After taking seven years between “Adaptation” and “Where The Wild Things Are,” Spike Jonze hasn’t been wasting any time since the latter was released last October. He’s already put out the short film “I’m Here,” arguably the best film we’ve seen so far this year, despite its half-hour running time, and is collaborating with Arcade Fire on another short for later this year. What no one realized until today, however, is that Jonze may have had another secret project.
The video for “Drunk Girls,” the first cut from the brilliant new LCD Soundsystem record, This Is Happening, went online today, and the YouTube version, put up by the band’s UK record label Parlophone, is tagged with the keywords “Spike” and “Jonze.” The one-take clip (for the most part, until the chaotic end anyhow), which features band members James Murphy, Nancy Whang and Pat Mahoney being relentlessly bullied by a group of men in panda outfits as they try to perform the single, is ace, both funny and vaguely disturbing, in a sort of Michael Haneke-esque way. There’s a touch of “Jackass” to it; that combined with Parlophone’s labeling of the track, strongly suggests that Jonze was at the helm. We can only hope that his work with Arcade Fire will be as good. Others on the net are stating Jonze’s involvement as fact, however, we’re not quite prepared to do the same until we get some official word.
Also to note: Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem toured together circa “Neon Bible” and issued a split seven-inch single. Just saying.
LCD frontman James Murphy made his soundtrack debut with the faintly disappointing score to Noah Baumbach’s “Greenberg,” but This Is Happening marks a major return to form, cribbing from Bowie, Bolan and Brian Eno, but never feeling too retro. It’s streaming on their official site, and hits stores on May 17th.
Update: Jonze’s blog, We Love You So confirms it.
