The
Bareroot featuring Carol Hatchett: Born To Love
(2015/Hatchett EP CD)/Can't
Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police
(2015/Cinema Libre Blu-ray)/Deep
Sea Blues (2007/MVD
Visual Blu-ray)/Basquiat in Downtown
'81 (1981/Music
Box/Submarine Deluxe DVD Set)/Revenge
Of The Mekons (2013/Music
Box DVD)/Soaked In Blood
(2015/Nirvana/Cobain/MVD Visual DVD)/Ernest
Stuart: Same Walking Animals
(2015 Download EP)/The
Who: Live At Shea Stadium 1982
(Eagle SD Blu-ray)
Picture:
X/B-/B-/C+/C+/C+/X/C+ Sound: B/B-/C+/C/C+/C+/B/B- Extras:
D/B-/C+/B/C/D/D/C Main Programs: C+/B/B-/B-/B-/B-/C+/C+
Here's
a major group of serious new music releases for all kinds of
listeners....
The
Bareroot featuring Carol Hatchett: Born To Love
(2015) has the one time singer who was part of Bette Midler's
Harlettes, taking lead vocal on the following:
Turn
Up the Night (5:31)
Born
to Love (4:52)
Breakthrough
(3:35)
Exit
(3:48)
I
See You (4:40)
Somebody
Make it Alright (4:19)
She
can sing and these are well recorded, but her voice never sounds
totally integrated into the rest of the songs and she is not
pushing/being pushed to really go all out vocally. The result is a
mixed bag that did not stay with me despite some good dynamics and an
EP that may not be flat, but does not reach its potential.
Learn
more at this link:
http://thebarerootmusic.com/
There
are no extras.
Andy
Grieve's Can't
Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police
(2015) is a fine new documentary about the band The Police from
member Andy Summers, turning out to be the big surprise of all these
releases, with Summers really telling it like it was and is in great,
deep, heartfelt detail. He talks about what life was like with the
band, on the road, early failures, later success, tensions, how the
industry worked then (and now) and is far more autobiographical than
he needed to be. However, it is a very rich 83 minutes that does a
remarkable job of taking us back to that period.
It
brings us al the way to the present without leaving much out (the
band broke up decades ago, so there's nothing to really say about
that), though it remains us of happier times in the industry and how
great the labels (like their own A&M and IRS, the latter run by a
relative of Police member Stewart Copeland) and never holds back. I
really liked this one and wish it were longer, so I highly recommend
it.
Extras
include a feature length audio commentary track Summers &
Producer Norman Golightly, interview featurette with Summers, Stills
Gallery, Trailers, Los Angeles Premiere with a Q&A and Mysterious
Baracades Photo Exhibition Promo showing off Summers' incredible
still photography.
Robert
Mugge's Deep
Sea Blues
(2007) is a ship cruise that features non-stop Blues genre acts and
music, which is great if you are a fan. In this one, we get The
Fabulous Thunderbirds, the Commander Cody Band, Buckwheat Zydeco,
Bobby Rush, Watermelon Slim, Mitch Woods, Ruthie Foster, Tasha Taylor
and more. This runs 2 hours.
The
bonus concert All
Jams On Deck
(2011) is the only extra, but has some of the same acts, plus Johnny
& Edgar Winter, Kim Wilson, Jimmy Thackeray, John Nemeth, Kelley
Hunt and others. It does run as long and is here in song sections
only.
Edo
Bertoglio's Downtown
'81
(1981) is a special film recently restored that features the
gone-too-soon Jean-Michel Basquiat, a now respected artist who was a
friend of Andy Warhol that has him wandering NYC and surrounding
areas circa 1981 creating art (including graffiti) and meeting all
kinds of people. A few are real characters in themselves, but this
now serves as a special time capsule of the period and culture when
the area was still in its rough Punk/Rap/Post-Disco period and the
cast (including Debbie Harry) are all still part of that very vital,
active scene.
Cheers
to Music Box and Submarine Deluxe for issuing such a fine DVD set on
this film. All involved care about and (I'll say it) even love what
is here and it shows. A work that may not be your usual narrative
film experience has only appreciated in value as NYC is changing
(sometimes not for the better with big money even pushing out and
people and businesses that make the city what it is for no good
reason but greed and even hate and spite) is a work worth your time
now as much as ever.
Extras
in this slipcase packaging include a nicely illustrated booklet on
the film including informative text the size of the entire package,
while DVD 1 has a feature length audio commentary track by Maripol &
Glenn O'Brien, while DVD 2 adds a Stills Gallery, extended interviews
from the main program (including an especially interesting one from
Fab Five Freddie and the duo from the commentary track) and four
bonus clips: an episode of TV
Party
(see many of them reviewed elsewhere on this site), clip from a
documentary on the show, Basquiat doing more Graffiti and 2000 Cannes
press conference on the film's reissue.
