Pure punk rock and cult, that’s what you can say about the four maniacs with their rocking hairdos. Sadly Johnny Ramone, Dee Dee Ramone and Joey Ramone are no more, Marky these days plays with the Misfits. So, this DVD (out on BMG) is more than a normal DVD, it’s a visual memory treasury .

Served in a natty hardcover paper package with embossed printing and a booklet inside, the icons present us a nice tourstory, suiting to the recommendable book „On The Road With The Ramones“ (Sanctuary Publishing). Finally, 30 years after their origin it is really high time for such a release. „Raw“ is not only a movie about their career (1974 – 1996), it is also a document about the personal sides hidden behind the phenomenon Ramones. Most of the material shows the band backstage, whilst TV recordings (f.e. „The Howard Stern Summer Show“, „The Uncle Floyd Show“, „USA Up All Night“, MTV's „120 Minutes“) were going on or whilst the band was on tour, where even proms like Drew Barrymore, Debbie Harry, U2 or Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister showed up. Also the stuff Marky captured with his high-8 camera is very entertaining. Specially all the TV appearances are not available in better quality and summing-ups elsewhere as most of the recordings also are rare and not easy to find. A special cookie for every Ramones fan is the "I Ramones Live in Rome, Italy 1980" full-length (27 mins) bonus program. Well, this concert is also part of the main program, so you've kinda repetition here, but on the bonus version there are additional songs and it’s shown without interruption. Another thing to notice is the audio commentary by Johnny Ramone, Marky Ramone and director John Cafiero (also known from his visual work with the Misfits). This item should get a place in your DVD shelf. One, two, three, four...

Laibach: The Videos is a visual spectacle that will perplex and entertain anyone who loves the challenging music of Laibach.

This great collection of videos, spanning Laibach’s controversial career of making people feel uncomfortable, is a definite DVD to explore. Although Laibach has been accused of being both fascists and communists, I suppose the band’s choice of totalitarian visual elements can lead to such a simplified conclusion.
Aside from any speculation about Laibach’s political affiliation, the band has always managed to turn the music upside down and inside out, displaying an unpalatable moveable feast not fit for consumption. Visually speaking, Laibach uses the art of juxtaposition to stunning effect, often bringing about seemingly contradictory imagery while obliterating all referential equilibrium in the process.
So, visually, what you have on this DVD is an amalgamation of the grainy martial lens of Leni Riefenstahl's propaganda films, the pastoral militancy from The Sound of Music, wartime newsreels, and the desolation of Solaris. The video for the song “Final Countdown” is a futuristic New World of computer graphics and animation (directed by Laibach in 1994) that is absolutely stunning.
Besides the thirteen videos, Laibach also included on this DVD a documentary (WAT EPK) on the origins of Laibach and NSK (the artistic collective from where the band originated), plus individual commentary about all of the songs on their WAT CD. Even more fun than reading Spengler’s Der Untergang des Abendlandes, this DVD is a must see for fans of the band, or for the perpetually curious who might enjoy pondering the devastation of the next world war.