Phantom Planet - Big Brat

2003

Phantom Planet - Big Brat (2003) Director: Spike Jonze Era: Post-Millennial Indie Garage Revival (2003–2004) - Peak O.C.-era alt-rock transitioning from pop-punk to raw garage aesthetics, overlapping with the Strokes-led NYC garage revival spreading to LA indie scenes and major-label rosters High curatorial value as a rare convergence of a canonical music video auteur (Spike Jonze, at the tail end of his MTV-era run) with a culturally significant LA indie band at a documented transitional moment in their sound and lineup. The video's dual-narrative structure, horror-comedy genre pastiche, and confirmed connections to the Directors Label era make it a rich primary source for scholars of early-2000s music video history, indie rock visual culture, and the career trajectory of one of American cinema's most influential directors. Its warm-toned, fast-cut aesthetic also provides a precise audiovisual timestamp for the 2003–2004 indie alt-rock moment. Context: Released in late 2003 and tied to the January 2004 self-titled album, 'Big Brat' arrived at an inflection point for Phantom Planet: Jason Schwartzman had just departed the band in August 2003 to focus on acting, and the group's sound was consciously pivoting from radio-friendly pop-rock toward a rawer garage-rock aesthetic comparable to The Strokes. The band occupied a unique celebrity-adjacent cultural node, its members included actors and children of industry figures, making Spike Jonze's involvement a natural fit given his own deep embeddedness in LA creative subcultures. The video's zombie-film-within-a-music-video conceit reflects the broader early-2000s indie appetite for B-movie horror pastiche (itself a subculture resurgent via Grindhouse revival circuits) and the DIY filmmaking ethos that Jonze had championed since his skateboard video days. Sony BMG's backing provided resources while Jonze's aesthetic kept the production tonally scrappy and self-aware. Director notes: Directed in 2003, the 'Big Brat' video was produced under Sony BMG Music Entertainment and released in conjunction with the band's self-titled third album (January 6, 2004). Per Wikipedia's album article, the video cuts between scenes of an urban performance of the song and the band shooting a low-budget zombie film at the same location. A separate alternate cut, the actual in-video zombie film footage, was made available to fans on Phantom Planet's official website. The video is classified as Comedy/Horror/Music on IMDb. This was one of Jonze's final music video commissions before his output shifted predominantly toward feature films; it was produced contemporaneously with his co-founding of the Directors Label DVD series (September 2003) alongside Chris Cunningham and Michel Gondry. The connection between Jonze and the band is noted by Pennyblack Music as reflecting the band's industry connections stemming partly from their celebrity-adjacent membership roster.