My Chemical Romance have resurfaced from their extended break to release a video for their cover of Bob Dylan’s song “Desolation Row,” to be featured in the upcoming Watchmen movie.

The band announced the pending release on their blog yesterday, along with a link to a 30-second preview.  The full version is now available to download on iTunes for $1.99.

The song is a radical reworking of Dylan’s nine-minute-plus ballad, trimmed to a lean three minutes and given an aggressive, punk-style makeover that hearkens back to MCR’s I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love days.

Arriving at the sound was no accident, as Gerard Way told MTV News: “[It's] punk but not in a modern punk sense. We really went for that Sex Pistols-type sound . . .  In fact, when we did the guitars, we brought in Marshall heads and ’50s Les Paul customs. So basically, relative things set up as the Pistols to get that sound. And the mixing was done accordingly as well. It’s very distorted and it’s very trashy.”

As for the video, Gerard is back in his pale complexioned, red-rimmed eyed glory, looking again to the band’s past.  The entire band is outfitted in gritty punk style, with leather and studs abounding among reds, blacks, and whites and dirty denim.  Guitarist Frank Iero sports a tattered Union Jack on his jacket, another subtle nod to the obvious.

The punk homages don’t stop there, with Iero also rocking a Misfits-inspired hairdo, and even the ever carefully coiffed Mikey Way thrashing his mane into a mess that Sid Vicious could be proud of.

Glimpses of drummer Bob Bryar’s bloody mouth, guitarist Ray Toro’s equally bloody nose, and Gerard Way’s black eye and bandaged brow give a sinister vibe to the already gritty affair — foreshadowing for the video’s chaotic conclusion that set many a fangirl’s heart a flutter.

Despite Gerard and Mikey Way working on their respective comic books, Frank Iero touring with side project Leathermouth, and the others working on their own projects, it’s obvious that My Chemical Romance still have their amazing chemistry.  It’s a small comfort to see that commercial success, marriage, and family haven’t diminished My Chemical Romance’s ambition, or perhaps more importantly their dark sense of humor and flair for the dramatic.

In a letter to their fans posted this weekend, Innerpartysystem (my favorite discovery of 2008) wrote about the difficulties they’ve experienced getting exposure for the video to their single “Don’t Stop.”  The line, apparently, is that the video is too edgy, or too visually intense.  So, a bit reluctantly, the band remade the video.

Never ones to quietly bend over and just take what they’re given (someone must have misplaced the ball gags from the original video), Innerpartysystem have still managed to include plenty of subtly disturbing imagery.  They’ve even brought their creepy newscasters back to take in the new show, complete with quasi-Johnny Carson.

With the brutally overwhelming social commentary cut or at least softened, there is now room for the band to be showcased front and center.  While I know the guys have an aversion to pin-up superstardom — hence the obscuring shadow and backlighting — people like to see what they’re buying (or buying into).  A face makes it easier for the masses to relate to music that is a bit more challenging than your usual pop fare; it gives them something to connect with, an investment, something to keep them hooked while everything else sinks in.  It’s not always so much about selling the band’s image as it is making that personal connection.  This is why bands can make or break themselves live.

This is also where I think Innerpartysystem does themselves a great favor, because their live show adds hot blood and a pounding heartbeat to the already intense electronic beats and grinding guitars, which gives the music a dimension that isn’t possible on a recording.  The performance footage of the band in the new video gives a peek at that live show intensity, however, and adds a level of immediacy that wasn’t in the original video, which had a more cerebral and detached feel.

Innerpartysystem has had a banner year, coming up from obscurity to making a noticeable dent in both the UK and US music scenes.  I know it was a difficult decision to revisit the single and video they used to establish a baseline for what their band is about.  I think it was the right decision, though.  After capturing the attention of the music industry and fans of intelligent, provocative music and visuals, this reworking gives the band a chance to broaden their appeal and continue to develop new opportunities to get out their music and message.  It’s not a matter of redoing something that wasn’t done right the first time; it’s expanding and enhancing what’s already been done to take it to the next level.

Innerpartysystem are ready.