In 1987 the Grateful Dead unveiled a clever video for Touch of Grey that helped propel the song to into the Top 10 of the Billboard’s Hot 100 chart and won the band an influx of fans. Five years later the Spin Doctors catapulted into the mainstream thanks in part to videos for Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong and Two Princes. Since that time the format hasn’t exactly been embraced by improv-based rock bands. For instance, HT faves Umphrey’s McGee will celebrate their 14th anniversary in January and they’ve never put out an “official” music video…until today.
The Chicago-based rockers teamed up with director Travis Rime Brooks to create a visual look at the Death By Stereo track Booth Love. Guitarist Brendan Bayliss told Thomas Conner of the Chicago Sun-Times, who debuted the video on his Via Chicago blog, “In the past, we never had the right concept to go with any of the songs we had considered. We didn’t want it to be cheesy or lame, and we wanted a video to really compliment the composition. Finally, we have the right song and the right visual to go along with it. ‘Booth Love’ is a sexy tune, and I think the video is pretty sexy, too.”
Let’s see if you agree…
In other UM news, the group has also announced details of their first DVD release since 2007.
Live at Summer Camp 2011, which is available for pre-order through Music Today, features a pair of full, two-set performances for a total of over five hours of music plus bonuses. From the bit on the order page that states, “Both the video and the audio were captured in real time as it happened – no remixing, editing, 5.1 mixes or other blemish reducing measures. What you saw is what you get.” we’re thinking this is essentially a capture of what was streamed over iClips in May.
