Music DVDs and Blu-rays: Stones, Doors, Suicide Girls, Rig the Jig

Stones in Exile
Eagle Rock
Rolling Stones - 1969-1974:  The Mick Taylor Years
Chrome Dreams


Two Stones DVDs, one excellent, the other, kind of so-so.  Stones in Exile focuses on the recording of the landmark Exile on Main Street (recently reissued/remastered with bonus tracks galore). There are interviews with band members and some remarkable archive footage as a tale unfolds about the Stones' sessions in France - as tax exiles - during Spring, 1971, coming off another classic album, Sticky Fingers.The contemporary artist interviews are, however, just the wrong people overall as Jack White, Liz Phair, Sheryl Crow and Caleb Followill from Kings of Leon all weigh in, will hardly riveting thoughts. Better are producer Don Was, who's actually worked with the Stones and Black Eyed Peas' Will I, who'd sure like to. The bonus material with additional interviews such as Keith Richard and Bill Wyman are revealing, though. And the documentary package does whet the appetite for Eagle Rock's upcoming DVD release of Ladies and Gentlemen ... The Rolling Stones shot during the Exile tour in 1972, the band at the peak of its powers.
The chronicle of the Mick Taylor years, which include Exile of course, is something of a thrown-together piece of product. Interviews with little known British musicians/industry folk mean little, really, save some insights from John Mayall. Much more interesting are comments form Los Angele session men. And don't look for much footage of the band or even audio; instead it's Stones-sounding track, but not the real deals.  Obviously, the producers didn't have the rights to use more then a handful of seconds here and there, if that. 


When You're Strange: A Film About the Doors
Eagle Rock
Blu-ray, also on DVD.


This is the first-ever Doors documentary and it's about time, don't ya think?  It's far superior to Oliver Stone's skewed bio-pic of the band. Written and directed by filmmaker Tom DiCillo with narration by Johnny Depp When You're Strange, chronicles the brief life of one of the greatest bands (still) in rock history. The film features much previously unseen  footage from the band's Sunset Strip beginnings in the mid-60s, to its end in the early '70s, not long after the death of frontman Jim Morrison. But this isn't just his tale, it's an in-depth, revealing look at keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robbie Krieger (who've toured in this decade again as the Doors, as well as drummer John Densmore.  Morrison's excess with alcohol and drugs certainly play a part, but there's much more here in a story about the entire band. It's not perfect by any means. but will certainly be of great interest to Doors fans now spanning several generations.



Suicide Girls Must Die!
First Look Pictures


Oh look, America's favorite tats-and piercings alt-sex girls in a murder mystery of sorts. Some may find it all annoying as almost no one here's a grand thespian, but there's also an appealing camp quality, just like the Suicide Girls' other works. 
Overall, it's midnight movie entertainment for the fetish crowd.
Or if you find half-naked and topless rocker chicks like this a big a thrill.

Rig the Jig

Live in Dublin

DVD+CD

This is a straight-ahead performance on video and audio, from traditional minded Rig the Jig, a spry, Celtic folk group out of 

Roscommon, Longford and Kildare, Ireland The set was recorded at Whelan's in Dublin, a mix of traditional and and contempoary numbers, including a quite winning version of Radiohead's "High and Dry."  Other charming stand-outs include 'The Lark in the Morning’, 'The Sandmount Set," "The Errant Apprentice"  a lovely "The Pretty Fair Maid" and also a take on "Tennessee Waltz."

The DVD/CD combo is available on iTunes and also on the band 

website's store page.