4/16/2006: Easter Sunday
4/7/2006: Musical Musings At 4 AM
3/24/2006: Addicting Music
3/4/2006: A Milestone In The Collection
2/7/2006: Why Can't The Award Shows Get It Right?
1/30/2006: Love Songs...And Lots Of 'Em
1/24/2006: The Mainstream's Best Kept Secret?
1/10/2006: The Double-Edged Sword
12/29/2005: 2005 In Review
12/5/2005: Top 25 Albums Of 2005
11/28/2005: The Soundtrack Of My Life
11/21/2005: The Jesus Freak 10th Anniversary
11/16/2005: 2005 CMA's Recap
10/20/2005: Random Thoughts On Everything Musically
10/13/2005: Venting At Family Christian
9/3/2005: Hurricane Katrina
8/14/2005: Band On Radio...Good. Christian Band On Radio...Bad?
8/1/2005: Christian Artists In The Mainstream
If you're a Death Cab For Cutie fan, you probably already know about this, and have for a while. But, on the off chance someone out there reading doesn't know, let me clue you in. Death Cab recently released Directions on iTunes. What is Directions, you ask? Well, it's a video album. Their 2005 release, Plans, was put together in video form and released. At first, it was just a small little thing that they did and put on their website, one song each week. But then their fans said they wanted to own copies of these videos, because they were just that good. Death Cab, the label, and Death Cab friendly iTunes gave the fans what they wanted. For 14 bucks, fans could now download all eleven videos, an interview with the band about the videos, and a "trailer" that was used on the site to promote the videos when they were first being prepared for viewing.
Now, some of you are probably like, "Okay, big deal. So they did eleven videos. What's so great about that?" Well, first off, you're wrong. The members of Death Cab had no role in the videos, aside from picking the directors. Yes, that was plural. Each video had a different director, and each director was given a budget to work with...a small budget. The band members never once appear in the videos. These videos...they're like mini-movies. They are, at heart, one person's interpretation of one song, and that's done eleven times over.
This makes for an interesting idea in the music world. First of all, it is rare to ever see a "video album" in the first place (Though there are a few more coming out now on iTunes, including Queen and the Red Hot Chili Peppers). But what makes Directions truly unique is that it's not just a compilation of the band's video history. The idea of giving eleven directors complete reign to interpret the song however they choose...that's not something most artists are willing to do. In fact, the only other thing like this in my personal collection is David Crowder Band's Sunsets & Sushi, where the band gave free reign over a bunch of their songs to people to remix however they saw fit. It's not often that an artist lets go of creative control and allows someone else to interpret their songs.
And these videos are, well, spectacular. They draw you even deeper into the song. As the band says in their interview, they expect that everyone is going to have a different favorite, and there will be heavy debate between fans on why this video or that video is the best one. And that's the way it should be. Everyone has a different interpretation of the songs they hear, so when you see an interpretation you connect with, you're going to love it. Personally, I have a few favorites on the album. First off, What Sarah Said is a great physical interpretation of the sheer emotion of the song. Marching Bands Of Manhattan is an intriguing video, Different Names For The Same Thing is one that anyone who was ever in band in school will appreciate, and Brothers On A Hotel Bed is simply filled with beautiful visuals.
Basically what I'm saying is that, whether you're a Death Cab fan or not, if you have the opportunity to pick this album up off of iTunes, I suggest you do it. It's a great investment on 14 bucks that you'd otherwise waste on something random and pointless.