Given a choice of three new video collections—from Elvis Costello, The Flaming Lips, and Sixteen Horsepower—it's hard to imagine too many rock fans gravitating to the one by the grim alt-country band. But as obscure as 16HP (Smooch/Revolver) may be, it's also the best of the three. The double-disc set collects philosophical interviews with intense, charismatic singer-songwriter David Eugene Edwards, as well as a handful of live performances by a band whose gothic western music contains echoes of Nick Cave, The Gun Club, and Tindersticks. The videos scatter images of dustbowls, lumberyards, Biblical terrors, and—in the Quay Brothers-directed "Black Soul Choir"—the end of everything…
Of course it helps Sixteen Horsepower's case that the other two artists aren't known for their video-making prowess. The Flaming Lips perform wildly expressionistic music, but the clips compiled on Video Overview In Deceleration: The Flaming Lips 1992-2005 (Warner Reprise Video) tend to be lo-fi performance pieces with pedestrian psychedelic imagery. Meanwhile, Costello's The Right Spectacle (Rhino) serves up 27 of his frequently silly videos, many filmed in the days before MTV, when it was enough for musicians to bop around in an exotic locale. Both The Right Spectacle and the Lips' VOID are saved by their commentary tracks, which have the artists free-associating about old times. Costello is especially witty, making cracks about how he plays "the invisible maracas" in one video, and how "The first line in this song mentions tulips, and lo and behold, I'm holding tulips." The Right Spectacle also includes more than an hour of energized Costello live performances, taken from European television. If only The Flaming Lips had been as generous…
Hit Me Baby One More Time and Bands Reunited have shown that some '80s pop acts were better live performers than their MTV-born reputations would've predicted. For further evidence, here's The Human League's Live At The Dome (MVD), which documents a typical night on the band's 2003 reunion tour, as original vocalists Phil Oakey, Susan Anne Sulley, and Joanne Catherall perform on a sleek set, flanked by machines. The hits—"Mirror Man," "Human," "(Keep Feeling) Fascination," "Don't You Want Me"—all sound just fine, but the show's highlight is the obscure track "All I Ever Wanted," which features the vocalists glammed-up and dancing robotically around each other, making the utopian future look surprisingly sexy…
For decades, Peter Sykes' 1968 head-trip film The Committee (Eclectic/MVD) was best known for its soundtrack, which features pastoral instrumentals by the still-fledgling Pink Floyd, and a freaky live performance by The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown. But the movie is also a neat little counterculture curio, with striking black-and-white cinematography and a camera that moves through multiple axes while exploring corporate conformity. Granted, the social commentary only extends as far as having uptight young men in suits prattle on about "processing the forms," but though the Kafka-esque tidbits turn up stale, the progressive music and crisp look make this sociological study go down easy…
Pixies' tour manager and lighting guy both seem nice enough, but they're about the only extras on Pixies Sell Out: 2004 Reunion Tour (Rhino), a DVD that overflows with live performances—about two and half hours' worth—by a band that isn't nearly as exciting to watch as it is to listen to. Still, the triumphant return is fun for a while, particularly those rare moments when the band members decide to smile and enjoy the adoration of truly massive crowds.