Back in the spring, when I was writing a post about Why Iron Man is The First 21st Century Superhero, I came across this awesome Iron Man trailer remix created by Mike Relm. The remix was so rad, in fact, that when Jon Favreau, the director of Iron Man, brought it to the attention of Paramount and Marvel, they hired Relm to do an official TV spot for the film in his signature style.

Some months later, I saw a beyond-epic 9-minute long video, called “The Apple Tree,” featuring VFX shots, action clips, and dance sequences from like 700 different movies in a mind-scrambling montage scored to The Glitch Mob‘s music. New York Magazine, which got a hold of the video in September, called it “intense,” and, indeed, if by the end of The Apple Tree you don’t experience the overwhelming need to get in your car and drive somewhere immediately with the volume up, the windows down, and the needle in the red the whole way, you’re probably dead. The first time I watched it I literally had to hit pause like every 30 seconds just to catch my breath. But more than simply an adrenalized ad for special effects, The Apple Tree video is really a piece of art, using montage not so much to tell a story but rather to relate sound to motion, each cut creating its own blast of synesthesia. Among the clips used in the video were a handful from the forthcoming Tron: Legacy sequel due out in December, which picks up where the classic 1982 movie left off.

And that’s when I got an idea… I brought this idea to The Glitch Mob, who got Khameleon808, the auteur behind the Apple Tree on board; we picked a track, Animus Vox, off their new album, Drink The Sea, and now, a few months later, I’m suuuuuper excited to announce this new piece of total fucking awesome!

Brace yourselves!

Khameleon808′s Tron: Legacy “REREZZED”
ft. music by The Glitch Mob

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UPDATE:

On November 23rd, Wired.com picked up the video, in an article titled “Fan’s ‘Rerezzed’ Mashup Earns Raves From Tron: Legacy Producer”:

A Tron mashup crafted by an unemployed movie fan made a big impression on Tron: Legacy producer Sean Bailey, who singled out the clip during a recent Los Angeles press conference.

While discussing Tron: Legacy’s viral-marketing campaign, Bailey saluted the trailer made by 31-year-old Josh Prescott. The DIY filmmaker took Daft Punk’s electronica as a stylistic point of departure for his own sequence of beauty shots culled from promotional trailers and music videos for the 3-D sci-fi sequel.

Prescott’s “Rerezzed” clip, which glides along on music by Los Angeles-based trio The Glitch Mob, caught the eye of Bailey and other Tron: Legacy filmmakers.

On November 24th, the video was featured on the official Tron: Legacy Facebook page, and Twitter account.

At the time of this update the video has been viewed over 85,000 times.

For my crimes in originating the idea for the video, Wired.com called me a “social media maven.”

Congrats to all those involved, Khameleon808 and The Glitch Mob!

UPDATE 2:

March 2, 2011 – The cat is out of the bag: Pitchfork reports Walt Disney Records will release a remix album of the Tron:Legacy soundtrack, Tron: Legacy R3CONFIGUR3D on April 5th. The first track on there is The Glitch Mob’s remix of “Derezzed.” In case you’re wondering what that’s gonna be like, I’ve heard it, and it sounds like what this looks like:

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Gobble it up!
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New Video: “Beyond Monday” (epic!!!)
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An experimental installation of art and sound by director Brandon Hirzel (aka “Bemo”). Filmed in the depths of Los Angeles’ industrial district, the video fuses together our heavy electronics with architectural projection-mapping. Cinematographer David Myrick captures The Glitch Mob as they play their trademark Jazzmutant Lemur MIDI controllers in sync with Bemo’s detailed visual creations, bringing the live performance to new levels. This is truly a unique collaboration. “Beyond Monday” pushes the boundaries of modern digital art and marries the latest technologies in electronic live music, motion design and film.

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New Single: Drive It Like You Stole It / Between Two Points
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\\ GET THE SINGLE NOW //

OTHER STORES: ITUNES | AMAZON | JUNO | 7DIGITAL

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New Website: theglitchmob.com
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As with the previous iteration I consulted on IA / web strategy yadda yadda, you know the drill.

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New (debut!) Album: Drink The Sea – May 25th
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Hard to believe, since the Glitch Mob has been around for years, and the fellas have been making music on their own for even longer, but this May will see the release of the FIRST actual album this digital band has produced as The Glitch Mob.

There’s also a new tour, and other new stuff I’m forgetting, but basically, I think you get the idea.

To the extent that any advertising works, the model in place at websites like Hulu and Fancast, that offer commercial-supported streaming video of TV shows and movies, is pretty damn effective. Unlike the 3-minute average TV commercial break, which most people Tivo past or click away for or simply go to the bathroom during, the 30-second “limited commercial interruption” on your online machine gets you to pay attention. 30 seconds isn’t enough to walk away for, after all. Sure, you can pause to answer nature’s call or email’s or SMS’s or whatever, but the remainder of the ad will play when you unpause. You can, at most, surf over to another browser tab, but nevertheless you’re still listening to the ad’s audio, and on several occasions I’ve gotta admit this was intriguing enough unto itself to get me to tab back. (The lazer-bassy sounding Asics ad with the Asian male model dude running through psychedelic milk formations is coming to mind).

At the same time, because the commercial interruption really IS limited — one ad per break — and often Hulu even offers a choice as to which ad you’d prefer to see and in what sort of format (a long-form ad before the program starts, with no breaks later on is also an option), it doesn’t feel nearly as offensive and imposing as the ads that you DO have time to walk away from on the teevee. The one thing that’s missing is a feature to click to see the ad directly, replay it, and embed or share it. Right now you still have to go over to youtube or elsewhere if you want to find the ad you just saw on Hulu (counter intuitive, no?) and sometimes you can’t even find the ad anywhere (the Timberland Earthkeepers ad where the sole of the shoe keeps morphing into all sorts of things like an eagle and a tire, etc, is coming to mind. I STILL can’t find that shit, and it was hella cool.)

As Hulu’s brand keeps growing — it overtook the big broadcast networks that own shares of it (ABC, NBC and Fox) in web traffic for the first time this past June — less, it turns out, really is more, paricularly when it comes to commercials. Now, how long until Hulu starts producing its own original content, you think? Let’s just hope Netflix (whose Red Envelope Entertainment division, responsible for licensing and distributing films such as Born into Brothels and Sherrybaby expanded to produce its own original content in 2006 only to close down just 2 years later in part to avoid competition with its studio partners) isn’t necessarily a permanent precedent.

Big news in Mobsterville this week. My favorite boy-band ever (and also friends, and clients) have officially signed with Windish as their new agency. As their original booking agent, Arin Ingraham, a.k.a The Ringleader Herself, says of this big move: “Watch out world The Glitch Mob has gained access to your sound systems.”

Could not be happier for these fellas. Congrats!

More big capers are afoot!

The Glitch Mob
West Coast Rocks
(Remix of Matty G)

This is the first in a series of many free releases to say THANKS to all of our fans!
Download it, burn it, rip it, share it, slay it!

DOWNLOAD HERE: The Glitch Mob Music Page

Special Note: This release is the latest in an infinite series of digital-only singles on the artist-owned Glitch Mob Unlimited label. And now, more than ever, we need your HELP in getting the word out. So if you’ve been slayed by the Glitch Mob, we humbly ask that you repost this bulletin. Easily copy-and-paste the code from: theglitchmob.com/westcoastrocks