Kanye West and Adam Levine on the set of "Heard 'Em Say"
Photo: Walik Goshorn

WEST HOLLYWOOD, California — The man who recreated the White Stripes with Legos has transformed Adam Levine into a Macy's security guard.

"This sounds weird, but it's kind of a surrealistic Christmas world that Macy's becomes," the Maroon 5 singer said of director Michel Gondry's video for Kanye West's "Heard 'Em Say," which features Levine as a guard. "I let Kanye and his family in, after hours, to spend the night. And he's got three kids with him and they're running around and I'm chasing them."

Kanye and Michel have collaborated before — West performs in Gondry's upcoming documentary, "Dave Chappelle's Block Party," and the director actually played drums on the rapper's "Diamonds From Sierra Leone" (see " 'Can He Do It Again?' — Kanye West Says New LP Backs Up His Bragging") — but "Heard 'Em Say" marks their first video together. The clip is also Levine's first with Gondry, who is best known for his innovative videos with the White Stripes and Björk, as well as for last year's feature film "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."

"I've been dying to work with him forever," Levine said. "I was just blown away that I got the opportunity. Then I read the treatment and I found out that I would being a little bit of, you know, video acting, which is funny."

Jon Brion, who co-produced the song, also appears in the video, playing a miniature piano in the store's toy section, but the true star is Gondry, who created a "Mary Poppins"-inspired fantasy world inside the department store, where Kanye and his fictional kids run amok. Utilizing his signature special effects, the director created a seemingly endless race track that comes together piece by piece within seconds, sofa beds that fold and unfold to the beat, and more.

	Watch Kanye bare his thoughts and feelings on playing hits, playing the audience and why other players are 'wack,' only on Overdrive.

"There's this one scene where we're driving, like, a police-car bed," Levine said. "It's so weird! There's dancing suits in the men's section, all kinds of craziness, but I'm excited about it."

Gondry shot the video in the Macy's flagship store on 34th Street in New York, working overnight while the store was closed.

"That was an experience, culturally — and being there doing what we were doing was just so fun," Levine said. "It's inspirational to push yourself past what you're used to. It's nice to be a little bit uncomfortable if it can yield more interesting, unique results."

Adam and Kanye first worked together when Maroon 5 commissioned West to remix "This Love," and their friendship blossomed when they sat together on a flight to Rome for last year's MTV Europe Music Awards.

"He started playing me stuff on his iPod — which was far fancier than my iPod — all this new material for his record, and I was really excited about it in general," Levine recalled. "Then he played me this song that was kind of what 'Heard 'Em Say' eventually became. He was rhyming over it, and I had just written a hook that was so perfect for it. It was one of those natural collaborations where you're so excited because it's all very pure and very easy."

For a full-length feature on Kanye West, check out "All Eyes On Kanye West."

• On The Set Of Kanye West's Music Video "Heard 'Em Say"

• Kanye West
• Maroon 5
• Jon Brion

Fiona Apple
Photo: Epic

Jon Brion, who's become hip-hop's new "favorite white boy" after co-executive-producing Kanye West's Late Registration, brought out special guests Fiona Apple and her latest producer, Dr. Dre's right-hand man Mike Elizondo, during his set at Los Angeles' Largo on Friday night. The trio performed "Extraordinary Machine" from Apple's long-awaited album of the same name. She also sang fan favorites "Criminal" and "Paper Bag" as well as a couple of old standards with Brion accompanying her on guitar. Extraordinary Machine, Apple's first release in six years, is scheduled to hit shelves on October 4. ...

Collaborations between Sean Paul and Kool & the Gang ("Ladies' Night"), Stereophonics and Tom Jones ("Mama Told Me (Not to Come)") and Wayne Newton and the Legion of Doom ("Suspicious Minds") are among the tracks slated for the soundtrack to NBC's "Las Vegas," due September 27. The show's theme song, Elvis Presley's "A Little Less Conversation," is also featured, along with songs from Fatboy Slim, the Pussycat Dolls and Esthero. ... Brooke Valentine's video for the first single from the "Roll Bounce" soundtrack, "Boogie Oogie Oogie" featuring Fabolous and Yo Yo, is going to feature a few guest stars from the movie — Marcus Paulk and Brandon Jackson, who play two members of Bow Wow's crew, Boo and Junior. The video, which was shot Friday in Los Angeles with director Kevin Hunter, will have a roller-skating vibe, thanks to choreographer Kishaya Dudley (who also choreographed the movie's skating scenes as well as Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" clip). ...

