Memphis rocker Alicja Trout and her band River City Tanlines appear in two videos, including "Lookin' for a Line."
"Graphic sex, violence, nudity, drug use, satanic rituals, blasphemy, rock music."
The comic litany of outrage quoted above appears at the start of a music video by the Memphis band Jocephus & the George Jonestown Massacre. The video is "WWLD (What Would Lemmy Do)," a tongue-in-warty-mutton- chopped-cheek tribute to hard-partying Lemmy Kilmister, the leather-lunged leader of the British heavy metal band Motörhead.
Created by the local Corduroy Wednesday filmmaking collective, "WWLD" showcases some splattery slapstick. But contrary to the exaggerated promise of its introduction, the crunching guitar chords are many while the crunched skulls are few. The "graphic sex" is non-existent; the "rock music," on the other hand, never stops.
This weekend's Live From Memphis Music Video Showcase features 49 clips from Memphis and around the world.
"WWLD" is one of 49 local and international music videos set to screen during the sixth Live From Memphis Music Video Showcase, which expands this year from a single event to a full weekend of activities, including parties, panels and three Saturday-night video programs at Malco's Studio on the Square in Overton Square.
On Sunday, Martin Atkins -- a British musician whose credits include Public Image Ltd. and Ministry -- conducts a free seminar on artist self-promotion. The event is co-sponsored by the Memphis Music Foundation.
The Music Video Showcase -- coordinated by Live From Memphis, an artist-support organization and production company -- was formerly one of the more popular screenings during the Indie Memphis Film Festival (the event typically was a sellout). This year, it has spun off into its own mini-fest, to accommodate more videos and to expand its scope beyond Mid-South artists.
Even so, 32 of the videos that will be screened feature the work of local musicians and filmmakers. Other videos come from Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, Chicago, Sacramento, Brooklyn, Nashville and elsewhere. Twenty of the videos are billed as "exclusive premieres," and the three showcases feature work by rappers, rockers, country musicians, jazz singers, electronic experimentalists and a modern classical composer.
"These are musical mini-movies, so we like to put them up on the big screen, to give them the environment they deserve -- not restrict them to the Internet, next to videos of cute kittens falling asleep," said local filmmaker Edward Valibus Phillips of Live From Memphis, programmer of the Music Video Showcase.
As always at the showcase, many of the videos are stunning. Three -- including Bosco Delrey's "Space Junky," shot at "a haunted Memphis brothel" (Earnestine & Hazel's) -- are directed by the duo ZFCL (Zak Forrest and Chad Liebenguth), who use custom prismatic lenses, colored filters, different film stocks, lighting tricks and other in-camera effects to create dreamlike, phantasmagoric visual scenarios that are utterly distinctive and beautiful.
Sometimes, simplicity works best. Director K. Cutta's "Stars," featuring the native Memphis rapper 8Ball, finds the round mound of rhyme declaiming powerful verses over a stuttering rock beat: "The 'hood, the city, the ugly, the pretty/ The rich get richer and the poor get pity..."
Veteran Memphis rocker Alicja Trout appears in two videos, with her bands Mouserocket ("Take More," directed by Chuck Vicious) and River City Tanlines ("Lookin' for a Line," directed by Mike McCarthy). As an artist as well as musician, she always has brought a visual element to her songwriting.
"That's kind of how I invent the words -- I have a 'picture situtation' in my head. ... The whole song is like a dream; it all fits together in a series of pictures ... ."
Trout, 40, is a member of the original Music Television generation. "I was obsessed with MTV. We didn't have it in my house, and I just wanted to watch it all the time. When I think of videos, I think of Billy Idol dancing in a circle of fire -- how could you get any better than that?"
When MTV launched in 1981, it helped make stars out of such visually savvy artists as Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, The Cars and even A Flock of Seagulls. Now, however, MTV is the network of "Skins" and "Jersey Shore," and music videos aren't the breakout vehicles they once were.
Still, videos continue to be produced, because "for musicians, it's still about getting the music heard and the work out there," said Phillips, 32.
"For now, with gas at $3.25 a gallon if not more, and nobody (club owners) giving any (financial) guarantees, why do you want to spend all your time touring?" asked Trout. "You can reach just as many, even more people through a video -- put it up on YouTube, and have people search it out."
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2011 Live From Memphis Music Video Showcase
Admission: $10 per showcase, or $25 for a festival pass. For a complete lineup of videos, visit LiveFromMemphis.com.
Showcase One, 6:15 p.m. Saturday, Studio on the Square, 2105 Court: Videos from Snowglobe, Vending Machine, River City Tanlines, and 14 others.
Showcase Two, 7:45 p.m. Saturday, Studio on the Square. Videos by Squarepusher, The Perfect Vessels, Lil P-Nut and 13 others.
Showcase Three, 9:15 p.m. Saturday, Studio on the Square: Videos by 8Ball, Lord T & Eloise, Deftones and 13 others.
PANELS
"Marketing Practices for Musicians and Filmmakers," 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Memphis College of Art in Overton Park. An introduction to Topspin Media, the technology company that provides online commerce opportunities and marketing software and services for artists. Admission: free.
"The Antenna Tapes," 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Memphis College of Art. Filmmaker C. Scott McCoy shares vintage 1980s music videos from the large trove of VHS tapes he uncovered while researching his upcoming documentary on the Antenna, Memphis' legendary punk rock club. Admission: free.
"Martin Atkins Live," 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Memphis Music Foundation, 431 S. Main: The former member of Public Image Ltd., Ministry, Killing Joke and other bands will discuss self-promotional "Strategies for Success." Admission: free (but people attending should RSVP at LiveFromMemphis.com).
PARTIES
Opening-night reception for filmmakers, musicians and interested people: 7 to 11 tonight at Five in One contemporary arts space, 423 N. Watkins. Admission: free.
After-party concert and awards, Doors open at 9 p.m. Saturday, The Hi-Tone Café, 1913 Poplar. Music by MC Griddle, Pterodactyl, Pezz, Cities Aviv and others. Admission: $10, or free with any showcase ticket or pass.
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