Girl is (arguably) the most successful skate company to date. Formed in 1994 when many of them (quite suddenly) left World Industries, they have one of the most stellar lineups in skate history (which Jovontae Turner described as a “family”), featuring folks like Rick Howard, Guy Mariano, Eric Koston (!), Mike Carroll, Rudy Johnson, Jeron Wilson, and let’s not forget their Chocolate affiliates. They have maintained a very fresh, rather simplistic image throughout their 20-year career. They also have had cinema mastermind Spike Jonze directing all of their videos. But most importantly, they have had the perfect music to back up their skateboarding abilities.

There are three videos in the Girl catalog, and each one is better than the one before it. Their team debut, Goldfish, picks up where the previous works of Spike Jonze (Rubbish Heap and Video Days) left off. The effort is still rather cut-and-paste, but that doesn’t mean the soundtrack isn’t stellar. The beginning sequence looks like the “Sabotage” video with a strange jazz instrumental, but things certainly improve. The jazz instrumentals play out (performed by Girl’s Tim Gavin) during anything that isn’t skating, like the skits  “The Parallel” and “Follow the Line”. Tim Gavin’s sole full part features a drum solo and John Lennon’s track “Instant Karma”, and the Chocolate montage plays out to Santana’s “Evil Ways”.

The classic rock choices don’t compare to the rap, though. It was especially cool to see underground hip-hop and skateboarding pairing up so well (sure, it had been done in Plan B, but that was almost exclusively Hieroglyphics). Jeron Wilson skated to a remix of A Tribe Called Quest, while Mike Carroll‘s part was set to Gang Starr’s “Words from the Nutcracker”. Meanwhile, Eric Koston busted insane lines of tricks to Slick Rick. The most notable inclusion is Rick Howard’s well-constructed part to Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay)”, as his manuals flowed smoothly.

The team’s next effort, Mouse, had a lot of soul in both the skating and the music. The video opens with a skit set to Bob Dorough’s “Three Is the Magic Number”, which involves a big, fuzzy mouse and his (very odd) relationship with an In-N-Out Burger employee. However, they seem happy together. Sean Sheffey rips it to James Brown’s “Doing It to Death”, and the friends section is a Curtis Mayfield track. Rick Howard and Mike Carroll skate to War, but I have trouble telling whether it’s a joke or not. By far the most notable song is Guy Mariano’s finale part. Instead of keeping it soulful or gangster, Mariano chose the Herbie Hancock song “Watermelon Man”, which sounds like six minutes of a dude blowing into bottles. This is an odd choice for skating music no matter what, but it ushered in a brief comeback for Mariano, showing he could still keep it weird, and shred it.

Yeah Right is when things got kind of serious, but mostly because they had plenty of cash on hand. Videos like Questionable or Welcome to Hell were made with a budget of close to nothing. If any cash was spent, it was on some sort of tangible editing system. Yeah Right came about six years after Mouse, and things had certainly changed… shit g0t very, very real.

Once again, Yeah Right contained many well-rehearsed and well-scored skits, such as the “Magic Skateboard” (set to a track by Fatlip and Chali 2na!). Everything opens with Dub Diablo’s “Disco Headache”, a song that works far too well for this video. It describes everything Girl was about; looking fly, keeping it fresh, and going all out. Rick McCrank easily had the coolest part set to Le Tigre’s “Deceptacon”, and Brian Anderson skated to Interpol before it was fashionable. (Writer’s Note: Co-writer Winston Robbins cites Brian Anderson’s segment as a direct inspiration to dive deeper into the music world.)

The classic Girl skaters only get a five-minute shared part, which is on 16 mm and set to the Death in Vegas track “Help Yourself”. Also, the team chose a lot of hip-hop instrumentals, but all of them were relatively known tracks by Ghostface Killa, Andre Nickatina, and Nas. Mike Carroll gets the coolest hip-hop song in the video, but that’s because he has always just had the coolest parts (his song is by Scarface!). And for whatever reason, Owen Wilson shows up and skates to Public Enemy. This makes little to no sense but is awesome all the same.

For some reason, the Chocolate section goes back in time to the ’80s. There is a Factory double whammy in the name of Marc Johnston (“24 Hour Party People” and “Love Will Tear Us Apart”), a David Bowie song, and a section set to Guns N’ Roses’ “It’s So Easy”. However, it’s the finale of Yeah Right that is most amazing. After Eric Koston almost fights some crackhead, he busts the best possible line any skater could do. Upon completion, the stunning sounds of Black Francis’s “Los Angeles”. And it is here where the video climaxes.

Girl somehow went on to make skating to underground hip-hop trendy (along with Zoo York). One must remember, as kids, most of us didn’t listen to this music. We were unaware of Jurassic 5 and too naive to appreciate Otis Redding. We were all in our early teens and had a long road of musical discovery to go down. And Girl Cinema was nice enough to help show us the way, as long as we were skating. Rick Howard and Spike Jonze worked so well together on these videos, and both picked music that opened up their young audience’s minds and showed them it was cool to skate to jazz and Gang Starr. Maybe Rick Howard should have co-directed Where the Wild Things Are. Maybe.

Watch The Throne‘s first video, the Spike-Jonze directed clip for “Otis”, below. It’s an on-screen bromance, complete with a souped-up Maybach, fireworks, and a guest appearance by Aziz Ansari. Darwish will be jealous!

The duo’s joint LP Watch the Throne is now available on iTunes. You can pick up the physical edition, complete with its Riccardo Tisci-created artwork (he also designed the artwork posted above), beginning tomorrow.

Spike Jonze’s recent endeavors range from an action-packed music video for the Beastie Boys to a companion film for Aracde Fire’s The Suburbs. Now, via Jay-Z’s recent interview with Hot 97′s Angie Martinez, we learn that the acclaimed director is also at the helm of the music video for “Otis”, from Jay-Z and Kanye’s forthcoming joint LP Watch the Throne.

Jay-Z didn’t add much in the way of details, other than that they recently filmed the video. Below, you can check out a picture from the shoot, which took place in Los Angeles, according to RapFix. The single’s artwork, designed by Italian fashion designer Riccardo Tisci, appears to be predominantly featured.

Jonze’s history with ‘The Throne’ extends back to his collaboration with West on the 2009 short film We Were Once A Fairytale. We also have that video posted below.

Watch the Throne hits iTunes August 8th, with an expanded release to follow on August 12th.

Thus far, the Beastie Boys’ primary means of promoting their latest LP Hot Sauce Committee: Pt 2 have consisted of the star-studded short film Fight For Your Right Revisited. While nothing may ever top that, the boys’ new Spike Jonze-directed clip for the track “Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win” comes pretty damn close. The video sees action figure versions of our favorite hip hop trio, along with ‘special guest’ Santigold, squaring off against a collective of anti-Beastie Boys assassins, also action figures, in an epic fight to the death. Think Terminator meets that snow scene in The World is Not Enough and then combine it with the imagination of your youth. And that’s only scratching the surface. Spike Jonze wins again.

Update: And now, the extended 11-minute version:

Arcade Fire‘s Scenes From the Suburbs, the Spike Jonze-directed “science-fiction B-movie companion piece” to their masterful third LP The Suburbs, has hit the web. Head to mubi.com to stream the 30-minute film in full.

Scenes From the Suburbs will also be included in the deluxe release of The Suburbs, which will be released on August 2nd via Merge Records.

The videos that played during this amazing time were, and still are, incredibly entertaining companions to the songs they depict. They helped sell albums and give bands obnoxious popularity. One such band consisted of three New York Jewish boys who somehow managed to turn the burgeoning rap/hip-hop world on its head. The Beastie Boys had already established their stamp on the music video medium with the iconic “No Sleep Till Brooklyn”, and with the release of a new album and new sound, they wanted to make sure it was permanent ink. The first hard-hitting and gritty single needed a hard-hitting and gritty video to accompany it. They enlisted the help of upcoming filmmaker Spike Jonze for their next single, “Sabotage”.

Up to this point, around 1994, Spike Jonze was known mostly around the skateboarding circuit for promo and highlight videos he made for skateboard companies and enthusiasts. It was on one fateful assignment, where he was sent to photograph the Beasties for Dirt magazine, that Jonze took a liking to the boys. According to an article in Empire magazine, Jonze really enjoyed what the band was doing with their music: “They were operating outside the record label, doing whatever they wanted to do. They would just have an idea and make it.”

