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Where The Light Is - John Mayer Live in Los Angeles (DVD)
by sparkyman91 I was never a John Mayer fan before purchasing this DVD. I had listened to Battle Studies on the first week of it's release in 2009 and didn't think much of it. For some unknown reason I decided to download Where the Light is DVD in early 2010, not expecting much as I didn't really enjoy battle studies. Upon first listen I skipped ... through each track listening to parts and my first impression was boy could this guy play guitar. The opening of Neon which starts the show on acoustic guitar, just blew my ears away and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It was that good. So I proceeded listening to other parts and I was completely sold. I must mention, prior to listening to this album I never knew exactly what music I really loved. I never had a deep connection to any album or artist and was constantly experimenting with different genres to discover something I really loved. This was it. I played this album over and over again. I just couldn't get enough of this guy. And what's more is that I picked up my guitar after 2 years of being fed up with not be interested enough in the music I was playing. This man introduced me into a whole new world of music and different genres. That was my personal experience. Now onto why this is such an amazing album. The album itself is split into three incarnations; the acoustic, blues trio and the popular contemporary hits. The acoustic set is full of mellow melodic songs which include Neon, Daughters, Stop this train and a cover of Tom Petty's free falling. As I would later find out, John Mayer executes some of the best cover song versions of any artist I have come across, free falling is a prime example. The blues trio set was where this album puts John Mayer into the category of not just 'a guy who can sing a few love songs,' but a man that is keeping the blues genre alive in this generation. He proves his guitar ability and his vast song writing talent in being capable to write engrossing blues songs such as 'good love is on the way' and 'come when I call.' The final set was made up of the hits which Mayer is most famous for, mainly focusing on his 2006 album continuum. But what makes this set so refreshing is that like his other sets the live versions of each song are so much more gratifying and enthralling compared to his studio work (which might I add, I am not knocking at all!). And what's very important is that this set proves that John Mayer is not just a great guitarist or a great songwriter but he is a brilliant performer. He knows when to stop and start the guitar solo's (which is a problem for many guitarist, as it's easy to over play), he is exceptional at improvising on the spot and he just knows what works musically and what doesn't. After listening to this DVD multiple times, I have listened to all of John Mayer's albums. Including Battle Studies again. Where the Light is seemed to shine a new light on Battle Studies for me, as I now enjoy the album very much and have done ever since. I cannot stress enough that this man in my opinion is so overly underrated, as I would never have come across this album, only for my curiosity. In my opinion this live DVD is his best work. Read the complete review |
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10,000 Maniacs - Time Capsule
by Jake Speed Time Capsule is a DVD featuring music videos and concert footage by the cult eighties/nineties group 10,000 Maniacs and was first released on video in 1990. While the compilation is hardly comprehensive and some of the footage here is rather grainy, DVDs themed around this group seem to be very rare and Time Capsule does contain archive ... you won't find on YouTube so it's not a bad purchase and if you are a fan of Natalie Merchant you should enjoy it as she's (of course) the focal point throughout as the lead singer. The DVD begins with National Education Week - a song taken from the album Hope Chest. It's a keyboard driven song that sounds a bit reggae and isn't really one of my favourites despite the kooky and likeable vocal from Natalie Merchant. The promo film features real life footage of Merchant as a child taken by her parents. We see her starting to get into music and attending her first communion etc. Quite interesting and bittersweet. Tension is next and a great song from the album Hope Chest. It's very poppy and catchy and Natalie Merchant's vocal is very light and likeable, leading us through the song in engaging fashion. It was inspired by Merchant visiting her grandparents house just after they had died and surveying the lifetime of memories and things they had bought together. The footage here is some (not very crystalline) material of the group live in various venues in the early eighties. Not brilliant but it works well enough with what is an irresistible song. Pit Viper is next and a nice enough song again from the album Hope Chest and comes with a black and white film made by the band's keyboardist Dennis Drew. It's not exactly Stanley Kubrick but it features Natalie Merchant in a prominent role and so always manages to hold one's attention. Scorpio Rising is from the album The Wishing Chair and a faster than usual song for this group that consequently sounds better live and has a decent amount of energy and spark with Merchant able to improvise more with her phrasing and inflections. The footage here is taken from 10,000 Maniacs performing in Jamestown in 1985 and Natalie Merchant has a long black dress on that makes it look as if she's about to go out to dinner. Makes a change from her usual dressed down clobber. Maddox Table is a pleasant jingle jangle song with very