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
‘Big In Japan’ Rocks Like Real Life
This charming indie film about a rock band making its last stab at success in Tokyo uses the real life group Tennis Pro to make a rock flick that feels true. With its very cool songs, superb performances by its all amateur actors and vivid scenes in the land of the rising son, Big in Japan charms and gets life in a band right.
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How Music Got Free: The End of The Biz
How did the recorded music industry go from raking in big bucks to imploding? How Music Got Free tells the whole sordid tale like a gripping mystery.
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The Who Hits 50 Right on the Bullseye
They perform in concert like a great band should: Playing their music in a way that’s still alive and musically anew, showing their staying power
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U2 Soars to the Rafters in Boston
Jim Sullivan observes how U2 can still summon up greatness & emotional wallop throughout an arena on their iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE tour of America.
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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.
Read MoreWilko 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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