REM: This is not a pop video, it's something very different

April 5, 2011 8:51 PM

Collapse Into Now Film Project is a set of 12 short videos to accompany the songs on R.E.M.s latest album. “I chose to do the film project as an attempt to redefine what an ‘album’ can be in the 21st century,” [Stipe] said. “And I matched all of the songs to artists I thought could best translate each into a film or visual piece.”
Half the films are available on Youtube:
It Happened Today
Oh My Heart
Mine Smell Like Honey (contains Stipe being manhandled)
Uberlin (contains Kick-Ass star dancing)
Alligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter (features Peaches)
Walk It Back (contains horse penis)

Michael Stipe defends the horse clip.

Several Lyric Videos were also made for the album pre-release:
Uberlin
Mine Smell Like Honey
Oh My Heart
It Happened Today
Discoverer
All by the talented Nir Ben Jacob.

For their previous album, R.E.M. played a set of live songs at night around Athens, GA as part of the Take-Away Shows series from La Blogotheque.

And no discussion of R.E.M. videos is complete until Furry Happy Monsters is mentioned.

posted by WhackyparseThis (18 comments total)

Michael Stipe defends the horse clip .

but not the Peaches clip?
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 8:52 PM on April 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

I have to say, of all the things in the world I thought could conceivably bear the label CONTAINS HORSE PENIS, an REM video was pretty far the list. Not necessarily at the bottom of the list, though.

For comparison, hot dogs are very close to the top.
posted by louche mustachio at 8:57 PM on April 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

I like that more bands are doing this kind of thing these days. I remember growing up watching MTV back when it was really MTV (Martha Quinn! Adam Curry! That other guy!) and wishing that artists would just put out albums which were songs and videos. And I'd routinely be disappointed when my favoritestest songs didn't end up as singles and therefore no video.

But it seems to be happening more. Guster did it with their most recent album, and The Chemical Brothers put out a really excellent video album for their most recent, too.

It's a trend I happily support.
posted by hippybear at 9:02 PM on April 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm hugely impressed by the short films made by Seamus Murphy for PJ Harvey's album Let England Shake (so far five have been released out of the twelve completed).
posted by jokeefe at 9:11 PM on April 5, 2011 [3 favorites]

Okay, what's the first one mean?
posted by philip-random at 9:56 PM on April 5, 2011

I have to say, of all the things in the world I thought could conceivably bear the label CONTAINS HORSE PENIS, an REM video was pretty far the list.

Well, now MeFi is, by extension, so. Who says we ain't best of the Web?
posted by mykescipark at 11:25 PM on April 5, 2011

(contains horse penis)

Thanks for the spoiler about the fly's arsehole...
posted by PeterMcDermott at 11:29 PM on April 5, 2011

Is there any way to bypass the ads YouTube puts in front of goddamned everything these days?
posted by Sys Rq at 12:05 AM on April 6, 2011

i get nothing but frowny face from WMG :(
posted by molecicco at 5:30 AM on April 6, 2011

Is there any way to bypass the ads

Try Yousabletube.
posted by Obscure Reference at 5:32 AM on April 6, 2011

Michael Stipe defends the horse clip

MetaFilter does not do either animal-rights threads or circumcision threads well.
posted by escabeche at 6:26 AM on April 6, 2011

Okay, what's the first one mean?

Speaking as a long time fan of the band, it seems like the great advance in R.E.M.'s career has been the gradual transition from the mid-80s question, "What the heck do their lyrics mean?" to the current "What the heck do their videos mean?" (Though of course many of their videos in the early years were plenty artsy and incomprehensible as well. ;-)
posted by aught at 7:14 AM on April 6, 2011

Try Yousabletube.

But that doesn't remove the ads integrated into the Flash dealie, does it? The script was last updated before YouTube was even in the business of making money.
posted by Sys Rq at 7:53 AM on April 6, 2011

To briefly return to Let England Shake: I'm having a bit of a moment when I think that Stipe is claiming that the videos commissioned for Collapse Into Now are "something very different": they absolutely are not. They're rock videos, and not particularly exciting ones at that. I'm not liking the execution much, and I'm finding them pretty content-less. However, what Seamus Murphy has created for PJ Harvey is, in fact, new and different: a visual suite, where its imagery becomes deeper and more profound as each segment is released and motifs are repeated or expanded upon. The film for Written on the Forehead strikes me as doing exactly what Stipe claims the REM films do: presenting something that isn't a pop video, but something else. The films made for each of the tracks of Let England Shake are works of art; the ones made for Collapse Into Now are gimmicks.
posted by jokeefe at 10:20 AM on April 6, 2011

Sigh, I feel bad saying this, but all of my favorite bands are releasing CDs this year, and none of them are good so far. Collapse Into Now was amazingly underwhelming in the wake of last year's Accelerate, and I haven't been able to get into any of it after multiple listens.

And don't even get me started on the songs we've heard so far from TMBG's new album...
posted by LSK at 5:34 PM on April 6, 2011

@Sys Rq:
I didn't come across any ads while putting this together. I guess you're a more valuable target market than me..

@molecicco:
I hate the way music companies block their videos by region. How does it make sense to block customers from seeing your product? I could only find one hosted away from Youtube.
Alligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter (music video at pitchfork.com)

There are a couple of live vids hosted on Vimeo, if that helps.
That Someone Is You (live in studio)
Every Day Is Yours To Win (live in studio)
posted by WhackyparseThis at 5:53 PM on April 6, 2011

I hate the way music companies block their videos by region. How does it make sense to block customers from seeing your product?

A little research into web proxies will chase those blues away.
posted by hippybear at 6:55 AM on April 7, 2011

Update: video for All The Best has now been released.
WARNING: Contains Man penis.
posted by WhackyparseThis at 5:19 PM on April 10, 2011