Death Cab For Cutie Taking A Page From 50 Cent's Playbook

Band is making a video for every track on its latest album.

by James Montgomery, with reporting by Corey Moss

There was a time not so long ago when the guys in Death Cab for Cutie could only dream of making music videos. So now that they've got a hit album and some major-label bucks behind them, you can understand why they'd want to try something a bit unorthodox with their next clip.


Or perhaps we should say "clips." Because not only are Death Cab about to shoot a video for "Crooked Teeth," the second single from their recent Plans album, but they've decided to go ahead and make one for every other track on the record too, in a video project they've dubbed "Directions."

"Oh, is that official now?" guitarist Chris Walla laughed (DCFC's label, Atlantic, confirmed that it is, in fact, official). "Great, I wasn't sure.

"It's a bit of a project we've created. We contacted a bunch of directors that we've sort of been familiar with and asked for submissions, and we said, 'Here's a small budget, go make a video for every song on the record,' " bassist Nick Harmer added. "It's going to be really exciting to see how it turns out, because the clips are just starting to leak in a little bit now and we're starting to get our first glimpse of some of the videos and we're so excited about how they're going turn out. It's a pretty exciting project to be a part of."

Death Cab already have an eye-popping video for "Where Soul Meets Body" from director Jon Watts (see "Death Cab For Cutie Admit Magical Forest Video Is 'A Little Weird' "), and they'll film the "old-school, stop-motion" clip for "Crooked Teeth" this week with director Ace Norton (Mudvayne, Smoosh), but neither of those videos will be featured on "Directions." Instead, they'll be reworked by directors Cat Solen (Bright Eyes) and Rob Schrab (who directed the pilot for "Heat Vision and Jack," a failed pilot featuring Jack Black that became a cult favorite via the Internet).

"Yeah," Harmer said, "we've got a great mix of directors; some really established people that we were really surprised would want to work with us, plus some up-and-comers that really haven't done much yet and just have really great ideas. It's a really eclectic mix, but I think when it's all said and done, it'll all come together and make a lot of sense."

And just what will happen to all 12 of the Plans videos (indie director Lance Bangs tackles the bonus track "Talking Like Turnstiles") once they've been completed? Well, Atlantic Records told MTV News that the clips will begin to roll out on DeathCabForCutie.com starting in January.

"We want to take advantage of the vibrant online culture, just like a lot of musicians and use the Internet to find people to design T-shirts and posters for them," Harmer said. "We went to these directors and filmmakers and said, 'You do what you do and do it well, and we'd be honored if you wanna do it with us.' It's an interesting way of collaborating, and it's a really interesting way to get things out there, so we're going to take advantage."

The videos and directors for "Directions," according to Atlantic:


"Marching Bands of Manhattan," directed by P.R. Brown
"Soul Meets Body," directed by Cat Solen
"Summer Skin," directed by Lightborne
"Different Names for the Same Thing," directed by Autumn de Wilde
"I Will Follow You Into the Dark," directed by Monkmus
"Your Heart Is an Empty Room," directed by Jeffrey Brown; animated by Eliza Kinkz
"Someday You Will Be Loved," directed by Ace Norton
"Crooked Teeth," directed by Rob Schrab
"What Sarah Said," directed by Laurent Briet
"Brothers on a Hotel Bed," directed by Chris Grismer
"Stable Song," directed by Aaron Stewart-Ahn
"Talking Like Turnstiles" (bonus track), directed by Lance Bangs


[This story was originally published on 12.19.05. at 6:00 a.m. ET.]

This report is from MTV News.

Wow.

this is gonna make them huge

whats your guys' opinions?

"Different Names for the Same Thing," directed by Autumn de Wilde <================ awesome.

Crooked teeth video could just feature a lot of british women.

quote:

Originally posted by .Justin.:
whats your guys' opinions?

I think it's a very cool idea. I'd like to see them release all the videos on a DVD compilation. I don't see them getting much airplay on MTV or VH1 (even if they did play videos). Fuse...maybe.

REally? I think they'll be played a lot on MTV. I think this may be the huge jump for them from in between to straight mainstream. I like the DVD idea

quote:

"Different Names for the Same Thing," directed by Autumn de Wilde

Sweet!

o man.. i just came here to post this exact same subject. u beat me this time.

I think this will be the definate jump from indie to mainstream. In a way it's good because other bands in the indie world will need to step up in order to please the scenesters.

my opinon: yeah, whateva.

these 'll prolly be released on itunes, eh? oh my, this is big. a dvd is a good idea too. holly shit...

and yeah, different names is gonna be great. and i'm excited to see what they'll do with i will follow you into the dark

I can't wait. Diffrent Names and Marching Bands are probably going to be big.

is this the mainstream whiplash? lol. i hardly care. i can't wait. definitely looking forward to Different Names, Soul Meets Body, and I Will Follow You.

Wow, definitely never would have seen that coming.

I would think this kind of project is something you could only tackle once you were totally mainstream. It is definitely a good idea to reach a wider audience and become huge, but it just seems like something that would require a ton of money, more than Death Cab would be able to afford right now.

But it's not like I know anything about music and its financial aspects