January 2012 – 5000 Ways to Love You

Johnny Sagala “Main Point”

The YouTube clip of this video is taken from an episode of Wreckcognize. Introducing the clip, DLT and Sir Vere note that the video was made by Mark Tierney and Johnny Sagala, and that “Otara – O Town – has never looked so good”. And that’s true. With Mark Tierney’s stylish urban eye, suburban Otara has been transformed into a golden South Seas village. Even buying a drink from the local dairy looks really really cool.

Johnny and his posse hang out, performing the song. This is cut with lovely picturesque shots around town, particularly involving a girl in a pink dress running around, and the highly symbolic mother hanging washing on the line.

It seems almost a rule that groups from South Auckland have videos that are shot on location in South Auckland and are very strongly visually identifiable as South Auckland. Whereas bands from other parts of Auckland seem more likely to set their video nowhere in particular, a generic part of Auckland, rather than, “Wahey, Kingsland!”

But it’s these South Auckland videos that last the distance. A reminder that, despite its occasional bad reputation, it’s not a bad place to be.

Best bit: the mum hanging washing on the line.

Greg Johnson “Don’t Wait Another Day”

Finally the video clouds have come, the online content rains have fallen, the Greg Johnson drought has broken! NZ On Screen have a sparkling copy of sweet “Don’t Wait Another Day”. Greg Johnson describes this video as the most beautiful clip he’s made, giving credit to director James Holt and it being shot on 35mm film.

Boh Runga returns on backing vocals – perhaps her crunchy, grungy vocals in Stellar were a direct attempt to not sound like Greg Johnson’s backing singer.

Greg, Boh and the other members of the Johnson musical whanau are scattered in a large room, bathed in a golden light. This is also the first appearance of Greg’s hairline-obscuring beret, a hep toupee.

Enacting the lyrical story, a young woman packs her bags, leaves her lover, and drives off in a vintage car. What awaits her at the end of her drive? She seems to crouch down in a ball, perhaps wondering if her lover will listen to to his Greg Johnson CD and come after her.

After waiting so long for a Greg Johnson video, it’s nice to finally have such a visually lush one.

Best bit: the artistic fruit bowl, on which a monarch butterfly lands.

Director:James Holt
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Grace “Cool World”

You know, Grace have a very pleasing oeuvre of videos. “Cool World” is directed by Mark Tierney (otherwise of the Strawpeople) and the video captures the media moodiness of his other band.

Bookended by snippets of a bald-headed person and alarming messages like “They are stealing the time”, the video launches into the group playing to their strengths – dramatic lighting, smouldering stares, cheekbones.

This is interspersed with a troubled young woman taking out her frustrations on a punching bag. However, she also takes the time to look fabulous in giant sunglasses.

I like that Grace kept their music videos consistently stylish, suggesting that someone with an overall vision cracked the whip no matter who directed their videos.

Best bit: the model posing with old white-painted TV sets.

Director: Mark Tierney
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Garageland “Come Back”

Early Garageland always felt like a bunch of kids from the suburbs who’d emerged from their bedrooms, formed a band and knew that they’d never be the cool kids, so they just wrote great pop songs instead.

Garageland are also responsible for the greatest NZ On Air-funded music video ever, but we will come to that later.

Now it’s time for “Come Back” the first track on the “Comeback Special” EP. The gang load themselves into a van, accompanied by fake flowers, a mannequin, a hairdryer and playing cards. It’s like a holiday version of the Headless Chickens “Cruise Control” car.

There’s also studio footage of the band playing the song, complete with Debbie’s red shiny Rickenbacher. By the way, Debbie had the best hair. Once I tried to make my hair look like hers, with disastrous results.

Doing a Mutton Birds, there’s a UK version of the video. It also features a van, but has had almost all the colour and fun removed.

And that’s what I like about this video – it has fun and colour. Garageland are just mucking around with crazy props, not trying to be cool guys. And because it’s done more in a camp style than comedy style, there’s no risk of musicians trying to be funny. It’s just a fun introduction to a band that was to enjoy much success in the ’90s.

Best bit: the casual discarding of a guitar out the van window.

Directors: Carla Rotondo, Peter Bell
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a cool world.

Dam Native “The Horrified One”

Suddenly Dam Native came along and insisted that the rules be rewritten, promising “none of that stuff that sounds American or the cliche of the typical Maori rock band.” Except there was a little bit of both, but not in a bad way.

The video for “The Horrified One” (or “Horified”, as it is sometimes punfully spelt) The video travels across Auckland, showing cityscapes, railway lines, a cruise down Queen Street at night, graffiti-covered walls, and cool inner city digs. There is a bit of cherry-picking going on – going to the parts of Auckland that look cool and urban – but it is undeniably Auckland.

Teremoana shows up to sing on the chorus, and her appearance in the video firmly dates it in the mid ’90s – dressed in tough-girl streetwear, with hair is styled in multiple Bjork mini buns. And that’s the influence of a 1993 music video on one from 1995. I now expect to see a video filmed on the back of a truck.

It’s a low-budget video, but one with a strong idea behind it. Dam Native give really good performances, looking like, yeah, they often rap in the car, by the railway lines, around the house.

