Not quite. The thing about Comic-Con that you have to understand is that over the 10 years I have been going, attendance had been trending up, while the existence of actual paper comics has been heading in the other direction. This might be a hard thing for people who don’t attend Comic-Con to understand: they see the words comic convention and immediate jump to the cliched image of nerdy fan boys, overweight and sweaty, digging through bins of old comics, and standing in line for autographs from their favorite super heroes. While this does constitute a portion of the attendees and activities at Comic-Con, to define the whole event by such standards would be an error. Comic-Con has been taken over; Hollywood is the new show and digital copies of your favorite comics on your new iPad are only a drop in the oceanic pool of money to be made. Comic-Con is going nowhere….well, maybe to Anaheim.

I used to get made fun of for going to Comic-Con every year. “What do you even do there?” “It sounds so dumb. Comics are for nerds and people who don’t have sex.” Then Spiderman/X-Men/Batman/Sin City came to a theater near them and Hollywood realized there was money to be made in these franchises again and the star power soon followed. Comic-Con premiers and panels were the next obvious step and very quickly the task of trying to see some scenes from the new X-Men and asking Bryan Singer a question moved from the intimate settins of a small lecture hall to the vast expanses of Hall H. The line to get in was no longer a line, but rather an all day event of getting up early and staging out in the grass, just to get in at 10AM in order to see what you actually came for at 3PM. You no longer showed up to the panel on ‘Movie A’ but rather a panel on “Studio A’s” movie x,y, and z. It’s become a showcase for all the Hollywood studios, television and film alike. It’s literally a madhouse and it hinges not on the creation of comics on paper, but only the creation itself.

So the iPad (and all devices like it in the future), hold no real danger to the existence of Comic-Con. Comics will still be created, on paper or in the digital realm. It doesn’t matter for Comic-Con; what matters is growth. Trying to attend Comic-Con is like navigating a mine field, one missed step and your whole trip to San Diego could be ruined. Passes sell out months in advance, there are lines for everything, and getting a hotel that isn’t miles away is like trying to win the California lottery. These are all minor complaints and problems that lead to the major issue: how to expand the actual premises. That’s what troubles me the most: Comic-Con possibly deciding to move away from its storied home of San Diego, to the city Walt built up north in Anaheim. There’s plenty of debate going on about this, good reasons to stay and move. To me it just feels wrong moving the Con out of San Diego (They are fighting to stay). I’m not even sure I’d want to go anymore if it moves to Anaheim. Staying at my dad’s house and driving to the Con every day just isn’t the same. The experience is completely different. Anaheim’s a great city, I used to live there for a bit, but in comparison to San Diego’s varied sights, weather, nightlife, and ease of mobility, there’s really no contest.

So let’s all embrace the digital future. Change is important and nothing to be scared of, but can we please keep some things the same? I don’t want to find a new convention to go to in San Diego over the summer.

“Born Free” is a very heavy, distorted, punk-ish single off M.I.A.’s upcoming June 29th release. It’s a departure from her normal infusion of world music & effects, however it still keeps within her boundary-free style. One could only imagine what kind of shot could come of this song and it appears no one was ready for the realness of it upon its release.

Gavras’ style for both “Born Free” and “Stress” bring about a comparison to the work of cinema director Alfonso Cuarón most notably from the 2006 film Children of Men. Going handheld for much of the action, he pauses only to emphasize certain moments or actions in order to intensify their importance.

The use of Redheads (or “Gingers”) as the “victims” in the video is somewhat of an arbitrary choice, but make no mistake, there is depth to the video and the views it stands for. This video isn’t safe for work, kids, elderly…to be honest, it’s just not a safe video. The violence is brutal, which is a testament to Gavras’ skill behind the camera. It’s not so much that we need this kind of video these days, but we do need the quality and care that was put into it. If he hasn’t already been contacted to start making feature films, he should be. Keep a watchful eye out for more work from Romain-Gavras. Here’s hoping it comes sooner than later.

