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You know the music video work of director Spike Jonze. You know it because it was the most original, challenging, and daring stuff to flash across the cliché-drenched landscape of late nineties MTV. At a time when everyone else was offering ways to get jiggy with it or rehashing the same warmed-over grunge angst, Spike gave us Fatlip in a clown suit, people on fire and the Torrance Community Dance troupe. You know what I'm talking about. In Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice," Christopher Walken transforms from sullen hotel clerk to manic song-and-dance man who rides luggage carts and flies off walls in a scene that's equal parts Yuen Woo-Ping wire fighting and Fred Astaire dancing on the ceiling in Royal Wedding. Then there's Daft Punk's "Da Funk," which tells the strangely poignant tale of a lonely dog-faced boy with a ghetto blaster struggling with his new life in New York. In "Sure Shot," the Beasties at their apex cruise the streets in tuxedos, while "Sky's the Limit" depicts Biggie and Puffy as pimped-out twelve-year-olds riding around in a Mercedes and sipping Cristal in hot tubs. Weezer's "Buddy Holly"; Henry Winkler anyone? Björk's "It's Oh So Quiet" features easily the best use of a dancing mailbox in modern cinema. In short, Spike Jonze's videos are the cream, the wheat -- the good stuff. The Work of Director Spike Jonze, one of three DVD retrospectives of pioneering music video directors on the new Director's Label, offers all of this with commentary by the artists. Tre of the Pharcyde remarks that while he liked the video for "Drop" (the whole thing's filmed in reverse, remember that one?), if they'd only managed to get completely naked instead of just down to their drawers then it would have gone to the next level. The Beasties' Mike D reveals that Adam Yauch (MCA) still has a room full disguises left over from "Sabotage" and Ad Rock admits that in many of the driving sequences, Spike was disguised as him because he had some "legal things happening" at the time.
And that ain't the half of it. Well, actually, it is -- there's another side.
The B side is filled with never-before-released rarities and documentaries. The section includes a short made with Mark Gonzales entitled How They Got There, a rumination on how one discarded shoe ends up in the gutter (Here's a hint: it involves a horrific crash and a woman walking like a rooster). There's also a behind-the-scenes look at the making of an Oasis video the band ultimately rejected, a skate video on a hiking trail and Richard Koufay's audition tape for Fatboy Slim of him dancing to "Rockafella Skank."
One of several Jonze alter egos, Koufay is the choreographer and leader of the Torrance Community Dance Group, who were later tapped by Fatboy Slim's Norman Blake to perform in the Jonze-directed "Praise You," which took home three MTV video music awards and a Grammy. It's difficult to fully explain the brilliance of this video; it's so bizarre and funny that it's not entirely a pleasurable thing to watch, but you'll watch it more than once. That said, it is nothing -- nothing! -- compared to Torrance Rising, a documentary directed by Lance Bangs with help from Jonze's brother-in-law Roman Coppolla chronicling the Torrance Community Dance Troupe's trip to New York to perform at the 1999 MTV Video Music awards. A cross between Waiting for Guffman and an Andy Kaufman pro wrestling bit, the film is shockingly funny and should be shown in schools.
This is a great and thorough collection of a strange and talented man's body of work before he left the medium to direct movies (Being John Malkovitch, Adaptation). It offers an original take on an art form that managed to get stale in the 20 odd years it's been around. Spike Jonze made interesting, fresh music videos when it felt like all the best videos had already been made. You remember what I'm talking about, but you should see them again, see how they still feel new. words by steve cuttler
A side
Wax
California
Sure Shot
Beastie Boys
Drop
Pharcyde
Cannonball
The Breeders
Sabotage
Beastie Boys
Da Funk
Daft Punk
What's Up Fatlip
Fatlip
Undone - the Sweater Song
Weezer
Praise You
Fatboy Slim
Feel the Pain
Dinosaur Jr
If I Only Had a Brain
MC 900 FT Jesus
Sky's The Limit
Notorious B.I.G.
Weapon of Choice
Fatboy Slim
Buddy Holly
Weezer
Elektrobank
The Chemical Brothers
It's Oh So Quiet
Bjork
B Side
Rarities:
How They Get There
Mark Gonzales
Mark Paints
Mark Gonzales
The Oasis Video That Never Happened
Rockafella Skank
Richard Koufey's audition tape for Fatboy Slim
The Woods
What's Up Fatlip? (the documentary)
Amarillo By Morning
Torrance Rises 
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