Dead Flowers “Be Someone”

The last time we saw Dead Flowers, they were flailing their hair about in the last days of hair metal. By now grunge had taken hold, so they had to up their game if they wanted to survive in the ruthless world of popular music.

The “Be Someone” video – the only video available online from this funding round – is shot in grainy, scratchy black and white, and takes place at a sinister “CHEMISTRY LABORATORY”. It looks highly influenced by the videos Nine Inch Nails were making.

The basic plot involves a bothered scientist running around the CHEMISTRY LABORATORY, while the band plays. I’m not sure why the band is playing in the lab, but this seems to greatly torment the scientist, causing him to go mad and then be particlised by a crazy science experiment.

The video keeps a consistent level of manic energy, but it could have done with a few pauses, moments to reflect. Even when the scientist pauses at a locked gate, he still has to madly scramble for his spectacles.

Best bit: the guitar-head-mounded camera capturing the scientist’s neverending torment.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next: old vids for new.

The Mutton Birds “Giant Friend”

With all the missing music videos, it’s nice to find a band whose singles are consistently on YouTube. The Mutton Birds third single is noteworthy for several reasons:

1. Throughout the song, there are guitar chord charts along the bottom of the screen so you can play along at home. It’s very satisfying to watch the chord changes correspond with the song.

2. It contains the first instance of a sexy lady in a NZ On Air music video. At one point we see a woman in a yellow swimsuit tied up bed. But because it’s the Mutton Birds, it’s all subversive and she’s kicking the bed apart.

3. Don is wearing a red military jacket with a blue sash, not unlike what Prince William wore at his wedding.

The sexy lady turns out to be the giant friend, called into action to come and keep a small boy company. They play some games, she impresses him with her ball-crushing ability (a squishy toy ball, that is), and generally keeps him company. The video ends with the boy standing alone, outside. Has Don run off with the giant friend?

Best bit: the Alan vs Don game of Paper Scissors Rock (Alan wins).

Director: Fane Flaws
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… spark it up

Maree Sheehan “Fatally Cool”

Maree Sheehan crouches in the grass in One Tree Hill and, in a low, quiet voice, she raps like Prince Be of PM Dawn in “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss”.

It’s an unusual mix. The video is full of kapahaka performers, and yet the songs is a slow jam that sounds more like a female Aotearoan LL Cool J. Later in the video, we see Maree standing outside an office building and driving across the harbour bridge, both times wearing the same clothes she’s wearing in the One Tree Hill scenes.

So here’s my theory – when we see her in the city and alone on the hill that’s real life. When we see the kapahaka dancers, that’s her fantasy; being in love is so awesome, it feels like being surrounded by a whole troupe of kapahaka performers doing their thing.

Best bit: the finest poi work in a NZ music video since the “Poi E” video.



Director: Josh Frizzell
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… Don pre-empts William’s wedding suit.

JPS Experience “Breathe”

The internets have really come to the party with this one. Not only is the “Breathe” video on YouTube, but there’s also a making-of video. Director Matt Palmer talks about the process of making the film, and admits it was made with only $5000. Not that he’s bragging – the video should stand up on its own.

The video does look cheap, but not terrible. It takes the concept of breathing “cool, cool air” by contrasting an icy cold environment with flaming fire. The coldness looks to be replicated by smoke, rather than using an actual cold environment (Excessive? A few years later another band would do just that.) There’s also a bit of fancy layering of the visuals, but at its heart it’s a really basic music video. In fact, the tightly shot live band combined with the fire visuals remind me of Push Push’s “What My Baby Likes” vid.

But I like that even in 1992 people were taking music videos quite seriously. Oh, and the making-of reminds me of the older New Zealand term for music videos: film clips.

Best bit: white feathers start flying around the band for no apparent season.

Director: Matt Palmer
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… Lady LL Cool J stylez.

Headless Chickens “Juice”

I’d forgotten what videos look like when they’ve got more than the minimum $5000 (or less!) behind them. The vid for “Juice”, Fiona McDonald’s ode to childhood, is a slick black and white job. Fiona sings on a windy shore, clad in jeans and a baggy sweatshirt (as a possible middle finger to haters who reckoned she’s only joined the Chickens as a bit of sex appeal).

This is cut with footage of young girls running around some craggy trees, , playing hopscotch, swinging on a tyre (that’s a childhood 101 signifier), as well as plenty of shots of those dark menacing trees.

That’s what makes this video work. Yeah, it’s a song about childhood but it’s a Headless Chickens song too, so it’s never straightforward. There’s the pleasant reminiscence of childhood, but that’s tempered by the knowledge that childhood will end and the darkness of adulthood will eventually swoop in.

Best bit: near the end, Fiona briefly breaks character and smiles at someone.

Directors: Grant Fell, Bruce Sheridan
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… cool, cool air.

D-Faction “First Cut is the Deepest”

D-Faction are back with a reggae-tinged cover of the PP Arnold/Cat Stevens/Rod Stewart classic. Tony T and Maryanne sing the song against a green screen with images of a family fun day at the beach superimposed behind them. Both singers are grooving as they sing, but combined with the outdoors backgrounds, looks like they’re walking but never getting anywhere.

Maryanne’s also undergone a remarkable makeunder from her funkier days in the “Babe I’m not Original” video. She now seems to be dressing in the style of a modest Christian woman, something not usually seen in pop videos.

I’m quite disappointed with this video. D-Faction have done so much better. Their previous video for “Babe I’m Not Original” wasn’t perfect, but it looked great and had plenty of charm. This one just feels like they’ve given up and couldn’t be bothered making a decent video that had anything to do with the song.

