August 2008: The Datsuns, The Feelers, The Lookie Loos, The Naked and Famous, The Tutts, Tiki Taane

A smashing time, a million dollar baby, the joys of skating, ribbons, a rainbow shimmer, and a Rarotonga break.

The Datsuns “Human Error”

The “Human Error” video follows a guy with anger management issues. He wakes up feeling stressed and his reaction is to grab a baseball bat and smash up everything in his way. He even smashes his toilet. I dunno. I can’t relate to it. Maybe it’s a dude thing. I mean, who’s going to clean it up?

Director: Greg Page
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

The Feelers “Beautiful Feeling”

The “Beautiful Feeling” video seems inspired by the 2005 film Million Dollar Baby. It tells the story of a boxer who has just learned she has a serious medical condition and if she continues to box it could result in “serious injury or death”. So what’s she gonna do? Box, of course. There’s no sense of motivation, no idea why she wants to put her life at risk instead of putting her feet up. But she goes into the ring, gets knocked out and (probably) dies. But this, it turns out, is only half the story.

Director: Stephen Tolfrey
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

The Lookie Loos “Shaky Laughter”

The Lookie Loos head to Mt Wellington and put themselves in the middle of Skateland’s rollerskating rink. “Shaky Laughter” is a sweet, melodious love song, with guitar work reminiscent of the Strokes.  The video follows a young guy who follows his dream girl to the skating rink. He doesn’t come across as too stalker-ish, and there’s nice enough ending.

The Naked and Famous “Birds”

“Birds” is like a post-punk take on a 1960s pop song, sweet vocals mixed with dark, driving guitar. The video is based around singers Alisa and Thom, often shot in silhouette, both with an androgynous edge. That’s cut with shots of flowers and other scenes of the band members having ribbons wound around their faces. It’s very much a standard Special Problems video for the Naked and Famous, in a genre of its own. It’s a stylish video but it doesn’t quite have the drive the song needs.

Director: Special Problems

The Tutts “Grow Up”

“Grow Up” is not an especially captivating song, and nor is the video engaging. It’s background music, the sort of thing that plays while something else happens that needs a cool soundtrack. The video mixes The Tutts with visual effects, layering the band and adding a rainbow shimmer. It looks good, the band looks good (the hair!) but the sulky subdued style means there isn’t that connection with the viewer.

Director: Reuben Pollock

Tiki Taane featuring PDigsss “Faded”

Tiki Taane grabs PDigsss and goes to Rarotonga for the chilled-out tropical experience of “Fade Away”. The song is all about letting one’s troubles fade away, so the setting of an idyllic tropical island might seem ideal, but tropical islands can have troubles. I’d be more impressed if they were letting their troubles fade away on a grey rainy day in suburban Auckland. But it’s still a fun video, with an impressively wonderful underwater shots of horses trotting along the ocean floor.

Director: Warren Green

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *