New Series of Directors Label DVDs

Just wanted to take a second to share with all of you that Palm Pictures has announced the specs for the next four DVDs in their Directors Label series, which will be out on September 13, 2005.

Volumes 1 through 3, which collected the works of Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze, and Chris Cunningham, are *ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL* viewing and should be sitting on the shelves in the collections of every single person who truly appreciates the art of music video and/or incredibly innovative filmmaking. In laymen's terms, they're totally fricking cool!

And the next four look to be...well, not too shabby themselves. Volumes 4 through 7 will feature the works of Mark Romanek, Jonathan Glazer, Anton Corbijn, and Stéphane Sednaoui, respectively. You can go to the Directors Label site (via the link above) to see all the details (a full site should be up shortly).

Pouring over the details myself, I see numerous videos for songs from the following artists: U2, R.E.M., Depeche Mode, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Radiohead, Massive Attack, Tricky, NIN, Garbage, Metallica, Travis, Mercury Rev and Björk. And that's just the ones that have 2 or more videos included in this set. I may have missed some, too. Anyway, there's a lot more there - including some really recent stuff, lest you get the impression that this is just a collection of videos from the mid-to-late 90s. Not so. Personally, I will be looking forward to the Glazer collection the most. That will probably be the only one I'd be willing to buy prior to renting. But, of course, I will be Netflix-ing all four editions as soon as they're available.

I don't think Sept. 13th can come soon enough.

I can't remember who tipped me off on this news, but it was one of you other bloggers out there included in my list of links off to the right there. I can't figure out which of you I got it from now. Anyway, thanks.

Caribou

Caribou - "Barnowl"

Last night, Caribou played the Magic Stick, with Junior Boys in the supporting slot. The Russian Futurists were supposed to be there, as well, but they were detained at the Canadian border for stupid paperwork reasons. Makes a lot of sense, seeing as how they had already been let in weeks ago and have been touring away through the States prior to crossing back into Canada for a short leg of the tour. Anyway, the fact that the RF's weren't there makes it a little easier for me to digest missing this show. I saw Caribou with Four Tet and Prefuse 73 two years ago, way back when Dan Snaith was still using his Manitoba moniker. It was unreal. Two sets of drums, bear masks, the hilarious video for "Jacknuggeted" playing in the background. His live performances of material off of Up in Flames simply blew me away and stole the show. That's why I would have liked to see him again last night to see what kind of cards he's playing nowadays. However, I had more important things knocking at my door, so it was a no-go from the outset. Any Detroiters out there go to the show? If so, I'd like to hear how it was. Pictures would be a double-bonus.

Anyhow, the track above is taken from Caribou's latest: The Milk of Human Kindness. It's worth the buy. For real, though.

Sufjan Stevens

Sufjan Stevens - "Casimir Pulaski Day"
Sufjan Stevens - "The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts"
Sufjan Stevens - "John Wayne Gacy, Jr."

Sometime in the last couple days, Opus published his review of the new Sufjan Stevens album, Sufjan Stevens invites you to Come On Feel The Illinoise!.
Do yourself a favor and skid over there to read his writeup, because more than likely it will be the best one to be written about it when all is said and done. It's an outstanding review. I feel like there's nothing more I could say myself about it!

While you're reading that, go ahead and play these songs, which have been extracted from the record for you to preview. Then, of course, I beg all of you who like it to purchase the CD when it comes out July 5th, courtesy of Asthmatic Kitty. Don't be a bum.