Kuntz & Maguire
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Track:Frontier Psychiatrist - (video)
I discovered The Avalanches because of the Frontier Psychiatrist 12" single that was delivered to MUH, where I DJed while in high school - it subsequently became one of our local top songs. Even so, it took me a while to really give the whole record (Since I Left You [2000]) a thorough listen. My final conclusion was that it's one of the greatest records, and the completely silly Frontier Psychiatrist pales in comparison to a cut like Live at Dominoes, particularly after such compulsive and incessant airplay on so many of our radio shows.Anyway, it took til this past week for me to see the video for this fantastic cut+paste masterpiece (check those ghosts, and that funky drummin' granny!), and I was happy to discover that the directorial team of Tom Kuntz & Mike Maguire had their hands in this. They of the Electric Six video for Gay Bar fame. They also did the video for Danger! High Voltage, which I hadn't seen until this same week.Electric Six - Gay BarElectric Six - Danger! High VoltageKuntz and Maguire also did the not-very-clever, Tokyo Breakfast gag video that fortunately doesn't rise to the level of career devastation of something like Michael Richards' outburst last Friday, but falls nowhere near the multifaceted criticism of my favourite eviscerator of racism. It's such a messy debate to have as to who can and can't use the N-term, that we only accept blacks using it about themselves (see Chris Rock's Black People vs. Niggas), just like we put up with our ultra-offensive Kazakhstani friend's anti-semitism because he's played by a Jew.If you watch the Richards video all the way through, he tries to throw in a bit about it just being a word, and though I wholly agree that words hold no mystical power to oppress people (unless you consider getting the sh*te kicked out of you for using it), when it reveals your own latent racism, rather than that of others, you should question whether you think it's just a word - so much anger. I think Dave and Sacha do quite well at revealing racism in others, and that holds up some of my favourite pieces by them, but I know that not everyone agrees. If only we could put all of our differences behind us and hate the right people, together.Anyway, Kuntz and Maguire's little stumble can perhaps be overcome by their feature-length debut, The Untitled Onion Movie, and the rest of their off-kilter videos found on their website.
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