I just spotted this in the store the other day! Any Dopers have a copy? Is it worth picking up? What’s the videos on the DVD like? Anybody know?
I’ve got a copy. For the hardcore fan the CDs are kind of lacking in unreleased material (basically a radio session and three unreleased/hard to find tracks… Bylar, Sambatiki and The Lotus Eaters), but the DVD (the “Toward the Within” concert/interview movie plus five videos) is excellent.
The best videos are for “Frontier” and “The Protagonist,” classic 4AD… makes me wish they’d release “Lonely is an Eyesore” on DVD. I think “The Carnival is Over” is kind of blah, and the other two are excerpts from Baraka and don’t quite work… it’s better to see the whole film which is available on DVD.
It’s a shame they haven’t released more live albums, as they were drop dead gorgeous live and also performed a lot of material on stage that they never released on their albums.
-fh
hazel- rah, I saw them in Atlanta back in '93 or '94, best damn concert I’ve been to. What’s the “Lonely is an Eyesore” you mentioned? Its vaguely familar to me, but I can’t place it.
Yeah, words really don’t do them justice, they were so damn good live, probably as close as I’ll ever get to a religious experience. I saw Brendan Perry in '99 and he was fantastic as well, even played a few DCD songs (notably “In Power We Entrust the Love Advocated” and “I Can See Now/American Dreaming”).
Anyway, “Lonely Is An Eyesore” is a compilation put out by 4AD (Dead Can Dance’s record label) in '86 or ‘87. At the time all the tracks were exclusive to the compilation and it had a video compilation that went along with it (although with slightly different tracks from the album/CD). The title comes from the Throwing Muses’ track “Fish” which to me is easily the best song they ever recorded.
Should still be available (the CD, I mean… don’t know about the video compilation). It has two Dead Can Dance songs on it but they’re both included in the box set, as are the videos.
-fh
I saw DCD in Seattle in '93 (I think).
Goosebumps.
Wow! I had no idea this was out…will be looking to pick it up very soon. Thanks for the heads up, Tuckerfan.
I own the box set. As others said, not much in terms of new music, though the song that was supposed to be in the follow up to spiritchaser sounded great to me and made me all the more sad they broke up. There’s a history of the band and interviews included that are pretty interesting. Not many pictures of them, though, if that’s what you’re into.
The real reason to get it for me was to get the Toward the Within concert video on DVD. I have it on VHS but I yearned for the better audio/video quality.
If you go to Brendan Perry’s website, you can sign up to take percussion classes with him at his studio in Ireland. Seems like a good deal to me. Wish he’d put out some new music soon, though.