Giant Sand

The most dramatic moment on this slight DVD comes when drummer John Convertino reads a Rolling Stone review of a Giant Sand record to the rest of the band. "Things buzz and bump and crash as randomly as drunken bees," reads the review, much to the amusement of the musicians, who love the phrase. Sadly, the scattershot approach that bandleader Howe Gelb has taken on most of his records is amplified on this DVD, which is so threadbare that it doesn't even tease us with a hint of greatness, as even Gelb's sloppiest work does. The main attraction is a short doc that clocks in a whopping 27 minutes and dates back to 1994. Even worse, most people's home movies could probably tell you more about Giant Sand than this film, and they'd no doubt look better, too. It's accompanied by two extras: one is an even shoddier glimpse of the band recording a KCRW session, also from 1994; the other is a 1989 music video.