In a letter to their fans posted this weekend, Innerpartysystem (my favorite discovery of 2008) wrote about the difficulties they’ve experienced getting exposure for the video to their single “Don’t Stop.”  The line, apparently, is that the video is too edgy, or too visually intense.  So, a bit reluctantly, the band remade the video.

Never ones to quietly bend over and just take what they’re given (someone must have misplaced the ball gags from the original video), Innerpartysystem have still managed to include plenty of subtly disturbing imagery.  They’ve even brought their creepy newscasters back to take in the new show, complete with quasi-Johnny Carson.

With the brutally overwhelming social commentary cut or at least softened, there is now room for the band to be showcased front and center.  While I know the guys have an aversion to pin-up superstardom — hence the obscuring shadow and backlighting — people like to see what they’re buying (or buying into).  A face makes it easier for the masses to relate to music that is a bit more challenging than your usual pop fare; it gives them something to connect with, an investment, something to keep them hooked while everything else sinks in.  It’s not always so much about selling the band’s image as it is making that personal connection.  This is why bands can make or break themselves live.

This is also where I think Innerpartysystem does themselves a great favor, because their live show adds hot blood and a pounding heartbeat to the already intense electronic beats and grinding guitars, which gives the music a dimension that isn’t possible on a recording.  The performance footage of the band in the new video gives a peek at that live show intensity, however, and adds a level of immediacy that wasn’t in the original video, which had a more cerebral and detached feel.

Innerpartysystem has had a banner year, coming up from obscurity to making a noticeable dent in both the UK and US music scenes.  I know it was a difficult decision to revisit the single and video they used to establish a baseline for what their band is about.  I think it was the right decision, though.  After capturing the attention of the music industry and fans of intelligent, provocative music and visuals, this reworking gives the band a chance to broaden their appeal and continue to develop new opportunities to get out their music and message.  It’s not a matter of redoing something that wasn’t done right the first time; it’s expanding and enhancing what’s already been done to take it to the next level.

Innerpartysystem are ready.

I’ve had so many interesting experiences I want to blog about that I decided to take a break in the middle of the week to look back on years past.  In January, I’m going to highlight my best music experiences of 2008.

It’s only fitting to kick off this series by writing about my favorite musical discovery of the past year.

This is entertainment/Lies are entertainment

I was introduced to Innerpartysystem at Kill Hannah’s 2007 New Heart for Xmas V fan show, before getting to know them properly during the summer of 2008 when they rejoined Kill Hannah as a support act on the Hope for the Hopeless tour.  The first impression is indelible.  The wall of lights onstage begins to flash, slave to a beat that builds into an aggressive dance explosion, four black silhouettes writhing with their instruments in the foreground.  The songs flow from one to the other, giving the audience no time to catch their breath and leaving little room for banter or any other filler.  The audience is left wondering if they just saw a band play or a night of chemical-fueled excess pass before them onstage.

Nothing’s too excessive/When you’ve got nothing left

The music is rock-driven electronic dance, with witty and provocative lyrics that both revel in and revile today’s fame-driven culture.  They explore the edgier side of human nature: obsessive love, the excess of the party and club scene found thriving in major cities, disillusionment.  The beats are relentless, with refrains that have the whole audience jumping, hands in the air, screaming along.  In addition to the intense live show, Innerpartysystem has engaged their love of all things visual with disturbingly engrossing promotional videos, as well as vaguely sinister music videos to Don’t Stop and Die Tonight, Live Forever.  They strive to engage all the senses with their work.

We’re all here ‘cos we’ve lost control

The aggressive stage show and lyrics belie four laid-back and friendly guys.  It only takes a few minutes of talking with vocalist Patrick, drummer Jared, keyboardist Jesse and guitarist Kris to realize that these are four intelligent men who have seen and lived a great deal.  They are keenly perceptive and intensely creative, yet absolutely unassuming.  It’s refreshing in a genre full of “musicians” armed with only a laptop and a sense of entitlement.  I think that genuineness translates and makes their themes and presentation accessible to a wide audience, rather than the generic pretentiousness that is all too common in dance-rock.

I will surround your heart with lies/’Til the end

Innerpartysystem were on tour for much of 2008, both in Europe and at home.  They were featured all over television and they were nominated to be featured as part of Yahoo’s “Who’s Next.”  They were also in a Spin magazine contest where they re-enacted a scene from “The Big Lebowski,” which had me wondering what these four Wunderkinder couldn’t do.  2009 looks to be an even bigger year for them.  They are hitting the ground running with a small warm-up tour of the northeastern US before heading back to Europe.  There is also talk of them playing this year’s Warped tour.  Check out their winter tour dates, and if you can’t make it to see them live (which you should, just to experience their mind-melting cover of Joy Division’s “Transmission”), be sure to spend some time on their YouTube Channel.  Their debut EP, The Download EP is a must-buy, and their self-titled full-length album is amazing as well.

Innerpartysystem are one of the increasingly rare perfect storms of talent, ambition, strong work ethic, and fierce belief in a vision of what music should be.  They put every ounce of their effort toward that vision, and it is an all-encompassing experience for the senses, whether live or on disk.