Pashfest ’08, a favourite T, the invisible train pole, the lonely speaker, and the shadowy shadows .
Anika Moa “Wise Man Say”
There’s a lot of pashing in this video. It has slow-motion footage of beautiful couples snogging in a dreamy, smoky space, with tinsel, balloons and pink-gold lighting. It’s lush. In the era of music videos on broadcast television, they tended to be PG – no pashing allowed. But the snog-fest of “Wise Man Say” is a reminder of how suddenly the much less restricted YouTube became the place to watch videos.
Director: Kezia Barnett
Anna Coddington “T-Shirt”
Anna has the guitar-driven pop track “T-Shirt”. The video reassuringly avoids actually featuring a T-shirt in the clip, but the clothing theme is alluded to by the naked mannequins that feature, just waiting to be clothed in a T-shirt. It’s a simple green-screen video, but the mix of shots and colours (and the mannequins) gives it more dimension than the standard experience of a person standing in front of a screen.
Director: Ian Hart
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision
Autozamm “Closer To Home”
Here’s the curious thing about Autozamm – as their NZ On Screen bio notes, “Closer To Home” reached No.2 on the New Zealand airplay chart, and yet that didn’t result in the song making an appearance in the singles chart. Nor did the associated album. So here’s a band that seem to have got lucky with being playlisted on mainstream radio, but weren’t able to parlay that into mainstream success.
“Closer to Home” is a green screen video, with lead singer Nick moving around in CGI environments around the world. Sometimes it’s flawlessly choreographed, other times he’s grabbing onto an invisible train pole. The CGI is a little clunky at times, but the overall feel is scenes from a video game of the era.
Director: Ed Davis
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision
Brain Slaves “Weekend Story” – missing
All signs point to there not being a video for this English-accented song, but it’s in all three databases that I use, so maybe it exists in some form. Anyway, here’s the band performing the song live.
Clap Clap Riot “Don’t Want Your Baby”
“Don’t Want Your Baby” is shot in Auckland, including Fort Lane – about the only cool laneway that Auckland has. The video tells the story of a person in a fancy dress audio speaker costume. He wanders the city, trying to find a place to belong, eventually stumbling across Clap Clap Riot rocking out. This might seem at odds with the song lyrics, but there is indeed a scene where the speaker ends up in a bar, getting hassled by a guy for talking to his girl (who he doesn’t want, obvs).
Director: Luke Sharpe
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision
Clap Clap Riot “Thief”
Another Clap Clap Riot video shows up on the list. It’s rare that band has two videos funded in one round, but it has happened before. The band members are gathering in downtown Auckland, each being trailed by mysterious and troublesome black-clad figures. After causing minor chaos in the city, the band and their shadows go to an art gallery opening and play a song, with the black figures ensuring that the partygoers have a good time, whether they like it or not.
Director: Luke Sharpe