This week is all kinds of messed up since Thursday is Thanksgiving and I assume you’ll all be enjoying turkey and not reading a website on secretly-important things.  Then Friday is Black Friday and I should assume perhaps falsely that you’ll be shopping.  Thus this will be a three article week, which is probably good because given a full week I might end up writing about Occupy Wall Street two more times.

I’ll go ahead and admit that while I genuinely enjoy this weeks song, its selection was based purely on yesterdays premier of the music video, which not so coincidentally featured the illustrations by the one and only secretly-important person Stacey Rozich.

The Shrine / An Argument from Sean Pecknold on Vimeo.

I’ve been aware of Fleet Foxes for years but I wasn’t familiar with them until very recently.  They’re yet another Pacific Northwest group who channel’s Neil Young, Simon and Garfunkel, and the endless harmonizations of the Beach Boys.  I wasn’t driven to really listen to their music until my interview with Stacey when she informed me of her involvement in their upcoming video (more on the video in a bit).

The Shrine/An Argument is a great epic song, clocking in at just over eight minutes it grows and morphs to a full and well rounded story.  But it was that fact that left me to wonder just what their demographic is.  If I had to guess you might find me in the marketing manual under Fleet Foxes, a 25-45 year old hipster type who enjoys The Head and the Heart, Iron and Wine, and Little Wings, but also 1960′s folk and Jazz.

Whenever possible I like to include a link to a free download of the song of the week, or at the very least a video.  As I said before I chose the song because of the video which is really worth watching.  Stacey Rozich’s beautiful and powerful illustrations lend perfectly to this engaging, haunting, and emotional video.  For some time now I’ve questioned the need for music videos in an age where Mtv doesn’t show any.  This video proves that videos aren’t just marketing tools for record labels to promote a song they think is single worthy, when done thoughtfully, carefully, and with artistry they can be genuine works of art.

I’ve watched this video five times in the last twenty four hours and I’ll be watching it over and over in the coming days, it serves not just as a great song that will get stuck in your head, nor just a pretty video, it’s a source of endless inspiration.  A big congratulations to Fleet Foxes for a great song, Sean Pecknold for spot on direction, Britta Johnson and Sean Pecknold for such lovely animation, and especially to one of my favorite secretly-important people Stacey Rozich who’s art in motion is just as awe inspiring as on paper.

You can download the video for free here at itunes.