REVIEWS:

What’s the read on the latest reissue releases and live performances by classic rock artists? What biopics, movies or documentaries are worth seeing in theaters and at home? What books about rock music and the people who make and work with it are worth reading. Our team also takes a fresh look at notable works in our Album Rewind series

Jeff Lynne’s ELO: A Triumphant Night Out

A new DVD, Jeff Lynne’s ELO Live In Hyde Park, is a great precursor to a worldwide tour thanks to Lynne’s recent announcement that he’s resurrecting the Electric Light Orchestra

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How Have The Mekons Survived?

Against most odds and the worst vagaries of the music business, former punks turned roots music collective The Mekons have become beloved by enough fans. The 2013 documentary, Revenge Of The Mekons, is now out on DVD.

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Does Ricki Rock?

Can Meryl Streep rock the silver screen in Ricki and The Flash? Her all-too-rare in the movies real live band certainly does in this pleasant enough flick.

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Listless Andy Summers Doc

Subtitled “Surviving The Police,” one has to wonder just what guitarist Andy Summers had to overcome when superstardom ended – other than just that.

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Love & Mercy: Best Rock Star Biopic Ever?

The seemingly risky move of having two actors play Brian Wilson – Paul Dano as the young Beach Boy and John Cusack as the older Wilson – succeeds admirably in this emotionally compelling film that tells the legendary artist’s story with the ring of truth and uncanny accuracy.

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Wilko Johnson Film Explores Life and Death

He is likely best-known in America not for his music with the band Dr. Feelgood – who achieved even-less-than-cult-status in the US though well known in his native England – but for his role as the mute executioner, in Game of Thrones

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Doug Sahm’s Groove Captured in 2015 Documentary

“You have to see him, you have to hear him, you have to bear witness…”

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‘Wrecking Crew’ Doc Honors LA Studio Musicians

The ace musicians performed on literally hundreds of recordings by the Beach Boys, Mamas and the Papas, Sonny & Cher, the Righteous Brothers and more

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So Many Roads Brings The Grateful Dead Into Sharp Focus

In So Many Roads author David Browne delves into the “long strange trip” of the Grateful Dead and makes sense of it all in a “smart & satisfying” band bio

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Viv Albertine’s ‘Fascinating’ Punk Rock Memoir

Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys by Viv Albertine (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press) In A Word: Unsparing If you were a fan of the Slits and their sui generis, serrated, feral music, it should come as

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