Joe
Angio's Revenge
Of The Mekons
(2013) covers the history of the still-existent band that was
launched in 1977 as a Punk outfit, only to morph and change with each
new genre they took on. A critical darling and fan favorite, it is a
solid look at their work, but (along with its packaging proclaiming
them the greatest band ever) not always objective. However, it is
well done enough to see it and its side story of how various levels
of the music industry work is a plus.
Extras
in include a Columbia University symposium recent taped with the
group, Concert Poster Gallery, the band Live at Brooklyn, New York's
Bell House and Bonus Outtakes.
Is
Courtney Love guilty of murder? Benjamin Statler's Soaked
In Blood
(2015) again asks that question long after her husband, Nirvana lead
singer Kurt Cobain seems to have killed himself, but with questions
about the circumstances left hanging. Following the earlier Kurt
& Courtney
examination of the case (including a witness who just 'happened' to
be hit and killed by a train!) where some of the clips come from, we
get new interviews, the activity (or lack thereof since) and other
odd behaviors.
It
misses some of the points of the first documentary, but continues to
leave some questions unanswered that should have been known when they
found Cobain dead. Add the strange behavior by Love and her
lawyer(s) since this was released theatrically with cease &
desist orders that fly in the face of the very freedom of expression
Cobain was about and it only makes things look re-suspicious for her.
We will skip the odd, sudden, public comment their daughter made
about Kurt and save that for a later time.
There
is however one other thing possibly going on here. Politics. Cobain
was allegedly ready to divorce her (no comment) which meas she would
not have got all the money she did when he was gone (for whatever
reason) if that divorce had happened. Also at the time of his
success, his music and ideas (like John Lennon before him) were a
threat to a Reaganized America, et al, giving many legitimate
possibilities as to why so many might want to look away and others in
the media might want to ignore or distort what happened. That I why
it is worth seeing this documentary, which essentially was bullied by
Love out of being played at certain theaters. Can't wait to see what
develops from this next.
There
are no extras.
Ernest
Stuart: Same
Walking Animals
(2015) is the trombonist's second EP following last year's Love/Lost,
which we reviewed a this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13022/The+Buddy+Holly+Story+(1978/Sony/Columbia/Tw
Featuring
3 tracks: British
Girl,
We
Can't Breathe
and Reluctant
American Mascot,
I liked this set better than the last and it stayed with me more.
Again, no doubt of his talent, he gets to let loose more here and all
are worth a listen.
Find
out more about them and the artist, including how to download and
order his music at this link:
http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.erneststuart.com&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNGyRZQtCgrj0LR5bpVUsQZKKFxHyg
There
are no extras.
The
Who Live At Shea Stadium 1982
has the band in their oddest, most forced period, having lost drummer
Keith Moon a few years back and switching record labels (after years
at MCA, they were suddenly at Warner) with new hits like Athena
and Imminence
Front.
Despite the big tours and sales, something was off-kilter and this
show (running about two hours) shows they could still play and be
loud, but some heart & soul was gone for good. The band, despite
later changes and other valiant efforts, never recovered (save maybe
during their post-9/11 support efforts) so this becomes a time
capsule in odd ways and a reminder of their last stand as their
original form came to pass.
Extras
include an illustrated booklet on the show including informative
text, while the Blu-ray adds five bonus tracks from the same time.
Only
six of the releases offer picture playback, half DVD, the other half
Blu-ray. The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on Police
is the most consistent of the bunch, though it has more video clips
than films clips for its flashback moments, but I like how this was
edited and there's plenty of new interviews as well. The 1080i 1.78
X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on the remaining discs
have some issues like ghosting, aliasing and alignment issues with
Blues
showing its age and Who
really being an upscaled analog tape recording framed ion the center
of the wide frame at almost 1.33 X 1, as a sliver of info is missing,
likely from issues with the old taping.
Downtown
was shot at 1.33 X 1 on full color 16mm film and looks the best of
the DVDs, yet is framed controversially at an anamorphically enhanced
1.78 X 1. It was likely shot expecting a 1.66 and/or 1.85 X 1
presentation, but it seems a little tight at times. Bleach
and Mekons
are in the same frame and are more like Police
in their mix of old low def and new HD video, but they play just fine
for the format.
As
for sound, both EPs are in PCM 2.0 Stereo (16/44.1 in the case of
Born)
that sound well-recorded and deliver the best sonics here. Who
gets a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 96/24 5.1 lossless mix, but the
limits of the recording show throughout despite the extra room, then
Police
is here in a rare, lossless PCM 5.1 lossless mix that benefits the
music better at times, but there is also much talking and old audio,
so only expect so much.
Unfortunately and less rare, Blues
has both of its shows in lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo when even PCM
2.0 would have been preferred, and the Bleach
DVD is also Dolby 2.0 lossy Stereo with some mono moments.
Mekons
has lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 and Downtown
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono which are passable, but have no real
difference despite matching Blues
and Bleach
sonically.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
