BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD - THE MIKE JUDGE COLLECTION - VOL. 3 (Paramount Home Video)
When I reviewed the second volume of this a few months ago I said there was probably no reason for a third set. I was wrong! This final three-disc collection has everything the first two sets had (cartoons, music videos, promos, etc.), but it has one gem the other two don\'t: the original and uncut frog baseball cartoon! This set is worth it for that alone. That being said, the cartoons on this set are from later in the run, so they\'re not as funny or groundbreaking as some of the earlier stuff. So while I\'m glad to get this final set, I\'m also glad it is the final set, as I\'ve now officially had my fill of Beavis and Butt-Head for awhile... bungholes.
BILLY JOEL - 12 GARDENS LIVE (Sony)
When I was a kid, if my mom wasn\'t listening to Kool & The Gang on vinyl, my dad was listening to Billy Joel. Because of that, I now have a nostalgic (and sometimes embarassing) affinity for his earlier stuff (way before \"We Didn\'t Start The Fire\"). So some tracks on this two-disc live set (recorded during his record-breaking twelve sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden) are great-- \"Big Shot\", \"She\'s Always A Woman\"-- while other songs I wouldn\'t be caught dead listening to-- \"Keeping The Faith\", \"Matter Of Trust\". Still, I don\'t give a fuck who you are, you\'ve got to love \"Piano Man\", if not for its storytelling alone.
DEATH IN THE BUNKER: THE TRUE STORY OF HITLER\'S DOWNFALL (Koch Entertainment)
If you caught the German foreign film Der Untergang (or The Downfall) a couple years ago, you pretty much saw a dramatic telling of this tale. Amazingly, however, the stories in both the documentary and the retelling are almost identical. This hour and a half documentary outlines Hitler\'s last ten days in a bunker before his inevitable suicide by poison... and gunshot... and fire. Nothing is assumed or guessed in this movie, as they had some pretty reliable sources and interviews to back up their claims, including Hitler\'s private secretary Traudl Junge, as well as his bodyguard and courier Rochus Misch. The DVD is produced well, and it even features some film footage of the war and the bunker that I had never seen before, including old footage the Russians took of the corpses of Joseph Goebbels\' family, and present-day footage of where some of Hitler\'s possessions are now. My only complaint is that the film ends a bit abruptly and awkwardly, but by then you\'re so wrapped up in the amazing sadness and ignorance of war that it\'s pretty quickly forgivable.
HONEYCUT - THE DAY I TURNED TO GLASS (Quannum Records)
Much like the way Astralwerks expanded its roster in the late Nineties once the electronica bubble burst, so goes the path for Quannum Records, whose newer releases tend to stray from the straight forward hip-hop they\'re most well-known for. Along those lines is this disc, whose sound and style is more closely related to General Elektriks (primarily because G.E. frontman RV Salters is a card-carrying member) than it is Blackalicious. Unfortunately, I got no art or press release with this disc, so my review can has to be based solely on sound instead of facts. But sound is all you need, because on a dozen tracks that jump from hip-hop to jazz to dance to R&B and back again, there isn\'t one bad apple in the bunch. My ears are proof enough. This is the new sound of Quannum, and I love what I hear.
KYLE CEASE - ONE DIMPLE (Comedy Central)
Kyle Cease is funny. I wasn\'t sure if he was or wasn\'t at first, because I first watched the DVD half of this CD/DVD combo, and what I saw (a live Comedy Central performance and a self-made road documentary) was pretty watered down and safe. But the CD-- which features a live performance from Seattle-- is pure insanity. Cease\'s rapid-fire bizarreness is sometimes pure genius and other times unadulterated stupidity, but all of it is funny as fuck. So, to sum up: CD good, DVD bad. If you want a better and more accurate idea of how Cease is live, check out the video on his MySpace page instead.