Natalie Merchant-esque vocals. The music video doesn't feature the group but instead archive colour 1940s footage of small town America. Workers streaming out of a factory, someone working the newspaper presses, little orange buses, schoolchildren. It's probably less interesting than actual footage of the group but the images work well with the song. My Mother The War is a memorable song from The wishing Chair (that John Peel apparently regarded to be the best song of 1983). It's performed here by the group on the famous Channel 4 television series The Tube and was 10,000 Maniacs first appearance on British television. The picture quality is rather grainy (and the audience look completely bemused) but Natalie Merchant's whirling amateur dancing and eccentricity is a lot of fun. She looks like she's dressed in ill-fitting charity shop clothes and seems to be enjoying herself. Don't Talk is a song from the album In My Tribe and one of the stronger songs from the group. Natalie Merchant sings about a fading relationship and the yearning to remain in a fantasy world and the struggle to accept reality. The lyrics are excellent here. "Don't talk, I will listen. Don't talk, you keep your distance, for I'd rather hear some truth tonight than entertain your lies, so take you poison silently. Let me be. Let me close my eyes." The music promo features footage of the group at a 1987 concert in Paris and is shot somewhat in the style of those Smiths promos Derek Jarman made in the eighties. A very grey blue colour scheme and a slightly grainy abstract look with some jump cuts. Natalie Merchant is a charismatic focal point for the promo with her voice and darkly brown eyes the stars although the rest of the group is rather geeky and look like a barber shop quartet. Wildwood Flower was not an album song but it's a breezy and likeable tune and backed by footage of the group on the road around 1987. They hop on tour buses and go to the beach etc. Like the Weather is a very poppy song from In My Tribe about a housebound person who can't get out of bed. Great lyrics vocals on this one. "Colour of the, sky as far as I can see is coal grey, Lift my head from the pillow and then fall again, Shiver in my bones, just thinking about the weather, Quiver in my lip as if I might cry, Well by the force of will my lungs are filled and so I breathe, Lately it seems this big bed is where I never leave, Shiver in my bones, just thinking about the weather." The promo video is somewhat garish and dated and features Natalie Merchant whirling around a colour strewn empty house with a red dress on. Believe it or not it was directed by the British comedian Ade Edmondson of The Young Ones and Bottom fame. I had no idea whatsoever he used to direct music videos until I watched this. I Have Dreams is not a song but a Direct Effect Public Service Announcement about homeless children in New York by Natalie Merchant while What's the Matter Here? is a great song taken from What's My Tribe. It sounds like an upbeat life affirming song on first glance but is about the almost unnoticed domestic abuse of a child with Merchant as a bemused onlooker yearning to say her two pence to the parent. "That young boy without a name anywhere I'd know his face, In this city the kid's my favorite, I've seen him, I see him every day, Seen him run outside looking for a place to hide from his father, the kid half naked and said to myself O, what's the matter here?, I'm tired of the excuses everybody uses, he's their kid I stay out of it, but who gave you the right to do this?" The video by Matt Mahurin intercuts shots of anachronistic children playing and larking about in an old-fashioned Little House on the Prairie type environment with Natalie Merchant singing in dark shadows so you sometimes only focus on her face. Hateful Hate is a powerful song from Blind Man's Zoo and has the group and their lead singer in melodramatic mood. This is sort of like their version of The Smiths Last Night I Dreamt that Somebody Loved Me in terms of the mood and music. The promo has some archive footage of the group in concert and also some 1930s film of images in Africa. Be warned there is some footage of an elephant being hunted that animal lovers like me will certainly want to skip. Natalie Merchant is a famous vegan so presumably wanted to make a point about cruelty to animals. Trouble Me is nice slow song from Blind Man's zoo that isn't remarkable but gains a boost from the vocal. The dexterity of Merchant here as she speeds up and slows down at alternate points for maximum is very impressive. The music video was directed by Yurek Bogayevicz and features Natalie Merchant in a blue flowery dress and white straw hat visiting the residents of an old people's home to cheer them up! Eat for Two features a nice promo by Adam Bernstein and is a superior song - although it probably sounded even better live. It's about a girl who is pregnant but is probably too young for such responsibility. "Baby blankets and baby shoes, baby slippers, baby spoons, walls of baby blue. Dream child in my head is a nightmare born in a borrowed bed. Now I know lightning strikes again. It struck me once, then struck me dead. My folly grows inside of me. I eat for two, walk for two, breathe for two now." Dust Bowl is taken from the DVD version of their MTV unplugged album. Basically Natalie Merchant on a stool in a New York studio (and looking quite dressed up for her) and singing beautifully. Hello In There is an ok song taken from a performance at a festival in Glasgow in 1990. Natalie Merchant is joined by Michael Stipe for the vocals and irritating millionaire socialist with bizarre accent Billy Bragg manages to stick his beak in too. Finally, there a performance themed promo for You Happy Puppet from Blind Man's Zoo. Time Capsule is a somewhat eccentric collection and does seem slightly cobbled together but there is just about enough rare stuff here to make it worth a look and if you like Natalie Merchant then you should be happy enough. The actual songs themselves still sound wonderful for the most part. There are no extras with this DVD and at the time of writing it's available to buy for under five pounds. Read the complete review |