Later, Jonze agreed to work with the Beastie Boys on “Sabotage”. The now iconic send-up of ’70s cop shows became incredibly popular with MTV fans and helped push Ill Communication to the top of the charts. The band, as well as DJ Hurricane, played multiple characters, all with terrible mustaches and wigs. Later down the road, on the group’s Beastie Boys Video Anthology, they donned the costumes again when they were interviewed in character by Jonze’s then-wife Sophia Coppola.

The video was a huge hit on MTV, though it did not win the coveted MTV Video Music award for Best Video. Instead, the honor went to Aerosmith for “Cryin’” (gross). Surprisingly, and in an action that long predates the whole “Kanye West Moment” of 2009, Beastie Boy MCA bum-rushed the staged dressed as his “Sabotage” character, Nathaniel Hornblower, and took the mic from R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe after “Sabotage” had lost not only Best Director but Breakthrough Video to “Everybody Hurts” by R.E.M.. As a matter of fact, “Sabotage” lost in every category for which it had been nominated. However, the video eventually received the proper accolades when in 2009 – what a strange coincidence, huh? – it received an award for “Best Video (That Should Have Won a Moonman)”.

Not only did the video help out the Beastie Boys, but it also pushed Spike Jonze into the limelight. In the next few years, Jonze would direct such iconic videos as “Buddy Holly” and “The Sweater Song” by Weezer, “It’s Oh So Quiet” by Bjork, and “It’s All About the Benjamins” by Puff Daddy, all within the three years after he directed “Sabotage”. He then went on to direct other videos like “Praise You” and “Weapon of Choice” for Fatboy Slim and “Get Back” by Ludacris. Oh yeah, and the feature films Being John Malkovich (where he was nominated for an Oscar), Adaptation, and Where the Wild Things Are. Small things.

Who would have thought that the guy who made skate videos — and one silly video for the Beastie Boys– would become one of the most sought-after and creative directors in film today? Probably the Beastie Boys.

Revisit the video at Cluster 1!

The video, directed by Marc-Edouard Leon, edited by Aki Mizutani, and featuring choreography by actress Shannyn Sossamon, features a who’s who of young LA talent. From Paul Gondry, son of Michel Gondry, to actress Annakim Violette, daughter of Tom Petty, along with Theresa Wayman from Warpaint and singer Ariana Delawari, each talent collaborated on a video featuring either the most terrifying religious ceremony ever or the best party the City of Angels has ever seen. Pay extra close attention to the music used in the opening sequence; ASKA, Butchy Fuego, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner’s side project have some trance music featured. Oh, and don’t forget to thank Kinbaku expert Master K for the intricate rope work.

Check out the video now on Cluster 1. ASKA’s full-length debut is scheduled to hit stores sometime this year, so stay tuned for more info on that as it’s announced.

There’s a lot of bands to be seen at this year’s South by Southwest, but the Austin-TX based extravaganza is also a film festivalm and its 2011 offering provides a few reasons to arrive early. Several music-related films have been added to this year’s lineup, including Arcade Fire and Spike Jonze’s 30-minute short film, Scenes from the Suburbs, and Joe Cornish‘s Attack the Block, which features original music from Basement Jaxx.

The festival will also feature a trio of must-see documentaries. There’s Diplo, the aptly titled documentary about DJ Diplo; Live at Preservation Hall: Louisiana Fairytale, a film that documents the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and My Morning Jacket’s recent collaboration; and the Foo Fighters’ James Moll-directed documentary, which complements their forthcoming studio album.

There will also be screenings of music videos by Radiohead’s Phil Selway, Cee-Lo, The New Pornographers, and Zola Jesus, among others.

For a complete rundown of this year’s film lineup, click here. SXSW film runs March 11-19, with the music portion to take place from 16-20. For ticket information and all other necessary details, visit sxsw.com.

This special news report focuses on the lineup for the Coachella festival which takes place from April 15-17 in Indio, California.

Also, we’ve got quick updates on this week’s tour announcements, Björk and Kate Bush releasing new music and Arcade Fire’s short film will debut in Berlin next month.

Hosted and Edited by: Sami Jarroush

Read the stories here:

• Arcade Fire, Kanye West, The Strokes head Coachella 2011
• Björk, Kate Bush putting out new music this year
• Arcade Fire & Spike Jonze’s Scenes From The Suburbs to premiere next month
• Nominate us for a Bloggie!

