Hello and welcome back to our running series 3 Vids to the Dome where we present three videos by three bands that we love, three videos that intrigue us, three videos that we think you should see. Below is work by Cumulus, The Comettes and Campfire OK – we hope you enjoy it!

Cumulus – Do You Remember

I remember my guy Kyle telling me a year ago that I should check out a new band, Cumulus, that he was playing with.  I did, and so did everyone else.  Currently on tour with The Lonely Forest, Cumulus is diligently taking the world by storm.  This particular video, from their full length release, debuted earlier this month, was surprising to me.  Not usually a fan of “performance” videos, I saw the opening shot and was worried that it would be ‘just another live video’ but this is vastly not the case.  With an intelligent use of light and shadow, director Jorden Albertson changed what I knew a performance video to be, creating something that is mysterious, joyous, eccentric, and incredibly enjoyable.  Check it out and see if you agree

The Comettes – Great Lakes

In interviewing the Comettes for a feature, I learned that singer Timmy del Sol derives his lyrics from dreams and history.  In Great Lakes, those two influences collide in an exploration of death and dying on the field of an imagined battle.  The decision by director Alex Noelke to shoot the whole thing against a stark white background gives the video an almost purgatorial feel.  The geometrically abstract intro is disarming, and feeds perfectly into that ‘lost’ look in the eyes of the band.  The images of happier times projected against the stoic Jettie, Sager and Tim give an image of the moments before death that I appreciated on several levels.  I love videos that make the lyrics and story the focus, and this is one of the better executed examples that I can remember.

Campfire OK  – Wishing you the best

An exploration in texture and movement, the band’s newest video for their recent release When You Have Arrived is classic campfire, with an intentional whimsy and an openness that is the signature of the Seattle 5-piece.  This work sticks to an abstract, neutral palate initially, following Mychal’s lyrics as they tell of an insecurity that killed a relationship, as well as the various band members as they float unexplainably over the earth.  The comfort of intellectually abstract black and white is shattered at the peak with explosions of color that really brought the sentiment of the track home to me.  If I were a little more fancy, I would interpret this video as the lead up to the realization that the relationship ended because of the speaker, then the tumbling hopelessness faced by that person in that moment, and finally the acceptance and release.  If I were fancy. I loved this video, truly, and I can’t wait to see what Campfire’s next visual offering looks like.