16 Military Wives

Infobox Single
Name = 16 Military Wives


Artist = The Decemberists
from Album = Picaresque
B-side = "The Kingdom of Spain," "From My Own True Love"
Released = November 21, 2005
Format = Compact Disc, 7"
Recorded =
Genre = Indie rock, Indie pop
Length =
Label = Rough Trade
Writer = Colin Meloy
Producer =
Certification =
Chart position =
Last single = "Billy Liar"
(2004)
This single = "16 Military Wives"
(2005)
Next single = "O Valencia!"
(2006)

"16 Military Wives" is a single released by The Decemberists from their third album, "Picaresque".

Track listing

CD

# "16 Military Wives"
# "The Kingdom of Spain"
# "16 Military Wives" (Video)

7"

# "16 Military Wives"
# "From My Own True Love" (Demo)

ubject

Songwriter Colin Meloy has characterized the song as a "protest song" inspired by the Iraq War. However, though it does attack elements of the unilateral American foreign policy under George W. Bush (the lines "Because America can/And America can't say no/And America does/If America says it's so/It's so" in the chorus), "16 Military Wives" focuses primarily on the news media and popular response to the war, particularly levying criticism at infotainment and the surface-level involvement of celebrities in public affairs. ["Colin Meloy of The Decemberists." "Fresh Air". National Public Radio. WUOM, Ann Arbor-Detroit, 29 January 2007. Recording available online at [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7061028 the "Fresh Air" archives] . ]

Video

Shot at Cleveland High School in Portland, OR, the video takes place at the fictional Barger Rothery Academy. Colin Meloy plays Henry Stowecroft, a student who represents the United States in the school's Model UN. Fed up with Jude (Nate Query), another student who seems to surpass him on every occasion, Henry goes after Carl (Chris Funk), a shy student who mostly keeps to himself, by initiating a campaign of harassment. Within the UN, the U.S. declares war on Luxembourg, the country Carl represents. Henry has his lackeys block Carl from using the bathroom, pelts Carl with crumpled paper projectiles, gets the lunch lady to deny Carl food service, and plants contraband in Carl's locker and then reports him to school authorities. Molly (Jenny Conlee) leads a revolt against Henry by recruiting the rest of the Model UN to perform a protest song during a meeting of the club. Henry, defeated, flees the meeting, and the video ends with him buried in crumpled paper.

The notion of Henry, representing the United States, bullying a smaller country reflects the song's lyrical meaning.

The video contains numerous references to the 1998 Wes Anderson film "Rushmore", and was the first video to ever be originally released for online distribution via BitTorrent.

The video was co-produced by Nicholas Harmer of Death Cab for Cutie. He also makes a cameo appearance in the video. He had been erroneously credited with a co-director credit by MTV2's Subterranean due to a mistake in the chyron.

Other cameos include Chris Walla from Death Cab for Cutie, also the album's producer, John Roderick from The Long Winters, Carson Ellis, the band's artist and longtime partner to Colin Meloy .

The video was directed by Aaron Stewart-Ahn, who also helmed the band's video for "O Valencia!"; and appears to be drawn stylistically from Wes Anderson's films, particularly "Rushmore."

External links

* [http://www.roughtraderecords.com/rt271.html Rough Trade discography page]

References