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The premiere issue of this DVD magazine emphasizes
Circuit's commitment to peering behind the curtains of contemporary rock & roll. Start cute with a visit by Swedish rockers the Cardigans to an upscale bowling alley, accompanied by four different cuts of the band's dark and controversial video for "My Favorite Game." Dig a little deeper with an excerpt from Banks Tarver's documentary about the exemplary Dayton indie group Guided By Voices, whose weathered, late-30s members are seen at one point looking as fresh as Hanson in an ancient photograph. The post-Bill Berry R.E.M. celebrates its techno-heavy album
Up; separate interviews with Mike Mills, Peter Buck, and Michael Stipe go into some detail about the band's reinvention during the making of the densely layered, melancholy record. A live performance by Grant Lee Buffalo is preceded by footage of a sound check--totally unnecessary to see, of course, but pretty cool all the same. The most interesting piece in this anthology, however, is a black-and-white interview with Beck (conducted by an off-screen, robotic voice), who illuminates the mysteries behind his songwriting process and reveals he once lived without electricity for 15 weeks. (Thus all those acoustic songs.) There are also interviews with Cake, producer Paul Kimble, and the Stooges' Ron Asheton. Less compelling, perhaps, is an anachronistic video for Rialto's drippy "5:19 (Monday Morning)," but you take the bad with the good. In this case there's plenty of the latter, and with alternate soundtracks and DVD-ROM features, this premiere issue takes full advantage of DVD's potential.
--Tom Keogh
