October 2007: Blindspott, Collapsing Cities, David Dallas, Die! Die! Die!, Goldenhorse

Blindspott’s last stand, Goldenhorse’s final ride, options for school leavers, coloured dots, and tower blocks and CCTVs.

Blindspott “Coma”

This video was filmed at Blindspott’s final gig, at the Powerstation in Auckland. It’s dramatically introduced with “RIP”, failing to predict the resurrection of Blindspott as the ghost zombie Blacklistt. It captures Blindspott doing what they do best, making their fans very happy. A DVD of the full farewell gig was released in 2009.

Collapsing Cities “Fear of Opening My Mouth”

The black and white band appear in multi-coloured circles. It’s a lot less conceptual than Collapsing Cities’ previous video, the explosive “Or So I Said Last Weekend”. There’s a nice contrast between the classic pop style of the circles and the song’s laid-back lyrics that casually discuss an existential dilemma.

Director: Tim Van Dammen
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

David Dallas “Big Time”

David Dallas goes solo with a song that’s essentially about the tertiary education options faced by a young school leaver. The video puts him in a wood-panelled room, with a small borrowing library in one corner. The camera pans across the room and Ddot is joined by school desks, chairs, computers and other educational accoutrements. There’s even time for some eight-bit computer graphics, looking fancier than anything that came out of the more technologically advanced ’90s.

Director: Special Problems

Die! Die! Die! “Sideways Here We Come”

“Sideways Here We Come” creates England with cardboard cut outs – and it’s the bleak black and white England of Smiths lyrics; the England of the Coronation Street theme song, tower blocks and clusters of CCTV cameras. The band is represented with their own cardboard likenesses, complete with really good hair (important).

Director: Ian Hart

Goldenhorse “Jump into the Sun”

This was Goldenhorse’s final funded video. All up, that’s 10 videos and they’re all online. “Jump into the Sun” is an average Goldenhorse vid. Shot in black and white, it puts the band in a white studio with various animated objects and textures surrounding them. Near the end of the video, it bursts into colour. And somehow on this video Kirsten Morrell looks super glam while the rest of the band look like three buskers who’ve stepped in to help out. Maybe that’s the signal that it was time for Goldenhorse to call it a day. The song was later used on the soundtrack of the American teen drama The Lying Game, in the scene where “Emma gets out of bed and looks through Sutton’s closet.”

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