Fulvue Drive-In.com
Current Reviews
In Stores Soon
 
In Stores Now
 
DVD Reviews, SACD Reviews Essays Interviews Contact Us Meet the Staff
An Explanation of Our Rating System Search  
Category:    Home > Reviews > Music > Vocal > Pop > Soul > Documentary > Biography > Rock > Industry > Concert > Blues > Drama > Art > Countercu > 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

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:


  1. Turn Up the Night (5:31)

  1. Born to Love (4:52)

  1. Breakthrough (3:35)

  1. Exit (3:48)

  1. I See You (4:40)

  1. 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


Marketplace


 
 Copyright © MMIII through MMX fulvuedrive-in.com