The musical artist Squeak E. Clean, also known as Sam Spiegel, has a famous filmmaker brother, Spike Jonze. Though Jonze has grabbed the lion’s share of the family’s entertainment industry headlines in the past, Squeak E. Clean has come on strong this year by virtue of the Feb. 17 ANTI- Records release of “The Spirit of Apollo.
” Mr. Clean is half of the group N.A.S.A. (North America/South America) – a creative collaboration between him and DJ Zegon, as well as their friends, friends of friends and musical heroes – and the project is the culmination of more than five years of hard work. Produced by Squeak E. Clean Productions, Spiegel’s award-winning LA commercial music and sound design venture, the goal of the ambitious “The Spirit of Apollo” project was to bring people together through music and art.
As widely reported across the media over the past weeks, the guest stars on “The Spirit of Apollo” include Tom Waits, Kanye West, Karen O, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Spank Rock, David Byrne, M.I.A., RZA, Santigold, George Clinton, Chuck D., Sizzla, Method Man and many others. N.A.S.A. also invited many fine-artist friends to lend their talents to animated music videos for the release’s 16 full tracks. The very first music video, for the track “Money” featuring David Byrne, Chuck D, Ras Congo, Seu Jorge, and Z-Trip, was created by directors Syd Garon and Paul Griswold with visual artist Shepard Fairey and released last December. This month saw the release of the video for “The People Tree,” which unites more of Byrne’s vocal contributions with those of Chali 2na, Gift Of Gab and Z-Trip in a visual extravaganza directed by Syd Garon and Johannes Gamble leveraging original art from Marcel Dzama. Over the weeks to come, fans can anticipate more music videos featuring original art from Sage Vaughn, The Date Farmers, Splunny, as well as animation and production work by commercial production teams from Logan, 3Legged Legs, Flourescent Hill and others. And finally, Sage Vaughn, Mark Gonzales, Shepard Fairey, Marcel Dzama and The Date Farmers also contributed their own original album cover designs — so that CD buyers get five interchangeable covers with each copy.
To me, this amazing project represents the ultimate example of the rewards possible when people pursue their passions with everything they have….
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