& more… always… at Consequence of Sound

Our new online video channel, Cluster 1, was just updated with a bunch of glorious content. Here are some highlights:

– Our host with the most, Mr. Sami Jarroush, offers a Cluster 1 News Update, featuring stories on Coachella 2011′s lineup announcement, Arcade Fire and Spike Jonze’s forthcoming short film, new music from Björk and Kate Bush, and more.

– Check out videos from Hawnay Troof, Unnatural Helpers, Rickolus, and Factor.

– Want a constant stream of musical goodness? Check out our Channel, featuring over 30 music videos, a couple of interviews, and other nifty clips, all crammed together in one non-stop barrage of visual and aural stimulation.

– Don’t forget to to follow us @cluster1tv and on Facebook.

Arcade Fire and Spike Jonze’s collaboration will extend beyond the music video for “The Suburbs”. As first indicated by the byline that accompanied the video’s release, the Jonze-directed clip is actually part of a short film entitled, Scenes From The Suburbs. Next month, said film will receive its official premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Speaking with Pitchfork last August, Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler explained that the project was a “science-fiction B-movie companion piece” for the band’s latest record, The Suburbs:

“We played Spike some music from the album and the first images that came to his mind had the same feeling as this idea for a science fiction film I had when I was younger. My brother and I and Spike wrote it together, which was really fun– it was like total amateur hour.”

A press release issued by the festival provides little more in the way of details, but does note that Scenes From The Suburbs sees Jonze’s video expanded into a film “without abandoning the structure of a clip. The future has become reality. And the threat lies in the proximity of the military. Memories of a past summer.”

The festival runs from February 10th through the 20th and you can find more details about all scheduled films on berlinale.de.There’s no word on other Scenes From The Suburbs screenings, but we’ll certainly keep you updated.

In related news, Arcade Fire is slowly beginning to map out their 2011 tour itinerary. Find all confirmed tour dates below. Update: Arcade Fire has just announced an April 25th date in Chicago with The National. Hell yeah. Tixs on sale 1/22 @ 11:00AM CST.

Hat tip to @ArcadeFireTube for the link.

Arcade Fire 2011 Tour Dates:
04/25 – Chicago, IL @ UIC Pavilion #
06/17-19 – Scheeßel, DE @ Hurricane Festival
06/17-19 – Neuhausen ob Eck, DE @ Southside Festival
06/22 – Wiesen, AT @ Festivalgelände
06/26 – Luxembourg @ Rock A Field
07/05 – Milan, IT @ Milano Jazzin’ Festival
07/07-10 – Novi Sad, SB @ Exit Festival
07/09 – Lucca, IT @ Summer Festival
07/17 – Benicasim, ES @ Benicasim Festival

# = w/ The National

Well, this time I actually mean it this time. And if you’ve taken a look at our site recently, you’ll see what I mean. And even if you haven’t the sheer size of the following round-up of music-related events will surely give you the right impression.

We’ll see you at the same time, same place, next week, provided you haven’t slipped into a food-induced coma by then.

– Arcade Fire and Spike Jonze collaborated on a new music video.

– Foo Fighters will headline Sasquatch! 2011.

– Lollapalooza will launch a South American spin-off next spring. Now the good people of Santiago, Chile will have a chance to pay way too much for beer and stay out until (gasp!) 10pm.

– The White Stripes will reissue their first three albums.

– Earlier this week we posted a link to a six-minute sample of Daft Punk‘s  Tron: Legacy soundtrack. Why settle for that when you can sample the entire thing?

– Girl Talk gave away his new album for free. Get it now if you haven’t already. And see if you can name all the samples used in it without consulting this website.

– Primavera Sound announced some seriously amazing additions to their lineup.

– It’s finally happening. The Beatles‘ entire catalog will soon be available on iTunes. (Do you suppose this means that Glee and Niki Minaj will finally be booted the top ten?)

– Sufjan Stevens made his late night debut with a performance of “Too Much”.

– He’s not even two weeks out of prison and Lil Wayne released a new track. Seriously.

– A Joe Strummer biopic is reportedly in the works.

– New tracks from Dr. Dre‘s Detox dropped. One features Akon, the other Eminem.

– Iron & Wine detailed their forthcoming LP. He also played a show in Miami recently, which Lauren Guagno  reviewed.

– Ghostface Killah AND Redman announced solo efforts this week. Yes, the Wu Tang reunion is still on. And, yes, RZA‘s still the only one holding out.

– The Strokes finished their new record… at least that’s what Julian said.

– Still reeling from this year’s Bonnaroo? Well, it’s time to get geared up for the next one since the festival’s organizers set the 2011 installment’s dates.

– Joanna Newsom’s not dead, I promise. However, she is getting her own tribute album.

– And speaking of tributes, Neil Young‘s tribute concert has some impressive artists lined up.

– The original members of Depeche Mode reunited for a remix album.

– It looks like we’ll have to wait a little long for that new Guns N’ Roses title than we originally thought. Shockkker.

– Arcade Fire and Spike Jonze collaborated on a new music video.

– Foo Fighters will headline Sasquatch! 2011.

– PJ Harvey‘s not telling us something, at least not right away. Click here to find out more.

– I bet you didn’t know that Flava Flav is planning a vodka and fried chicken franchise, did you? Well, he is.

– After the big fuss we made about Kanye West‘s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy someone actually had to review it. Michael Denslow stepped up to the plate.

– We don’t cater exclusively to indie rock elitists. We also review artists your mom likes, like Norah Jones. Check out Chris Coplan’s take on her latest title here.

– Jeremy Larson chatted up Paul Sprangers of Free Energy.

– Nick Freed did likewise with Tim Kasher.

– We posted our look at  sophomore slumps titled “And Then There Were None.”

– Not sure what kinds of coal, er, presents to buy for your loved ones? Consult our holiday gift guide.

We’ve been waiting on Arcade Fire and Spike Jonze‘s collaborative project ever since the casting call leaked back in April. Some seven months later, and almost three months after the release of the band’s masterful record The Suburbs, said project has been revealed: it’s a music video for the album’s title track. Win Butler previously described the effort as a “science-fiction B-movie companion piece for the record. Basically, we played Spike some music from the album and the first images that came to his mind had the same feeling as this idea for a science fiction film I had when I was younger. My brother and I and Spike wrote it together, which was really fun — it was like total amateur hour. We shot it in Austin and a lot of kids are in the film, and it was great just hanging out with these 15-year-olds for a week and writing down all the funny things they said.” Words don’t do the end result justice though, so I’d advise you to click play right now.

Update: As our pals at Arcade Fire Tube point out, Merge says the video is part of a short film titled Scenes From The Suburbs. So it looks like this is just the beginning.

Per TwentyFourBit, Karen O’s country-ish take of the song turns Wade’s hard-edged version into a far mellower affair. She takes the lyrics, “Well, I drenched my brain with Rot-Got whiskey/’til all my pain was chicken fried,” and makes the experience sound somewhat pleasing. And even though it’s impossible to believe her when she sings, “I had dudes with badges frisk me,” she doesn’t take her self too seriously on the tune. She laughs when she sings about getting “medals in honky tonk wars,” and it even sounds like Johnny Knoxville – who is cousins with Wade – and the rest of the Jackass crew join her for a shout-along chorus at the end.

Karen O’s cover is the third track on the film’s soundtrack, which is available digitally on October 12th and physically on October 26th. Peep the tracklist below (via P4k). Jackass 3D, the movie, hits theaters on October 15th.

Jackass 3D Soundtrack Tracklist:
01. Squeak E. Clean: “Corona (Jackass Opera Mix)”
02. Twisted Sister: “The Kids Are Back”
03. Karen O: “If You’re Gonna Be Dumb, You Gotta Be Tough”
04. Weezer: “Memories”
05. Roger Alan Wade: “Party in My Pants”
06. Smut Peddlers: “Invisible Man”
07. The Blasters: “I’m Shakin’”
08. Cock Sparrer: “I Got Your Number”
09. Roger Miller: “You Can’t Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd”
10. Sassafras: “Been Blown to Shreds”
11. Melanie: “Brand New Key”
12. Gang Green: “Alcohol”
13. CKY: “Afterworld”

The soundtrack to undoubtedly weird I’m Here will feature songs from Animal Collective, Girls, Sleigh Bells, Gui Boratto, as well as two tracks from The Lost Trees; a band consisting of Flea, Nick Zimmmer from The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and LA artist Aska Matsumiya (via The Playlist). Also appearing is an ASKA track (which you can preview below) and two songs from Squeak E. Clean, aka Spike Jonze’s younger brother Sam Spiegel, who also composed the score to the film. Plus, if you didn’t pick up Of Montreal’s “The Past Is A Grotesque Animal” single, you can also hear the powerful yet truncated version of the song on this soundtrack.

