Check this ad that Guy Ritchie did for Nike. This is what commercials should look like. I’m entitling it “A Day/Month in the life of a Footballer”. I’m amazed that the man’s visual style even comes across in his commercial work. Helping along the clip is a little song by SRO favorites, Eagles of Death Metal. If the band somehow made a cameo you could almost call this a music video. The best part of this is when the guy signs the fan’s breast and the girlfriend looks back in disgust. Cut to a pool party with hotter girlfriend. Classic. Music video of the year?
Thanks to Jeff over at Booooooom! for alerting me to this. Oh and if this shitty Youtube version makes you want piss on it, then here is a higher def version. It’s worth it.
Fresh off the controversial Nas video, Rik Cordero and Three/21 Media jump back into the arena with a new clip for our favorite on-the-rise rapper, Wale. He’s teamed up with Gbenga Akinnagbe (Chris from the Wire), to make a kidnapping/hijacking bit loosely themed off of Being John Malkavich. This vid is for the jam “Artistic Integrety” from his Mixtape about Nothing, which if you haven’t downloaded yet (it’s free), you are foolish. Check it.
Here’s another bit about how they hooked up to get this made. Apparently Rik just contacted him out of the blue and was like, “Hey, here’s a treatment for one of your songs, let’s film it.” Now that’s how you get things done. No questions, you just do it. I guess it also helps to have a resume of Rik’s caliber backing you up, but if your idea is solid people will take notice. Get that Integrity in ya!
Note: Last week, we crashed the L.A. Film Fest and got away with it. As is usually the case, we took to partying it up over writing about the films. So this week, we tell you what we saw, and why you need to get on each movie we recommend. Which is basically everything we attended, as we have impeccable taste, but you knew that.
One of the films that has stayed with us since hitting up the LAFF is the rabble rouser Dirty Hands: The Art and Crimes of David Choe. A story close to where our hearts would be if we hadn’t already sold them to the devil. It’s your average documentary about a struggling artist that robs, steals, vandalizes, causes pain, and is an all around son-of-a-bitch, and yet gets paid mad money for his genius. Don’t believe us? Check out the description from the movie’s myspace page:
Choe devises numerous criminal schemes that afford him to hitchhike across the globe via trains, planes and automobiles. By skirting the legal constraints of society, he is allowed to “freely” create his art. Eventually, his nonchalant law-breaking style lands him in serious trouble. After a series of arrests, he finds himself in solitary confinement in a Tokyo prison, totally broken down and uncharacteristically still. During these dark times, he finds himself reflecting on his own selfish history, one riddled with heartache caused to his friends, family and his long-term girlfriend. Upon release from prison, a radically religious Choe, returns home with the hope that he can overcome his criminal temptations and repair the damage caused to loved ones.
We see Choe’s unwillingness to grow up, his struggle to make it as an artist and his fight to hold on to his sanity. Faced with an ever-growing appetite for destruction, Choe realizes that in the end he must make sense of the chaos that echoes in his head, face his demons and learn how to harness them for the good of his life and burgeoning art career.
From the beginning of the movie, you get that sink-or-swim introduction. It’s guerilla style filming starting back from 2000 and on to the present day. What you see isn’t just a boy fucking around, but the growth of a boy to a man who continues to fuck around and take his chances despite all the shit that’s happened to him as a result of his recklessness. Choe is one of those people who’s life is so intense that at it’s best, you can’t help feeling happy for the guy. And at it’s worst, makes you feel a hell of a lot better about yourself and your problems.
The documentary just premiered at the LAFF and features tunes from Ratatat and Justice.1 Be on the lookout for it at an indie theater near you or in stores on DVD sometime in the future. Trust us yo, this shit is worth it.
We’re pretty sure they didn’t have official permission to use some of their music, but in our eyes, that compliments the doc perfectly.
Note: Last week, we crashed the L.A. Film Fest and got away with it. As is usually the case, we took to partying it up over writing about the films. So this week, we tell you what we saw, and why you need to get on each movie we recommend. Which is basically everything we attended, as we have impeccable taste, but you knew that.
The first film we had the pleasure of kicking things off with, was the animated wonder that is Fear(s) of the Dark. Yes it is in all black-and-white1, but you and I know that most French films in b/w are for the most part an unstoppable force. Fear(s) of the Dark is no exception either. And if you check out the list of contributors, it’s no surprise that we’ve got a quality product.
Blutch
Charles Burns
Marie Caillou
Pierre di Sciullo
Jerry Kramsky
Lorenzo Mattotti
Richard McGuire
Michel Pirus
Romain Slocombe
If there’s any one name you should take careful note of, it’s Mr. Charles Burns. As his graphic novel, Black Hole is the next project in line for David Fincher.
As for the film itself, it’s a study on fear if you haven’t derived that from the title already. And with each story, it’s not that one is better than the next, what gets you is that all are equally badass. Whether it be about insects, murderers, attack dogs, or a giant “monster” each style serves their respective story so well, that you are truly left wanting more. These artists basically put on a clinic in storytelling and art that we’re ultra glad we caught on the big screen. Seek this gem out and thank us when you’ve had the pleasure.
