Each Tuesday we're here to help you figure out how to best spend your home entertainment dollar, specifically through highlighting some important new music and video releases. Here are some choice cuts among the releases out this week:
MUSIC
The New Basement Tapes, Lost on the River. This is a project in which your excitement level will correlate directly to how much you like
the artists involved — Elvis Costello, My Morning Jacket's Jim James, Mumford & Sons Marcus Mumford, Dawes' Taylor Goldsmith and Carolina Chocolate Drops' Rhiannon Giddens — and how much of a Bob Dylan completist you are. The group took a bunch of recently discovered Dylan lyrics penned in 1967, around the time he recorded the famous
Basement Tapes album, and put them to music. The results are pretty great. Here's James doing a song called "Down on the Bottom:"
Foo Fighters, Sonic Highways. One of the few ways Dave Grohl and Co. could make a new Foo Fighters album sound at least a little bit different from the band's past releases is the experiment on
Sonic Highways, in which they travel to eight cities and record a song in each, using local talent, ala horn players in New Orleans, or punk producer Steve Albini in Chicago. The
HBO series tracking the band's recording for the album is better than the resulting tunes, but Foo Fighters are pretty critic-proof at this point. Here's the band doing new tune "Something from Nothing" on a recent Letterman:
Parkay Courts, Content Nausea. If you've yet to dive into the Pavement-y goodness that is the
Brooklyn indie-rockers Parquet Courts, it's time to get to it. But the band doesn't make it easy — they released an excellent collection,
Sunbathing Animal, under their proper Parquet Courts moniker earlier this year, and now they're back with a new full-length they're releasing under the name Parkay Courts. That's not even all the names they use; PCPC and PC Worship are basically the same four young dudes. Here's a tune called "Uncast Shadow of a Southern Myth:"
FILM
The mainstream video releases this week include the Melissa McCarthy/Susan Sarandon vehicle
Tammy, which slow-burned its way into making $85 million after
many claimed it a flop, kids-flick
How to Train Your Dragon II and
New Girl: The Movie, er,
Let's Be Cops.
Some smaller releases worth a look:
Happy Christmas features Anna Kendrick as an irresponsible adult who has to move in with her brother, his wife and their two-year-old son. The movie was
pretty well-received by critics and hey, it's seasonal! Here's a look:
Monty Python Live (Mostly): One Down, Five to Go captures the surviving Monty Python members from the live show they did in London this summer, recreating classic sketches, adding some fresh material and generally be hilarious. And old. Very, very old.
Mood Indigo is the latest visually enthralling feast — quite literally — from director Michel Gondry, the man behind
Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind and
Be Kind Rewind, and stars the always charming Audrey Tautou (
Amelie). Here's a look: