The "Muscle Museum" clip was directed by Joseph Kahn, who has done videos in the past for the likes of Korn, Faith No More, Sugar Ray, and Janet Jackson, and features the trio performing the song in a dilapidated high school gym in downtown Los Angeles.

According to a spokesperson for the band, the concept for the "Muscle Museum" video features a surreal mix of disturbing imagery and situations reminiscent in tone of David Lynch's "Blue Velvet." As the band recently told MTV News, most of the treatments they read and turned down for the video were actually too macabre to even consider.

[article id="1448466"]"There were some really perverted ones that were quite dark,"[/article] explained Muse frontman Matthew Bellamy, [article id="1448466"]"[one] involving an eight-year-old boy walking around with a syringe with milk [in it], squirting it in people's faces. I thought that was pretty dark, so that got a big no.

And there was a couple of dodgy torture ones,"[/article] added bassist Chris Wolstenholme.

[article id="1448466"]"Yeah, there were some weird, strange ones involving hospitals as well,"[/article] Bellamy continued. [article id="1448466"]"I think [directors] just read the title 'Muscle Museum' and think it's supposed to be a twisted, dark Marilyn Manson thing. But some of the ones I like have been quite weird. The one I wanted to do starts with us drinking out of petrol pumps. It was a really strange video." [RealAudio][/article]

Muse will hook up with the Red Hot Chili Peppers for a European tour following its dates with Skunk Anansie, and the band plans on returning to the States for a round of American shows in December.