutcliffe retiring of Dave1, the firing of Dave2, the addition of Irons changing their established "sound" on No Code, and Cameron bringing it all full circle...

Mike's alcoholism and rehabilitation was not really touched on (check out how bloated he looks during that Yield(?)-era Single Video Theory footage), and the second decade of being a band was given short shrift.

But, there sure is a treasure trove of footage, especially from those early days. And the sold-out screening I caught in Seattle was memorable for how much joy, laughter and rocking out was going on. By that measure, it would've been Barmy's Doc of the Year, amirite?

By an almost stark contrast, the U2 doc From The Sky Down is a fascinating account of the Achtung Baby sessions. If somehow this website is immune to the snark around the band on the internet, I'd highly recommend it. It's especially interesting in the light of what Bono has said about possibly calling it a day, and how close the band was at the point discussed in the film.

Overall, it's a more interesting approach in music documentaries to focus on period of the artist's career rather than trying to cover what can be a period of several decades in two hours. The Hendrix documentary Band Of Gypsys, about that period of his career that began with the implosion of the original Experience and ultimately focuses on the record of the same name that was the last released in his lifetime, is a really good example of this.

This weekend, I found this documentary on Brian Eno. Fascinating stuff.

That was a great Eno documentary - another BBC documentary that was part of that same short season was Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany.

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Peter Gabriel's Secret World Live coming out on Blu-Ray in July

...and the 16mm film elements were rescanned! This remains my favorite live concert experience, but the DVD edition was essentially a VHS transfer riddled with compression artifacts. Very happy to hear that this release will be an improved presentation of a brilliantly-designed show.

I have that DVD, and might do a comparison once I get my hands on the Blu. I'm glad the performance of "Red Rain" is being included, as it's one of the highlight's on the album version of the show. There's also work being done on the film of another live performance he did in 1987 as part of the So special edition coming out this year, that I think ended up being a home video release Scorsese produced, likely in exchange for Peter working on Last Temptation.

Being present at a concert of Sergiu Celibidache conducting Bruckner's symphony 4 at Carnegie Hall was one of the most moving experiences of my life. I went to the concert as a skeptic. Celibidache was somewhat of a cult figure, and his reputation was based on unavailability of any of his concerts on audio or video (at the time). Bruckner 4 is not a long enough work to be a sole item on the program. The actual concert was utterly spellbinding, and I can confirm the cultish assertion that that experience cannot be fully captured on any recorded medium.

However, I was glad when Sony issued Celibidache's Bruckner symphonies 6, 7 and 8 with Munich orchestra on laserdisc. Late Celibidache is very different from early Celibidache, and his recordings of Bruckner with Munich orchestras are the defining moments of his late Bruckner. I was disappointed that the fourth was not included.

Hence I am absolutely delighted that Sony is issuing a box set of Celibidache's Bruckner with Munich orchestra on DVD in July. This will not only include the aforementioned symphonies 6, 7 and 8, but a newly discovered 4th! And another label (Arthaus I think) is releasing his Bruckner 5th with the same orchestra in late May. This is a dream come true.

Celibidache's Bruckner is transfixing for some, boring for others. If you are not sure which category you belong to, just go for it. Once sold out this set may not show up again. And you will have missed an unforgettable experience.

Roger Ryan wrote:

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Peter Gabriel's Secret World Live coming out on Blu-Ray in July

...and the 16mm film elements were rescanned! This remains my favorite live concert experience, but the DVD edition was essentially a VHS transfer riddled with compression artifacts. Very happy to hear that this release will be an improved presentation of a brilliantly-designed show.

Restoration demo.

Gabriel's also released some HD clips from the show, of San Jacinto and Steam.

Eagle Rock is doing a great job of picking up the slack left behind by record companies uninterested in re-releasing previous DVD's on Blu-ray, not to mention their own rather large catalog of concerts on DVD and Blu.

Steven Wilson's Get All You Deserve is a document of his first solo world tour, directed by his long-time visual collaborator Lasse Hoile. It's coming out in September, and here is a look at it. I've talked about his work with Porcupine Tree and his recent solo efforts here before, and am a huge fan of his work with his myriad projects.

The one album I would suggest that might be his towering triumph so far, and is really the best work reflecting his artistic depth is his first album Insurgentes. I would even go further to suggest that Lasse's documentary bearing the same title is a further exploration of that depth, along with Steven's opinions and criticisms of the music industry and the MP3 age. It's quite surreal in places, and it either distracts or benefits from those parts depending on your taste.

The Doors' Hollywood Bowl concert is pretty a well-known show in the band's career, and any likely mention of the band's history always includes clips from the show, the only one of their career filmed professionally. A new release of the show, Live At The Bowl '68 is coming out in October, expanded and remastered for Blu-ray.