The Decemberists have always been a bit pedantic and full of themselves when it comes to literary allusions and historical references in Colin Meloy’s lyrics. I think they’ve gone too far this time by treating the esoterically worded “Calamity Song” (containing lines like “And the Andalusian tribes/ Seeting the lay of Nebraska alight”) to a promo that’s essentially a big ole masturbation session with a copy of David Foster Wallace’s “Infinite Jest” in hand. While it’s not exactly a reenactment of a scene from the novel, it manages to be something far more retarded.

I’ll admit that I probably carried over a sliver of my beef with Wallace’s “masterpiece” when I first watched this music video; “Infinite Jest” reads like a wackier, cheaper version of a Don DeLillo book with some footnotes thrown in for, uh, postmodern experimentation or whatever. Anyway, Wallace creates a game in those oh-so-clever pages where global nuclear warfare is simulated on tennis courts by some kids with a supercomputer. And the Decemberists, being huge fans of all things textually obscure, took it upon themselves to bring the majesty of a makeshift summer camp version of Risk to videographic life. We literally (heh) get to watch a group of youngsters in the rain choreograph a match of the game, Eschaton, while bandmembers cheer and jeer at them in their cryptic jerseys. The audience gets to see a bunch of cheesy computer graphics on the carted computer and the trails of one pathetic operator-geek with a propellerhead hat. Zany.

I guess I could read into the video and expound about how the relationship between the adult crazies and kids is a metaphor for overburdening children in youth athletics and voyeurism in general… but I think I’ll go get a sandwich instead.

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