The video for Robbie Williams’ throwbacky “You Know Me” conceptually flips around the title of the crooning 9/11 conspiracy theorist’s new album, Reality Killed The Video Star. Only here it’s the video that’s killing anything resembling reality, with Williams using an extended dream sequence as an excuse to dress up in a bunny suit and flit around like he’s late for a very important date with a choreographer and a batallion of backup dancers. The video, and five of my favorite things about its way-too-short three minutes, after the jump.5. Williams’ bunny-suited imitation of the MGM lion at the video’s very end.
4. Is it just me, or is the midair flip the bunnified Williams does at the 1:17 mark a product not of a stunt double, but of… CGI?
3. The toads as backup singers. Such a Disney musical number detail. Dear every video director: This (and the aforementioned flip) is how you use your computer-generated imagery talent, not on bad Lisa Frank landscapes.
2. The parts of the video where he’s dancing around with the walking-stick, which combines with the track’s retro glossiness in such a way that I can’t help but make me wonder if he’s paying at least a little bit of homage to the Monkees’ Harry Nilsson-penned “Daddy’s Song,” which Davy Jones did a little bit of soft-shoe to in Head. (Here’s the dancing; here’s the song.)
1. The way that this clip pretty much takes all those recently leveled “Robbie’s gone crazy” allegations and runs with them. I mean, between this and a flack of his telling another UK paper that he pulled out of his MTV EMA performance because Viacom was too cheap, he’s at least making things interesting, you know?
Robbie Williams You Know Me Official Music Video Full HD [YouTube] ]]>
The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty—a six-episode series that will chronicle the efforts of Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Randy to embark on a reunion tour, which was shelved by producers but revived after the June death of their brother Michael—will debut on A & E on Dec. 13. Because what better way to gear up for the holidays than to watch the adventures of a dysfunctional family trying to get its livelihoods back, right? Sigh. [AP]
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The video for “Further Complications,” the title track from the second solo album by Jarvis Cocker, is a hybrid of Madonna’s boxed-in clip for “Human Nature” and Mad’s long-beloved Fold-In, with the dapper singer dancing like a spaz and being manipulated into . (NB: He is wearing a blazer, not the bondage gear Madge wore in that 1994 video—I guess that sort of getup would be more appropriate for a Relaxed Muscle clip.) After the jump, Jarvis in all his pixelated glory!
Not really understanding the lyrics you’re singing is apparently another thing that falls under the rubric of “just bein’ Miley.” An interview with Billy Ray Cyrus’ spawn reveals that the lyric in her Velveeta-and-Miracle-Whip single “Party In The USA” about hearing a Jay-Z song while in a taxicab is, shockingly, not based on real events. Someone else wrote that lyric, and she just did her job and warbled it through eighty layers of post-production. In fact, she’s never heard a Jay-Z song! Because she doesn’t listen to pop music! At all! Wait, what?
The first single from American Idol third-place finisher Danny Gokey premiered on a Wisconsin country-music station this morning, and it’s probably not going to come as much of a surprise to people who followed him during his long American Idol journey. The track, “It’s Only,” is an inspirational ditty that’s clearly channeling “Jesus, Take The Wheel,” and his breathy voice is nearly drowned out by a super-mournful slide guitar at various moments. (The phrase Chicken Soup For The Ears bubbled into my brain at more than one point.) I don’t foresee hearing this in my dentist’s office, but I think it’ll perform well thanks to its holiday-season release timing and heart-filled message. [MJ]
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From my direct-messages inbox this morning, a look at the hazards of following musicians who are willing to go to any lengths to sell their new projects. I guess I should be flattered that he thinks I have the juice to assist in his virality, but mostly I’m just irritated that he didn’t, you know, make the message personal. What happened to the love, Curtis? [@50cent / Twitter]
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Trade rag Hits is projecting a No. 1 debut for Carrie Underwood’s third album Play On, which came out yesterday. The magazine is claiming that between 300,000 and 350,000 copies of Play On will be moved during the record’s first week on store shelves—a total that would make the album one of the stronger-debuting releases of 2009. Which is, I have to say, kind of strange, given something I noticed while shopping for sundries last night!
No Doubt has filed suit against the video-game company Activision over the use of its band member’s avatars in the just-released Guitar Hero variant Band Hero, thanks to the ability for players to put Gwen Stefani through the paces of the hooker-glorifying “Honky Tonk Women.” Also, bassist Tony Kamal can be cross-dressed into singing “Just A Girl.” This usage of Stefani’s and Kamal’s likenesses, the suit claims, “transformed No Doubt band members into a virtual karaoke circus act.” Uh, hang on a second, I thought the utterly superfluous Talk Talk cover accomplished that task way back in 2003? [AP]
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So much for this being it: Tomorrow night, the British cable channel Sky 1 will broadcast a séance in which psychic Derek Acorah attempts to contact Michael Jackson from the great beyond. The interdimensional chat, which will apparently be held “on an island… in a secret location familiar to Jackson” for the purposes of extra paranormal gobbledygook clogging up the transmissions, will be broadcast live. Acorah is a TV pro, hosting TV shows and embarking on tours in the UK, so I’m sure that something will happen during the telecast even if nothing really does, you know? After the jump, the Vaseline-smeared promo for the telefestivities.