The Rolling Stones kicked off their North American tour with a bit more bang than they bargained for on Sunday when a female fan was injured after climbing onto the rafters of Boston's Fenway Park and falling close to 40 feet, The Associated Press reports. The 20-year-old woman broke both her ankles and a wrist and was in stable condition at a nearby hospital, according to police. ... Pennywise frontman Jim Lindberg; Incubus members Brandon Boyd, Mike Einziger and Ben Kenney; and ex-Porno for Pyros guitarist Peter DiStefano will compete in the inaugural Surfrider Foundation Celebrity Surf Jam at the Huntington Beach Pier in Huntington Beach, California, on September 11. More participants for the event, aimed at raising awareness and support for beach and coastal environments, will be announced in the coming weeks. ...

Has Tommy Lee swapped bodies with his buddy Nick Carter? The Mötley Crüe drummer's new single, "Good Times," would sound right at home on a Backstreet Boys album, and fittingly, the video, shot by director Dean Karr, features Lee in billowy shirts. In the clip, Lee drives his beat-up car to a party, picking up every hot chick on the way (one has to ride in the trunk), and then continues to hang on the beach for a bonfire sing-along. ... DJ Shadow and artist Shepard Fairey — the man responsible for the now iconic "Obey: Giant" graffiti artwork — have teamed up to create "Public Works," a limited-edition clothing and music box set. The set is limited to just 450 pieces, and features five new DJ Shadow T-shirts designed by Fairey, a new mix CD by Shadow, a copy of Fairey's "Post No Bills" book, buttons, stickers and more. "Public Works" will be available starting September 1 through ShopDJShadow.com and nationwide at Kid Robot stores. ...

The original Gang of Four — who reunited last May — are at it again. The post-punk band will be heading out on a monthlong tour, starting September 29 in Providence, Rhode Island. Seventeen cities later, the trek will come to a close on October 21 in Anaheim, California. ... MC Lyte, who just wrote a book called "Just My Take," is continuing to expand into other fields. The rapper is launching a home-accessories line in the fall and will also play a role in the sitcom "Half & Half." ... German metal act Rammstein's forthcoming album, originally titled Reise, Reise Vol. 2, has been given the much prettier sounding title of Rosenrot, the band announced through its Web site late last week. The group recently shot a video for the album's leadoff single, "Benzin," which will precede the disc's release sometime this fall. ...

08.19.2005

Bo Bice missed Thursday's American Idols Live tour stop in Las Vegas. Rumors on the "American Idol" messageboards are that the runner-up fell ill, but Bice's spokesperson could not confirm ...

Radiohead fans have a new reason to rejoice. The band headed back into the studio on Thursday to work on the follow-up to 2003's Hail to the Thief, according to a brief post by frontman Thom Yorke on the band's Web site: "We are going into a proper studio on Thursday (for a leettle while) with 192 faders which is a lot of choice a bit like the supermarket and it may all go off before we get to it so we have to eat quick. We will post more when we get there." ...

Six limited-edition album posters signed by Gwen Stefani will be auctioned off on eBay beginning August 28 to benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. The artwork, created to promote the No Doubt frontwoman's solo disc, Love, Angel, Music, Baby, was done by Japanese artist Shinjuko and features the platinum-haired singer surrounded by her pals the Harajuku Girls. ... My Chemical Romance will make a special appearance on Saturday at New York club Luke & Leroy's — as DJs. The band is joining the MisShapes crew, who've played clubs around New York with such guest spinners as Hilary Duff, Kelly Clarkson, Franz Ferdinand, Interpol and, most recently, Fall Out Boy. ...

Common, Talib Kweli and DMC will perform at the finals of the Guitar Center DJ Spin Off at the Wiltern LG in Los Angeles. The event is scheduled for September 10. ... Want to see the new White Stripes video for "My Doorbell"? Then tune in to Nickelodeon — yes, that's right, Nickelodeon — for the premiere of the clip on Friday (August 19) at 9 p.m. The video will air just before a new episode of "Girls Vs. Boys," and will continue to air throughout the weekend on the kids' channel. ...

