Late last night, well past my bedtime, I finished the project — After2Glasses now has a performance video, shot and edited by me. The band is happy with it, I am happy with it, and now I take pride in sharing it with anyone and everyone who will watch it.
Why? Well, for a number of reasons. Is it because it is the best music video made in the history of such? Heavens, no. I leave that to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” because it was so groundbreaking and he hadn’t quite completely lost it at that point. “Hungry Like The Wolf” by Duran Duran comes in a close second, mainly because I have a soft spot for Eighties music and also because it got slightly spoofed in a “Venture Bros.” episode (look for it at about the 1:00 mark in the linked clip. To me, there is no higher flattery than to be included in a Venture Bros.” storyline). But I think it is a more than decent video, especially considering it was made on no budget with a Flip video camera, and I’m proud of the work we did with it.
The impetus for making video was to include it in the Dead Covers Project, but more importantly, we want to get draw more attention to After2Glasses. I think the video can help do that. The band is unique (how many yoga-teaching, web-developing women do you know who play an antique Rickenbacher lap steel?), and they play an interesting blend of Americana, blues, folk and rock. If having their video on YouTube as part of the Dead Covers Project gets them some more notice, then more power to it.
While I don’t plan to ditch my WordPress focus any time soon in favor of low-budget filmmaking (I’ll leave that to Chance Shirley and Crewless Productions), I enjoyed working on the video and learning more about Premiere while doing it. This is another arrow in the quiver, and you never know when this experience might come in handy with a client.
Of course, you can watch the embedded video above; if you’re a Deadhead like me and want to see more interpretations of Grateful Dead covers, check out YouTube and seach for “DeadCoversProject”. There is a whole bunch of good material out there.
And, of course, be on the lookout for After2Glasses playing at a venue near you!