ON DVD

From 'Conchords' to 'Unseen Beatles,' these DVDs sing

By John DeFore
SPECIAL TO AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Friday, December 07, 2007

The HBO series "Flight of the Conchords" was released on DVD about a month ago, and my wife and I haven't finished it yet. Oh, we've watched all 12 of the half-hour episodes, enjoying the misadventures — make that non-adventures — of two transplanted New Zealanders who think they're a rock band. Yet the disc continues to sit by the TV, and we pop it in every few evenings for 10 or 15 minutes, enjoying another helping of the hilariously dumb novelty songs the fellas perform.

In one episode, Jemaine Clement delivers a Prince-like pitch to a blonde he thinks is "the most beautiful girl in the (pause) room." She's so beautiful, he insists, she "could be a waitress." Or "a part-time model," though she'd probably have to keep her normal job. In other episodes, the boys channel David Bowie in his various guises, or dive into unconvincing rap braggadocio ("I'm the hiphopopotamus, my lyrics are bottomless!"), or pretend to be robots who have extinguished the human race. It's a lot of value for your entertainment dollar, even if the plots are just so-so and the second six episodes aren't nearly as fun as the first six.

When we eventually tire of the Conchords, plenty of other music-related titles await on the new-release shelf. Some recent highlights follow.

Concert films:While "I'm Not There" mystifies Dylanologists in local theaters, "The Other Side of the Mirror" gathers three years' worth of actual Bob Dylan appearances at the Newport Folk Festival, leading up to the 1965 electric set that went down in history. Led Zep fans baffled by Robert Plant's recent teaming with Alison Krauss can return to 1973 with "The Song Remains the Same." And U2 devotees who wish Bono spent a little less time at the U.N. can revisit the Popmart tour with "Live From Mexico City." Meanwhile, the recently revived Stax label offers both a 1967 "Stax/Volt Revue" (starring Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, and Booker T.), and the Otis-only "The Legacy of Otis Redding."

Docs:VH1 got a Toronto Film Festival launch for its fan-friendly "Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who." Viewers who like more critical analysis in their rock portraits should look to the very fine "Under Review" imprint, which pairs scholarly commentary with concert clips; recent installments in the ongoing series focus on Nick Drake and the late-'60s Rolling Stones. Until "Under Review" turns its lens on hip-hop, we have a new 25th anniversary edition of the landmark "Wild Style" to keep us company. As its title suggests, "The Unseen Beatles" gathers stray bits of early ephemera documenting Beatlemania; for a kookier but more enduring picture, see the new reissue of Richard Lester's "Help!"

Musicals:While Fox mines the vaults for obscure "Marquee Musicals" such as "The Girl Next Door" and "With a Song in My Heart: the Jane Froman Story," the bizarre phenomenon of "Hairspray" comes full circle, from movie to stage show to movie again. Similarly cyclical is "Follow My Voice," which documents the tributes real musicians (Rufus Wainwright, Sleater-Kinney, Yo La Tengo) pay to an imaginary band, Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

Near-musicals and odd ducks: The 1980s BBC series "The Young Ones," in which deadbeat sitcommery was frequently interrupted by visits from Madness or Motörhead, just hit stores in a three-disc "Extra Stoopid Edition," paving the way for other stories that technically aren't musicals but certainly borrow vibes from a musical scene: Wim Wenders' little-seen "Lisbon Story" lets the Portuguese group Madredeus provide the backdrop for a character's musings on cinema, while the slightly less obscure "Saturday Night Fever" uses the Bee Gees to accompany John Travolta's odyssey through outer-borough masculinity in the disco era.

Wild card:Not a musical, not a doc, not a concert flick — but Monte Hellman's great "Two-Lane Blacktop" may be the strangest overlap of movies and music culture to hit stores this year. Yes, that's James Taylor playing a role for those of us who hate James Taylor; yes, that's the Beach Boys' tragic figure Dennis Wilson as his partner in crime. Together, the two race cross-country against Warren Oates, who gives one of the most enjoyable performances in a career full of them. Bonus points for Criterion's new double-disc reissue: Richard Linklater provides a 16-item list of reasons to love the film (first delivered in a South by Southwest tribute), including his assertion that it offers "the most purely cinematic ending in film history."