The Savage Animal 08.25.10: Video Masters - The Spike Jonze Essentials
Posted by Mikey MiGo on 08.25.2010
You might not know it, but you’ve seen his music video direction work. Since 1992, Spike Jonze has made a name for himself directing some of the most memorable, most influential, and best music videos. In this episode of The Savage Animal, Mikey MiGo takes a look at the 10 essential videos of director Spike Jonze.
It's been a decent week. I was graciously provided new glasses by a loved one. It was my first time ever doing an eye exam and getting prescription glasses. Being so into writing and multimedia, vision is crucial so this meant a lot. Then on Thursday, I ventured out to Chicago to do a sit down interview with one of my favorite bands in the world, Fashion Bomb. I've mentioned this "rock-umentary" project for months. We did initial shoots in December 2009 and in the early months of this year. The band has been on the road whenever it's been most convenient to shoot, but we finally got to do the "sit down interview" portion of the project. This past week they hit up Cincinnati and then Flint, Michigan for a show with Dope. After a long night, I'm excited with the results. I'm going to most likely isolate myself for awhile and cut down the many hours of footage into a one a half to two hour feature. I'll keep you updated, like it or not.
This week's freebie match from the "MANIAK MOMENTS" Web Series is weird, but important moment in Maniak Enterprise Wrestling's history. When I first started MEW in 2001, things were greener than a lettuce fight on a football field. The first MEW "World Enterprise Champion" was "Mista" Johnny Showtime. Some drama went down and he, along with a few others, left MEW for a worthless promotion in the area. In the time he was gone, Chase Richards stepped up as the top guy in the company. He would defeat Machine to become the third champ. Upon coming back, Showtime was granted a shot to regain his belt. There seemed to be some legitimate heat between the two and you can tell in how aggressive they are in this match. This match should of gone about another ten minutes, but Chase's knee gave out. He hurt it on ice while working his day job earlier that week, but it was holding up until Showtime got a hold of it. Still, it's an interesting look at the ying and the yang of MEW…
Yeah, He Makes Movies Too…Spike Jonze got his start being really involved in the 1980's world BMX, but would soon get involved in video work. From all accounts he got his video roots in some late 80's skateboarding videos. By the early 90's he was kicking the world of music videos right in the ass. Over the years his creative ventures expanded into straight up film making. He's made three feature length films, "Being John Malkovich", "Adaptation.", and "Where the Wild Things Are". While I personally love only two of these, this a very respectable three movie line up. He's also a co-creator of the MTV hit show and movies "Jackass" and has like a million things going on at once. He's a creative genius really and to me it all starts off with his remarkably awesome work with music videos. Today, we're going to take a look at the 10 essential videos of Mister Spike Jonze…
"100%" by Sonic Youth
(1994) This is Spike's second music video. The first was for "High in High School" by a band called Chainsaw Kittens. It's an interestingly shot video, but nothing like what we have here. Spike had to co direct this with Kim Gordon because he was in most of it. He's the dude in the red flannel at the house party. But another interesting casting factoid is that the hat wearing skate boarder in the black and white shots is the great actor Jason Lee. For those who aren't in the know, he used to be a pro skater before acting. This video is pretty good for when the time is taken into account. This is how a lot of low budget music videos looked back then by college-y bands. The difference is that this one is well done and tells a slight narrative of two skater friends. I think this one is cool because it's like a bridge into what Jonzes was all about at this time. He was into BMX and music and this video really fuses that well.
"Buddy Holly" by Weezer
(1994)This one is a classic video. If you got into a discussion with a music fan and brought the topic of "90's Videos" this would HAVE to be mentioned. The creative fusing of the old television show "Happy Days" and the band performing is awesome. This is a great video. It's cheesy, fun, and is probably one of my personal top 20 videos of all time. To be able to pull something like this off is amazing, but to even think of the idea to be pulled off in the first place is what makes this video so great. In the mid 90's there were a lot of iconic videos out there because the great songs with great videos coming together as almost a lone piece of art. This is one of those videos. I can't hear the song without imaging the video and now I can't see "Happy Days" without thinking about the song. Thinking about it, this song might of ruined the show for me.
