Lupe Fiasco falls asleep and wakes up a superstar on the excellent, Hype Williams-directed video for the Chicago rapper's latest single. In shots as quick and blinding as camera flashes, the "Superstar" clip shows stars, women in shiny dresses, luxury automobiles, and smoke-wreathed guest vocalist Matthew Santos belting out the hook. Fiasco strolls down the red carpet with ridiculous sunglasses on, like he's his pal Kanye West. "Well, your name ain't on the guest list, who brung you?/ You, the more famous person, you come through/ And the sexy lady next to you, you come, too," he rhymes, eventually ending up in a limo for the sing-song closing verse.

We previously said of the song: "Lupe Fiasco contemplates the nature of modern celebrity culture on 'Superstar', the first proper single from his forthcoming sophomore album The Cool. More serious and brooding, if less witty, than preceding 'street' single 'Dumb It Down', and with a more melodic hook, 'Superstar' looks at what we expect of stars in the TMZ age: 'If you are what you say you are, a superstar/ Have no fear, the camera's here,' sings Santos. There's some audience applause and a jittery beat, and some decent wordplay." (via Nah Right)

[from The Cool; due 12/18/07 on 1st & 15th/Atlantic]

In the Marvel comic-book universe, Melter was a villain who used some type of raygun to, y'know, melt stuff. "Melter", off of noisily psychedelic California rockers Clipd Beaks' latest album Hoarse Lords, certainly could be about a weapon. These former Minnesotans have found only a new frontier of dank, thick gloom in the Golden State, and that choking darkness presses in on "Melter" until a relatively coherent, groove-oriented introduction shatters into a mess of fractured noise that recalls This Heat. Like labelmates HEALTH, Clipd Beaks wreak havoc with thundering percussion, chaotic waves of guitars, and lo-fi howls that sound like vocalist Nic Barbeln is about to slam his head into a wall. Make sure to point your melting device at the drywall first, man.

MP3:> Clipd Beaks: "Melter"
[from Hoarse Lords; out now on Lovepump United]

Stroll down any tree-lined street in the suburbs on a sunny Saturday afternoon, and you'll see dads washing their cars --or indie rock bands-- in the driveway. This clip from Chicago indie-pop trio the Buddyrevelles should have been used for Outkast's "So "Fresh So Clean." It certainly would have given a new meaning to the phrase Dirty South. Directed by Found Footage Festival's Joe Picket, the members of the Buddyrevelles (guitarist Aaron Grant, bassist Scott Hoch, and drummer Dan Reinholdt) start out covered in mud playing in front of a garage until they get a good scrubbing from dad, from head to toe, between frets, leaving no cymbal unturned. While the band gets shampooed, blow dried, and a good tooth brushing, they play the song completely deadpan without flinching. When Dad's done, he waves to his neighbor, who's busy washing a band of his own. The entertaining clip with suck you in, but the song will stick in your head.

You gotta love PBS. Another season of the live music showcase "Austin City Limits" is underway, and last weekend's episode featured Wilco. Here Jeff Tweedy and the gang perform the mid-tempo "Impossible Germany", from this year's Sky Blue Sky. This particular song doesn't do much for me, but the guitar coda in its final third is easy to appreciate. In addition to this clip, which is streaming and downloadable from Wilco's site, there's also video of the band doing "You Are My Face" over at the Austin City Limits page.

Video:> Wilco: "Impossible Germany" (Live on "Austin City Limits")
[original track from Sky Blue Sky; out now on Nonesuch]

Comparisons between the music and the landscape come easily for this video of "Heima", taken from the forthcoming Sigur Rós documentary of the same name (also available without visuals on the Hvarf/Heim double CD). Pitchfork's Amanda Petrusich recently captured the look of the film in the words "stupidly gorgeous," and this clip hints at the reasons why. Canadian director Dean DeBlois lets the lens hover over arresting images as if they were photographs: whether Jón Por ("Jónsi") Birgisson's dramatic, brow-furrowed singing, the rest of the group's intent, eyes-lowered playing, or, most sweepingly, the natural grandeur of the wintry Icelandic backdrop.

