NEW YORK (Virgin Records) - Virgin Recording artist
A Perfect Circle has further stoked the fires of political controversy by creating an interactive version of their already-incendiary "
Imagine" video. The song is the band's masterfully moody cover version of the
John Lennon classic, from their critically-acclaimed album "eMOTIVe," released at the end of 2004.
The video, which has attracted unprecedented online traffic since its release last fall, assembles stock and news footage into a powerfully confrontational statement on the current social and political climate. The interactive version takes the provocation one step further by featuring clickable "hot spots" that link to websites that elaborate on the imagery and lyrics of the video.
The links provide background on such inflammatory subjects as the cost of the Iraq war, the devastation of the environment, world poverty, moral values, and voting fraud. The video's director, Gerald V. Casale (of the band Devo), supplied links for the video, and Avant Interactive (https://www.avantinteractive.com) of Los Angeles provided the technology that embeds information into the streaming video and powers the "hot spots."
The video is viewable exclusively at https://tinyurl.com/66qo3
"The teaming together of Avant Interactive, Virgin Records and APC is like a coming-out party for the next generation of online entertainment," says John Harris, VP of Marketing and Promotion at Avant Interactive. "Interactive TV has finally arrived, but it's not on TV, it's on the web."
"Using Avant's technology, we can transform online video into an interactive event that allows fans to participate in the music video experience like never before," says Syd Schwartz, VP Interactive Marketing, Virgin Records.
Virgin Records is a division of EMI Music, the world's largest independent record company. Among the artists on the Virgin roster are A Perfect Circle, Guerilla Black, Ben Harper, Janet Jackson, Lenny Kravitz, and The Rolling Stones. Virgin's U.S. headquarters are located in New York
Avant Interactive is a privately held company focusing on interactive video software for the interactive television, streaming media and educational markets. With offices in New York and Los Angeles, Avant Interactive is aggressively licensing its technology. (Contact: [email protected].)
A Perfect Circle's latest album, "eMOTIVe," made a stunning No 2 with-a-bullet debut on the Billboard 200 when it was released on November 2. The collection, which sees APC shedding new light on a set of radical rock classics, is also the band's third consecutive top 5 debut.
Described by APC lead singer Maynard James Keenan as "a collection of songs about war, peace, love and greed," "eMOTIVe" finds the band bridging three decades of protest songs, spanning an array of genres - hardcore punk and heavy metal, new wave and Delta blues, folk rock and rhythm & blues.
The New York Times praised the album's "new arrangements of old songs [that] switch familiar tunes like 'Imagine' and 'What's Going On' into minor keys behind Maynard James Keenan's desolate, androgynous croon." Noting the albums themes of war and annihilation, The Times called the album "a soundtrack for blue-state malaise."
In addition to classic protest songs by John Lennon and Marvin Gaye, "eMOTIVe" also includes such insurgent classics as Memphis Minnie's blues stomper, "When The Levee Breaks" (made famous by Led Zeppelin), Fear's "Let's Have A War," and Depeche Mode's "People Are People." The album also features a pair of thought-provoking APC originals - "Counting Bodies Like Sheep To The Rhythm Of the War Drums" and "Passive."
And just two short weeks after "eMOTIVEe" made its mark on the charts, the band released their first-ever DVD, "aMOTION," a collection of APC's classic videos along with an assortment of imaginative remixes. "aMOTION" also hit the charts with a bang, coming in at No 4 on SoundScan's Top Music Video chart.
"eMOTIVe" is A Perfect Circle's third full-length release, following 2000's RIAA platinum-certified "MER DE NOMS," and 2003's platinum-selling "THIRTEENTH STEP."
