MEDIA
Preview
The audio will jolt your home’s stereo, 5. 1 or
PCM systems to life. The mix includes plenty
of Geddy Lee’s bass this time (as opposed to
the arguably treble-heavy mixes of former live
video releases), although we’re guessing that
some Rush fans will still complain and suggest
they could provide a better mix than Richard
Chycki (Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Foreigner).
As an added bonus, the 221 minutes of footage includes hilarious vignettes featuring the
band, the cast of South Park and even the
McKenzie Brothers. –JC
Street $19.99 DVD; $24.99 Blu Ray
rushbackstage.com
Stuff: Live at
Montreux
Together, guitarists
Cornell Dupree and
the late Eric Gale have
racked up session
dates in the thou-
sands, and a slew
of hits with artists
ranging from Aretha
Franklin to Paul
Simon. In the seven-
ties and early eighties, they joined forces
in a band called Stuff. Playing mostly New
York clubs, they defined what great groove
music could be. This was not smooth jazz, but
soul, blues and gospel performed without
a singer, though that isn’t entirely accurate:
Gale and Dupree boast highly vocal guitar
styles that sing with the same expression and
feeling as any R&B diva. The rest of the band
wasn’t bad either: the late Richard Tee’s piano
and organ never failed to take you to church,
and Gordon Edwards’ Fender Precision bass
locked in tightly with a drummer you may
have heard of—Steve Gadd.
This disc features the band live in 1976, at
the famous Montreux Jazz Festival on the
shores of Switzerland’s Lake Geneva. Despite
a brief guitar cable issue, the sound is great,
with Stuff managing to throw down thirteen
tunes that comprise a textbook of playing in
the pocket. Dupree’s Tele (with a DeArmond
pickup in the middle) and Gale’s Gibson
Super 400 mesh like the gears of a precision
machine. Whether on originals like “Foots,”
or chestnuts like “Signed, Sealed, Delivered,
I’m Yours,” this tandem guitar team demonstrates that funk beats flash every time, and
Dupree’s instrumental reading of “You Are So
Beautiful” rivals former employer Joe Cocker’s
for sheer soul. If you missed them back when,
or just miss them, this is a great opportunity
to watch them strut their stuff. –MR
Street $10.69–$14.99
eaglerockent.com
Sex Pistols:
There’ll Always
Be An England
Thirty years have
passed since the
landmark release
of Never Mind
the Bollocks,
Here’s the Sex
Pistols, England’s
most dangerous
musical export.
To celebrate
the album’s
historic significance, which still resonates like
a screamed vocal over irreverently distorted
guitars, the band held a run of sold-out shows
at the Brixton Academy in November 2007.
Some time has passed, but this solid punk rock
performance shows that the Sex Pistols still
matter in a world where piercings, mohawks
and brightly colored hair are now the norm.
This first-ever authorized live DVD release
features the original lineup—Johnny Rotten,
Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Glen Matlock—as
they fire through nearly all their songs. The
nearly eighty minutes of crunching power
chords and driving rhythms show that punk’s
not dead and guitar changes are for wankers.
While the surprisingly powerful performance
and predictable set-list provide a main course
of enjoyment (probably tighter than their original run-throughs) the DVD’s most promising
moments are hidden within the extra features.
This fun starts when Johnny Rotten provides
an “Open-Top Bus Ride Tour” and the rest
of band visits their old stomping grounds
where they grew up and where the infamous
River Thames incident took place during the
Queen’s Silver Jubilee. Rotten offers up a
bounty of disturbing opinions on London’s
new architecture, humanity, punk and whatever else he feels worthy of acknowledging.
He’s still obnoxiously charming, which proves
that some things do stay the same.
Some aging anarchists holding firm to the
concept of rebellious purity will argue that the
Sex Pistols as a band have officially sold out,
but considering that even Pink Floyd and Bob
Dylan now endorse computers and cars by
allowing their songs to be used in commercials, we think the snotty punks from England
deserve a pass on their first DVD release. –CK
MSRP $19.99
rhinorecords.com
Paul Simon: Live From Philadelphia
Stuff members Eric Gale, Richard Tee, and
Steve Gadd also figure in this new release
from Paul Simon. Watching this 1980 performance brings home how the backing of his
musicians enhanced the greatness of Simon’s
music. Gale, Tee, and Gadd pave a greasy
foundation of rock-solid, African-American,
rhythm and blues feeling upon which Simon
builds effigies of white, urban angst, like “ 50
Ways to Leave Your Lover,” and “Still Crazy
After All These years.” A recent rash of tepidly arranged Simon covers by “modern”
singer/songwriters has only served to point up
further how it was inspired players who made
Simon’s records so infectious. Whether they
were on the original versions or not, Gale,
Tee, and Gadd are the peers of the musicians
who were, and their performances here help
to elevate even the weaker material from One
Trick Pony to rollicking heights.
Simon has always been an excellent guitarist,
largely in the acoustic realm. Here he employs
a Gibson L5-S for solo fingerpicking, and
to lay down bedrock rhythm for Eric Gale’s
Gibson Super 400-powered blues excursions,
turning to a large-bodied Guild acoustic for
“Something So Right.” Gale’s passionate playing belies the stoic, almost bored, expression
he manifests, sitting on his stool, with only a
fluttering of his eyelids to indicate the effort he
puts into his sultry licks.
Though the Super 400
is a model you would
might associate with
mellow jazz, it has a
raunchier pedigree
as well: Elvis guitarist Scotty Moore
and blues maestro
Robben Ford have
both ripped it up
on this jumbo axe.
Check out this DVD and
you will add Eric Gale’s name to the list. –MR
Street $9.98
eaglerockent.com
