We’ve been keeping a close eye on Sean Lennon here at SRO. Word that he was releasing some sort of short-film video project trickled out back in May of this year but we remained mum as details were just too hard to come by. A trailer was released highlighting a very involved production, stylized look, but keeping most of the details close to the chest. More recently Mr. Lennon has revealed one of the videos in it’s entirety, which coupled with the imminent release of the project, means it is time for us to share all the info we have scraped together on John Lennon’s seemingly favorite son. It’s a long one, so brace yourself.
Sean Lennon released his debut album Into the Sun way back in 1998. For the most part it received tepid yet polarized reviews. The lovers found it to be a wonderful pop journey traveling on various musical genre paths on its journey. The haters found it to lack focus, and, much more crucially, to not sound as good as the Beatles.
Sean Lennon has always, and will most likely always, stand in the shadow of his late, great father John Lennon. This association, while affording him certain advantages in pursuing a musical career, has also created significant barriers. Sean represents the Yoko Ono (his mother) side of the John Lennon/Beatles world. We all know that die-hard Beatles fans hate Yoko Ono, and are thus inclined to hate their offspring Sean. And then there is Sean’s half-brother Jullian Lennon, who many feel was brushed aside by John once Yoko came around (John was conceived in a relationship predating that with Yoko). People hold the free fame and Jullian dissing against Sean, all the while expecting him to be just like and just as talented as his father, yet still eager to chastise him should he actually sound anything like his father. Confusing, I know.
While personal taste is personal taste, some of these criticisms are unwarranted. Sean could have easily used his name to bully his way into the music industry back in 1998 but he chose not to take that path. Instead, he signed with semi-small Grand Royal Records (aka the Beastie Boys label) when one of the B-boys (MCA I presume) heard his stuff and felt it was strong. Back in 1998, there wasn’t so many “medium” labels (or indie-lable fronts for major labels. Ahem.), so this move represents a very independent and grass roots path for Mr. Lennon. Sure, he was getting some Capitol funds via the trickle down through Grand Royal, but there is no way you can say Sean was taking the easy path.
I fully admit that as of 1998 Sean Lennon’s Into the Sun was something of a revelation for me. I was just out of high school in Southern California in the late 90’s which meant I was surrounded by a sad world of Rap/Metal and people convinced NOFX and Guttermouth were the greatest bands of all time. Into the Sun was this soft, non-aggresive, blatantly optimistic light in an otherwise overly-aggresive musical scene. Sure, I was too naive to know about the artists doing the pop thing even better, but listening to the disc today I can still appreciate the pop sensibility, optimism, vulnerability and simple love that Sean let shine through. You definitely get the impression that Sean had a genuine love for various styles and genres of music and that this love was dying to be shared with the world. At this time in my life I had never even heard a Beatles record in its entirety, so I was free to make my judgments free of bias, and I liked what I heard. I still do. More importantly, I was tipped onto Mr. Lennon’s work by the simple, quirky video for the track Home directed by some guy name Spike Jonze. See what a nice video can do for you?
Sean has been pretty quiet since Into the Sun. According to interviews1 Sean felt the sting of the music industry machine and decided the music was becoming to impersonal, so he decided to keep to himself for the last eight years. So why Friendly Fire, and why now? According to Sean, it’s and experiment to see what it might be like to do music more publicly again. This latest foray into the public is being backed by Capitol Records, home of the Beastie Boys and the Beatles. The new record somewhat ironically has a more John Lennon style sound, presumably due to the involvement of Jon Brion who has been known to bring a Fab 4 vibe to Aimee Mann, among others. Compared to his last efforts, Friendly Fire definitely has a more ambitious sound even with a less ambitious, more focused scope. The first single Dead Meat makes the point quite well.
Update: It appears there are two versions of this video: one is the version from the short film and the other is a “music video” video that is like a tour of the short film intercut with new performance sequences of Sean. The YouTube represents the “video” version and the download represents the “short film” version. Savvy?
Sean Lennon - Dead Meat, directed by Michele Civetta
YouTube [Video Version]
Quicktime 7 (iPod compatible) via SRO [Short Film Version]
Sean’s new album is taking an ambitious turn in terms of music video support. Each track on the album will be accompanied by a short film, each part of a larger overarching story about love and betrayal (just as each individual song comes together to form a cohesive album). The whole thing is being directed by Michele Civetta, most notable for the forthcoming film Coin Locker Babies. Usually when you hear an artist is putting out a video for every song it means a bunch of half-assed videos are coming your way (I just threw a rock at Beck’s head), but Friendly Fire is definitely not going down such a lethargic path. The (B-List) stars came out for this project, which features Devon Aoki, Bijou Phillips, Carrie Fisher, and Firecrotch herself, Lindsay Lohan, among countless others. The production involved and intricate, with Sean weaving out of various set pieces and time periods representing the emotions in his mind. It’s hard to predict just where the film as a whole will go, but if Friendly Fire and the Trailer are any indications, it will be a fun, trippy ride.
Love him or hate him, you can’t fault Mr. Lennon for taking the marriage of music and video more seriously than the “Visual Gimmick + Hit Song = YouTube Gold” formula that has replaced MTV as the film equivalent of junk food these days. This is the type of shit you are supposed to be doing with you major label money kids: get Capitol to foot the bill for some crazy short film project that won’t make any money… don’t give me some bullshit about how “it was time” to move to major label and “how you don’t really need the major label to do anything except buoy you.” Why did you move at all then? I’m looking at you, Decemberists2.
Friendly Fire arrives December 20 in both CD + DVD form via Capitol Records. I urge you to check out what Lennon and Civetta have cooked up as it will likely represent a notable bullet point in the music video history books. Make sure you study up.
Sean Lennon - Friendly Fire (Trailer), directed by Michele Civetta
Quicktime, via Sean Lennon
Quicktime 7 (iPod compatible), via SRO
- via Contact Music.
- Source: me Paraphrasing what Colin Meloy said in the latest issue of Paste.
As a Japanese woman dating a brilliant white man, I get defensive when it comes to Yoko Ono. Consequently, I might be a little too enthusiastic about these videos, but you can’t possibly blame me because Sean Lennon is SO FREAKING CUTE behind the counter at the roller skating rink! I’m also glad that Sean Lennon’s website is seanonolennon.com, though it looks sort of like “Sea No-No Lennon.”
Linday Lohan. reaaaaallly? ‘Tis a shame.
I like the looks of things though!
Know who I hate more than Lindsay Lohan? Bijou Phillips. The Gravitron brings back old memories of barfing at the state fair. I enjoyed the visuals and the tune is pretty catchy. I’m interested…
So it is true that you can put out great videos without stop motion and computer animation. The productions value is amazing. I think I would watch this movie even if I didn’t like the artist. As it is it sounds very exciting.
A better “promo version” than that on Utube is on iFilm. They also have the full movie: part 1, part 2, part 3.
Good luck and God bless you