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May 17, 2005
Some Music DVD's and a Budget Bin Score
X-Live In Los Angeles has a great look to it - dark and grainy. It looks and sounds like a live rock video should. The reunited band have now been doing their revival act for longer than they were originally together. I think they've perfected it by now. You know the songs, I know the songs, they know the songs, go ahead and buy it. It's good.
There are a couple of nice acoustic bonus tracks as extras.
The X documentary "The Unheard Music" just came out on DVD. Check that out too.
Elvis Costello Live In Memphis is very good. Half of the set is older Attractions-era stuff and half is from his most recent album "The Delivery Man". Emmylou Harris duets with him on a few songs. I really like the new songs. I read somewhere that Elvis Costello's face is so ugly that the sweat runs down the back of his head. From the abundance of perspiration visible in this video, you will see that this is absolutely not true. There are very close shots here - maybe too close.
Great bonus tracks. There is a good road trip segment with Elvis and his drummer riding around the south in an old Cadillac. Among many other places, they visit the Stax Museum and a place that sells really cool suits.
Ramones Raw is better for the extras than for the feature presentation. The best thing here is a 1980 concert which was filmed for Italian TV. It is worth the price for that alone. Other highlights are clips from the "Uncle Floyd" show and "Space Ghost - Coast to Coast".
The bulk of this is basically filler. The camcorder tour stuff gets pretty dull, but the commentary by Marky and Johnny Ramone makes it worth watching.
The Blasters Live-Going Home is very sweaty. I thought the DVD player was going to short out. Where is home anyway? I'm confused. I know that they are from Downey, CA (my birthplace) and this show was recorded in Santa Ana, but the opening credits show stuff like the Mississippi River and a bunch of old shacks. How lost can you possibly get? It's only about 20 miles. Haven't you ever heard of freeways? And maps?
Oh yeah, the show is great. The bonus tracks include some footage of new wave preppies doing stage dives at a Blasters show in 1982.
Iggy and the Stooges Live in Detroit is a difficult watch. I'm not a technical wonk or anything, but this has terrible editing. It looks like somebody took some post-MTV editing class and was told make a cut every five seconds. There is literally a cut every five seconds. Whenever Iggy starts doing one of his Iggy dances it cuts to the guitar player for five seconds. Then it cuts to the drummer for five seconds.
With some other band that might work, but not the Stooges. If you've ever seen the Ig in action, you know what a riveting performer he is and how commanding he is of your full attention. The drumming and guitarring Asheton brothers, on the other hand, don't do anything. They just stay in one place like feet-nailed-down zombies and make repetive thudding noises. I know that's what made them great in the first place, but they're much better heard and not seen. If you have some kind of home theatre system - turn off the video and just listen to it. It sounds great.
There are bonus tracks. I like the live in-store appearance. One camera. No edits.
Paul McCartney Live at the Cavern. I think this came out about 5 years ago but I just recently picked it up cheap. I like Paul McCartney. You got a problem with that?
No silly love songs here - the set is mostly songs by Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Little Richard, Elvis, Ricky Nelson, and so on. These are good songs done well and without too much hoo-haw.
The band features members of Pink Floyd and Deep Purple. That's all well and good, but the keyboard player is the guy who did "Eighteen With A Bullet". I'll subtract a few points for that.
Deathrace 2000 has nothing to do with all these music related DVD's, but I found it in a bidget bin at my local chain drug store for $1.99! Score! This is one of the greatest movies ever made. It was produced by Roger Corman, directed by Paul Bartel ("Eating Raoul"), and stars David Carradine ("Kill Bill"), Mary Woronov ("Rock n Roll High School"), and Sylvester Stalone ("Rhinestone", "The Italian Stallion"). It also features Rep. Fred "Gopher" Grandy (R-Iowa) as a Nazi schlep-boy.
The violence is senseless, the nudity is gratuitous, the sets are cardboard, and the hairstyles defy gravity. Amazingly accurate in it's 1970's depiction of the year 2000. Two bucks well spent.
Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs. What's wrong with that? I'd like to know,
'cause here I go again on my own, down the only road I've ever known. Like a drifter I was born to wear cologne.
Posted by Big Kev at 8:01 PM
May 3, 2005
Record Weirdo - Elvis Impersonator Round-Up
One Trick Ponies Flogging A Dead Horse.
Is It A Mixed Metaphor If Both References Are Equine In Nature?
I wrote some smarmy intro to this, but it was just a bunch of words. I'll cut to the chase.
Let's start off with some International flavors.
Wojciech Gassowski is the Polish Elvis. Actually, he could be the Polish Neil Diamond but he's done at least two albums of Elvis songs. He sounds kind of like Bryan Ferry. The songs here mostly snappy and uptempo like "That's All Right Mama" and "Blue Suede Shoes", but my favorite is "Fever". The almost-learned by phonetics method adds new and exciting lyrics like "Sun lights stop the daytime, moon lights all over night". He also gets the fever "when we kisses". It sounds like karaoke night at the White House.
Komar Laszlo is the Hungarian Elvis and has the good sense to sing in Hungarian. I have two of his albums but this one is the best. I like knowing that "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" is "Arva Bus Ejszakan" in Hungarian and "Don't Be Cruel" is "Ne Legy Kegyetlen". There is no translation for "Lawdy Miss Clawdy".
"Elvis Presley's Golden Hits Sung By Big Ross & The Memphis Sound" Big Ross is from England. He is betrayed by his pronuciation of Chicago as "Shi-CAR-go" when he sings "In The Ghetto". Come on, Ross, even Wojciech Gassowski got that one right. The album cover is dull so I won't show it.
Moving over to Canada, we have The Golden Ring Tribute to Elvis.
As you see, the illustration captures Elvis during his little-known "skinny as a junkie fashion model" period.
Johnny Rusk was the biggest Elvis tribute artist in Seattle even though he was only about four-foot-three. I also have his "Live at the Seattle Airport Hilton" album, but this one is better.
"The Elvis Presley Story" by ALAN(!) is okay, but he should have picked a flashier stage name. He is wearing a lei on the cover of the album, ala "Aloha From Hawaii" but I won't even bother to show it.
Ronnie McDowell is a pretty well-known tribute artist. His album "A Tribute To The King, In Memory" is pretty good but the cover is pretty dull. it's all white with title in gold calligraphy in the middle. It looks like those "In Memory" epitaphs that street racers put on the back windows of their cars. I won't show this one either.
Orion had some great hype. Behind the mask, he was supposed to actually be Elvis. I think he would have made a pretty good Batman. This album has goopy 70's hits like "Honey" done in the Elvis style. His other album, called "Sunrise", is slightly better than this. He did an entire album (uncredited) with Jerry Lee Lewis called "Duets" which I like even better.
This is Rory Allen. I found his press kit a garage sale. It came with a video which shows him in action. What makes his act unique in the two Secret Service/Memphis Mafia guys that stand up on stage with him. Mostly they just stand with their arms crossed Public Enemy style, but occasionally they do little robot dances or act out the words of the songs - like marching in place during "G.I. Blues".
He's big in Canada.
How could I end this with anything else but Extreme Elvis?
You have to admire this guys stick-to-it-iveness. When he runs out of money for costumes, he simply performs naked. He also refuses to let little problems like lack of bladder control get in the way of putting on a good show. Extreme Elvis - you are an inspiration to some.
This is where I say something about leaving the building.
Posted by Big Kev at 8:24 PM