"Sabotage" by Beastie Boys
(1994)
The Beasties and Spike worked together many times, but this video still stands out as the best. I do not remember this talk show opening at all, but of course I remember the actual video. It's a great "purposely low budget" throw back to old cop shows. The costumes, action, and tone of the whole video is so over the top and cheesy but you can't help but love it. It's not easy to look this cheap and still maintain and artistic edge. This video does that. I don't think the same effect would have been had with any other band. Spike Jonze and The Beasties just work awesome together. It's a classic song and a classic video. If you disagree then you deserve pain and loss in your life.
"Drop" by The Pharcyde
(1996)This is often considered one of the most creative hip hop videos of all time. You really can't argue with that. It's trippy it messes with you. There's a special Beastie Boy appearance, which makes sense for the obvious lyric sample. What Spike did here was have the group perform the song backwards in various locations doing various dancing or movements. Then when this is replayed backwards, it gives off this really surreal and trippy vibe. I'm not going to pretend I've seen this a million times. I may have in the past, but I remember their "Passing Me By" video much more. Yeah, the song was more popular but I can never get the cinematography out of my head from that one. So to watch this now is a real pleasure and a surprise. I can almost guarantee that I'm going to rewatch this video a lot in the near future.
"It's All About the Benjamins" (Rock Remix) by Puff Daddy
(1997)I've seen this video. I've owned the CD. I still have no idea that Spike Jonze was behind this 1997 video. You'd think I would of with it being nominated for "Video of the Year" on the 98 MTV VMAs. The song was cool on its own, but the "rock remix" of it was just pretty awesome. With Rob Zombie AND Dave Grohl involved how could it not be? I don't care what you think about Diddy, but this song is still rocktastic. The video is weird. It starts off as a candid look at the band and then a flat tire forces Sean Combs and company into a very timid dance. They take over the stage and out comes a rock version of "It's All About The Benjamins". The video kind of reminds me of the "Walk This Way" video in terms of the culture clash and rap rock hybrid. This video is all energy. It's not the best video of Jonze or Combs, but this video just works and is embedded in our minds. This is another one of those era defining songs. The whole "It's All About The Benjamins" craze went kind of far for awhile. Weird Al parodied it, the slang in it became common amongst the world, and it's still referenced often. It'd be crazy to say this video didn't have SOMETHING to do with that.
"Praise You" by Fatboy Slim
(1998)This video cost about $800 to make and most of that went towards replacing a boombox and feeding the cast and crew. This guerilla-style video ended up winning the MTV VMA for "Breakthrough Video", "Best Choreography", and "Best Direction". The thing about this video is that it feels spontaneous, but the dance moves by the "Torrance Community Dance Group" are too well done to be "on the spot". Could this be where the whole spontaneous "flash" dance thing started? Maybe I'm getting the name wrong, but you know… the thing where not-so random people meet in a not-so random place and publicly perform some not-so spontaneous dance or sing a long or Pringles commercial. Who knows? Spike Jonze rocks in this video. He's the center dude in the striped polo shirt. The dude has some moves. The "WTF" look on people's faces rock and this has to be one of the most creative videos ever. That is… at least… until…
"Weapon of Choice" by Fatboy Slim
(2000) Many people would consider this one of the best video videos of all time. That's not an argument I'm looking to start. Not surprisingly, this video is probably more famous than the actual song it's of. The song is a good song, don't get me wrong, but it's something that you'd have fun listening to while it was on and forget about five minutes after it's off. Nothing wrong with that at all. It's just this video is so iconic that you're going to instantly think about the visuals as opposed to the song. We have Christopher Walken dancing and FLYING around in a hotel lobby area. It's random, it's over the top, and it's freaking perfect. This video won six MTV VMAs in 2001, including even one for Walken himself. Watching it again now after not seeing it in what I can only assume is a few years now, it has timelessness to it. In 20 years, this video is still going to be bad ass. It's Christopher Walken, for Pete's sake!
