Fruit Bats - Lives of Crime

MAY 24 2005 · 12:00

Fruit Bats - Lives of Crime (2005) Director: Ryan McNeill Era: Mid-2000s Indie Folk-Rock Bloom (2005) - Peak Sub Pop folk-rock resurgence; low-budget DIY aesthetic aligned with early YouTube era and indie label visual culture A rare surviving official music video from Fruit Bats' Spelled in Bones era, this video is a significant artifact of Sub Pop's mid-2000s folk-rock aesthetic and of the low-budget indie music video tradition that predated the HD digital era. Its quantitative profile, warm tones, moderate brightness, fast cuts against a gentle sonic backdrop, makes it an ideal case study in affective dissonance between editing pace and musical mood. High preservation value for researchers of 2000s indie visual culture. Context: Released in July 2005 as the opening track of Fruit Bats' second Sub Pop album Spelled in Bones, 'Lives of Crime' arrives at a pivotal moment in the mid-2000s indie folk-rock boom. Fruit Bats, led by Eric D. Johnson, were central to Sub Pop's early 2000s diversification away from grunge into softer, pastoral sounds. The video's warm, naturalistic visual language mirrors the album's 'remarkably summery' character described by AllMusic, while its fast cutting pace reflects the nascent era of online music video distribution, pre-dating YouTube's dominance. The song's gentle psychedelic folk-pop sensibility sits squarely within a broader cultural moment when artists like Iron and Wine, Fleet Foxes, and early Bon Iver were redefining American indie music. Director notes: No source directly confirms McNeill directed 'Lives of Crime' specifically. His Vimeo profile confirms he has directed music videos for The Fruit Bats as a body of work, and his documented co-direction credit on the Fruit Bats video 'You're Too Weird' (2011, alongside The General Assembly per IMVDb) establishes a working relationship with the band around this era. Attribution to this specific video remains likely but unconfirmed.