

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are continuing to commemorate the 20th anniversary of their landmark self-titled debut with today’s premiere of the album’s first-ever official music video for “The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth,” which is co-directed by award winning filmmaker David M. Helman and Daniel Henry.
As for the music video, the clip is a “celebration for the incompatible and the base models of all things, human and machine” says Helman, represented by a local hero who is a strip mall computer repairman (played by Eric Rahill). The protagonist gets glimpses into the customers’ lives while he tries to fill his own life with beautiful moments.
While most music videos are meant to add imagery to a song, this clip flips the script and has the track act as more of a soundtrack to the visuals. The key to making this concept successful had everything to do with the creative liberty Ounsworth gave to the directors.
“Twenty years ago, I stubbornly refused many music industry tools, one of which was music videos,” says Ounsworth. “My reasoning was that the listeners should be able to create their own visual accompaniment to the songs rather than have something ostensibly pushed upon them. The result was that no official video was ever made for the first album.”
The artist adds: “I have since softened my stance on this after having considered the possibility that a music video might instead be thought of as a collaboration between artists (musician and director) who have mutual respect for one another’s work. In other words, I am happy to now let go and allow David Helman (whose work I sincerely admire) to put his and Daniel’s own interpretive stamp on ‘The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth.”