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Morrissey - Who Put the M in Manchester? (DVD)
by Jake Speed Who Put the M in Manchester? is a concert DVD directed by Bucky Fukumoto featuring a Morrissey show at the Manchester Arena in 2004. Morrissey was largely written off as an irrelevance in the late nineties after the underwhelming response to his terrible 1997 album Maladjusted and had more or less gone to ground. He didn't even have a ... record contract or manager and was presumed to be holed up in his Los Angeles mansion with the curtains drawn tightly against the sun watching George & Mildred and On the Buses videos. After years of silence he suddenly - as he is prone to do just when everyone has almost forgotten about him - emerged again like a sleeping giant with his album You Are the Quarry and even had a couple of top ten singles. So this particular concert was extra special as it was both a triumphant homecoming and also took place on his birthday. While some of these concert DVDs can come across as rather homemade and hastily assembled, Who Put the M in Manchester? is competently directed and appears to have more thought than usual put behind it. Some of the editing is a trifle too busy for my tastes but it's a lot better than the Live in Dallas DVD (where it sometimes appeared as if the director had shot Morrissey while on a skateboard). Morrissey himself is on great form too and very ętre bien dans sa peau. He seems happy and relaxed and talks to the crowd more than usual, his witty and obtuse asides often amusing. He's a bit heavier than the waif of old but he looks good and much better I think than some of his appearances circa 1997 when he was promoting Maladjusted. One of the interesting things about the concert is the way that he resists the temptation to perform the whole of You Are the Quarry (which you would expect him to do as it was his new album at the time) and instead finds room for some lesser known songs from his back catalogue, five Smiths songs, a Raymonde cover, and even a splash of The New York Dolls. This makes the concert much more eclectic with some nice surprises thrown in with the material that one would expect to be here. There are nineteen songs performed in the film and after a portentous battery of black and white industrial images the DVD begins with a stirring rendition of First of the Gang to Die, a catchy and superior single taken from You Are the Quarry. Morrissey's strange vocal contortions and occasional warbles are fun and make the songs feel fresh again even if you are very familiar with the studio versions. His longstanding backing group of Alain Whyte, Boz Boorer and Gary Day are very tight too and the guitars are far more accomplished here than they were on some of their earlier concerts with Morrissey. Morrissey is illuminated in front of a neon backdrop and his theatrical poses and microphone whipping is suitably Morissey-esque throughout the concert. The first song contains some nice lines that only he would come up with. "You have never been in love, until you've seen the sunlight thrown, over smashed human bone!" His growling breathless wails and bizarre vocal tangents get some freedom on the breezy and well regarded Hairdresser on Fire, a song taken from his late eighties compilation Bona Drag. It sometimes feels like Morrissey's entire lyrical output consists of him taking revenge on a person or institution but it's always done in a tongue-in-cheek fashion that negates the sometimes vituperous nature of his writing. This song is about a Sloane Square hairdresser who couldn't fit Morrissey in for a haircut. The Headmaster Ritual is next and a pleasantly offbeat choice for a Smiths cover. It was taken from Meat is Murder and about Morrissey's terible memories of the harsh working class Manchester schools he attended growing up. Morrissey performs it well and Johnny Marr's complex wall of sound guitar riff is - surprisingly - captured quite well here in his decades later live incarnation. A standard performance of his solid single Irish Blood, English Heart follows. This was from You Are the Quarry and works well live but because it has a bit more noise and bite than your average Morrissey song. A few beats from The New York Doll's Subway Train rears it head but perhaps in somewhat pointless fashion as it then morphs into Everyday is Like Sunday from Viva Hate. This is Morrissey's second greatest solo single ever and although pleasant enough here I tend to feel that the orchestral majesty of the song is impossible to truly capture live. Morrissey enjoys himself next wallowing in the overblown I Have Forgiven Jesus from You Are the Quarry. It was a single but not a song I care for an awful lot. It just feels pompous lyrically and musically and lacks Morrissey's usual sense of whimsy. It's nice of Morrissey to forgive Jesus though. I don't know if they spoke on the phone or what prompted them to patch things up in the end. I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday is one of the most depressing Morrissey songs of all time but it's also strangely brilliant in its own way. This is taken from the early nineties album Your Arsenal and performed in a fifties crooning fashion and so always works well live. The theme is the passing of time