ANVIL'S CRITICAL ACCLAIM

Anvil! The Story of Anvil got a great review in The New Yorker of all places. Wow.  I've got to see this movie. 

IF NO ONE NOTICES A BAND, DOES ANYONE NOTICE A DOCUMENTARY ON THAT BAND?

Yes, scary picture, I know. It's the guys from '80s thrash metal band, Anvil. I barely remember them from back in the day, so I was surprised that someone actually just did a documentary on them. And even more surprised that the documentary got rave reviews. But supposedly, Anvil! The Story Of Anvil is great, and may bring the band to bigger fame than they got in their heyday, such as it was. I'll be curious to see this. Learn more about the movie here.

ANVIL! COMES OUT APRIL 10

The documentary on '80s metal band Anvil has been picked up by VH1, and it will be released in select cities in April.  I was never a fan of the band, but I hear it is an awesome film. 

SUNDANCE WILL "ROCK"

Not that I'm attending The Sundance Film Festival, but among the many great films that will be screened there are a couple of cool-sounding "rock" flicks.

"Bernard Shakey" (alias Neil Young) has directed a doc called Deja Vu, which documents Crosby Stills Nash & Young's summer 2006 tour, which was in support of Neil's Living With War album. It should be interesting, and not just because I'm a huge Neil fan. I went to that tour, and the reactions were really interesting. Where I can almost understand some conservative rock fans being surprised when, say, Bruce Springsteen or John Mellencamp make politically progressive statements (in other words, pointing out the obvious - that bush II/rove/cheney have done horrible damage to this country), I don't know how you could be surprised by CSNY's progressive views. And yet, people were offended by some of Neil's new songs. But I know that there have been a lot of Vietnam vets who are against this illegal war, and I think the film focuses on that.

Politics aside, I'd love to see some behind-the-scenes stuff about the band though. I know that they love each other, but they can't seem to get along for long periods. And I think that Stephen Stills in particular, isn't always comfortable with the more radical politics of the other three. Although his solo song, "Treetop Flyer," which he performed on the tour, is one of the best songs about a Vet. Also, I hope they put out a soundtrack - there haven't been any releases from any CSNY tour since they reunited in 1999. Then again, we've been waiting for a Neil box set since I was in college.

Then there's the upcoming U2 3D flick, smartly called U23D. That one is just supposed to bring the excitement of a U2 concert to the big screen, in a way that maybe Rattle & Hum didn't. (Personally, I think that the Rattle & Hum album, at least, is really underrated.) I look forward to catching that in IMAX. I've seen ever U2 tour since 1985, and other than on the Pop tour, they've never let me down. Their shows on their last tour were great.

There's also a Patti Smith documentary which should be interesting, and a doc on a sort of forgotten thrash metal band called Anvil. I was never interested in them back in the day (although I was and am a big fan of many of thier peers, Anvil just seemed goofy to me) the film could be interesting, because it documents their comeback attempt.

But I still have some current rock movies to catch up on: I'm Not There, the Joy Division doc Control and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.

UPDATE: THE OSCARS STILL SUCK

Actually, that title isn't 100% fair.

I was happy that Slumdog Millionaire did so well at the Oscars last year, it deserved it, as did the film's music composer, A.R. Rahman. But not nominating Bruce Springsteen's "The Wrestler" was lame, as so was making all the nominated songs perform together as a medley (a decision that led nomoinee Peter Gabriel to decide to attend the Oscars, but not perform).

I've heard that this year they've decided not to have any musical performances at all. And they've just released thier short list of documentaries that they are considering for nominations this year, and it doesn't include Anvil! The Story of Anvil or It Might Get Loud. Weak!

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: ANVIL?

Anvil, the old school metal band making one of the most dramatic comebacks ever thanks to a supposedly great documentary, may be up for an Oscar this year! The doc was just submitted to the Academy. (By the way, I say "supposedly," because I haven't seen it yet, but I hear it's great).

IRON MAIDEN'S FLIGHT 666

Anvil isn't the only metal band with a documentary coming out. Iron Maiden's Flight 666 comes out this week (it will be in theaters for one day thanks to digital distribution) and will be out on DVD soon after. It's a doc from their most recent tour, and I know they interviewed famous and non famous fans. Should be pretty cool. 

