Released 26 November 2001 Recorded 2001 Label XL | Format CD single Length 3:57 | |
Genre House, dance-rock, electronic rock | ||
"Where's Your Head At" is a song by British electronic music duo Basement Jaxx. It was released as the third single from their second album, Rooty, in 2001. The song was recorded in early 2001 and is based on samples from Gary Numan's songs "M.E." and "This Wreckage". The song peaked at number 39 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, the band's only charting single on a non-dance music chart in the United States.
Contents
The song ranked at number 83 in Pitchfork Media's list of the Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s.
Music video
The music video, directed by Traktor, starts out with a man (played by Damien Samuels) entering an undisclosed location ("the armpit of nowhere" as he calls it) to meet up with a man who claims to have "the latest thing in pop music". Meanwhile, a guitarist is shown being wheeled away in a hospital gurney, with the song starting when he lifts his head.
The man then meets up with a scientist (played by Czech actor Petr Janiš), who then shows him his idea – monkeys playing music – with the help of several props. The protagonist seems unconvinced by the presentation. He is then led into another room and sat behind a protective screen, with a view of a chamber containing instruments and DJ'ing equipment. Some monkeys are brought into the chamber and start to play the instruments – It's revealed that their faces are actually those of humans (among them are the superimposed faces of band members Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe). After playing for a while, the monkeys suddenly start tearing up the equipment and causing general havoc, a behaviour which inexplicably carries over into the scientist in a nearby room as well. They then attack the main character, who promptly flees.
During his escape, the protagonist stumbles upon a room containing a monkey and an unconscious human both hooked up to a machine. The monkey's face then becomes more human in appearance. The protagonist, now horrified, sees a diagram on the wall showcasing pictures of a human brain pointing towards several monkey brains. It turns out the "latest thing in pop music" is actually an experiment where musicians' brains are being transferred to monkeys, and he's planned to be the next victim. The video ends with him escaping down a laundry chute to a room with men who have monkey-like faces, only to be cornered by the scientist and a dog, who also has the face of the scientist.
The video won two awards at the 11th Annual Music Video Production Awards for Best Electronica Video and Best Directorial Debut. Pitchfork Media ranked the video at number 23 in their list of The Top 50 Music Videos of the 2000s.
Remixes
The song was remixed by DJs Stanton Warriors, Robbie Rivera, John Ciafone, and Basement Jaxx themselves. The Stanton Warriors mix was included on a Japan-only unreleased songs/remixes EP in 2002.
Klaas also published a version of this song in 2008. However, the artist for this remix is listed as Jean Elan instead of Basement Jaxx. Cut Up Boys remixed it along with Far Out and Make the World Go Round for the Mash Up Mix Old Skool released in August 2008.
In 2011, DJ Chuckie created a mashup of the song with Cold Blank's remix of "Cal State Anthem" and played it at the Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas, as well as several other festivals and events around the world.
Track listing
- "Wheres Your Head At"
- "Wheres Your Head At (Stanton Warriors Mix)"
- "Romeo (Acoustic Mix)"