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Death Cab For Cutie Pull Off Live ‘You Are A Tourist’ Video

The clip, shot in one continuous take, premiered Tuesday night. By James Montgomery Death Cab For Cutie’s “You Are A Tourist” video Photo: Atlantic Records Well, they pulled it off. One week after announcing plans to shot a live live video for “You Are a Tourist,” the first single from their upcoming Codes and Keys album, and after a full day of slightly tense rehearsals , Death Cab for Cutie were finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. Not only did “Tourist” — which was shot live, with multiple cameras, in one single take and broadcast for the entire world via YouAreATourist.com (and several other sites, including MTV.com) on Tuesday night (April 5) — come off without a hitch, but Death Cab looked like they were having an absolute blast making it. Directed by Tim Nackashi and based on a concept by frequent collaborator Aaron Stewart-Ahn, the video was artful, eye-catching and ambitious, to say the very least. Featuring an intricate, whimsical set, expert use of projections, a bevy of background actors and a dozen dancers who engaged in some seriously kaleidoscopic Busby Berkeley dance sequences, “Tourist” followed Death Cab frontman Ben Gibbard and his bandmates as they wandered through the controlled madness — and wore some genuinely nifty light-up suits too. Despite the fact that they were filming it live, there wasn’t a single noticeable screw-up. Gibbard and his mates hit all their marks (and tried their best to hide some actual “I can’t believe this is really happening grins), the dancers were perfectly synced, the cameras were on cue and, at the very end — perhaps recognizing this — everyone, from the band to Nackashi to the dancers stood in the center of the stage, clapping and cheering wildly, as Gibbard thanked everyone for their hard work. Really, despite the fact they were doing this live before the entire world, DCFC weren’t really all that nervous — even though, as they told MTV News on Monday, the potential to screw it all up was enormous. “I think the trick here, or the balance here, is to try to have there be a legitimate amount of choreography involved but not so much that if one thing goes wrong, the whole thing topples like a house of cards,” Gibbard laughed. “And there are some very kind-of tight moves throughout the video, but nothing that, you know, if I’m not standing here at this one point, the Rube Goldberg kind of thing falls apart and you’re standing there for the next three minutes looking like a moron.” Luckily, that didn’t happen. What did you think of the Death Cab video? Let us know in the comments! Related Videos Death Cab For Cutie To Shoot Single-Take Video Live On The Web Related Artists Death Cab For Cutie

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Death Cab For Cutie Pull Off Live ‘You Are A Tourist’ Video

Death Cab For Cutie To Shoot Single-Take Video Live On The Web

‘You Are a Tourist’ clip will air live at 7 p.m. ET on MTV.com. By Matt Elias Death Cab For Cutie Photo: MTV News On Monday afternoon, Death Cab for Cutie were holed up in a Hollywood soundstage rehearsing for an exceptionally ambitious music video project. The band plans to shoot a music video for their single “You Are a Tourist” in one take while being simulcast to the Web. And while single-take videos are nothing new (OK Go’s “This Too Shall Pass” and Feist’s “1234” come to mind), they’ve had the luxury of shooting multiple takes until they got it right. With “You Are a Tourist,” Death Cab have one chance to do it, and they’re doing it live. Adding to the difficulty, the band has mapped out a complex arrangement of moves and visual effects — but describing the video’s treatment might be the trickiest part of it all. “It’s kind of hard to describe because it’s kind of like … I liken it to a 5-year-old trying to explain their trip to Disneyland,” frontman Ben Gibbard said. “It’s sensory overload, so there’s a lot of things happening, and trying to kind of walk anybody through it would be very difficult. But there are lights and dancers, and smoke and projections, and it’s gonna be kind of a little bit of a Busby Berkeley -type of spectacle.” And a spectacle it is. Joining the band are a bevy of background actors and a troop of a dozen or so dancers, and just about as many computers controlling the action. The entire set glows with a series of projections (an abstract cityscape, geometric designs and triangles that flicker in sync with the music). Oh, and the band’s suits light up in sync with the song too. But despite the entire performance being highly intricate, the foursome seemed pretty relaxed during rehearsal. As Ben pointed out, “I think the trick here, or the balance here, is to try to have there be a legitimate amount of choreography involved, but not so much that if one thing goes wrong, the whole thing topples like a house of cards. And there are some very, kind of, tight moves throughout the video, but nothing that, you know, if I’m not standing here at this one point, the Rube Goldberg kind of thing falls apart and you’re standing there for the next three minutes looking like a moron.” You can catch the video in all its live glory Tuesday (April 5) at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT on MTV.com , VH1.com and YouAreATourist.com . Related Artists Death Cab For Cutie

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Death Cab For Cutie To Shoot Single-Take Video Live On The Web