"Eh Hee" Video Released

By Waldo Jaquith

In one of the ballsiest moves we've seen from the DMB camp in many years, Dave Matthews today released a single and a video for "Eh Hee" via the iTunes Music Store. The video is free, while the song sells for the standard $0.99.

The song is a sneering, unmistakably Griesarian bundle of nervous energy, the video suitably bizarre -- a (presumably simulated) four a half minute single shot of Matthews sitting in a chair and having various colors of substances dumped on his head while dancers writhe around in the background. It was directed by the band's long-time lighting designer and live video director, Fenton Williams. The whole video is quirky and simple enough -- it possesses such an honesty and forthrightness -- that it looks like a performance piece that Matthews would have put on at Live Arts fifteen years ago.

The instrumentation is entirely by Dave Matthews -- vocals, drums, guitar, piano, everything. Musically, it's the biggest departure from the band's sound since Matthews' solo Some Devil and, before that, Before These Crowded Streets. Unusually, the single is not promoting an album -- it's apparently simply a song that Matthews has recorded, it's complete, and now he wishes to release it.

Creating the whole thing on his own, having Williams create the video (rather than relying on a big-name director), releasing the single unattached to an album, going in a musical direction that's bound to confuse the fan base...there's a great deal going on here. This raises questions, such as why the band has (ostensibly) spent so much time in the studio without producing an album -- last time that happened, Steve Lillywhite found himself out of a job. Why Matthews chose to create this work on his own in a time when he has been working with his band mates on the new album. And, especially, why Matthews has released "Eh Hee" as a single when he has nothing to promote with it, no larger work to sell.

All of this adds up to make "Eh Hee" one of the most exciting things that Dave Matthews (Band) has done in many years. It's difficult to tell where this is going.