leading to no change in one's personal circumstances - a recurring Morrissey obsession and one that he uses here to generate a great sense of sadness. How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel? from You are the Quarry finds Morrissey in a knotty and misanthropic mood and although it isn't one of my favourite Morrissey songs many of the lesser lights gain an extra level of interest performed live here. Morrissey has a sense of drama and theatre onstage and will shift lyrics around or insert new words if the mood takes him. I like his self-deprecating interaction with the crowd too. "That was a bit wobbly wasn't it?" he says after The Headmaster Ritual. "Was I even singing?" There is a fun version of The Smiths Rubber Ring (taken from the Louder Than Bombs compilation) which always gains something live as it appears to be the singer speaking directly to his fanbase. "And when you're dancing and laughing, And finally living, Hear my voice in your head, And think of me kindly. " Such a Little Thing Makes Such a Big Difference is a minor bauble from Bona Drag, a Carry-On piece of whimsy laced with Morrissey's customary sadness. It's quite nice though the way Morrissey's voice sounds identical at times here to how it did on those eighties records. I do think he's singing much better around this period than he was in the mid to late nineties. Don't Make Fun of Daddy's Voice is a lesser known Morrissey solo song that was (I think) a b-side on Let Me Kiss You. I've never quite understood why Morrissey was so obsessed with this song live as it's nothing earth shattering but it is a bit punkier than his usual fare with frantic and catchy guitars so maybe that's the reason. The World if Full of Crashing Bores is from You are the Quarry and one of the more epic and interesting songs from Morrissey's later solo career. He seems to relish singing this live as it has an intimate widescreen aura that is very atmospheric. Also from that album is Let Me Kiss You, a decent song that Morrissey again performs well. Some nice Morrissey shirts in this DVD by the way. He gets through quite a few. One of the highlights comes next with his cover of Raymonde's No One Can Hold a Candle to You from their 1986 album Babelogue. This is a fantastic song and you can see that Morrissey absolutely adores singing it live and cherishes it as if it was one of his own. A Rush and A Push and the Land is Ours is another interesting choice of Smiths cover. Taken from Strangeways Here We Come it was a very experimental song but an excellent one and seemed to find The Smiths on the cusp of embracing a new sound with a piano introduction and discordant xylophone. It loses something here of course years away from Johnny Marr having a nervous breakdown in his studio but Morrissey's growls and bizarre phrasing is still up to par. We get one more song from You Are the Quarry in the form of I'm Not Sorry, a weakish Kill Uncle era sounding song that doesn't ever really spark into life even live, before a nostalgic Smiths coda with Shoplifters of the World Unite and There is a Light That Never Goes Out. A trifle obvious maybe but a nice way to go out. Who Put the M in Manchester? is a better than average concert DVD that benefits not only from Morrissey's solid and enjoyable performance but also from being professionally directed and not feeling like a quick cash-in (as earlier Morrissey/Smiths films so often did). The film runs to just under two hours so isn't too skimpy and you also get a smattering of extras. Four Morrissey live songs from the Move Festival that same year and also four music videos - Irish Blood, English Heart, two versions of First of the Gang to Die and I Have Forgiven Jesus. If you are a fan this is not a bad buy at all and much better than I'd expected it to be. At the time of writing you can buy Who Put the M in Manchester? for under five pounds. Read the complete review |
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1 review Studio: Sanctuary / Music DVD / Release Date: 3 Mar 2008 / Run Time: 113 minutes |
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1 review Actors: Jerry Augustyniak, Billy Bragg, Robert Buck, Dennis Drew, Steven Gustafson / Music DVD / Director: Natalie Merchant / Studio: Warner Music Vision / Release Date: 30 Aug 2004 / Run Time: 55 minutes |
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Studio: Eagle Rock / Music DVD / Release Date: 1 Dec 2008 / Run Time: 120 minutes |
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Genre: Music DVDs / Suitable for 15 years and over / Director: Eric Dionysius, Eric Mistler / Actors: Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Phil Rudd, Cliff Williams, Ronald Belford Scott ... / Blu-ray released 2011-08-15 at Warner Home Video |
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1 review Genre: Music DVD / Studio: Smv / Release Date: 13 Jun 2005 |
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Genre: Music DVD / Studio: Petal Productions / DVD Release Date: 16 July 2007 / Run Time: 95 minutes |
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Genre: Music DVDs / To Be Announced / DVD released 2012-09-10 at Xtra Mile Recordings / Features of the DVD: PAL |
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Genre: Music DVDs / Exempt / DVD released 2012-10-15 at Sour Mash / Features of the DVD: Limited Edition, PAL |
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Genre: Music DVDs / Exempt / DVD released 2012-09-17 at Sony Legacy / Features of the DVD: Colour, DVD-Video, PAL |
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Genre: Music DVDs / Exempt / DVD released 2012-08-27 at Eagle Rock / Features of the DVD: NTSC |
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