"The Denial Twist" is the third single released from American

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...

band

the White Stripes The White Stripes were an American rock duo from Detroit formed in 1997. The group consisted of Jack White (songwriter, vocals, guitar, piano, and mandolin) and Meg White (drums and vocals). After releasing several singles and three albums wit ...

' fifth studio album, ''

Get Behind Me Satan ''Get Behind Me Satan'' is the fifth studio album by the American rock duo the White Stripes, released on June 7, 2005, on V2 Records. Though still basic in production style, the album marked a distinct change from its guitar-heavy 2003 predecess ...

'' (2005).

Music video

The music video for "The Denial Twist" was directed by

Michel Gondry Michel Gondry (; born 8 May 1963) is a French filmmaker noted for his inventive visual style and distinctive manipulation of mise en scène. Along with Charlie Kaufman, he won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as one of the writers ...

. Like some of his previous work (namely

The Chemical Brothers The Chemical Brothers are an English electronic music duo formed by Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons in Manchester in 1989. They were pioneers (along with the Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, the Crystal Method, and other acts) in bringing the big beat gen ...

' "

Let Forever Be "Let Forever Be" is a song by English electronic music duo the Chemical Brothers, released as the second single from their third studio album, ''Surrender'' (1999), on 2 August 1999. It contains uncredited vocals from Noel Gallagher of Britpop b ...

" and Kylie Minogue's "

Come Into My World "Come into My World" is a song recorded by Australian singer Kylie Minogue for her eighth studio album, ''Fever'' (2001). Written and produced by Cathy Dennis and Rob Davis, "Come into My World" is a dance-pop song in which the singer pleads to ...

"), the video features a spectacular array of visual effects as it follows The White Stripes from a talk show performance to a late night drive back to an apartment. As the camera pans in a circle, Jack and Meg appear distorted. This refers to the lyric of the song; that what people think is true is often shaped by the context in which information is presented to them and their willingness to be deceived—even by themselves—as various aspects of the video radically shift in perspective, size, proportion and believability. The choice of ''

Late Night with Conan O'Brien ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien. NBC aired 2,725 episodes from September 13, 1993, to February 20, 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and music ...

'' as a setting for the video, aside from the band's personal association, is due to the lesser known fact that, like many film and TV sets, the ''Late Night'' stage looks much larger on television than it actually is. The optical illusion used in the video is the technique of

forced perspective Forced perspective is a technique that employs optical illusion to make an object appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller than it actually is. It manipulates human visual perception through the use of scaled objects and the correlation ...

, through an

Ames room An Ames room is a distorted room that creates an optical illusion. Likely influenced by the writings of Hermann Helmholtz, it was invented by American scientist Adelbert Ames Jr. in 1946, and constructed in the following year. Usage and effect ...

and distortions derived from it. The creators of the distorted props, Jeff Everett and John Furgason, won a Music Video Production Association Award for Art Direction in 2006. Conan O'Brien makes a cameo appearance in the video; The White Stripes had been a week-long musical guest on ''

'' when they were promoting ''

Elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae ...

''. The square-headed O'Brien doll in the video was a reference to a similar one given to the comedian at the end of their week-long stay on the show. The plaster blow-up was actually created by Gondry. This is Gondry's fourth video with The White Stripes, after "

Fell in Love with a Girl "Fell in Love with a Girl" is a song by the American garage rock band the White Stripes, written and produced by Jack White for the band's third studio album, ''White Blood Cells'' (2001). Released as the album's second single in February 2002, ...

", " Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" and " The Hardest Button to Button". The video can be found on the DVD compilation '' Michel Gondry 2: More Videos (Before and After DVD 1)'' The song is also the final 3-inch record made for the triple inchophone. However, it was never on general sale and only Jack himself had them to give out to fans, friends and family. These 3-inch records are extremely rare and very few have ever come up for sale on

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...

Track listings

* UK CD single and 7-inch single 1 # "The Denial Twist" # "Shelter of Your Arms" (

The Greenhornes The Greenhornes were an American garage rock band from Cincinnati, Ohio, formed in 1996 by vocalist/guitarist Craig Fox, bass guitarist Jack Lawrence and drummer Patrick Keeler. They released their debut album '' Gun For You'' in 1999, follo ...

cover) * UK 7-inch single 2 # "The Denial Twist" (live on

KCRW KCRW (89.9 MHz FM) is a National Public Radio member station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, where the station is licensed. KCRW airs original news and music programming in addition to program ...

) # "As Ugly as I Seem" (live on KCRW)

Personnel

* Jack White – vocals, guitar, piano * Meg White – drums, percussion * Eddie Gillis – tambourine, shakers

Charts

Release history

References

External links

"The Denial Twist" video details (defunct link at the moment)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Denial Twist, The Twist (dance) 2005 singles 2005 songs Blues rock songs Music videos directed by Michel Gondry Songs written by Jack White UK Independent Singles Chart number-one singles V2 Records singles XL Recordings singles The White Stripes songs