The new video for Interpol's single, "The Heinrich Maneuver," actually gives me a little hope that major labels are still willing to spend cash on inventive and artful MTV clips. Remember that period between 1994 and 2002, when folks like Spike Jonze, Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, Jamie Thraves, Garth Jennings, Michel Gondry, Roman Coppola, and more actually made music videos that played like cinematic mini-masterpieces? The "Heinrich Maneuver" clip, by Shadow of the Vampire director E. Elias Merhige, owes its soul to these influences.

Check it out on this site, hosted by MTV no less. Maybe I'm alone, but I've always been a fan of the video concepts that take a bare-bones idea and just flush out the textures to an nth degree. The video for R.E.M.'s "Imitation of Life" (directed by Jennings) follows a similar technique. And, of course, The Replacements' "Bastards of Young" video used the one-shot rock method to great effect long before both of these. Like I said, it's great that major labels (on which Interpol recently signed for this upcoming album) are willing to take a risk on such an odd video.