DVD Review – Rockabilly Rocking Swing with Slim Jim Phantom
Slim Jim Phantom is awesome… more awesomely awesome then you will ever be, and this video proves it! Woe unto you he who knowith not how awesome he is for he is just that awesome. Is what I would proclaim smugly if I weren’t above such things. Which I’m apparently not but seriously that is how smug this video comes across to me. Almost to the point of making the thing too comical to watch. I’m gonna keep this review short because the less I say the less likely I’ll say something I’ll regret.
Content
You’ll never find another drum instructional that isn’t a parody that has this kinda content. This blows Tris Imboden’s video out of the water in terms of being a sub-par instructional video. It is straight up comical. I hope Slim Jim Phantom is just a persona this guy plays when he’s on the stage. Because if he’s this full of himself in real life I’m surprised his ego doesn’t just repel everyone in a fifty foot radius. He talks a little bit of actual rockabilly drumming and the rest is him stroking his ego on camera… I kinda feel dirty watching it. There is literally a large section on how to get a cool image and dance around on stage like he does. He even doesn’t sit down when he plays drums because he likes being up front! Never mind the fact that he can’t operate a hi-hat with his set. There is very little education and a lot of preening and ego stroking. Seriously if we could convert his smugness into energy then we could power a 5 state area.
Presentation
It’s a very old film so the effects aren’t that great but the camera work is ok and, to his credit, he does have the best backdrop on a instructional video I’ve ever seen. Nice lighting… too bad that the host of the video is the most self absorbed man since Narcissus. He even has a section where he tells you how to get hair like his! This crap isn’t normal for an instructional video!
Extras
What you want more of this guy? What’s wrong with you? Fine he has some bonus footage at the end of the video.
There you go. If you wanna laugh at a over inflated egotist then buy this DVD… If you wanna learn something go somewhere else.
Oct 11, 2009 @ 07:22:02
You expected more from someone named Slim Jim Phantom??
Oct 11, 2009 @ 10:31:55
I expect more from ?uestlove and he has a funny nickname. You don’t expect this kinda arrogance, it just comes at you from the clear blue sky!
No one thinks people THIS full of themselves exist until they see them.
Oct 15, 2009 @ 19:24:15
Context.
If youre watching a video of a particular dude like say Slim Jim from the Straycats or a blues shuffle cat like from Double Trouble and you get an overdose of one-dimensionality (like nuthin but the blues) and a some personality thrown in, why act so surprised?
I mean these cats are selling dvds with their picture on it. If they were pro instructors, youd proly never heard their names before. Its a product based on a character and a genre. And I think it delivered fine.
Oct 16, 2009 @ 00:07:04
I didn’t say squat about being annoyed by the one dimensionality of the music, the music was fine. It’s the ego and lack of any real instruction that teed me off.
If you enjoy this thing then write your own review. I would love to see what you would write because I can’t believe someone who has seen this video could defend it.