MEET THE KING OF STONER ROCK MOVIES

(JUST IN TIME FOR 4/20)

By now most everybody (stoned or otherwise) knows that watching The Wizard of Oz while listening to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon unspools a motherload of eerie synchronicities. But did you know that the same thing happens when you combine Led Zeppelin IV and The Fellowship of the Ring? Or The Matrix and Metallica’s “Black Album”?

Fellowship of the IV and The Black Matrix are just two of the 17 full-length DVDs that you can pick up at SyncMovies.com. Other bizarre mash-ups include The Ozzorcist (Black Sabbath meets The Exorcist) and Nevermind the Memento (Nirvana’s Nevermind with Memento). The man behind the site and creator of these artifacts of black magic goes by the name “The DeVille,” a 48-year-old Atlanta-area native who does not reveal his real name for legal reasons. A doctor of synchronicity, he employs what he calls “the rainbow connection” to find them, looking for themes between the music and the film and then testing his theories via countless hours of trial and error. He happened upon the concept in 1999 when his son Rey hipped him to the legend of The Dark Side of Oz. “It just made my hair stand up,” says The DeVille of the first time he watched it.

Compelled by his discovery, The Deville quit his job in the collections department at the IRS and took a job at a video production company so he could hone what he was doing. Since then, The DeVille has devoted himself to making sync videos. His projects feature top-of-the line audio (some feature his own 5.1 surround sound mixes) and picture quality, and many come with subtitles featuring the movie’s original dialogue (as well as disclaimers urging his customers to support the studios and artists by buying the original movies and albums). Rock Daily decided to put some of these syncs to the test, and our results are below.

Movie: Fellowship of the IV
Combines: Led Zeppelin’s IV and Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
“Whoa!” Level: Extremely high. Geek out to the highest level with this had-to-happen pairing. Robert Plant was obsessed enough with author J.R.R. Tolkien’s work to include Rings references in a number of Zeppelin songs. Packed to the hilt with synchronicities, this may be the one sync to rule them all.
Hot Sync: Frodo sheds a tear as Robert Plant sings “Don’t it make you feel sad when your trying to find your way home?”

Movie: Nevermind the Memento
Combines: Nirvana’s Nevermind and the 2000 thriller Memento
“Whoa!” Level: High. While the themes of Memento and Nevermind mesh well (alienation, self-loathing, references to guns), the fact that the scenes in this movie play out backwards means this is not the best disc to dive into for newbies.
Hot Sync: When it’s revealed that Leonard has written “He’s the one” on the back of a photo, it echoes the chorus to “In Bloom.”

Movie: Planes, Trains, and Candy-O
Combines: The Cars‘ Candy-O and the John Candy / Steve Martin vehicle Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
“Whoa!” Level: Medium. The DeVille has found a few hundred places where the movie and the music speak the same words at the same time, and he’s got the subtitles to prove it. This is an example of the lighter side of syncs.
Hot Sync: Ric Ocasek sings about a “clock machine” as Steve Martin is checking his watch.

-Evan Schlansky