Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck (2015/Universal Music Blu-ray)/Whole Lotta Led Zeppelin by Jon Bream (Second Edition/2015/Voyageur Press Books)/The Who: Live In Hyde Park (2015/Eagle Blu-ray/2 CD Set)/We Are Your Friends (2015/Warner DVD)

Picture: B-/B-/C+ Sound: B/B (CDs: B-)/C+ Extras: C-/C/C- Main Programs: C+/C+/C-/Book: B

Here are more music releases for you to consider...

Brett Morgan's Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck (2015) is the first 'official' documentary on Cobain and his life since his death (and after several that criticized the vircumstances on how that happened), but taken as the actual story of his life, rise as an international artist and end, it is surprisingly overrated, problematic, choppy and pat. Using rare (if ever released before) audio, stills, film and video footage, it attempts to tell his biopgraphy and various members of his family (not always portrayed in the best light despite consenting to these interviews) that shows how he became a loner, then found a way to unforgettably express himself.

The other really awful thing here is way too much animation as very, very lame filler throughout when we know other footage or stills could have been used. It is oversimple, odd and never works. I also (controversy aside) still found the conclusion abrupt and a bit insulting, so to say I was disappointed and why we have not heard raves on this one makes total sense. For fans only!

Bonus interviews are the only extra.

Whole Lotta Led Zeppelin is here in a new Second Edition of the 2008 by John Bream that has a rich amount of text and even richer amount of memorabilia, stills, posters and more than show the rise, rise, end and continued popularity of one of the greatest ock bands of all time in time for the expanded, remastered reissue of all 9 of the band's solo albums by Jimmy Page and Atlantic Records. Voyageur Press Books has issued it in very high quality print, paper and color reproduction that is impressive thorughout. I barely remember the first edition, but this is as visually well made and fans should be pleased.

New expanded text has been added to show what the band memebrs have been doing and what has happened with Zeppelin in pop culture since, though that could have gone on further and made this book even thicker. Still, pretty good and if you want to know more about the band and are not a fan, this is a nice place to start.

The Who: Live In Hyde Park (2015) has the remaining members (Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend) keeping the band going in a big money tour production issued by Eagle on both Blu-ray and a 2 CD set, both included here. Yes, they have aged and Daltrey's voice might not quit be what it once was, but they give it a big try and that in itself is better than many of the other acts of the time (if they even still perform) that have simoply become 'legacy' acts. With their hits opening every single episode of CSI, they are as heard as ever.

Unfortunately, they don't seem totally in their element, this is barely more memorable than their early 1980s touring that even Daltrey was not totally happy with and is a fans-only affair. 16 classic tracks and a Tommy medley are delivered without being dragegd out.

Extras in the CD-sized foldout DigiPak packaging include an illustrated booklet on the concert with informative text, while the Blu-ray adds four bonus music perfomance from the ocncert not on either of the CDs.

Max Joself's We Are Your Friends (2015) I hyet another attempt for one-time Disney moppet Zac Efron to establish an adult, mature cinemtic identity and have more commercial success in the way he has with a few hit comedies and few noticed indie films that have not hurt his cause. However, critics and most moviegoers don't take him seriously because they feel he has no life experience to really show, may be 'spoiled' and that bores them. Here, he plays a DJ in the world of fun music raves and there is an interesting story or two to show and tell of this world. This film is NOT it.

So what do we get instead? Another story of Efron pretty much playing himself, showing us how hip he is, the 'dude' friends he hangs with and that he can seduce and have sex with pretty gals... as if we never could have imagined this. So that leaves us the DJ sequences, which sadly play like the many (and usually bad in other films) endless such sequences in so many bad films since the 1990s (I was waiting for the vampires from the opeing of the original Blade to show up just, but they sadly did not, htoughh they had better music than ewe get here too, lucky bast@%#!) and this wastes 96 minutes of all our time.

Efron needs an serous adviser quickly before he loses what little ground he has gained in recent years. He could do much better and the sooner he can, the less we'll see duds like this.

A Making Of featurette is the only extra.

The Blu-rays here aren't bad, but each have their issues, with the 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on Cobain have more than it share of vintage rough low-def video, but the new animation does not help. Still pictures are a plus, but that's it. The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Who makes for an interesting aspect ratio choice for an HD-recorded live concert, but afftects overall definition and detail, if not too badly. The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on Friends is a passible shoot with nothing special to offer, no memorablr shots and that's not good for a work trying to show us something different.

Cobain offers DTS-HD MA (Master Audio), Dolby TrueHD 5.1 & TrueHD 2.0 Stereo lossless mixes, but like the many Universal Blu-ray Pure Audio releases, the DTS 5.1 is just better than the Dolby 5.1 mix and is the highlight of this release with good soundmixing and all those Nirvana sings.

The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Who all the have good soundfields, are very well recorded, have a sense of warmth and also comes with PCM 2.0 Stereo counterpart that is not as good, but are fine for such a limited mix, but it is pretty consistent in 5.1 form and is smooth if not particularly excepetional throughout. The PCM 2.0 16/44.1 sound on the CDs are good for what they are, but no match for the Blu-ray's DTS 5.1 sound. The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on We is at its best when the music kicks in, but is more limited and also none too impressive considering its trying to celebrate a DJing, Electronica and upcioming music genres.

- Nicholas Sheffo