Betchadupa “Sleepy News”
“Sleepy News” was the first single off Betchadupa’s second album “The Alphabetchadupa”. It’s also notable as being the first appearance of Liam Finn’s beard, Che Guevara-style whisps that gave little hint of the bushy Department-of-Conversation-worker-style facial hair he was to sport in later years. Director Greg Page has fun with the old “torture the band”...
Missing videos from August 2001
Che Fu has “Random”, a tale of the importance of loyality amongst friends. All I remember about the video is the lyric about “the high street” was illustrated by setting the video on High Street in Auckland. It was nominated for Best RnB video at the 2002 Juice TV Awards. (Audio) The D-Super go for...
Tim Finn “What You’ve Done”
I’m thinking about Tim Finn’s earlier video for his song “Twinkle”. Tim seems uneasy in front of the camera, like he’s not used to the whole pop star/music video business – when clearly by that stage he was a pro. But maybe it was just the setting. Maybe what Tim Finn needs to come alive...
The D4 “Heartbreaker”
I found this video uploaded to YouTube by a Japanese fan. “It is a band of best for me,” part of the description reads, as awkwardly translated by Google. And indeed the D4 were a band of best for many Japanese, enjoying some success there. But the video for “Heartbreaker” is an Auckland production, directed...
Stellar “All It Takes”
Stellar return with the first single from their second album “Magic Line”. “All It Takes” is a song about determination and sacrifice, but it feels a bit lazy, like Stellar have settled on a specific sound and all their songs are just variants of that. The video, however, is less than lazy. Going with the...
Space Dust “Some Velvet Morning”
Space Dust’s cover of the Lee and Nancy classic was on the soundtrack of “Snakeskin” bad-trip roadtrip Melanie Lynskey film. It takes the original and roughs it up a little, emphasising the psychedelic sound over the sexual (and gender) tension of the original. The video uses a lot of clips from the film, but we...
Sommerset “Streets Don’t Close”
Oh, this song. Juice TV thrashed it, and loved Sommerset so much it awarded them “Special Lifetime Achievement Award for services to R.O.C.K” (whatever that signifies) at the Juice TV Awards in 2005. Juice TV played this song so much that during my period of watching Juice too much, I started to find deep resonance...
Salmonella Dub “Push On Thru”
Hey guys, let’s do a road trip! Salmonella Dub – who by this stage had a pretty strong reputation as a sunny, summery kind of group – subvert things by setting their video in a winter wonderland. We catch up with three of the Dub as they’re cruising along in a Saab convertible in the...
Pluto “Bananas In The Mist”
Pluto pack a lot into this video, showing a day in the life of a glam metal band. The band lives in a Monkees-like house, all sleeping in the same bedroom. They wake up looking fairly ordinary but soon transform themselves into gödz of glam. They head off for a photoshoot, then jump on some...
Nesian Mystik “Nesian Style”
“Nesian style is here / Ladies beware.” And with that declaration/threat, Nesian Mystik arrive on the scene, determined to change things. New Zealand had attempted boy bands before, most successfully with Purest Form; least successfully with En Masse (and little in between), but Nesian Mystik did things differently. They wrote their own songs, they played...
Goldenhorse “Baby’s Been Bad”
“Baby’s Been Bad” is a cheerful ska number, but like the group’s previous video “Golden Dawn”, this one gets a bit weird. It’s like Goldenhorse are slightly afraid of the straight pop songs they’ve written and have to do something to warp them a little. This time the video gets a bit sci-fi and a...
Anika Moa “Youthful”
So here’s Anika Moa. She’s had a lot of videos funded – at least 16, but possible more. “Youthful” was her first single of her poppy, New York-recorded debut album. Legend has it that her record company were trying to push her further down the pop route, but she went “nah” and took a step...
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