"Get Back" by Ludacris
(2004)This movie isn't that special, but it has just enough surreal visuals and charm to it that you can't help but dig it. Why does Luda have monstrous arms? Why does this video take place in a public bathroom for over two minutes? Why is there fires in the middle of the street Luda is walking down? What's with the women in matching business suits? Then he's on a four wheeler? It's an aggressive track, but ultimately it's a party song. It's a fun song and a fun video.
"Y Control" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs (2004)This video is cute and disturbing at the same time. We see these little misfit children carrying the body of a dead dog, carry weapons around, the whole subtitled thing about mutilation, and a few of them even looked to be enjoying it. It's a bit weird, sure, but when you're putting the two weird forces that are Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Spike Jonze together you're going to get weird results. I just love the way this video looks. It's good times all around. Spike should of gotten the same love for this as "Praise You". It's just as innovative and bizarre. I love it. And yes, we ARE all going hell.
"Drunk Girls" by LCD Soundsystem
(2010)And this is the latest Spike Jonze video out there. We see the band singing and performing into microphones as jump suit pandas harass them. They throw stuff, mock, and physically attack the band as they continue to perform. This video is complete chaos. It's like LCD owes these panda people money, but not a whole lot and they're just roughing them up real good.
Spike Jonze, the master of "WTF" moments?
What is YOUR favorite Spike Jonze video?
RANDOM VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Groooov-vey.
"La La Love You" by Pixies (Live)
This song manages to get stuck in my head about once a month since I did the "First Impressions of the Pixies" column a while back. I am obsessed with this melody. It's a catchy, fun, and feel-good type of song. It's one of the most happy-go-lucky songs of all time, but then it's turned on its ear because of the groove. The groove to this song is flat out mean. When a melody in a rock song is described to as the "groove" of it, then you're on to something with "edge". So no matter how happy the song can be the edge is there and its arrangement is innovative as hell. I like "Where Is My Mind?" and a few other songs, but I wouldn't exactly call myself a "Pixies" fan. It's just a really good song.
RANDOM MOVIE REVIEW
"THE JONESES"
I saw this movie mentioned a few months ago. David Duchovny was on Letterman and he pimped this flick. I didn't think much of it. I'm always a fan of the dude's work. I was never into "X-Files", but I'm a huge fan of "Californication" and pretty much any other movie I've seen him in. I thought "The TV Set", "Evolution", "House of D" and all these projects were good if not great. I just like the dude's style, his written work, and the roles he chooses. Then I see his costar is Demi Moore. I've always dug her, but it seems like she kind of fell off the face of the Earth in recent years. Outside of being with Ashton and her twitter stuff I'd of forgotten about her. So this was a cool surprise. The movie is about a fake family who goes to rich areas of the country and basically shills new products. The whole "keeping up with the Joneses" thing comes into play here. The rich people in these areas become jealous of what "The Joneses" have and then go out and buy it to "keep up". The family of actor-slash-salesmen's job is to warm up to the people and casually sell the cutting edge of consumer life. Moore is the boss, the son is in the closet, the daughter is a whore, and David Duchovny is the voice of reason. It's his first gig with the marketing company so we see this world through his eyes. As time goes on, he starts to get lonely; he reaches out, becomes morally conflicted, and displays realistic emotions. It's an interesting premise. You could almost believe there is a marketing company or companies that do this kind of thing or have put a lot of time in discussing its possibilities. The execution of the movie is pretty good. Derrick Borte sharply and tightly directed this dark dramady. It's got a good steady pace and never makes itself out to anything it's not. It is what it is. I like that. I'd watch this movie again and I'd definitely recommend it. It's a perfect low key indie-like movie that doesn't bash its style over your head. That in itself is a style. B+ from me.
That's all for this week. If you enjoyed reading this half as much as I enjoyed writing it then you're probably sitting there half naked, half awake, and half drunk. Sorry about that. Next week will be better, I promise. We can work through this. Until next time… Have a Great Week!