Best bit: the two naughty dogs hanging around the beachside picnic table.

Director: Jonathan King
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… the creepiness of childhood.

Upper Hutt Posse “Ragga Girl”

Girls of the world, do you love the ragga? Upper Hutt Posse like girls who like the ragga and have gone on a musical mission to inform the world of this.

The video takes part at an impromptu performance by la Posse down a graffiti-covered alley. The MC and his trio of backup singers have attracted a substantial audience of ragga-loving girls. There’s a lot dancing. The ragga girls are really digging it.

The camera work is based around a ton of crash zooms, which gives the video a hand-held, “Breaking the Waves” feel. Take that, Lars von Trier – Upper Hutt Posse did it first.

My favourite part of the song is when Teremoana sings that ragga “make me feel so irie”, except the way she sings it sounds like “make me feel so irate”.

I wish Upper Hutt was really like this. Instead of the half-tenanted mall and lunch bars with white bread sandwiches in plastic compartments, instead you could wander down a dark alleyway and come across a crowd of cheerful, smiling people, getting down to rap group, the world alive with music.

Best bit: the woman wearing a gold flat-top hat with giant black polka dots on it.

Director: Dean Hapeta
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a look back at Pat and his sister’s old group.

Dave Dobbyn “Slice of Heaven”

So, it probably goes without saying that we’re going to be seeing a fair bit of ol’ Dave Dobbyn around here – just not for a while.

But to get us in the mood, I thought I’d look back at one of his best loved songs and one with a decent enough video from the before time, pre-NZ On Air funding.

“Slice of Heaven” was the main theme song from the wildly popular animated film “Footrot Flats: The Dog’s Tale”. It’s credited to “Dave Dobbyn with Herbs”, and indeed it’s Aotearoa’s reggae legends that go above and beyond the call of duty with their “dah-dah-dah, boom-boom” part.

The video starts with a silhouetted Dave playing an unusual wind instrument. Then a couple of cool chicks in rad ankle boots start dancing around him. Well, if it’s a love song, you need an object of affections or two.

With the first good look at Dave, he’s revealed to be wearing a shirt printed with cowboys on horseback. This seems like an artistic concession to Footrot Flats’ rural theme.

Then it’s into the chorus and Dave’s changed into a conductor’s tuxedo, doing some jazz hands with his white-gloved hands. But never mind the dramatics. Herbs are here to bring some serious bottom end. They’re a solid dependable anchor for the song, the honesty that makes his ode for an awkward Kiwi male all the more believable.

More weird woodwind instruments show up (they all look different; they all make the same sound), and while all the studio action is going on, we’re also treated to a series of clips from the movie.

Let me stick this 10-inch in the computer
Let me stick this 10-inch in the computer

But just in case it all seems quite ordinary, there’s a scene near the end where Dave is shown conducting what we assume to be an orchestra, then the camera pulls back to reveal his music stand is loaded with… eight-inch floppy disks?!

I assume this is commentary on the synthesised string instruments used on the song. Did it work as a gag in 1987?

The “Slice of Heaven” video is all shot in simple black studio set, but it manages to be captivating due to the performances of both Dave Dobbyn and Herbs. And the ladies in ankle boots.

Now I get to reveal the secret reason I did this post: it’s for the kittens, y’all. The Wellington SPCA are doing a special fundraising screening of a new digitally restored version of “Footroot Flats: A Dog’s Tale”. Thrill to the Dave Dobbyn soundtrack on the giant Embassy screen! The screening is on Wednesday August 31, and $10 from every ticket goes to help the kittens, puppies and other animals of Wellington.

Straitjacket Fits “Done”

The first song off the Fits’ final studio album, the “Done” video mainly takes place in a recording studio, shot in high-contrast black and white, like a goth’s seventh form photography portfolio.

This concept could potentially we quite dull – I mean, “We Are the World” is people performing the song in a recording studio – but then something happens. Shayne’s t-shirt suddenly disappears and the stakes have been raised.

The early ’90s saw a lot of male shirtlessness in music videos, but that was generally the domain of young funk-rock groups who were inspired by the non-musical bits of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. So it’s a bit of a surprise to suddenly see the Straitjacket Fits becoming citizens of man-chest-er.

So far in the list I haven’t come across any music videos with dudes being overtly sexy, but here we go. The thing is, Mr Carter’s songwriting and the Fits’ performance is usually so sexy on its own that shirtless antics aren’t necessary. But when you combine the shirtlessless with the guitar playing… Oh, if you’re young and beautiful you might as well.

Best bit: David Wood has a smoke.



Director: Andrew Dominik
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… Dave’s 10 inch

Semi MCs “Trust Me”

Semi MCs were five high school students who could sing, dance and rap well enough to form a posse. They’re like the natural predecessors of Nesian Mystik, but with lyrics more about general themes of love and getting down and having a good time.

“Trust Me” has a new jack swing flavour, and a fairly ambitious video. The guys are hanging out at night in a colourful courtyard area. All around them people are dancing in only the freshest of streetwear.

It’s a fairly bangin’ video and I can’t help wonder why this song didn’t chart higher than 27. Maybe it was just a bit behind the times. When it was released at the end of 1992, grunge had well and truly got a stranglehold on the world of pop.

The music video begins after two and a half minutes. Also worth watching is this interview from “3.45 Live!”. Phil From The Amazing Race and Dr Hine prod the shy lads who excitedly reveal they’ll be playing at DTM (DTM!!!) with MC OJ and Rhythm Slave.

Best bit: the looks of heartbreak and disappointment on the face of a girl when the guys drive off in their fancy convertible.

Director: L Baker
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… the case of the missing shirt.