September 2011 - Posts
It was late one fall night and I was halfway through a bottle of Cabernet when Kevin sent me the mp3 file for Wellwishers and asked if I had any thoughts on a video concept. As I shut my eyes and listened to the song for the first time, I envisioned a young Bob Dylan rifling through those white signs, each with a different lyric. There was just something about the phrasing of each line that evoked this iconic black and white imagery. My initial idea was to have various members of the band and crew holding up signs with the lyrics of the song as we went about our normal daily routine. Upon discussing the concept with Kevin, he suggested other interesting ways of displaying the lyrics, such as a text on a cell phone, the display of a synthesizer or a strategic array of Skittles backstage. We started making a list and embarked on our infamous Mustache Tour armed with Flip Cams and pre-pubescent peach fuzz on our upper lips. (Thanks to all of the ladies for the feedback. This is apparently not a good look for me).
There are a couple of scenes of which I have particularly fond recollections. The first is the cake shot (I know, sounds like a porn fetish, but read on). Most of us at Umphrey’s McGee are wannabe intellectual types with a penchant for good grammar and when we opened up the cake box, Kevin astutely spotted a typo in the frosting. The line was supposed to read “So be hopeful as a candle is worried for its flame” but apparently the baking industry in Reno, NV isn’t exactly the AP Stylebook and someone had included an extraneous apostrophe in the word “its”. So for the next several minutes, Kevin caressed the frosting and “deleted” the errant punctuation while I stood close by, mocking the irony of the situation. After all, this wasn’t exactly throwing a TV out a hotel window or imbibing half a bottle of Jack in a single swig. Yes, at Umphrey’s McGee, we reinvent the stuff of rock legends. We edit grammar on birthday cakes at load-in (sounds like a bumper sticker to me, Kev).
The frosting, caressed
The chorus of the video features a subtle trick that I blatantly stole from The Police’s 1983 video “Wrapped Around Your Finger.” As a television-obsessed child (I was 8 at the time), I remember learning that they had sped up the track to twice the original speed and Sting had lip-synced in Chipmunks-style double-time. Then, they adjusted the video to 50% resulting in all of those candles falling down in slow motion, while Sting’s mouth moved in real time. It was simple math, but it was a cool concept and one I always remembered. So for the first chorus in Wellwishers, we had Brendan sing in double-time, while everyone played touch football in the background. In the video, the football game (and Stasik’s touchdown reception – look closely) appears in slow motion. For the second chorus, we decided to do the reverse, thereby achieving the opposite effect and having the football action roll by at twice the normal speed. All the while, Brendan’s lips are moving in regular time.
Heisman
Another interesting math tidbit: 100% of all people that I showed the video to did not notice this trick.
But everyone commented on the ‘stache.
Jefferson
Manny Sanchez & I had just wrapped up mixing Wellwishers and I couldn't get the tune out of my head. My surroundings slowly became the movie and Wellwishers the sound track. "Maybe we should try shooting a video for this," I thought to myself. I took the idea to the band and off we went.
Tagged by the incredibly talented Jeff "Weirdo" Jacobson
The album wasn't even an album at that point and we weren't exactly sure what would happen with the track. We didn't really have a budget to shoot a 'real' video so I approached Jefferson Waful about creating one ourselves. He jumped on the idea and the brainstorming began. We kept circling back to discussion about the iconic Bob Dylan video for Subterranean Homesick Blues (technically the opening scene of "Don't Look Back" and not a video but I digress). We both loved the simplicity of the text and its contribution to the story telling but wanted our own take on the concept. After several (many) glasses of Cabernet on the tour bus we finally arrived at the one lyric per scene concept you see here.
Thanks to the depot for letting us commandeer the marquee
This obviously left us a ton of possibilities for every lyric so we had to figure out what was doable and what was a pipe dream. Squeezing in a video shoot while balls deep in the middle of a tour isn't the easiest of tasks. So last fall on a day off in Salt Lake City, Joel, Ryan, Jefferson & I sat down and made a master list of possibilities. We charted most of the scenes in advance but in typical UM fashion, improvised several when we ran across a setting that deemed worthy. Had time or budget been less of a concern, you would have seen some outlandish lyrical representations but sometimes life is about playing the hand your dealt. All in all, we were pleased with the results given the gorilla nature of shooting.
