A Mixed Bag of "Alt-Rock" From The Basement

Music DVD Review: - From The Basement

What we have here is a DVD that comes exactly as advertised. Which is to say that it delivers on its promise of a series of live performances recorded in the studio, without any big production values -- hence the "from the basement" title and theme. The performances seen and heard here were also done mostly without any audience. I say "mostly" only because light applause can occasionally be heard.

As for the artists represented here, they fall mostly under the banner of what might be called "alternative" -- whatever that means these days, since what is heard here is stylistically pretty much all over the place. But there are some big "alt-rock" names here, including Beck, PJ Harvey, the White Stripes, and Sonic Youth.

The biggest of these names is of course Radiohead, who also get the lions share of the playing time here with four tracks represented. Two of these ("Down Is The New Up" and "Videotape") close the DVD, and are credited to lead vocalist Thom Yorke, who does perform them solo. But let's face it, they are still Radiohead tracks.

The full band opens the DVD with "All I Need" and "Reckoner," two tracks from the great In Rainbows album. I had already seen Radiohead's stuff when it was shown on VH1 last year, but it's still nice to have here to play whenever the mood strikes. You can never have enough of Radiohead doing stuff from In Rainbows.

But Radiohead are not the only highlight here. The two White Stripes tracks serve as a reminder of just how great Jack White is on guitar (and how Meg pounds the shit out of those drums). The Beck stuff is, well, Beck. PJ Harvey hits some unearthly high notes behind a metronome and an acoustic piano on "The Devil." Sonic Youth sound great walking a tightrope between post-punk and psychedelia on "The Sprawl" and "Pink Steam."

As for the rest of what's here? Well, I have to be honest here and say I skipped through some of it. I'm sure Neil Hannon and Laura Marling are fine songwriters for example, but I lasted less than a minute with each of them. Something about those acoustic guitars and dour faces I guess. Hey, I had a deadline, okay?

On the other hand, there were also some quite pleasant surprises on From The Basement. I definitely liked the doomy lo-fi minor chords of Autolux for example, even if their song "Let It be Broken" sounded suspiciously like a slowed-down version of "Pinball Wizard." I also dug the fuzzed-out rock of Albert Hammond Jr. and the sleepy dirge-rock of Super Furry Animals. And I was already a fan of the Shins. Ditto the Eels.

So my short review reads like this. If you're a Radiohead completist, you want this. Just consider the White Stripes, Sonic Youth, and PJ a nice little bonus. But if you're not, there's plenty of other great stuff here you might also like or otherwise be surprised by as much as I was. There's also some filler. But that's what the skip button is for.