Not unlike the high quality release Persepolis. Watch that shit post haste if you haven’t already!
Take a look at this picture. Do you find anything strange about it? What should strike you immediately is what the fuck No Age is doing sandwiched between some of the biggest names in Rap, R&B, and shitty Pop — Rianna, TI, and Maroon 5 respectively. What’s even more alarming is that this video got played on MTV…not MTV2…MTV. AND it was played in prime time on a new show hosted by that tool from Fall Out Boy, Pete Wentz. I’m not sure if you have been living under a rock, in the middle of Madagascar without cable, but MTV stopped playing videos outside of TRL and 3 am about 10 years ago. Now, out of nowhere, they drop this new show and decide to throw in a video from Subpop’s LA darlings, No Age. This isn’t a knock on No Age but these guys, while enjoying some deserved hype right now, are still small time indie rockers with a resume the size of Pete Wentz dick….small. So while the fact that MTV is teasing us with music videos again, even one from a Subterranean type band, what’d I’d really like to know is who is Subpop greasing to make this shit happen?
Although maybe Pete just likes No Age and did them a solid. That picture is still hilarious and props to Andy Bruntel, we love the guy. I guarantee you that’s the first time that guy has been played on MTV proper. Holler.
As for the video, I never get tired of the ‘flour in the face’ bit.
Andy has turned in a playful piece that asks nothing of the viewer, only to sit back and enjoy. It has some nice steady-cam shots that build the intro, then transitions to a party/performance route for the actual 1 minute where the band is singing and playing. I also dig the stylized morph/transitions that Bruntel threw in to give the video a little flavor. Overall a good showing. Let’s see if it catches on!
El-P is one of my favorite entities in the rap game. I don’t love everything that he touches, but most of the music that’s coming out of Def Jux is strong, and his album I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead from 2007 was even stronger.
This cut was videofied earlier this year but we’re just getting around to posting it. I was saving it for a rainy day, although it’s a sweltering heat storm outside my comfortable SRO cabin. So enjoy this into your weekend, it’s summed up as rapping while getting tortured. It looks like El Producto went through some shit to get this filmed, that slap sequence looks like it hurt. What I took away from this was to stay productive and don’t go to jail, although it’s obviously a commentary on the tortures that took place over in Iraq. I didn’t want to bring you down going into a Saturday.
Damn, two of my all time favorite things…the Beastie Boys and Basketball. Don’t know how I slept on this, but MCA (Adam Yauch) has put together a documentary on the elite highschool ballers of 2006 and their invite-only tournament at Rucker Park in Harlem. Salon has more info on the film but from the interview they have with him, it looks to be an exciting and informative movie. I know I’ll be seeing it. “Gunnin’ for That #1 Spot” opens tomorrow in select cities (probably NY and LA) so get on out and support it so it will eventually get to Dallas.
from Salon.com
Yauch interviews coaches and online stat-mongers, and intersperses clippings from magazine articles that show the incredible amount of hype surrounding the young men. He also visits the players at home, where they are just kids — fresh-faced boys who tower (more than the average teen) over their parents. The players share a genuine excitement for the game, but they also exhibit a real awareness of their talent and their potential worth as basketball superstars.
Looks to be more of the same, but who cares. I don’t. What do you want from the man, he’s mastered a style and there’s nothing wrong with sticking to it. We all know what happened last time he tried to switch it up…yeah that’s right…
This is what happens when you marry Madonna and then as a wedding present, tell her you will make her a movie star again. Anyway, I’m gonna go see RocknRolla when it comes out. It has some classy people in it, doing classy things. In theaters Oct 31.
I wonder where all those hats went after the video shoot?
This clip originally was being commissioned over at our pal Radar’s house but after 50+ write-ups, none of which the band was too fond or keen on, they decided to go another way. And by ‘another way’ I mean make a big mistake. I guess they thought that putting your lyrics on hats and using tired stop motion tricks was what they were really looking for. Maybe they just didn’t want to pay the money for anything else and decided to go the DIY route. I find it impossible that the other briefs were all worse than this. Anyone out there write on this. What was your brief? Let’s all share.
Find out more about The Black Ghosts over at I Am Sound Records. And if you couldn’t tell that’s Damon Albarn on vocals. I much prefer David Byrne’s vocals on that Fat Boy….hm hm..I mean that BPA single. Assuming I had to choose which white-dude-from-a-retired-band-does-vocals-for-an-electro-beat-track was better. Is there a sign up sheet that I’m not aware of cause I’d like to partake?
Oh and if you google Skill Wizard and Lamo you turn up this gem:
I've always been a fan of people going out when they are on top. To prove my point, here's what would've happened, had some of our more prominent figures stuck around. Creepy! [Boom!]
The crossing of superheroes in movies is beginning to snowball like crazy. Here's the newest glimpse at what you might have missed during Iron Man. And no, it's not Sam "Bad Muthafucka" Jackson. [io9]
In the same fashion as 40yr Old Virgin and Knocked Up, we get the poster for Rainn Wilson's, The Rocker. It is awesome of course. Check it out and read about it coming soon. USA Today
