16 Military Wives
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| “16 Military Wives” | |||||
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| Single by The Decemberists from the album Picaresque |
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| B-side | "The Kingdom of Spain," "From My Own True Love" | ||||
| Released | November 21, 2005 | ||||
| Format | Compact Disc, 7" | ||||
| Genre | Indie rock, Indie pop | ||||
| Label | Rough Trade | ||||
| Writer(s) | Colin Meloy | ||||
| The Decemberists singles chronology | |||||
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"16 Military Wives" is a single released by The Decemberists from their third album, Picaresque.
Contents |
[edit] Track listing
[edit] CD
- "16 Military Wives"
- "The Kingdom of Spain"
- "16 Military Wives" (Video)
[edit] 7"
- "16 Military Wives"
- "From My Own True Love" (Demo)
[edit] Subject
The song levies criticism at infotainment and the surface-level involvement of celebrities in public affairs[citation needed].
[edit] Video
Shot at Cleveland High School in Portland, OR, the video takes place at the fictional Barger Rothery Academy. Colin Meloy plays Henry Stowecroft, a student who represents the United States in the school's Model UN. Fed up with Jude (Nate Query), another student who seems to surpass him on every occasion, Henry goes after Carl (Chris Funk), a shy student who mostly keeps to himself, by initiating a campaign of harassment. Within the UN, the U.S. declares war on Luxembourg, the country Carl represents. Henry has his lackeys block Carl from using the bathroom, pelts Carl with crumpled paper projectiles, gets the lunch lady to deny Carl food service, and plants contraband in Carl's locker and then reports him to school authorities. Molly (Jenny Conlee) leads a revolt against Henry by recruiting the rest of the Model UN to perform a protest song during a meeting of the club. Henry, defeated, flees the meeting, and the video ends with him buried in crumpled paper.
The notion of Henry, representing the United States, bullying a smaller country reflects the song's lyrical meaning.
The video contains numerous references to the 1998 Wes Anderson film Rushmore, and was the first video to ever be originally released for online distribution via BitTorrent.
The video was co-produced by Nicholas Harmer of Death Cab for Cutie. He also makes a cameo appearance in the video. He had been erroneously credited with a co-director credit by MTV2's Subterranean due to a mistake in the chyron.
Other cameos include Chris Walla from Death Cab for Cutie, also the album's producer, John Roderick from the Long Winters, Carson Ellis, the band's artist and longtime partner to Colin Meloy.
The video was directed by Aaron Stewart-Ahn, who also helmed the band's video for "O Valencia!"
[edit] External links
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