The Jesus Lizard - "Club" DVD

We all have, at the end of the day, great regrets in life. One of mine is not seeing The Jesus Lizard live in their prime. This tremendous live DVD goes a little ways toward righting that wrong.

Filmed during the band's 2009 reunion, "Club" is a wonderful up-close-and-personal, pro-shot experience. The band is as tight (and shiny?) as ever, and frontman David Yow is manic and driven like a madman. The band trounce through most of their early-catalog favorites like "Seasick", "Mouthbreather", "Then Comes Dudley", "Monkey Trick", "Glamourous", and 17 more. It's a full-on frontal assault, with precise, math-rock like grooves and Yow's strained, gargled, and feral vocals. In other words, prime Jesus Lizard. This is a dirty rock show minus the spilled beer and body odor. 

These guys still kick ass years later. Serious fans need to pick this up, as do those who never got the chance to see them. And if the 70-ish minute DVD isn't enough, they've included bonus MP3 files of all the tracks, so you can kick out the Jesus Lizard jams on your ipod, too! Rock on, boys.

(MVD Visual)

The Jesus Lizard website

Ministry - "FIX" DVD

This long-awaited DVD is less a documentary of Ministry's 1996 "Sphinctour" as it is a character study of Al Jourgensen and his serious drug addictions. Painting the sometimes-genius frontman as a paranoid "rock star" whose attitude and excess is legendary, even among his fellow junkies and musician friends, 'FIX" shows what fame and money (and indulgence) can do to an intelligent, thinking, and conscientious individual. Peppering the backstage/off-stage insanity with plenty of live clips (which sound great) helps this presentation, as do the large amount of interviews with past Ministry members (namely Paul Barker, Rey Washam, Louis Svitek, and Ogre), friends, tourmates and collaborators (David Yow, Trent Reznor, Jello Biafra, Maynard Keenan, and Buzz Osborne), and other hangers-on (Jonathan Davis? The babbling nonsense of Casey Chaos of Amen? What?). Anyway, aside from the many talking heads speaking of Al's addictions, we get very little insight into Ministry's history or the other members' lives. Al is the centerpiece here, and it's not a flattering portrait. Perhaps a must-see for serious Ministry fans, but casual fans will have no interest in seeing this messy side of a once-world class band. (Gigantic Pictures)