Outkastic!

Holy crap! You know when you have those moments when you feel like something hits you over the head (in a good way, that is) and gets your noggin a'flowing? Last night I was up channel surfing the 3 MTV stations between 2 and 3am and somewhere between the absolutely ridiculous and stupid Jessica Simpson rollerskating video featuring Christina Applegate (oh, how low she has sunk), and the supersucky Pussycat Dolls hoochie mamaness, a small bit of wonderful genius appeared before me: Outkast's new "Idlewild" video.

Apart from being a rockin' song, the video just blew my mind: a hurricane is raging in the South, and a wooden shack is being pummelled as a 1930's style blues club is playing inside. Black bodies are gyrating and shaking as water starts to pour inside, and soon the musicians and dancing audience are flopping around in the water as it goes above their heads. All the while folks are laughing, dancing, and rocking out--like an updated version of the band playing on the deck of a sinking Titanic. It's a beautiful and slightly perverse sight and at the close the band dedicates the song to those "trying to stay afloat"...The Katrina references are implicit, of course, and yet also opens it up to much more.

Dude, Outkast is so fucking brilliant it slays me five ways to heaven (heh heh, does that make sense?). Album drops August 22. Guess who'll be snatchin' one up? And "Idlewild" is supposed to be the soundtrack to a movie opening up in the near future. With all the froth and empty pop being produced today, I'm so thankful for these guys! Sometimes I wonder if its possible to produce for the masses and still have a singular and specific vision of an alternate reality. These guys (like Kanye West, too), have shown me the light. Thank god.