The actual film I’m Here tells the story of two robots living in a semi-futuristic Los Angeles where humans and robots coexist. The story is based on Shel Silverstein’s classic The Giving Tree. Sounds weird.

And by weird I always, of course, mean absolutely fantastic.

The soundtrack is due for release on October 5th via Chocolate Industries. The film, which debuted earlier this year, can currently be viewed on its official website.

I’m Here: The Soundtrack Tracklist:
01. ASKA – There Are Many of Us (feat. Nick Zinner and Flea)
02. Gui Boratto – Beautiful Life
03. Sleigh Bells – A/B Machines
04. Of Montreal – The Past Is A Grotesque Animal (feat. The Lost Trees)
05. Animal Collective – Did You See the Words
06. Girls – Hellhole Ratrace
07. Squeak E. Clean – There Are Many of Us (Electric Dream Version)
08. Squeak E. Clean – Lonesome Robot Theme
09. ASKA – Y.O.U.

Front man Win Butler told Pitchfork in a new interview that after playing some of the music from the album to Jonze, the director’s initial mental impressions matched Butler’s own feelings in regards to a science fiction film he had seen in his younger days. With that, the two worked with the younger Butler, William, to write the film.

The piece, with a working title of Scenes from the Suburb, already wrapped up filming back in April. Shot in Austin, the cast involved a lot of children; Butler seems to have had fun with that, saying that it was “cool to revert to being a 15-year-old for a little while.” There’s no word yet on a release date or the length of the film.

In the meantime, there’s plenty of other new Arcade Fire news to divert your attention.

By exclusive, we mean only 500 copies will be made, and the b-side is a promising collaboration between indie heavyweights. Frontman Kevin Barnes came together with ASKA, formerly of the Moonrats, and guitarist Nick Zinner of Yeah Yeah Yeahs to remake the song they recorded for Spike Jonze’s latest short film, an ad for Absolut vodka featuring robots in love called I’m Here. The song, “There Are Many of Us”, is performed in the film by a fictional band called Lost Trees.

The single, which will be on light blue 180-gram vinyl and feature a silk-screened cover, comes out July 27th on Polyvinyl.  Of course, we still have our eyes set on Of Montreal’s longer 2010 release, the band’s 10th studio album False Priest.

To put it simply, The Creators Project is a network dedicated to the celebration of creativity and culture across media, where musicians, filmmakers, designers, and artists will form unlikely collaborations and create new content.

Among the “creators” taking part will be Phoenix, Peaches, N.A.S.A., Diplo, Richie Hawtin, Mark Ronson, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner, Fool’s Gold, Laurent Garnier, and filmmaker Spike Jonze.

Their “creations” will be distributed at www.thecreatorsproject.com, via a variety of other media including print, television, and mobile, as well as series of public showcases across the globe.

The first event will take place at Milk Studios in New York’s Meatpacking District on June 26th. It will feature performances from the likes of Interpol, Sleigh Bells, Die Antwoord, Gang Gang Dance, Salem, N.A.S.A., and Mark Ronson. There will also be exhibits from Zinner, Takeshi Murata, Karl Sadler, Mark Essen, and Radical Friend.

Ticket information for the event is still forthcoming, but the website promises it will be free for the “Creator community. That means you.”

Similar events are scheduled for London, Brazil, South Korea, and China in the months ahead. For more information, click here.

According to the film’s casting call, the working title is Scenes from the Suburb and filming wrapped up on Sunday night in Austin, Texas. The shoot lasted a week and called for the following characters: military, mother, trucker, businessmen, and townspeople.

The elements are accounted for, but it’s missing something, chemistry. Your guess is as good as ours to what the specific nature of the film will turn out to be, though brand-m reports that it will focus on the theme of “friends growing apart.” As broad a theme as that is, the comments section below is officially open to your thoughts.

Below, you can check out the full casting call for the film.

Paid Extras Casting Call For Spike Jonze Short Film in Austin, Texas.

