In Downloaded, Alex Winter (whom you may know best as Bill S. Preston in the Bill and Ted movies) has put together an account of the rise and fall of Napster, the infamous music file-sharing program that began in college student Shawn Fanning's dorm room and grew into its own company before being sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Done in a rather fast-paced fashion with no narration, Downloaded gives a good account of how Napster changed the music industry. A very large number of artists and industry folk appear here, but the most prominent are Chris Blackwell (founder of Island Records), Henry Rollins, Noel Gallagher, Seymour Stein (founder of...Read the entire review

Reviewed at the 2012 South by Southwest Film Festival

Uprising: Hip Hop and the L.A. Riots opens with the camera accompanying Mr. Rodney King on a walk through Los Angeles. Here's a point of interest: "...and I was down here on the ground, getting my brains beat in." That happened on the night of March 31, 1991, and it might have disappeared into the ether, yet another example of the brutality of the LAPD, had a resident in a nearby apartment building not had a video camera handy. The tape of Mr. King's beating became one of the most famous amateur videos in history, and was at the center of a seemingly open and shut case against the four cops wielding those batons. And then they were all acquitted, and the city of Los ...Read the entire review

The Product:
Bob Seeger once argued that rock and roll "never forgets" - and if you happen to be as vital a part of the musical landscape as the mighty Detroit demi-god, you have a point. No matter what happens, no matter how many concerts you sell out (or fail to fill) someone like Seeger has made it. He's part of the always changing sonic fabric. But for bands like Anvil, journeymen who face down the ever-changing choices in the genre divide, rock and roll has a fairly poor memory. As originators (or perhaps more appropriately, original advocators) of a new kind of thrash speed metal, the Canadian quartet rose rapidly into the ranks of soon-to-be-superstars. They released the classic Metal on Metal album in 1982 and participated in the Super Rock Festival in Japan. They shared the stage with bands like Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, and the Scorpions. But as the amazing documentary Anvil: ...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Hot on the heels of the first two volumes in the best selling Kissology series comes the third collection of vintage Kiss television appearances and live performances, this time around covering the Revenge tour and the reunion years between 1992 and 2000 over four jam packed DVDs.

Here's a look at what's on each of the four discs in the collection:

Disc 1:

The first disc starts off with a rock solid live performance from Detroit, where the band has always had a rabid following. The Revenge line up that we see here is very strong. They play with energy and professionalism and not one member misses a beat. While they do a fair share of vintage songs, the real reason to watch this show is to check out some of the cuts from the album they were promoting with this tour, as once the reunion starts we don't really see any of it and <...Read the entire review