As music, "Heima" unfolds slowly and deliberately, with the unhurried majesty of frost covering a field (see, there, I'm doing it). The chiming acoustic instrumentation and brushed drums imagine far vaster uses for such an arrangement than you'd hear in, say, an American coffeehouse. Birgisson's vocal-- first a wounded tenor, then a faltering falsetto-- at once conjures up the comfort suggested by the song's title (Icelandic for, roughly, "at home") and serves as a reminder that what's home for Sigur Rós remains wondrously alien to the rest of the world.

[from the Hvarf/Heim double-CD and Heima DVD; Hvarf/Heim is due 11/06/07 and Heima is out 11/20/07, both on XL]

Ghostface Killah might be a college football fan. I mean, it's possible, right? The single from the Wu-Tang Clan member's forthcoming solo effort The Big Doe Rehab (now due a week ahead of Wu-Tang's own 8 Diagrams) samples the blue-eyed funk of Rare Earth's "I Just Want to Celebrate"-- the same song recently adapted by Perry Farrell, Kelly Rowland, and 50 Cent as a Hank Williams, Jr.-style college football theme. Ghostface's raucous delivery here is suited to this kind of energetic, guitar-driven backing, which gets layered with some harder-edged beats and vinyl noises to bring it up to date. The emphasis here is squarely on celebration, not contemplation: "My goodness gracious, ass is flirtatious," Ghostface spits, adapting a line by who else but, um, Nelly. Are you ready for some party-rap?

Stream:> Ghostface Killah: "We Celebrate"
[from The Big Doe Rehab; due 12/04/07 on Def Jam]

A-Trak has already expressed his admiration for Simian Mobile Disco's record-thieving dance single "Hustler". Hey, so have we. Last time out, the Montreal-based DJ for Kanye West mashed the UK electronic outfit's track up against Rick Ross's "Hustlin'" on this year's quite good Dirty South Dance, a move previously attempted by Cadence Weapon. This time, A-Trak simply remixes "Hustler", dropping the pitch in the sticky-fingered narrator's voice for extra drama, but keeping the cyborg electro-house beats blaring.

Well, except when the narrator first starts speaking-- then A-Trak cuts the beats out altogether. Elsewhere, sinister new synths stretch out over SMD's futuristic groove, and James Brown might be in there somewhere, too, shouting, "Get up!" (as was his wont). I haven't heard all of the other remixes planned for the latest issue of the "Hustler" single, but for now, A-Trak's beefed-up effort would be the one to steal, if only it was on an official release (there are no firm plans for this track yet). Famous last words: "What the fuck?!!"

[original track from Attack Decay Sustain Release; out now; the "Hustler 12" is due 11/26/07; both from Wichita/Interscope]

Stephin Merritt usually writes in a bar, not a recording studio, the Magnetic Fields main-man tells NPR. Merritt's inaugural contribution to the noncommercial radio network's Project Song, in which songwriters are asked to write and record a song in 48 hours, shouldn't lead him to change his preferred habitat-- though the resulting "Man of a Million Faces" is admirable enough considering the less-than-ideal circumstances. NPR's All Songs Considered gave Merritt six images, six phrases, and a studio; the songwriter selected a photograph by artist Phil Toledano of a man covered in baby dolls, plus the number "1974," and then set to work.

What emerged is a midtempo tune about not some mythological archetype from Joseph Campbell's seminal book The Hero With a Thousand Faces, but a criminal with a face for every situation-- "No one knows what his race is," Merritt deadpans. In fact, the lyrics often exhibit bursts of Merritt's typical cleverness-- "Quite the psychiatric case is/ The man of a million faces/ Wielder of flails and maces/ Veteran of high-speed chases."-- even while lacking, like their subject, the kind of singular, memorable face that characterizes Merritt's most charming work. A vaguely sitar-like guitar solo pads out the song, which mostly relies on keyboards and shaken percussion; during one instrumental break, it's as if Merritt has succumbed to the studio trap of tailoring the song to the toys available, rather than vice versa.