The cake from Reno, NV (red velvet)
We shot almost all of these scenes with Flip cameras (RIP) while working our way up the west coast in the fall of 2010. It was never intended to be some slick production but rather just an extension of the UM that you've come to know and love (deeply, thoroughly, mostly, occasionally, slightly, maybe?). We snuck away before sound checks or utilized days off to grab as much footage as we could. And finally, we shot it amidst our moustache tour which just adds to the absurdity of a handful of these scenes.
On location
Stay tuned for additional scene by scene commentary from Jefferson and myself. We'll be posting further details here on the blog and plowing crop circles with hidden messages to reveal inner truths.
-Kevin Browning
And without further adieu...
This little gem was just too funny to sit on. Filmed on location during our latest promo session, Ryan Stasik broke into an impromptu interpretive dance during Miami Virtue. We hit 'record' and had him start over to capture some of the fluidity that is his MVID. Andy Farag had a different idea of how it should end...
Guest blog from long time UM contributer and all around great guy Jeremy Welsh
Mary Cassat, Henry Mancini, August Wilson, George Benson.
Jimmy Stewart.
The Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel opened in the summer of 2001, giving life to the historic Fulton Building (b. 1906) which had stood vacant for years. To celebrate the rich history of Pittsburgh, each of the ballrooms were named after famous Pittsburghers. And on the night of September 8, 2001, my wife and I celebrated our wedding in the Jimmy Stewart Ballroom with our family and friends -- friends that included our wedding band, Umphrey's McGee.
After getting engaged in November 2000, Laura and I immediately started to think of ways to ask Umphrey's to play our wedding. We had known the guys for years, and as music was one of the foundations of our friendship, what better way to celebrate than with live music played by close friends. I believe it was after a show at Joe's Pub in Chicago in December of 2000 that I first floated the idea past Joel and Vince. Thankfully, they have always been open to unique ideas. And as the planning progressed, that second Saturday in September seemed to fit perfectly into their early Fall tour on the East Coast.
September 8th was a warm and gorgeous Fall day. After an early ceremony and mass, guests -- and the band -- made their way Downton to the Hotel. While the dinner was held in a larger ballroom overlooking the Monongahela River and the newly built PNC Park, the musical festivities shifted to the Jimmy Stewart Ballroom. A few years earlier, Laura and I had driven to Columbus to see Bela Fleck, Mike Marshall, and Edgar Meyer play a concert in support of their album Uncommon Ritual. It was at this show that we first heard the song "Sliding Down," a simply gorgeous Edgar Meyer piece that starts with Edgar on piano, and slowly builds with banjo, bass, and mandolin. Simple, beautiful. And the first gift that Umphrey's gave us that night was learning the piece for our First Dance.
And the festivities just took off from there...
(While I should not have been surprised, it was quite a treat to wake up the next morning to find that the band had slid three CDs -- a recording of our wedding -- under our door that evening. We have enjoyed listening to it ever since.)
Maybe they were simply feeling joyous after the occasion. Or maybe they enjoyed the party as much as we did. Or, maybe, they actually liked the sound of the room as they claimed. No matter the reason, Umphrey's made the decision to go back to the room in the middle of the night -- or morning? -- and just have fun. Improvise. Play with some themes. So, with a few of the building's employees looking on, they jammed. For over an hour.
They enjoyed the experience so much that they soon decided to devote time during concerts to explore ideas, melodies, time signatures, or simply imrpovise. To take chances in front of an audience. And these pieces of music would be called "Jimmy Stewarts." Three weeks later, after experiencing 9/11, New York City, and Washington DC, they returned to Pittsburgh to play a show at the Pittsburgh Deli Company. Some of those hotel employees from that night were in attendance. It was here in Pittsburgh that a "Jimmy Stewart" first appeared on the setlist.
Ten years later, Umphrey's continues to utilize the concept of "Jimmy Stewart" to push themselves, go out on a limb, and write music. Countless fully realized songs have grown from these adventures. It is fun to think we had a little part in that . . .
Look what just showed up here at UM HQ...a box of custom Death By Stereo 'caution' tape from the album cover shoot.
As much as we'd like to keep it all and wrap Joel like a mummy, we've decided to give these to you. Anyone who buys a deluxe package for Death By Stereo will automatically be entered into a drawing to win 1 of 20 100' rolls of UM/DBS tape (if you've already purchased, you're already in). We'll select 20 winners during release week by pulling names out of Stasik's Guns N' Roses hat (why not).
Plaster your dorm room, wrap your buddies car, or make yourself a quilt - whatever you do with it is up to you. Send us your best pictures of the tape in action and we'll post them here. Good luck.
We try to keep Vince roped off as much as possible around here
Thanks for the support, as always.
\mm/