The video begins with Aaron from Slim dressed as yuppie scum. This is signified by him wearing a suit and talking on a cellphone. Yes, kids, once upon a time only wankers in suits had cellphones.
Aaron’s an important businessman having and important business call near the entrance of the Lyttelton Tunnel (Slim were from Christchurch, so good on them for using local locations) when two heavies kidnap him.
In their secret lair, Aaron is given a few off-camera kicks and dragged through the building. His previously neatly coiffed hair has taken the form of wild spikes. That’s the first step in brainwashing – they get the hair. One of the heavies then spraypaints an “S” on his shirt, with the downward slash of his tie making it a dollar sign. Yeah, how’d you like that, yuppie boy? Now you have a dollar sign painted on your shirt.
While all this has been going on, Slim have been playing as a three-piece. They seem to be coping, with a guitarist singing his middle-eight part, but they are obviously in need of a proper lead singer as suddenly a reprogrammed Aaron bursts in and starts rocking out. Obviously having that dollar sign painted on his shirt was all he needed to successfully front a punk band.
The song is all about conformity (or lack thereof), so the question is, are Slim conforming to the cliches of a punk-pop music video, or are they subverting the genre with irony? Also, some dry-cleaning fluid will get that paint off the shirt.
Next… shaken and stirred.