Bob Dylan: Don't Look Back—65 Tour Deluxe Edition
D.A. Pennebaker
Docurama
Street: 02.27
While this documentary captures an interesting character in the history of music, I wouldn't go as far as saying that this is a "must have" for any music collector. The first disc features the digitally re-mastered Don't Look Back, the documentary that was originally released in 1967 that followed Dylan on his 1965 tour through England. Pennebaker's hand-held camera footage gives the film an unobtrusive feel that makes it seem more like a home movie than anything else. Don't Look Back catches Bob Dylan in some of his most intimate moments. When Dylan tell a reporter "No I'm just a guitar player that's all," fans receive a flash of who the man behind the music really was. Whether he is fucking with reporters asking him ridiculous questions, chatting with young female fans or performing before a wide-eyed and silent audience, you can't help but love Dylan. The second disc, Bob Dylan 65 Revisited, appears to be all the footage that was left on the cutting room floor after Don't Look Back was released. It's like a rare b-side of footage for all the Dylan junkies out there. Bob Dylan 65 Revisited includes much more live footage, but lacks the loose story line that the original captured. It's interesting, gives a fresh look at one of the most influential performers of the last fifty years, but I'm not quite sure that it's worth the fifty-dollar asking price. –Jeanette Moses

David Bowie: Under Review – 1976-79 The Berlin Trilogy
MVD Visual
Street: 11.21
David Bowie's Berlin trilogy, the albums Low, Heroes and Lodger, marks a significant aesthetic shift in rock music – at least that's what the critics of this DVD (and fans ranging from Trent Reznor to Anthrax to Billy Corgan to me) want you to believe. At the very least, it was a noteworthy change in Bowie's career where he 1) cast off "characters" (i.e. Thin White Duke, Ziggy Stardust) 2) embraced the idea of weirder epic tracks he previously hinted at on Station to Station's ten-minute title track (released just before Low). Fresh off the film The Man Who Fell to Earth, Bowie also longed for anonymity, a "fresh start" (read: no more cocaine) and a place where he could reinvent himself yet again. Berlin. Here, he kept a hermetic lifestyle, producing a recently-broke Iggy Pop and touring as a keyboardist in his band, ingesting a diet of Steve Reich, Philip Glass and Kraut-Rock, popping up for air now and then on programs such as Bing Crosby's Christmas special and Marc Bolan's ITV (Bowie was Bolan's last guest before the latter's death), and bringing iconic weirdos such as Brian Eno and then-retired Robert Fripp into his bubble The fact that Bowie was so tightlipped during this era makes for a lot of speculation and confusion, mirrored in the commentaries on this documentary (though the filmmakers do clear up the fact that underrated producer Tony Visconti, not Eno, was responsible for Bowie's sound during this time). Perhaps it's an editing issue, but the film is based a little too much on "perhaps..." statements, substituting fact for dry hypotheses based on, say, a single offhand comment by Bowie in 1977. I suppose that's the pay-dirt of theorists, but it inspires boredom during a 90-minute movie about an already mellow subject. Don't get me wrong! I personally love these albums, and though the guests (everyone from UK music critics to members of Neu!) do their best to show appreciation and demonstrate knowledge about these years, you should plan on multiple viewings before you make it through without nodding off. –Dave Madden

The Eastpak Resistance Tour Volume III
I Scream Records
Street: 11.21
ERTVIII= Classic Hardcore (Sick of it All, 7 Seconds) + The New (Unearth, Walls of Jericho)
Credit must be given to the photographers responsible for The Eastpak Resistance Tour III – it is shot better than any other hardcore DVD I've ever seen. That makes sense considering MTV Network's Benelux shot it. Fast cuts, fades, and camera pans visually enhance the barrage that is a hardcore show. There are nine bands represented on this DVD release, the most noteworthy being Sick of it All, 7 Seconds, Slapshot and Unearth. Interestingly enough, the DVD plays in a more or less reverse concert order, meaning the biggest acts come first, the lesser known are tacked onto the end. Although the DVD boasts that it contains 41 tracks for the price of a CD, that could probably be cut to 20. The lesser-known acts, such as Judasville, No Turning Back, and The Bones, could make shorter appearances. Sick of It All shows just why they're the kings of hardcore; they still show the same energy they had 20 years ago. 7 Seconds hasn't aged as well, although they put on a great set, Kevin Seconds' age is starting to show, and at points they look weary. Slapshot is still a band that I wouldn't want to meet in an alley brawl, with singer Jack Kelly hitting himself in the head during "Watch Me Bleed" and bleeding through the rest of the set. Damn. Unearth changes it up by bringing the metal, and puts on a fine set. Walls of Jericho is middle of the road as usual, and that's really all that's worth watching. This might be good to pick up for those looking for video of some classic acts, but all said and done not the best hardcore DVD out there. –Peter Fryer