Studio/Independent/Student: Studio
Project Type: Short Film
Location: Austin, Texas
Schedule: April 20 – April 26, 2010

Director: Spike Jonze

Character Breakdowns:
Extras Needed:

* MILITARY: Men and women (over 18) with a military background or who look convincingly military. Any ethnicity. All body types considered. Especially need bigger/tougher looking men.
* MOTHER: Age 40-60. Need frail/thin. Small.
* TRUCKERS: Truck Drivers or those with a trucker look. Bigger guys. Facial hair okay. Age 25-55.
* BUSINESSMEN: Corporate business types. Confident, capable. Age 40-55.
* TOWNSPEOPLE: All ages and ethnicities. Especially looking for those with a middle class or suburban look.

Day rate for all roles is $58/8, except for Mother, who is $100/12

Paid/Non-Paid: Paid
Meals/Transportation Provided: Meal, Beverages

Earlier this week, rumors surfaced that Arcade Fire was in Austin, Texas collaborating with thee Spike Jonze. The root of the rumor appeared to come from filmmaker John Estrada, who sent several tweets conveying the idea that he was shooting videos with the band and Jonze in the Texas capital.

Yesterday, we reached out to Arcade Fire’s publicist, who quickly denied the rumor and noted the band was still in Canada working on its third LP. In fact, the publicist went on to explain that he had just seen the band this past weekend.

However, the movie website /film has their own official source who says differently. According to them, Jonze is working on a new short film with the band, which may involve late teen actors and the theme of “friends growing apart.” Adding to the story is the fact that the aforementioned Estrada has since protected his tweet, meaning no random blogs can now post what he’s doing.

So, what’s the deal? We wouldn’t be surprised if the whole “the band’s in Canada” might just be the official comment to keep the whole Arcade Fire Jonze collaboration on the down low. Or, maybe the band just jumped on a Red Eye. Either way, we do know Arcade Fire does have a history with Jonze and are gearing up for the release of its yet-to-be-titled third LP, which probably means some sort of music video/film will follow

According to TwentyFourBit, it’s not so much arts and crafts as it is decorating and designing items for Artists For Peace and Justice, a non-profit that is getting ready to begin significant relief efforts in the country. So far, as a part of the “Crafts For A Cause” project, Conor Oberst has decorated a Fender Strat, while Vampire Weekend is designing a gym bag, and The Strokes even made time for making a tote. And if you’ve ever wondered what a Cedric Bixler-Zavala designed skateboard looks like, here’s your chance. The project, organized by Little Joy’s Binki Shapiro, also promises items from M. Ward, Le Tigre, Spike Jonze, Sia, The Black Keys, and more.

For more details on the project and a list of more artists doing their part, follow the project on Tumblr and Twitter. Here’s hoping someone does a gnarly hand turkey.

As TwentyFourBit reports, ASKA, the Los Angeles singer-songwriter and member of Moonrats and The Sads, has contributed a track to the film, which can be heard in the trailer below. The song, “There Are Many of Us”, features a couple of major collaborators, including Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist/keyboardist Nick Zinner and Flea (who has been everywhere recently). ASKA wrote and sings the song, while Zinner and Flea do…er, something, but it’s hard to tell what. Either way, it’s a good song.

What’s more, TFB also reports that Zinner’s presence can be heard elsewhere in the half-hour film; he produced music for The Lost Trees, a fictional band. According to the official I’m Here blog, Spike Jonze also signed on brother Sam Spiegel, a.k.a. Squeak E. Clean (one half of indie duo N.A.S.A.), to do original music for the film.

“There Are Many of Us” is available for download here starting today. (You can hear it here as well). The film will be showing at Sundance until next Saturday and will receive wide release this March. Watch the trailer below.

Enticed? Download it right here.

Sound Advice 23: We Love You So Tracklist:
01. Lust For Life  -  Girls
02. Wake Up (WTWTA trailer version)  -  Arcade Fire
03. I Want a Dog  -  Pet Shop Boys
04. Hey There Stranger  -  Pamela Blue
05. The Wimp  -  Capybara
06. Animal Crackers (in Cellophane Boxes)  -  Gene Pitney
07. Yekermo Sew  -  Mulatu Astatke
08. Water To Wine  -  Saintseneca
09. Tong Poo  -  Yellow Magic Orchestra
10. Rumpus  -  Karen O and The Kids
11. Overnight Religion  -  Kurt Vile
12. Green Bean (Binki Shapiro)  -  Green Bean
13. No Time, No Hope  -  Times New Viking
14. Ode to an African Violet  -  Mort Garson
15. Como Pudiste Hacerme Esto A Mi  -  Alaska y Dinarama
16. Overmuch  -  The Long Lost
17. Turkey Sandwich  -  Mika Miko
18. Poet, Fool or Bum  -  Lee Hazlewood
19. Hultsfred ‘98  -  Jens Lekman
20. Seigneur Apprends Moi  -  Hermas Zopoula

