D. O. A. – Greatest #hits 1978 – 1998
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C- Videos: B-
When Punk
Rock comes up, many act like it arrived, kept its integrity, and only grew
stronger. That is a myth. New Wave helped to supplant it and many of the
most notable acts in it fell short of expectations. D.O.A. is one of the most credible, but just
doing the Punk Rock genre is not sufficient to make great Punk Rock. Their recent Music Video collection offers 14
tracks for fans, including 3 music stage performances, a non-music religious
spoof that should be sent to The 700 Club, and 10 actual Videos. The tracks are:
Disco Sucks (live)
World War 3
Get Out Of My Life (live)
War
Dance O’ Death
Takin’ Care Of Business
The Prisoner (live)
We Know What You Want
Death Machine
Hole In The Sky
I See Your Cross
It’s Not Unusual
Sermon From The Mound (live
non-music)
World Falls Apart
When they
are doing their own material, being subversive about how to act and criticize
the problems of the world around them, they are at their best, though even this
can become obvious and predictable. When
they attempt to remake songs, it is either a bad idea (in Bachman-Turner
Overdrive’s Takin’ Care Of Business),
an unfunny satire that shows they missed the point of the material with nothing
to do with it (Tom Jones’ perennial It’s
Not Unusual) or an absolute disaster (a lame remake of Edwin Starr’s
masterwork War, which also happens to
be no match for the Springsteen remake which at least had the balls to make a
statement).
As for
their presence on screen, the camera obviously likes Joey Keighley, so that
explains some of the appeal of the band when it hits rough spots. It helps fans get through the soft or smooth
ones. The guitarist/writer definitely
has a great voice for the genre, even when he gets too silly for his own good,
but they have survived all these years, going into their fourth decade, so they
must be doing something right.
The
picture is various throughout, including some very rough video footage,
including both color and monochrome images.
The audio is available in two Dolby Digital configurations: 2.0 Stereo
with Pro Logic surrounds and 5.1 AC-3.
They are both problematic, not being able to capture the sound of the
band as they should. Dolby’s over-compression
is always a problem, but add that these are songs that are supposed to sound
distorted, you can imagine how this is a problem. It is not supposed to be clear, but it should
still sound better than this.
The only
extra is an intriguing clip form a new documentary, which gives a brief history
of how they started. We hear about their
early anti-Conservatism at a Rock Against Reagan concert in 1980 with their
tribute to the new president, a little ditty called You’re Fucked Up, Ronnie!
That gives you an idea of a more typical D.O.A. moment that cannot be
gained from just a DVD Videos set. The
film is Talk Minus Action Equals Zero,
which we will try to review if it ever makes it to DVD.
The Punk
aesthetic could careless about critics, but it does not put bands in the genre
above criticism. I never totally
understood Punk’s problem with Fleetwood Mac and Disco Music when there is
much, much more, that is much, much worse than those could ever be at their
very, absolute worse. Can any of these
guys really match Lindsey Buckingham for weirdness and creativity, D.O.A. or
otherwise? With that said, it should be
known that this critic does not miss the point.
Punk will never die, but is it really succeeding in what it thinks it is
doing artistically or politically? Maybe
the former, but nowhere near enough of the latter. If Punk ever becomes more politically
powerful, it will take all the bands like D.O.A. to make that happen. This should be very interesting to look out
for.
- Nicholas Sheffo