Video:> Stephin Merritt: "Man of a Million Faces"
[The Magnetic Fields' new album, Distortion, is due 01/15/08 on Nonesuch Records ]

Lou Reed's presence in the Killers' latest video reminds me of Marianne Faithfull's appearance in Metallica's nadir-period clip for Reloaded's "The Memory Remains". Reed's here as a grizzled, wrinkled, shaky-voiced addition of bygone-era hipster gravitas on a video and song that's otherwise maudlin, self-serious garbage, trudging and tuneless. In this case, the garbage sounds (slightly) more like Bruce Springsteen than Audioslave, and it has a children's chorus. Wow, Sam's Town came out a year ago last month. Happy belated birthday.

[from Sawdust; due 11/13/07 from Island]

On the recently (re)posted "Gronlandic Edit", Athens, Ga., psych-poppers Of Montreal sing, "Guess it would be nice to give my heart to a god/ But which one?" Long-running Swedish duo Club 8 describe this urge to believe a little differently on "Jesus, Walk With Me", the spare, heart-tugging lead track from latest album The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Dreaming. "Fool me into believing/ I don't care if you're deceiving/ I wouldn't want it any other way/ 'cause then I'd only stay the same," Karolina Komstedt sighs over nylon-string guitar figures by Johan Angergård (who also heads up the Labrador label, plays in Acid House Kings, and fronts the Legends).

This video by Sweden's PSL puts the song's faithful yearning in a setting at once intimate and majestic, and definitely appropriate: a church. Angergård's reserved playing reverberates across the pews, and Komstedt's vocal rings out clear and ingenuous as a choir girl's solo. We've already written about "Heaven" and "Whatever You Want", also tracks from Club 8's new album, but this video might be an even better entry point to the duo's wistful, melancholic pop. Jesus, Allah, Buddha, I love you all, shit.

[from The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Dreaming; out now in Sweden and due 11/13/07 in the U.S. on Labrador, and due 12/03/07 in the UK on Fortuna Pop!]

Lest we thought Twista's Micro Machine man rapping was his only trick, the video for the Chicago MC's new "Pimp Like Me" shows he's pals with people who can throw a pretty good basement party, too. From the frequent high-speed guest rapper's latest album, Adrenaline Rush 2007, "Pimp Like Me" complements Twista's verbal dexterity with thudding bass and a screwed chorus. The dance moves in the video are an apparent nod to the hometown style of Chicago juke music: "Repping the Midwest," Twista announces, right before shifting to ludicrous speed. The plot involving Twista's worries about his basement getting trashed doesn't really make sense-- if Twista doesn't want people partying there, why is he on screen rapping?-- but then again, this is a video for a song called "Pimp Like Me". Clearly, Twista's friends are just making some noodles.

[from Adrenaline Rush 2007; out now on Atlantic]

Ah, it's a parody of that hot new American Idol phenomenon I've been hearing so much about, starring UK rapper Dizzee Rascal. Is somebody bringing 2003 back? The hypercolor beats of "Flex" immediately suggest otherwise, confirming that yeah, this is a song from Dizzee's latest album, Maths + English. "I love it when you wine like that," Dizzee raps, expressing his love of watching girls dance.

When he imagines himself as the Simon Cowell figure on a talent competition called "Flex Factor", Dizzee's predilection for flexing female bodies renders him a tough critic for everyone who's not a woman "wiggling" and "jiggling." Better luck next time, Guy Bouncing a Soccer Ball. The rest of the video is interspersed with the usual partying scenes, Dizzee saying stuff like, "Gosh golly, my oh my/ Hoping that you ain't looking at any uvva guy." The clip ends with someone giving the finger.

Video:> Dizzee Rascal: "Flex" (Windows Media) (RealPlayer)
[from Maths + English; out now on XL]