Anyhow, the film has finally hit the web, and incredibly, it’s even more hilarious and utterly confusing than originally thought. So, if you’re looking for some more Jonze’s crafted films, following your Where The Wild Things Are weekend viewing, and/or are in need of a Kanye fix now that the rapper is comforting it up in India, we strongly suggest you check it out here.

On October 16th, that place appears once more in the mind’s eye of our generation. Spike Jonze, the cinematic genius that directed and produced countless music videos and others for giants like the Beastie Boys, Pavement, and Bjork, now brings us the live action adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are. Wielding a star studded cast and throngs of expectant spectators, this movie couldn’t be more complete if it had a solid soundtrack. And, what do you know? It just so does.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs unyielding frontwoman Karen O takes the score on her ex’s newest silver screen adventure, delivering a compilation of delicate and raucous sounds that enrapture the imagination and jump start the heart. The vision for this album, which turns out to be a story more than a collection of songs to go with the movie, was innocence. Over about two years of collaboration with the likes of Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox, Raconteurs like Dean Fertita and Jack Lawrence, and Nick Zinner and Brian Chase of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Karen O & The Kids managed to capture the child-like innocence and untamed emotion that characterizes Sendak’s classic story.

Oh, Karen O. With a voice that sweet, what are you doing playing rock star? It’s time you went back to the choir of mermaids that expelled you. Or maybe it was a pack of wolves herding you into an “Igloo”. The first track off the Wild Things soundtrack introduces Max’s extraordinary imagination land via O’s sugary hum, accompanied by some soft strums and twinkling childhood sounds. However, versatility is definitely Karen O’s bag, and this album’s no exception. On “All Is Love”, the flowery single released this August, O’s vocals could be mistaken for Max’s dialogue. It features O’s charmingly shrill shouts, whistles, and whoo’s that meet with an untrained children’s chorus to form the magnificently innocent and playful sound that characterizes the story itself.

O commented on the band’s MySpace that she

“didn’t want to make music that was hammering you over the head or go for some kind of pushbutton emotion. What [she] initially wanted to do was close to Cat Stevens in Harold & Maude, really simple, but memorably and seamlessly woven into the movie.”

And woven into the movie it was.

“Rumpus” is a savage musicalization of main character Max’s (played Max by Records) rise to royalty among the wild things, and it so seamlessly blends the soundtrack quality with audio clips from the actual motion picture. It’s the motion picture soundtrack — to the max. It’s remarkable how, in tracks like this one and the rampant “Animal” and “Heads Up”, O sounds so much like one of the kids herself.

There is full sensitivity and ample range of feelings spread across Wild Things. Just like in any good story, there are changes in mood and tone. The transitions go from “Capsize”, the Death Proof Soundtrack’s April March sound-alike to the lament “Worried Shoes”. The latter features lyrics as such: “I made a mistake that I never forgot/Tying knots in the laces of my worried shoes,” pretty deep lyrics considering it’s a children’s story. Then again, it is a children’s book that touches on the consequences of misbehaving and the lengths to which punishment can take someone, so it’s extremely relevant, just so beautifully expressed.

After “Rumpus Reprise” comes the solitary “Hideaway”, where O’s chords thicken (a la Feist‘s Let It Die) and moan along a soft percussive background in a lonely, somewhat Asian feel. From sadness to hope, fear to celebration, nostalgia to desperation, The Kids have got it all.

For a movie that has not yet premiered, the soundtrack is the initial window to its magic. This work of patience, perseverance, and empathy is a breathtaking adaptation. It’s more than a group of songs that sounds nice along the scenes. It’s a robust, yet sensitive aural narrative of the story that for years was but visual.

Check Out:

As we came to learn, the short film was written directed by Spike Jonze and titled We Were Once A Fairytale. Having previously collaborated on Kanye’s music video for “Flashing Lights”, the duo teamed up at the end of January over the course of two days in Los Angeles.

Come September 8th, the entire world will finally be able to see the end result when the film will be released on iTunes.