The new LCD Soundsystem is turning out to be another banger. I would have chose lead off track ‘Dance Yrself Clean’ for my first video, but ‘Drunk Girls’ is pretty stellar too and maybe the 4 minute track length was easier for Mr. Jonze to deal with. Who really wants to watch an 8 minute music video anyway? That’s a lot of paying attention!

Thought we’d mess with you real quick. What’s up 2010? Yeah, this place is pretty cobwebby these days. No, that’s probably not going to change. If Conan can’t keep a show then we sure as hell have no business with a website. Did you see his last episode? The fact that a man like him, a truly funny and talented man, can’t make it just kills me, but then he starts getting teary eyed and tells me that the last thing he wants is for anybody to be cynical, which basically means I can do nothing but stare at the wall because the whole situation makes me want to throw up my hands and say “fuck it.” That, or update a website that hasn’t been updated since roughly when his show started.

So long story short is that all of us have real grown-up lives (all but one of us, really, but he’s working on it) and spending time daily writing about a niche of a niche does not the bacon bring. Yes, nobody’s surprised by this. We did it for the love at first, back when we also had the time to serve it up. We don’t really have the time now so we can’t do the pro-bono thing anymore. But on the plus side all your favorite forks and gums are pretty much music video blogs these days, anyways. Remember when it used to be hard to find a music video on the internet? Yeah, that’s why we did our thing, and that’s just not true anymore. We did our best for you for awhile, though, and if that ever meant something to you then we truly appreciate you.

However, if you are an eternal optimist and still have us bookmarked or RSSed then you sure as hell should be interested in Mr. Jonze and his new short film making the rounds at Sundance right now. The film appears to be about robots and love, and it’s sponsored by Vodka. That combination already has me sold like a fistfight between Xander Crews and Sterling Archer, but it gets better. Early word has pegged it to be be a painfully honest take on love and how it overindulges the banal and allows us to distract ourselves from self-destructoin all while somehow maintaining a plucky core of optimism. In short: you already love it. But you probably already loved it because it’s made by Spike Jonze and the man does solid work, even if “Where the Wild Things Are” was 20 minutes too long. So keep your eyes peeled on your Youtubes or tumbles or tweets or Hulus or boxees or facebooks and watch this thing on your phone or new Apple Tablet™ as soon as you can.

After watching the Matt Daniel’s directed video for Damien Jurado’s “Caskets”, I’ll watch anything he sends over to me. That video should have been on everyones ‘best of’ lists last year and it would have been on ours too, if we would have compiled one. Water under the bridge, as the saying goes.

So to my delight, Matt’s new project is for Mt. St. Helen’s Vietnam Band. Quirky name, I know, but they make some beautiful yet haunting music and the video fits nicely into the same adjectives. Again we are treated to beautiful settings that backdrop tails of blood and death.
Watch it.

I wasn’t quite as moved as I was for his previous work with Damien Jurado, but this is still a hit. Matt and his team once again show us that with a little care, time, and vision you can still make a music video that shines through amongst the suffocating dredge that is the rest.

Starring: Benjamin Verdoes, Traci Eggleston, and Marshall Verdoes of Mt. St. Helen’s Vietnam Band
Locations: San Juan Island, Orcas Island

Director: Matt Daniels
Additional Creative Direction: Stefan Moore (thatgo)
DP: Michael Ragen
2nd Unit DP & Helicopter Camera Operator: Mike Prevette
Aerial Video (RC Helicopter Operator): Tabb Firchau (Aerialpan Imaging)
Art Director: Courtland Premo
Costume Designer: Matt Daniels, Benjamin Verdoes, Traci Eggleston
Makeup Artist: Ingrid Pixel
Editing: Apryl Richards, Matt Daniels
Editing Advisors: Joy Andrews, Rob Dalton, Noel Paul (thatgo)
Color Correction: Apryl Richards
Compositing: Matt Daniels
Photoshop: Michael Ragen
Production Company: Thinklab
Producer: Matt Daniels
Location Managers: John Hadac, Devin Coldewey
PA: Matthew Salton
Behind-the-scenes video: Devin Coldewey

Behind-the-scenes video: vimeo.com/6000621
Production stills: tinyurl.com/nw9rlt

Don’t think we forgot about our monthly mix since we started updating with videos again. I know there’s someone out there listening to this and it’s you that we keep making it for. Enjoy the fuck out of it. I know we do.