On Thursday, less than a week after announcing he'd headline the Ozzfest no more, Ozzy Osbourne posted a statement on his Web site to set a few things straight. "After 10 years, I've decided that this year will be my last as the headlining act on Ozzfest," the statement reads. "The Ozzfest is well-established now and I feel it's time for me to hand the reigns off to someone else. However, I will be performing at a few select Ozzfest shows next year. Despite the rumors, I don't have permanent throat problems. The truth is that after 11 straight summers on the road, I would just love to finally take a summer holiday with my wife. You haven't heard the last from me." ... Punk outfit the Distillers are in a state of limbo at the moment. On Thursday night, bassist Ryan Sinn announced he'd be taking leave of the band in a posting to the Distillers' MySpace page — one that has since been demolished completely. "I'm no longer part of the life I knew so recently," the message read. "The Distillers are no more and it feels like a weight has been lifted. However, I'll never get rid of the disgust inside from it all." Sinn's defection follows just seven months after drummer Andy Granelli quit — effectively leaving singer/guitarist Brody Dalle the band's only remaining member. Calls for comment on the situation from the Distillers' label were not returned by press time. ...

An all-star cast of alternative rockers has banded together for the UNICEF charity-benefit single "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?" Known as the North American Prevention Initiative, the collective features Beck, Sum 41's Steve Jocz , the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O, and members of the Postal Service, the Arcade Fire, Sonic Youth, Sloan, Wolf Parade and Feist. The track was written and produced by ex-Unicorns singer Nicholas Diamonds and Redd Kross' Steven McDonald. ... Seattle rock stalwarts Mudhoney, who pretty much invented grunge back in 1988 with their song "Touch Me I'm Sick," are prepping a new album for Sea-town's Sub Pop Records. The new album features Mark Arm, Steve Turner, Guy Madison and Dan Peters, and is being recorded at three different studios by three different producers, including Modest Mouse knob-twiddler Phil Ek. There's no title or release date for the new disc — the band's first since 2002's Since We've Become Translucent — and let's hope the recording process isn't getting in the way of Arm's day job as the manager of Sub Pop's warehouse. ...

Randy "Biscuit" Turner, frontman of formative early '80s punk-rock band the Big Boys, was found dead in his home in Texas on Thursday — the day after he was featured on the cover of The Austin Chronicle. His body was discovered by the writer of the piece, and according to the Chronicle, the medical examiner's initial autopsy report attributes the cause of death to "gastrointestinal hemorrhage due to cirrhosis associated with chronic [alcohol] abuse." The Big Boys split in the mid-'80s, and in recent years, Turner had worked successfully as an artist — sadly, the Austin gallery that was to host his art installation "Mental Volcano" this weekend will instead host an informal wake Friday (August 19) night. Turner was 56. ... Canadian popsters the New Pornographers are gearing up for the release of their new album, Twin Cinema, by launching a North American tour. After a series of record-store performances in late August, the Pornographers' tour officially gets under way September 22 in Victoria, British Columbia, and runs through the end of October. Twin Cinema hits stores on Tuesday. ...

• Jon Brion
• Fiona Apple
• Sean Paul
• Brooke Valentine
• Incubus

Kanye West and Jon Brion (file)
Photo: Roc-A-Fella/Costa Communications

The streets can't wait for ... er, Jon Brion?

When word got out that West had enlisted the esoteric composer/producer to collaborate on his second LP, Late Registration, some fans scratched their heads — "Who??" — while others assumed the worst.

" 'Oh, [Kanye's] gone off his rocker — he's going to make an art record with some crazy, left-field music guy,' " Brion said, imagining haters' comments. "That's not the case whatsoever. It's very much a Kanye West record."

Brion should know — he's the co-executive producer of nearly every track on Late Registration. Renowned for his distinctive production work (Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann) and film scores for auteurs like Michel Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"), Paul Thomas Anderson ("Punch Drunk Love") and David O. Russell ("I Heart Huckabees"), Brion's not exactly known for his hip-hop chops.

In fact, his résumé is completely devoid of hip-hop.

So why was he given such a big role in Late Registration? According to Brion, Kanye is a Fiona Apple fan, and while watching "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," his ears perked up at Brion's evocative score (see "Unsung Composer Jon Brion Brings Heart To 'Huckabees' ").

Hooked up through a mutual friend, producer Rick Rubin, Kanye wasted no time ringing up Brion. The two clicked instantly, and by the end of their first afternoon in the studio, the basic tracks for "Gold Digger" were complete.

