Well goddamn!
I've now watched it 4 times, and I notice something new each time: like that part at the end with the eyes is creepy as fuck! (4:07, if you care.) I didn't notice that the first few times and it made me cringe.
I have to say the video is completely the opposite of what I thought it would be. I knew aliens were involved somehow before, but I guess this ties them in better.

Also I think it goes well with the "bubbling under"/"holding back" aspect of the music, in that, for the most part you get blurry glimpses at parts of the alien or his spacecraft, and you want to see more. Reading into it too much? Oh well, that's just what I get from it.

Oh and also, Dev, you said every element was important. Does that mean the geometric stuff has some significance?

Good stuff.

i guess i'll have to watch it again. As much as I liked it, i ddn't find any reason to watch it more than once. If there are a lot of little things here and there that pop up newly with every watch i will do so again.

I saw Love? on Much Music a couple of times way back when but this video is in such a style that it just doesn't fit in. Has it been submitted to stations? Would be interesting to know.

[The Dev]

Nah... we do it for the art.

just a quick note to om15:
I was checking out your videos, and your gonna say the artistry in them is better than in the Coast video? all you did was edit scenes and put music over them, and in many places especially in the 300 one the music doesn't even fit. i'm sorry, but i think to compare the two is a bit silly. Coast is far more complex and put together delicately. i mean, your videos are good for what they are, but to say that you could do a better job for Coast based on those I think is pretty persumptious. Coast is a work of complex art, obviously not made for mainstream appeal. I personally love the video becuase it is that way, you dont really know what your looking at, its something to chew on, and its a mind fuck. not like every popular video of today of people just standing there and playing and maybe a few cut in scenes of a girl they lost. i wouldn't expect that from dev, in fact, i wouldnt want that from Dev.
my humble opinion.

and i would second that fuck mtv

Yeah, I think with this it's pretty obvious that it was never even meant to be aired on MTV. Has any Devin/SYL song actually been on MTV? ...Does it matter?

Basically, it's just a freaking cool video imo.

I saw the videos for Love? and Zen on MTV once.

Well that's something I guess... SELLOUTS!

oh, and Dev, quick question, are you gonna make the video available for download anywhere? I'd love to have it on my iPod so I can continue to analyze when I should be doing more important things... like working or going to school lol.

Some of it reminded me of Contact - specifically the quick shots of all that mysterious text, and the mysterious triangular-looking drawing; if anybody knows which part I'm talking about.

In particular, the instructions for building that ball-dropping machine - where no one could crack the code, and then that reclusive dude showed Jody Foster how to re-orient the pages to make sense of it. I know that wasn't very articulate, but it's been a while since I've seen the movie. Hope it's ok to put up that still shot.



And I mention this not just because Townsend seems to like the movie - it's just reminds me of that part of the movie

Fox Mulder would approve this video!

You wanna see fucking extraterrestrials?

http://www.ufoevidence.org/

its cool but I'm not sure I could put it on 6 times in a row in a dark room with 3-d goggles on.. I'd rather smoke a j and watch it once (hehe) unless someone tells me what its about.. .. .. all in good fun.. waka waka

I followed the instructions, sorry for my ignorance but.. the video is about a person who gets abducted by aliens? that's what i kind of understood

Im not saying theyre better, but I'm saying I'm proud of them. They're unoriginal, therefore they lack the message in them, and I picked the 300 one mainly for the erhu. I think because of that instrument, it fits perfectly.
Anyways, if the video is for his Dev fans, I appreciate it, but I would much rather see you get well-known in the music world Dev, then make a video for your fans. It's fun introducing people to your music, but man do I start to get tired asking people if they ever heard of you and they always say "no". Out of the 1,000 people I've asked, only 2 know. Your music's too good to go unnoticed, Dev.

[The Dev]

Thanks dude!

I have to say though, doing music for myself is alot easier without a team of folks analyzing every note. Any popular artist is subject to that.

Even though I'm not in his league...I really like how Tom Waits did it. He has success and he does what he wants.

If it's meant to be popular, it's because people take an interest in the direction, not because I'm trying to seduce newcomers with marketable stuff.

Although, that being said...maybe an idea somewhere down the line will lend itself to marketable stuff...who knows? But planning something like that doesn't really fit with me.

When Ki was coming to me, It sounded like it ended up sounding. I kind of stood back and said 'oh...ok...cool' as opposed to 'lets write something subtle and dark...lets see, where to start, where to start...'

I just riff out, and the riffs that I keep coming back to more often than not form a complete (ish) statement by the end.

And for video, I work with people I respect, I tell them the theme and circumstance, and let 'em go. When I do a video, it ends up being 'meatball' (awww shit!) I think an artist worth his salt should have free reign. If there's something I vehemently object to, I'll stand firm...but again...it's about a collective more so than a totalitarianistic thingamabobber.

So I did the sit far back in the dark thing, and holy fuck. That video was a full on assault against my sanity and I'm really creeped out by it. The images themselves aren't really that scary, but they way they are portrayed with the lighting and shaky cameras was really freaky. And that noise that's made on the test patterns, holy fuck! Noises like that (emergency test beep things that go ENNNUHHHENNNHHHH, smoke detectors) have always terrified me, so that noise cut to the core of me. Upon further review that video is awesome, I mean who would associate aliens with Coast? It brings the song into a whole new light.

And yeah Catlin, I definitively think there was some influence of Contact in there. The way it builds up all of this mysterious extraterrestrial stuff that answers so many questions, but then never really shows those answers and makes you want more really reminded me of Contact. Wow, that sentence made no sense. It's hard to explain what I mean.

I think thats all you can do now.. riff out! you know how to do it.. I get upset hearing about you dissing metal like its a bad thing and such and such.. metal means more than being pissed and screaming about whatnot.. it raised me, and it raised you

[The Dev]

FOR THE RECORD:

I LOVE metal, I am FAR from done being heavy.

No diss...it's the intention behind it.

I guess the best thing to say again is 'you'll see'