Customer Reviews

Suckdog: Drugs Are Nice - A Suckementary 1988-2005

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Zany collection of concert footage, interviews, music videos and film shorts and, I don't know what the hell that hidden bonus thing was, but it was disturbing. A must have for Lisa Carver fans and an interesting curiosity to have for fans of the 80's and 90's underground scene.

Most of their performances just involve miming sex and violence or just writhing around and/or wailing incoherently, which I guess is basically what I expected, but I expected the concepts to be a lot more thought out. It's weird but it isn't funny or clever. Frankly Courtney Love's antics on Celebrities Uncensored and her various other tv appearances have been more entertaining and creative than this. The recent interview clips with Lisa were vaguely enlightening but made me think of that Everclear song "...they all become volvo driving soccer moms".

This DVD shines light on the history of Lisa Crystal Carver and her band Suckdog. I watched the DVD after reading Lisa's absolutely outrageous/compelling/heartbreaking/funny post-punk autobiography "Drugs are Nice". Even if you didn't read the zine Rollerderby or listen to Suckdog, the book is a great read and the DVD really enhances the reading experience.

The hour long DVD (not including the 1/2 hour hidden segment) covers the period of Suckdog performances, then the I-Movies that Lisa mentions in The Sex Diaries, and includes various extra segments old and new. It provides a very thorough survey of the existing footage and selects the best/most relevant pieces to illustrate the Suckdog performance history. One of my favorite aspects of the DVD was the occasional current day interviews of Suckdog founders Lisa and Rachel. These lively and fascinating segments shed light on the stories underlying historical footage of Psychodrama and Dame Darcy. I enjoyed these sections so much that I'd buy another hour-long DVD of just these present-day interviews!

To conclude, I recommend this for fans of Suckdog and for people reading Lisa Carver's "Drugs are Nice" book. I know you can track down the original or copied VHS compilations on the net, but this DVD is more complete, and has far better image/sound quality. Highly recommendable!