I got the idea several years back, maybe eight or nine, that I wanted to make music videos. The timing was absurd like my timing always is, given that a) who the hell other than a ten year old dreams about working in/on music videos (and I wasn’t ten), and b) music videos were dead and stupid and bloated and bombastic and couldn’t be made for less that a hundred thousand bucks. And dead, which I mentioned. But I just knew what great marketing tools videos could be. I, some dude who had no experience actually filming things—or for that matter a camera—would climb the scaffolding and redirect the music video spotlight from film auteurs and their stupid high concepts back to the musicians/songs.
But Baron Gunther von Youtuber hadn’t invented his social video network yet, and I got distracted waiting around (probably by my fancypants new MP3 player) and gave up on the idea.
With a new record “Ghost Town” coming out (now out, buy it here), Chicago’s Owen, aka Mike Kinsella, had the idea (or has a really sharp friend who had the idea) of making a video of himself playing all twelve songs live and solo at different spots in the city. While the songs are terrific, the videos have mixed results, but the best of them are great—rough, dignified, and sometimes adorable, pieces that promote the city itself as much as the music.
Here’s my favorite. They surely planned the lights going out, but not the interruption by the two dudes. “Hey man, you gotta band?” “Um…no, just this.”
