AP reports on the increasing popularity of homegrown (and not entirely legal) music video, wherein somebody takes a song they like, and pairs it with clips from a movie they like, or shoots clips to set to music. Bands, for the most part, seem to be playing along.

Acts are increasingly giving up at least some control, leaving them sometimes wondering what their role is in this new post-MTV democratic world of music videos.

The AP article includes links to several examples posted at YouTube. Strictly as public service, here are the embeds.

- Two Israeli teenagers rock out to the Pixies' Hey, a legit online hit with more than 19 million views.

- The Arcade FIre's My Body Is a Cage meets Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West, an eerily apt pairing praised by none other than Bruce Springsteen.

- Song by Built to Spill, reel by BtS fan with access to Library of Congress footage.

- Highly homoerotic Star Trek remix of Nine Inch Nails' Closer, with Kirk and Spock experiencing the agony of violent attraction (Note: explicit language, mature themes and lots of grainy film stock in the style of Mark Romanek's original, official Closer video.)

- Someone's taken an instrumental called Heaven, by a band called Health, and set it to a ski-jump sequence from a Werner Herzog documentary. A match made in heaven, and one of Pitchfork's best videos of 2007.

- And finally, Spoon gave its blessing to this unofficial vid for Don't You Evah, starring a little robot called Keepon.

As the AP's Jake Coyle notes, "If you look closely ... you can spot Spoon frontman Britt Daniel on an escalator - only a background figure in his own video."

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The supa-fly remake of Alvin and the Chipmunks is the No. 2 movie in the country, and the soundtrack is threatening to become a smash.

I seem to have stumbled on the French-market version of Witch Doctor. They're introduced in French, and this clip from Dailymotion.com is attributed to "Alvin et les Chipmunks." But lyrics such as "walla walla bing bang" are clearly in English.

Is it me, or do Alvin, Simon and Theodore all sound like T-Pain?

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... but never called

My bad.

p.s. Could somebody in the events-promotion trade please bring this band, Pink Martini, to South Florida? I don't think you have to book the entire orchestra; they probably travel in smaller ensembles, and the core group is two: a singer named China (Forbes) and a pianist named (Thomas) Lauderdale.

Thank you.

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Apropos of the last post, here's a pesky lounge singer taking revenge on the coffee chain, which apparently rejected one of his songs.

Be sure to check out the comments underneath the screen at YouTube. One says the singer is now engaged to a barista who was fired for playing along. A few entries down there's also a sharp rebuke for this publicity hound: He makes store employees look bad for enforcing workplace rules. The commenter does have a point. As we know from Michael Moore and Borat, guerrilla video is almost always lose-lose for the unwitting participants.

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My colleague Gail Gedan Spencer tossed me this ember of smoldering retro-soul. It's 100 Days, 100 Nights by Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, filmed in what looks like mid-1960s TV-Cam.

Thanks to Jezebel.com.

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I don't think Miami rapper Mann is related to Miami Vice creator Michael Mann, but the neon blues and the silky fabrics are straight off the latter Mann's palette. I like this track, a love song called Ryder, for the Latin feel of the chorus, and I like the clip. It reminds me of how certain videos in the early days of MTV, such as INXS's The One Thing and Ratt's Round and Round, projected luxury and decadence, but did it on a shoestring budget. Enjoy.

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On a Sunday morning, but hey ...

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And speaking of Fergie, ain't she some role model? First there was Alanis Morissette's mood-sepia cover of My Humps. Now watch these funny young ladies from Miami-Dade, self-stylin' "Chongas," turn Fergalicious upside down.

It is righteous enough that they get their iceys at the flea market ($2.99), but my favorite line is, "I'll beat you after class." Holla!

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Well, almost. Watch MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski try to put the torch to what was judged to be the day's lead story: Paris Hilton leaving jail. She doesn't quite succeed, but there's no substitute for balling up objectionable copy or, when it keeps coming back like a zombie that won't stay down, consulting the office shredder.

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I want to be in a cover band that plays this song. Tell me I'm wrong.

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