"It was completely apparent that he was open to investigating new ideas," Brion said. "I was playing something on a track and he was completely psyched, and then he left after a few hours and said, 'I'll see you tomorrow.' "

The album's recording was experimental and exploratory. West, who marveled at the many unusual instruments Brion has at his disposal, would bring in a song's basic structure, and then the pair would let their imaginations run wild. Kanye would then pick and choose, shaping the track as he saw fit. Make no mistake, Brion says: Kanye was in charge.

	'All Eyes On: Kanye West' Extras Producer/rapper recalls VMA magic, reveals what made him a fighter and admits that someone else is calling the shots, only on Overdrive.

"When he hears something he likes, he knows it," Brion said. "He has vision, and when the guy makes quick, intuitive decisions, he just has it. I'd watch him take a rough track that I had worked on and completely stand it on its head in 10 minutes — and it's just better. It was mind-boggling."

All that praise makes it seem that Brion's as big a fan of West as the rapper is of himself. But the producer said Kanye's choice to enlist a hip-hop novice was not only courageous, it spoke to West's true nature — which isn't the one you usually read about.

"On your sophomore record, that's the ultimate time to not f--- with the formula, right?" he said. "And he gets me — a guy who has never made a hip-hop record in his life — and gives me half the reins? That is not an egomaniac."

Brion makes his mark on tracks like "Gone," which features rappers Cam'ron and Consequence and is slated to be the last track on the album. "It's just a drum beat, an Otis Redding sample and Kanye going to town over it. There's a whole string section, and it turns into crazy soundtrack music. It's a big piece of work."

Brion conducted a 20-piece orchestra on "Celebration," and had to restrain the players' laughter at the lyric "You know what this is?/ It's a celebration, bitches." He also had to fight with Kanye to keep the song, which had begun with weird electronic twinkling sounds before morphing into its current cinematic treatment, on the album — something he also had to do with a track about his sick grandmother called "Roses."

"His attitude was, 'See if you can make me like this,' " Brion recalled. Brion layered the track with keyboards — and hours later, Kanye eliminated all of his work, along with the beat, which the producer adored. West reconfigured the song so that the verses are based around a vocal that forms the rhythm, and then Brion's music comes crashing in on the chorus. "All the authority [and] groove is from his voice, and when the chorus comes in, it's just this extravaganza of stuff going on," Brion said, comparing the track's construction to Prince's famous last-minute removal of the bass from "When Doves Cry."

"Heard 'Em Say," featuring Maroon 5's Adam Levine, was done quickly, as the singer had only a couple of free hours. Levine had a vocal that the pair had already discovered meshed with West's music (see "'Can He Do It Again?' — Kanye West Says New LP Backs Up His Bragging"), and Brion "translated" the two pieces in a matter of hours. "Adam had something, Kanye loved it and the three of us went at it like banshees, and there it was," he said.

Other guests on the record include Jay-Z, Nas, Game, Jamie Foxx, Paul Wall, John Legend, Brandy — and an unlikely guest drummer on "Diamonds From Sierra Leone": filmmaker Michel Gondry, who just happened to visit the studio on a day Brion had set up a drum kit (see "Kanye Previews New LP, Modestly Exclaims: 'This Is Killing Everything Out There!' ").

Other songs on the album include "Addicted," "Touch the Sky" and "Drive Slow." Brion says each track the pair worked on could have gone in multiple directions, and he expects that drastically different remixes of the songs will be released. While Brion acknowledges that the album is not standard hip-hop, he stresses that West isn't, either.

"There are colors and ideas that make [the album] different from average hip-hop, but Kanye is already different from the average hip-hop guy. He's got this sense of pop record-making which is really solid, and he likes tracks with a lot of things going on in them — which is not necessarily common for hip-hop. He was already barking up that tree."

• Kanye West
• Jon Brion

Kanye West (file)
Photo: Getty Images

John Mayer isn't the only unexpected muse Kanye West has been turning to lately.

After an introduction by hirsute iconic producer Rick Rubin, Fiona Apple/Aimee Mann producer Jon Brion and West have been staging impromptu performances together during Brion's weekly sets at Hollywood club Largo as well as collaborating on new material.

Brion, who composed music for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "I Heart Huckabees," among other films, will work with the Grammy-winning rapper on his second album, Late Registration, Kanye said, along with Devon Harris (John Legend, P. Diddy). Harris (a.k.a. Devo Springsteen) said he worked with West on the tentative first single off the new album, "Diamonds Are Forever."