Manowar
The Day the Earth Shook
Metal Blade
Street: 11.21
Okay, first things first, if you are not a Manowar fan chances are this DVD won't even cross your radar. In my rare instance, not being a fan, though a supporter of what they do this DVD coming in contact with my auditory and visual senses is all purely accidental and is something I wouldn't spend my cash on (though if you are a fan of Manowar, more power to you and I don't doubt that you won't be owning this latest DVD offering). Prepare yourself for more screaming guitar solo's, falsetto vocals, power chords and sing alongs straight from the Day the Earth Shook, festival in Germany. The two disc DVD set boasts close to seven hours of footage from the very concert containing 28 Manowar classics to the obligatory bonus junk. Manowar even gives their fans that can't travel to Germany the chance to join in on their fan club convention. What more could a fan of true metal ask for? To put things very simply, if you love Manowar you will have no trouble rocking out and enjoying the hell out of this DVD and if you don't like Manowar this DVD will most likely never come in contact with your player. – Bryer Wharton

SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1The Tomorrow Show: Tom Snyder's Electric Kool-Aid Talk Show
Shout! Factory
Street: 09.26
Over a decade after the hippie "revolution," talk show host Tom Snyder had such iconic figures on his show as Ken Kesey, Tom Wolfe, The Grateful Dead and Dr. Timothy Leary although usually at different times. Unfortunately, the only guest Snyder really takes seriously is Wolfe; whose anthropological observations on the fashion styles of upstate New York couples in 1982 aren't exactly compelling. The Dead play some great live songs, but Kesey seems a little too drunk or fried to make a very good interview subject. The most interesting guest is Dr. Leary, whose studies and personal experimentations with LSD got him dismissed from the faculty at Harvard. Snyder doesn't seem to find him very interesting, however, as he steps on his responses and subtly demeans him on air. There are no great revelations or insights with any of these subjects, although the timing might have seemed right. –Jeff Guay

Nirvana: Under Review In Utero
MVD Visual
Street: 11.21
My grandparents had the great depression, my mom and dad had the JFK assassination, and when I was a teenager we had the death of Kurt Cobain, or as I like to call it, the one that Courtney got away with. (Seriously think about it, that bitch killed the genius). What I'm trying to say is that if the great depression and the JFK assassination had sex and made a child, that child would be Kurt Cobain's artistic out-put; a perfect soundtrack to my, "Fuck you, Dad! I'm not mowing the lawn!" teenage angst existence. This DVD takes an in depth look at some of the history of Nirvana, and events leading up to the creation of their last CD, In Utero. It's like a VH1 Behind the Music, but about a billion times more interesting. That is of course, if you are a Nirvana fan. If you do not like Nirvana then go fuck yourself instead of buying this DVD. I don't care how many frat boys liked this band; I'll always have a special place in my CD wallet for these guys. On a side note, I saw Krist Novoselic, the bass player for the trio, at a spoken word thingy with Jello Biafra a couple years ago. He was talking about reforming our democracy. He's tall and bald, but still pretty cool. –Mike Brown

What We Want, What We Believe: The Black Panther Party Library
AK Press
Street: 11.21
This 4-DVD (!) documentation of the rise and fall of the Black Panther Party was culled from the annals of Roz Payne, one of the original members of the radical 1960s film group Newsreel. The ambitious collection contains interviews with Donald Cox, the Black Panther's Field Marshall, Panthers' defense lawyers after the FBI infiltrated and destroyed the party, FBI agents and those filmmakers and activists involved with Newsreel. The 3rd Reunion of the BPP is also documented. What We Want contains over 12 hours of footage, and, although every second of this film is vitally important to American history, this DVD should definitely be treated as a library for research, not as a viewing pleasure-ride. There is a shitload of info to wade through and that info forms a collage, not a storyline. Furthermore, although Payne acknowledges that this is not some slick Hollywood production because she never intended releasing it to the public, it is usually not even as good as an average home video. Hearing microphones and knobs being adjusted in the background in interview after interview, bad lighting and awkward zoom-ins start to grate after awhile. However, if the only reason you pick up this DVD is to see the three classic Newsreel films at the beginning, Off the Pig, Mayday and Repression, the purchase is worth it. Incredibly explosive black-and-white footage of riots, rallies and protests captures conflicts between the pigs and citizens; truly captures the energy and tension of the time. The DVD liner notes go into much more in detail on Newsreel, and it is fascinating. Another big highlight of the DVD is the interview with movement lawyer Beverly Axelrod, one-time girlfriend of Eldridge Cleaver, one of the founders of the BPP and its spokesman for four years and author of Soul on Ice. Beverly put out a publication called The Black Panther, and explained the widespread origin of the use of the word "pig" to refer to the police, which the BPP popularized long before the punk movement came into being. One evening they had a space to fill on the front page and found a drawing of a baryard pig. Underneath it they wrote the caption, "Support Your Local Police." –Rebecca Vernon