PROFILE: Whitey McConnaughy, director

name: Whitey McConnaughy
company: Refused TV
job/title: Director

First video: It was for The Catheters, a great band on Sub Pop. I got the gig because I was the DP on a video for The Shins — also on Sub Pop — and the label's general manager, Megan Jasper knew I wanted to direct a video for them. So, they gave me this Catheters track "Nothing." The song was and is great and the budget was a whopping $4,000. We shot it on my film equipment (a Super 16 and a 35mm camera) and ran it through my production company. The video got picked by MTV for this segment called "Here Today, Hip Tomorrow" and t actually got played on MTV2 a bunch. From there I began a great relation ship with the nice people at Sub Pop Records.

--> watch The Catheters "Nothing"

Strangest Video: "Listen Up" by The Gossip. It was a last minute video and The Gossip were recording a new album up in   Seattle. The video featured a bunch of cross dressers. The male lead was   played by a woman from NYC who goes by the name of Murray and the female lead  was played by a man who goes by the name of Kelly. The DP and I never quite   got it figured out who we should call "him" or "her." The shoot was fun and   everyone was so rad. It's great to see a band like The Gossip finally receive some well deserved success.

--> watch The Gossip "Listen Up"

What's Next: Directing a new Helio Sequence video for Sub Pop. Finishing up a DVD anthology on the grunge pioneers Mudhoney, also for Sub Pop. Directing more commercials, writing more treatments. I recently finished work on a screenplay I was commissioned to write. It's a feature length comedy my writing partner and I wrote. I'm in the running to direct it, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that. Just working on lots of diverse projects as much as possible.

NEW RELEASE: Vampire Weekend "A Punk"

While it's too early to proclaim Vampire Weekend my favorite indie rock band with an Ivy League pedigree — Don't worry Jon Spencer, your Blues Explosion is still #1 in my heart — this quartet of Columbia University alums is looking like a good bet to break big in 2008. The buzz has clearly reached overseas because the mighty Hammer & Tongs creative team doesn't take on a low budget commission for any band. This purposefully choppy performance piece plays up the manic precociousness that propels each beat of pretty glorious exampled of what the Vampwees call "Upper West Side Soweto." --> watch "A Punk" --> watch "A Punk" via YouTube or MTV (I embedded the YouTube, but the MTV version looks much better)

Vampire Weekend "A Punk" (XL)
Garth Jennings of Hammer & Tongs, director | Hammer & Tongs/Anonymous, production co | Nick Goldsmith & Garth Jennings, DP/editor

NEW RELEASE: Ice Cube "Gangsta Rap Make Me Do It"

After a couple kid-friendly flicks and years of red carpet treatment, O'Shea Jackson isn't the same angry black man that made critical music in rap's golden era. But, he can still act like it. In "Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It," Ice Cube facetiously lays the blame for the majority of America's problems at the feet of the genre he helped propel to the mainstream. Violence, rape, murder, theft, arson, war?  All the fault of rap music, according to the Nazi-ed up classroom teacher tells a classroom of kids in the year 2020.  Deft edits of stock footage from natural and political disasters follow, intercut with a shadow boxing Ice Cube. It's a gripping visual for a song that confronts the hypocrisy of rap's pop culture critics and should provoke discussion for months to come. (review Craig Belcher) --> watch "Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It" in quicktime or  via MySpace 

Ice Cube "Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It" (Lench Mob)
Jonathan Silver, director/editor | Jeff Kwatinetz & Giovanni Hidalgo, producer |  Colin Watkinson, DP [photo by Arnold Turner of director Jonathan Silver and Ice Cube]

BOOKED: Bizzy Bone f/ DMX - Ethan Lader, director

artist: Bizzy Bone feat. DMX
song: "A Song For You"
label: After Platinum
director(s): Ethan Lader
production co: Kleiner, Inc.

BOOKED: Sheek Louch - Todd A, director

Having already delivered a hit video for Lox/D-Block  member Styles P, Todd A is set to work with Sheek Louch, also of the influential NYC crew. Could Jadakiss be next?

artist: Sheek Louch
song: "Good Love"
label: Koch
director(s): Todd A
production co: Raging Nation Films

SHOT: Story Of The Year - Ryan Smith, director

Story Of The Year on the set of "Wake Up" with: Director Ryan Smith (top row, third from left) and producer Michael J. Katz and DP Christopher Probst (bottom row, left and right, respectively).

artist: Story Of The Year
song: "Wake Up"
label: Epitaph
director(s): Ryan Smith
production co: The Artists Company
rep: Laure Scott

Photo by Chadwick. Click it, make it bigger.

NEW RELEASE: The Cheetah Girls "Fuego"

It might hurt to admit it, but the music industry is driven by teenyboppers. Be it the Mickey Mouse Club, Debbie Gibson and Tiffany (aka the First Wave Of American Pop Music), the NWOAPM crew of Britney, 'Nsync, and Backstreet Boys, bubblegum music aimed at kids spending their allowances is proven lucrative game. The current craze centers around the stable of stars at Walt Disney's Hollywood Records, which has figured out the formula of leveraging TV show and movie opportunities into pop stars. We're talking The Jonas Brothers, Hilary Duff, Hannah Miley Montana Cyrus, Jesse McCartney and the whole High School Musical jackpot. Right in the thick of all that is The Cheetah Girls, a pop trio with a successful series of Disney Channel movies to drive music sales. Although the next CG movie is reportedly set to be a Bollywood adventure, "Fuego" is a slight bilingual tribute to Tropicalia and the Isla Bonita of your choice. The video itself mixes some typical pop teen performance set-ups with backgrounds that have a Washington Heights and West Side Story vibe. Although the girls don't quite hit all their choreography marks — which might be part of the charm, actually — the clip is as on target as it needs to be to help grab some allowance money from the kiddies. --> watch "Fuego" via YouTube plus a Behind The Scenes short

Cheetah Girls  "Fuego" (Hollywood)
Marcus Raboy, director | Hagai Shaham, producer | DNA, production co | Welles Hackett, DP | Mario Mares , editor | Skulley Effects, vfx 

SHOT: Trey Songz - Ray Kay, director

artist: Trey Songz
song: "Last Time"
label: Atlantic
director(s): Ray Kay
production co: Rockhard Films
rep: Robin Frank Management

SHOT: Trey Songz - Syndrome, directors

artist: Trey Songz f/ Plies
song: "Can't Help But Wait"
label: Atlantic
director(s): Syndrome
production co: Robot Films
rep: Robin Frank Management

BOOKED: Chingy - Syndrome, directors

artist: Chingy f/ Ludacris & Bobby Valentino
song: "Gimme That"
label: Disturbing The Peace/Island Def Jam
director(s): Syndrome
production co: Robot Films
rep: Robin Frank Management