I wrote the original words for "The Dead" a few
years back, near the beginning of the current "financial crisis." On
the surface it is about a horde of self-determined "zombies" who
march on this world and a billion others just like it, before storming
"Heaven," and seizing control over "the machine" our multi-verse
"runs" on. The idea of zombies as symbolic of rapacious consumer
isn't really a new thing. Rather it is a distillation of more than 30 years of
Bowie, Burroughs, Dick and others, who inspire these kind of warped "what
if?" scenarios in my primitive imagination.
Had I possessed the ability -- or stamina -- to "do the
video" myself, I would have probably tried to incorporate a lot of
bullshit symbolism in its imagery. Instead, a good friend of the Church has
volunteered this -- his first ever animation short (over 200 hours in the making!)
-- to the cause of Entertainment Hedonism, and for the advancement of electric
dissent, everywhere.
Think of this song + video as a manifesto for a related half-world,
where zombies roam in search of brains (or cash?) and compute firing solutions
for interdimensional missiles in their downtime.
It's a twist on an old friend, with apologies to Romero, and Brooks, et al.
Extra big piles of love to Steve Johnson @ smokin' kettle,
for his hard work here. Bonus points to anyone who can find all 27 Easter Eggs.
