The Decemberists Wander Through a Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland in ‘This Is Why We Fight’
At first the Decemberists‘ video for “This Is Why We Fight” (from their January release The King is Dead) appears to be set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where the adults have vanished and the only food comes in dented cans. But the video’s narrative doesn’t explain why it is exactly that “we fight” any better than the song’s lyrics. The children in the video devour canned tuna and traipse together through shale quarries, looking great in ragged chic complete with John Lennon glasses and dirty feathers. Slowly one realizes that the kids are playing an elaborate (and really fun) game of capture the flag in a place where the grass is still green and the only weapons employed are big-eyed stares.