Elemeno P “Fast Times In Tahoe”

2001-elemeno-p-fast-times-in-tahoeI don’t know if I can accurately describe how weird Elemeno P seemed when this video came out. Suddenly there’s this punk-pop group with a bit of a Weezer sound. The band was a couple of big hairy dudes, a really good looking frontman who did the Sprechgesang sing-speaking thing with a mix of American and New Zealand accents, and the other guy who was soon to be replaced by bassist Lani from Foamy Ed. And they had this song about having relation issues while on holiday at an American ski resort. They weren’t quite serious but they definitely weren’t a comedy band either. They were… Elemeno P. I think they invented their own genre.

“Fast Times at Tahoe” had the backing of Universal Records behind it, which means it looks a bit slicker than your average punk-pop video. The video opens with a Rolls Royce rolling through the guilded gates of the “Elemeno P Country Club”. We meet the band members dressed preppy style, strolling around the green grounds, each with an attractive young lady at their side.

The group have a round of golf, then retire to the country club lounge where the boys entertain the girls with a singsong, accompanied by an acoustic guitar and a tambourine. The girls are charmed by these talented young men, suggesting the fast times will keep going into the night.

It’s an interesting choice of style for a debut video. Listening to the music, this is clearly a band who are capable of rocking out (and that’s something that was featured in a lot of their subsequent videos), but for this one they’re doing preppie realness – about as opposite as you can get from the actual Elemeno P.

Best bit: Gibbo takes a phone call on a giant brick-style cellphone.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a maths lesson.

One thought on “Elemeno P “Fast Times In Tahoe””

  1. Personally my fave bit was always spelling ‘ELEMENOP’ on Scrabble!
    It’s worth mentioning that this was the time when musical acts overseas were carefully getting cred with an edgy first single before doing something different (Pink sounded R&B in 2000 with “There You Go” which basically got her out of being called a pop princess despite most of her songs being pure pop, Blue in 2001 with All Rise). I always thought this video meant that it wasn’t inaccessible to non-punk kids, but was witty and knowing enough to appeal to 20 somethings. And it was pretty memorable!

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