As far as Kanye is concerned, however, it's just too soon to discuss his next LP in any detail, as the seeds for the project have barely been planted. "My album is my baby," he said Thursday night at Farnsworth Bentley's birthday party in New York. "And it's like I'm having sex with my wife right now and you just walked into the room."

For a feature on Kanye West and John Mayer, check out "In The Lab With Kanye."

• Kanye West
• Jon Brion

Jon Brion (file)
Photo: Costa Communications

To many musicians and film-geek aficionados, producer/musician/composer Jon Brion is regarded as a genius — the hot, au courant film composer of the moment.

But Brion, who scored Michel Gondry's "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," Paul Thomas Anderson's "Punch-Drunk Love" and most recently, David O. Russell's existential comedy, "I Heart Huckabees," isn't a big fan of most music you'll hear in today's movies. In fact, he's downright suspicious of their motives and cross-marketing opportunities.

"I'm sick of the fact that all movies have a great deal of disparity between their scores and their songs," he lamented. "The score is just some emotional wallpaper and then the songs — they're just a gratuitous marketing plan. I don't need some band that some record company is really psyched about [getting] shoved in some scene of the movie when it has nothing to do with it. It just pisses me off."

While Brion — who has worked extensively with Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann, Rufus Wainwright, Macy Gray and many others — might be well-known in the film and music industry, he's still far from a household name, because the projects he takes on are usually too small too be considered blockbuster and too big to be thought of as independent.

"The films [I've scored] are almost the equivalent to the records I've [produced], which is — I'm not interested in siding with the overground or with the underground. I think I probably have as much distaste for most big-budget Hollywood movies as your average indie-rocker would have for a big-budget record release."

Though he does seem to be the go-to guy for movie music, Brion's been doing his best to turn down film soundtracks in favor of solo material. But quality projects like "Huckabees" keep reeling him in. "I don't actively seek out film scores too much," he said. "I was swearing at my friend on the phone [when he said Russell was interested], saying, 'Damn you, I can't say no!' "

But instead of composing a typically atypical Brion score — both lush and whimsical in his use of peculiar instrumentation — Russell serendipitously came upon the music for the film while Brion was fiddling around at the piano with some of his older, unreleased songs.

"It was a classic tale of 'What's that!?' " Brion said of Russell's "eureka" moment upon hearing his songs. " 'Can we watch it with the scene?' And then we watched the scene with [the music], and all of the sudden, the movie had an absolute definitive feel to it."

"The themes in 'Huckabees' are, strangely, things that I've been personally obsessed with for years and have even written songs about," Brion said of the strange coincidence between his already-written lyrics and what was happening onscreen. "What people will find over time, when the vocal versions of these songs are released, is whenever [an instrumental] song is placed in the movie, its lyrics actually relate to the scene that's going on, but people won't know that right now because they're not hearing the vocals."

Though there are no conventional "songs" to speak of in the movie, the "Huckabees" soundtrack contains five songs with vocals that Brion speaks of.

Other songs recorded during the sessions could also find their way on to an undetermined Internet-only EP that Brion is eager to release in the coming months.

The highly in-demand producer and songwriter has a spate of other projects in the works. First, Brion hopes to release his first solo album in four years in March, which he describes as his characteristically "happy-go-lucky sh--."

He also has his "crazy improvisational" group Bunny (with Soul Coughing bassist Sebastian Steinberg and session drummer Matt Chamberlain), and a live solo album that was recorded at Largo, the popular L.A. hotspot where Brion performs weekly and celebrity musicians have been known to join him.

But these various projects have been on Brion's plate for more than a year, so the question remains: Can he say no to the film scores that eat up his free time?

"Tomorrow I could get a call: 'The Coen brothers, Spike Jonze and Pedro Almodovar got together and decided they wanted you to do the music. And they want tuba quartets playing Cole Porter songs for the whole thing! Are you in?' What am I gonna do? Say no? I would love to receive that phone call. That would be hysterical."

The next big appearance for Brion might be on Fiona Apple's much-anticipated third album, Extraordinary Machine. That is, if the record — which has languished in label limbo for over a year — ever comes out.

"I have no clue what's going on with her record," he said. "We recorded 10 or 11 songs. Every 12 months I check in and nothing happens, so I say, 'Oh well. Maybe next year.' "

• Jon Brion

On The Set Of Kanye West's Music Video "Heard 'Em Say"

• Kanye West
• Maroon 5
• Jon Brion