11. Ancestors – Throw Me The Statue – Creaturesque
2. Mash-Up Neither Being Nor Nothingness – Extra Happy Ghost – How The Beach Boys Sound To Those With No Feelings
3. Heavens To Purgatory – The Most Serene Republic – …And The Ever Expanding Universe
4. Tetra pack heads – Black Mold – Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz
5. Honeymoon – Bombadil – Tarpits and Canyonlands (master)
6. When The Devil’s Loose – A.A. Bondy – When The Devil’s Loose
7. Cardinal Rules – Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – Springfield Cardinals
8. Blessed Be, Honey Bee – Grand Hallway – Promenade
9. When Brakes Get Wet – Julie Doiron – I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day
10. This Blackest Purse – WHY? – Eskimo Snow
11. You Know – Sean Walsh And The National Reserve – Homesick
12. Take It In – Wye Oak – The Knot
13. Frank, AB – The Rural Alberta Advantage – Hometowns
14. Keewatin Arctic – Various – Record of the Week Club
15. Razor Blade – Black Feather – Silhouette

We’re pretty sure Jenny Lewis is on your radar. Girls love her. Boys (insert depreciating pun) her. Critics, well, they largely ignore her. Not us! We listened to her latest album Acid Tongue and one of us liked it. Yeah it’s a darker trip from Rabbit Fur Coat but you know that saying about cute on the outside.

Here we have a tidy throwback shot to those espionage films of the 60’s. It’s like a southern tinged version of The Beastie Boys “Sabatoge” shot, that has some of that latin flavor. Also, it features Jenny Lewis in super short shorts. Much of it you can tell was done with a low quality green screen background, and even though we know it’s supposed to be that way, they probably could’ve worked on those parts a bit more. Or at least cut it in a way that made it look like they were trying. There’s a certain art to making things look old and cheesy. For the most part, they get it in this video, but they definitely had room for improvement. We did catch that Watson Twins cameo and we also dug Lewis’ random antics, such as waving to us while she choked out “Fernando”.

As it turns out, there are other songs that might be better suited for a video/single, but we have taste and discern, so obviously we’re not cut out for those types of decisions. Oh well, we suppose we’ll drown our sorrows in a busty Jenny Lewis, dressed as a 60’s flight attendant in short shorts. Poor us.

Well, Saturday came and went, and now we can all see The Dead Weather’s newest shot for “Treat Me Like Your Mother”. And when we say “shot” we ain’t joking. On the surface it may not be much, but we’d love to talk to Glazer and get some insight on where this idea stemmed from, what they wanted to convey with this video, why shoot in a field behind a housing track, where he drew inspiration from specifically, and find out what kind of direction he had to throw at both Jack White & Alison Mosshart (aka: Meg White 2.0).

Pardon us if we don’t sound too excited about this. It might be because this video is basically a re-enactment of the decision making process down here at the SRO labs. Except for the leather. Shit gets too hot and sticky out in the yard, and bullet holes are hard to sew up. On the real, it would’ve been fairly proper to see one, or both of the duo, go down like “Baby-Face Nelson” in Mann’s Public Enemies. Just some straight yelling, shooting, and all out hate coming out of their dying breath. Then again, we’re known for being nit-pickers. In the end, this shot fits the style The Dead Weather are going for, and we’re not gonna complain about a video with some grit and a lady with a gun.

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