MAX ESTES - COFFEE AND DONUTS (Top Shelf Books)
I dug Max Estes\' first outing from Top Shelf (Hello, Again), and Coffee And Donuts picks right up in classic Estes style and sensibilitiess. This playful tale gives us the story of two down-and-out cats-- Dwight and Jules-- whose lack of funds has finally worn on them enough to the point where they\'re considering armed robbery. Of course, everything doesn\'t go exactly as planned. It borders the line of children\'s book, but that\'s one of the charms of his work: it can be enjoyed by everyone, from eight-year-olds to eighty-year-olds. So as long as you\'re within that age range you have no excuse not to check it out.
THE CRYSTAL METHOD - DRIVE: NIKE+ ORIGINAL RUN (Apple iTunes Music Store)
This is a pretty cool idea: Nike hired The Crystal Method to create this, a nonstop workout soundtrack (available for download only) for runners. Created to mimic the action of a forty-five minute workout session, the disc starts off steady, builds to a crescendo, and then slows down for the \"cool off\". This music is good, including a Doors mashup of \"Roadhouse Blues\", but you can tell they are somewhat limited in what they can do. Don\'t listen to this thinking it\'s gonna be an all-new Crystal Method album. But if you like the band (as I do), you\'ll dig it. And if you like running (as I don\'t), you\'ll dig it. Still-- and I know they paid for it, but still-- putting \"Nike\" in the title of an album just makes me feel kind of gross.
THE SOUND OF ANIMALS FIGHTING - LOVER, THE LORD HAS LEFT US... (Equal Vision Records)
Okay, bare with me: the previous members of this group (the Hyena, the Nightingale, the Walrus, the Lynx, and the Skunk) are joined by three new members (the Ram, the Penguin, and the Wolf) on this, their sophomore album. All that Ranger Rick shit aside, the concept of the disc is interesting (each member works on a track in one day from different locations, and then they piece it together), and the experimental sounds that come from it are really groundbreaking and, in some cases, brilliant. (I swear, in some production it reeks of Aphex Twin; in voice and style, Bjork and Cibo Matto; in sound, The Doors-- it\'s literally a bit of everything.) But unfortunately, all these creatures made one fatal mistake: they made their absolute worst \"song\" (if you can even call it a song)-- possibly even the worst track of music ever recorded in the history of sound-- the last track on their disc. This awful, nails-on-a-chalkboard rant set to music left me hating an otherwise good disc. And believe me, I\'m not exaggerating. Imagine enjoying a nice meal from some exotic restaurant you\'ve never eaten at before, and then having to follow it up with someone shooting diarrhea into your mouth directly from their ass. No matter how the dinner before it was, the night ended on a horrible note. So does this disc.
TRACHTENBURG FAMILY SLIDESHOW PLAYERS - OFF AND ON BROADWAY (Sarathan Records)
The perfect way to experience the Trachtenburg Family is to see them live. This hour-long documentary is the next best way. This family trio (father Jason on keyboard and guitar, daughter Rachel on drums, and mother Tina running the slide projector) is known for its witty and humorous music, with each song serving as the soundtrack for a visual slideshow (hence their name). So you can see why it\'s hard to really \"get\" their act without seeing it. Featured on the DVD are some live performances, some guest interviews (with David Cross, Regina Spektor, and Nellie McKay, to name a few), and some great insight into the minds and lives of the family that is the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players.
WHOLPHIN # 2 (McSweeney\'s)
Damn you, McSweeney\'s! You\'ve done it again! I gave the first issue of this DVD magazine a glowing review, and this one isn\'t going to be much different. Collected here are a dozen or so shorts, documentaries, and Japanese sitcoms. (Yes, Japanese sitcoms.) Every second of the disc is worth viewing, but the true gems for me was a Bob Odenkirk-directed unaired pilot called \"The Pity Card\" (which features a great performance from Zach Galifianakis), a beautiful animated short called \"More\", and a recovered film called \"The Mesmerist\" (which features a lost performance from horror legend Boris Karloff). The DVD\'s contents are more than enough to warrant the $16 price tag. But in addition to that you get the first in a three-part series called \"The Power Of Nightmares\", which basically talks about how both the neo-conservative movement and the belief structure of radical Islamic jihad were both born and bred in America. And this is a dorky thing, but it\'s packaged beautifully, along with a thirty-two page booklet outlining each short. Once again, a damn fine total package from McSweeney\'s... goddamnit.