Yeah Yeah Yeahs have been getting awfully creative with the videos from their fourth studio album Mosquito, what with the technicolour bug terror of Mosquito and the cinematic modern-day witch burning of Sacrilege, and now they can add ‘First band to shoot a video on top of the Empire State Building’ to their impressive resume with the clip for Despair.
The video sees the members of the band waking up by themselves after a big night out (complete with Karen O wearing the killer yellow suit she wore on Letterman earlier in the year) and then coming together to lift their collective despair by performing on top of the iconic building.
O described filming at the top of New York City as “being like the American dream”, telling The New York Times, “It’s definitely not just another cool day in the life of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. It was definitely an iconic moment. It’s hard to do something like that and not to feel like it’s symbolic.”
Antony E. Malkin, president of the group that operates the Empire State Building, says there was no ban on shooting music clips on the rooftop, it was just that no-one had asked before, saying, “Credit to them for having the gumption to ask.”
(via NME)
WATCH: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Despair
