Patrick Stump’s MJ A Cappella: A Welcome Glee Alternative
Posted by Nick Minichino on 02/02/2011 at 1:15 PM

Notes on this week’s Patrick Stump YouTube a cappella, this time a Michael Jackson medley (“Billie Jean”/”Scream”/”Man In the Mirror”/”The Way You Make Me Feel”/”Leave Me Alone”/”Thriller”/”Remember the Time”):

• First of all, shout-out to the requisite bow-tie. It’s still a good look for Stump, although we are also fond of his getup from the video of Fall Out Boy’s cover of “Beat It.”

• This and the “Green Light” video were tagged “Soul Punk,” which is the name of his upcoming album. Coincidentally, it’s also a combination of the two ideals Glee largely lacks. (Protip for alternate post-Super Bowl viewing: Stump’s video transitions into “Thriller” at 3:05, sans Yeah Yeah Yeahs mash-up/trance-synth backing track.)

• Why the continuing appeal of the title track from Thriller? Is it all thanks to John Landis? Well, yes. “Thriller” is certainly a great song, but it was also the seventh single from the record, and five of the previous six are at least as good (sorry, “The Girl Is Mine”).

• A plurality of the chosen tracks are from Bad (the central triad of the medley). But “Jam” in particular, or more from Dangerous in general, would have been a more than welcome addition to the playlist. Not to mention that the vocal sampling with which he’s experimenting in these clips would lend itself well to the sampler-heavy new jack swing-esque sound of that 1991 Michael Jackson album. Of late only Amerie has really succeeded at multi-tracking her own voice into harmonies, punctuations, and back-up vocals, but more attempts are always more than welcome, especially from talented vocalists like Patrick Stump.

• Overall, these clips continue to be phenomenal. Here’s hoping for more! Is there anything you’d love to hear him tackle? Let us know in the comments!

John Landis is a perfectly acceptable reason to adore Thriller — sometimes all you need in order to adore a song or an artist is a fabulous video inspired by horror movies. Obviously.

In other news, I’m reading Stephen King’s Danse Macabre and it has some great insights into the film versions of Richard Matheson’s ‘I am Legend’, which was as much an inspiration for the Sixteen Candles video as ‘Thriller’ was. I’ll write out some of what King has to say if I get the time/inclination. And eventually I’ll do that transcript of the video commentary from the Believers Never Die DVD, too. Any year now.

A Little Less Sixteen Candles

The website for We Can’t Stop Thinking: The Chicago Idea House has a page about the video, on which it says:

We designed a type treatment for the opening titles of Fall Out Boy’s vampire theme music video at 3am the night before the six and a half minute video premiered on MTV’s TRL.

This info is an updated version of the information found in the post-production section of this site. I’ll fix that page up, um. Eventually? Heh?

Until then, here’s a tiny update! Some books which mention the video which are available:

Don’t Hold Your Breath: Nothing New from Brian Ewing contains a full page print of The Fearless Vampire Killers poster, and includes Ewing’s explanation of the design.

A Visitor’s Guide to Mystic Falls mentions the video in the essay Damon Salvatore: Vampire Hunter. Pete’s role is mentioned in a section about the history and pop cultural role of vampires who hunt other vampires. (I’m the author of the essay in question, but whatever, it still counts.)

Have I missed any? Let me know at mizmary@gmail.com!

Here’s some quasi-related-to-the-video stuff that’s happened since then.

A video from OK!: things Pete Wentz wants to go away in 2010. One of them is ‘vampires’.

Pete tweets: I just got asked what vampire I play in those movies. Uh the short one that they never show.

Speaking of vampire movies, Joe’s not especially looking forward to “Let Me In”, tweeting: Let The Right One In (awesome film/book) remade and renamed Let Me In. Consensus…lame. Trailer-http://imdb.to/cKUeFb Hollywood seems to take zero risks these days, only remaking and ruining amazing films/stories in the name of what seems “safe”. Bummer.

Here are some designs from Clandestine Industries which are relevant to my interests:

Firebat Tee

What’s this – Smokey and the Batheart? No, it’s the Firebat Tee from Clandestine Industries. Printed on a super duper soft Black American Apparel 2001 Fine Jersey Tee is a red, late 1970’s Pontiac Firebird with a Firebird logo-inspired Firebat on the hood. The design wraps from back to front around the left side of the shirt. This shirt was exclusively designed for Clandestine by artist Brandon Rike

Firebat Tee

Firebat Tee

Firebat Tee

Sweet Neck

Short sleeve t-shirt has “Sweet Neck” print on the front of the tee, with bloody Clandestine text on back neckline. Limited Edition of under 150. This shirt was exclusively designed for Clandestine by artist Ken Garduno. (100% Cotton, Machine Wash Cold. Made in USA.)

Sweet Neck

Sweet Neck

Sweet Neck

Eventually I will get the commentary from the Greatest Hits dvd transcribed and uploaded, too. For certain values of ‘eventually’.

To me, it looks like it may well be — they’re both muscle cars from, I’d guess, the late sixties? But I am SO not a car girl, so I can’t be in any way certain. Anybody know?

The other update to this site is the banner above the menu on the left, which will take you to the website for the Wolf House series of YA vampire novels by your intrepid webmistress. Fans of the 16 Candles video are  encouraged to check them out!

Q: Vampires or Werewolves? Oh, by the way, Pete, I love the look in a little less than 16 candles. where did you get the idea?
Posted by: CheyStumpWentz Jul 10, 2009

A: the movie “the lost boys” meets “clockwork orange” meets “blade”- personally i like coyotes cos they run as a gang and they arent interested in letting any humans in.

I think this is the first time anyone has made a direct nod to A Clockwork Orange’s influence on the video. David Bowie also drew heavily on A Clockwork Orange when he was creating Ziggy Stardust’s look. Just random trivia there for you.

In other news, William Beckett — head of the Dandies in the Sixteen Candles video — posted a photograph of his shopping selections at Best Buy, including ‘Let The Right One In’. You can find out more about this movie’s (tenuous) connection to the music video here.

Lastly, here’s a photograph of Pete and Alan on-set at the Sixteen Candles video.

At the FC messageboards, when asked about the 20-minute version, Andy said:

ya know, i cant even remember what the long version was. i dont think we fully finished it all. we were actually talking about this the other day, and brought up that we should just finish it all sometime soon.