THIS WEEK ON OUTQ: CHRISTMAS ALBUMS!

For those of you who are new to No Expiration: every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET, I go on the SIRIUSXM channel OutQ and talk about music on the great show The Morning Jolt With Larry Flick.
Anyway, as I said when I wrote about Christmas music last year, I'm Jewish and not much of a Christmas music guy. That said, last year I came up with some great Christmas music: Little Steven's collection of garage rock Christmas tunes, The Reverend Horton Heat's christmas album We Three Kings, the We Wish You A Metal Xmas and a Headbanging New Year compilation and the all time classic, Phil Spector's A Christmas Gift For You. I won't even try to beat that lineup, and if you don't have those albums, go get them. But here's some other good stuff, starting with my favorite pick of this year:

I actually wrote about The Hives' holiday collaboration with Cyndi Lauper last year, but I didn't find out about it until after my OutQ holiday music episode. It's called "A Christmas Duel," and it is just as awesome as you would hope it would be. Trust me.

Next up is Bob Dylan's Christmas In The Heart, which I've written about. So much has been written about this album. Is he kidding? Seeing what he can get away with? The album is so straight - New York magazine compared it to Andy Williams! It's not far off - it's done very straight, so to speak. But if you listen to Bob's Theme Time Radio Hour on SIRIUSXM's here, you know that Bob loves that straight up old-school American pop music from the '40s and '50s. As big of a Dylan fan as I am, I didn't feel the need to get the whole record. But if you do, the proceeds go to Feeding America. Actually, having said that, now I feel guilty, maybe I will get it.

Pretentious time! Stewart Copeland must be having field say with this one. After a few years of reminding people of how cool he used to be with The Police reunion tour, Sting is back on the semi-classical music tip with his seasonal album, If On A Winter's Night. Actually, the album sounds like it was made to be made fun of, and of course Sting doesn't care. He can do anything he wants. The two songs I've downloaded, "Soul Cake" and "Christmas At Sea," are quite good, I like them despite myself.

Years ago, I saw Melissa Etheridge at a radio station Christmas concert at Madison Square Garden. It was more of an alt-rock thing with Green Day and Hole headlining. Melissa actually had her own sold-out headlining gig at the Garden the week after, so to make this show different, she did it solo acoustic. Which could be intimidating in a huge arena, in front of a crowd that may not be your crowd. Unless you're Melissa Etheridge. Truth to tell, she blew Green Day and Hole and everyone else away. She did a great cover of John Lennon's "Happy XMas." She's exactly who you want playing Christmas music. She's sometimes a bit too earnest even for me, but I have a soft spot for her. Her Christmas album, A New Thought For Christmas, came out last year, and I didn't get to it, but I figured I'd get it this year. "Christmas In America" is classic Melissa, a great song about someone whose loved one is serving their country overseas on Christmas.


Tori Amos has a holiday album, Midwinter Graces. I was surprised at that, given she's been a huge critic of religion over the years. On the other hand, her dad is a priest! While I haven't enjoyed Tori's last few releases, her first four or so albums are classics, and I am a fan for life. I like the song I heard from the new album, "Star Of Wonder." Will Larry let me discuss her? We'll find out tomorrow. He is not a fan.



Rob Halford has reunited his other band, Halford, for a holiday album, Halford 3: Winter Songs. It is hard to imagine Judas Priest doing this album, but it makes sense, kind of, for Rob. He's like an opera singer. It has elements of metal, but isn't a metal album really. Good for Rob to be able to stretch out between Priest projects.


Last year, Weezer released the EP Christmas With Weezer, and it had a version of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" which sounds just the way you'd expect, it's fun.


Here's a weird one: Eban Schletter's Cosmic Christmas. He does the music for Spongebob Squarepants, among other shows. I am bringing a thermin-based version of "We Three Kings," I don't know if Larry will want to hear it.


Also, if we get to it, the followup EP to last year's We Wish You A Metal XMas. It features Steve "Lips" Kudlow of Anvil singing "Frosty The Snowman," former Coal Chamber singer Dez Fafara singing "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer," Doro Pesch singing "O' Christmas Tree" and the reunited Girlschool doing "Auld Lang Syne."