Best bit: the F-word hiding in some background graffiti

Directors: Rongotai Lomas, Tracey Tawhiao
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a comeback special

Superette “Killer Clown”

clonDave Mulcahy left the JPS Experience and formed Superette. “Killer Clown” was their first single and the video invites us to a party – a very sticky party.

An ordinary suburban house is hosting a grown-up version of a children’s party. There are coloured lights, balloon, streamers, glitter, jelly, cake, sweeties fancy make-up and a general sense of unease.

At the centre is a table laden with all sorts of delicious treats, most of which are smeared in and around the mouths of the eager party guests. While all this are going on, the band play the song, with Dave’s light vocals on the heavy subject of serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

Inspired by Gacy’s multitasking as a children’s clown and a serial killer, the song and this video contrast the bright, cheerful world of clown entertainment with a darker side. But instead of murder, it’s adults acting like children, smearing themselves with jelly, pashing on the floor.

This video looks like it would have been so much fun to make, but the more practical side of me wonders if by the end of the shoot, everyone would have been hot, tired and covered in sticky. Much like a real children’s party.

Best bit: the party guest cutting jelly with scissors.

Director: Stuart Page
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… rumble in the jungle.

Stellar “Ride”

Stellar didn’t break into the charts until 1998, and yet here they are in a much earlier form. Boh Runga is yet to dye her hair red (because her younger sister isn’t famous yet, so she doesn’t feel a need to physically distinguish herself), her vocals are distorted, and the band has a much harder grungier sound. Yet the Garbage influence and grunge-pop sound is still in there, really to emerge fully formed a few years later.

“Ride” is from the soundtrack of New Zealand short film “Headlong”. It seems unusual to have a music video promoting a short film when the video is a quarter of the length of the film.

The video sees Boh and the early incarnation of her band performing the song in a warehouse. Everyone in the band has long hair, and Boh especially has so much hair in her face, it’s as if she was trying to protect her identity. The band parties like it’s 1993.

It’s a confident, energetic video, and it seems to capture an energy that didn’t come through in the later more sophisticated Stellar videos.

Best bit: the mysterious green hula hoop.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… sticky jelly party fun times.

Purest Form “Lady”

Purest Form is really growing on me. “Lady” is a fairly ordinary slow jam, but – like all Purest Form videos – this video is another precious taonga.

The quartet seem to have reduced to a trio – scandalous! They start dressed as mechanics – or rather, an am-dram version of a mechanic, complete with strategically placed smears of grease. Sometimes they’re leaning over the car, other times they’re in the car, with a deliberately unconvincing green screen. I’m going to pretend this is homage to the Headless Chickens’ “Cruise Control” video.

The garage scenes are cut with black and white outtakes from their previous videos, including falling down the dunes in “A Message to My Girl”, whacking into the giant Christmas decorations in “It’s Christmas” and tomfoolery on their Rainbow’s End ad shoot. We also get to see them performing at a mall, a reminder that for a few months, Purest Form were a bit of a big deal.

For the chorus, the group are back in the matching suits. This time the suits are made from a black fabric with a silver filigree design. They are dressed like middle-aged women. They’re trying. They’re really trying to be New Zealand’s answer to Boys II Men, but there’s just so much missing.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… an early trip to the stars.

Jan Hellriegel “Geraldine”

Jan’s back with the first single off her second album. The title character undergoes a metamorphosis, and this guides the central theme of the video.

Filmed on and around the back steps of St Kevin’s Arcade in Auckland, the video starts with a waiflike Jan singing the song surrounded by instruments, her band absent. In the background, a few random K Road freaky people wander past.

A greasy looking businessman strolls by and enters one of the flats in St Kevin’s, where the Wine Bar now lives. The businessman is played by Mika, which should be a hint of things to come. In his apartment, he shaves and emerges as an extravagant Maori warrior. It’s all on.

The monochrome world has changed into a Geraldine’s lush reality. Jan vamps it up, with her hair transformed into lush Alanis Morrisette curls. The back steps of St Kev’s are alive with feathers, smoke, wigs, fire and sinister extravagance.

It perfectly matches the not-quite-right tone of the lyrics, creating a extravagant messed-up world that might not have literally existed in Auckland in 1995, but it’s nice to think it might have.

Best bit: the extravagant moment of transformation.

Director: Kerry Brown
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a strategically placed smudge of axle grease.

Dead Flowers “Same Same”

Worst gig ever. In a dive bar near a demolition derby track, Dead Flowers play to an audience who seem to actually hate them. The lead singer finds himself in an argument with two men, and children laugh at the band.

The rest of the crowd at the gig seem equally munted. They either sit around looking bored out of their minds or they engage in flamboyant arguments with each other. But then things get worse with the appearance of both a neo-Nazi fellow and a “Brown Power” gang member. And, yeah, they’re both really really angry so another fight ensues.

What sort of gig is this? What kind of small town has a) a large population of really angry people and b) only one pub where all the angry people go? And why did the Dead Flowers end up playing here?

The second half of a video moves away from Angry Town and we see the Dead Flowers performing at a proper gig, in front of a real and huge audience of fans who really enjoy their music. See, in reality, the angry pub doesn’t exist and everyone loves the Dead Flowers.

Best bit: the children laughing at the band. What are they doing in a pub, anyway?

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a glam awakening on the back stairs.