2013 – Page 21 – 5000 Ways to Love You

Greg Johnson Set “Sun Beat Down”

The more Greg Johnson videos I see, the more appreciation I have for his video oeuvre. There are are some rippers in there and “Sun Beat Down” is one of them.

Directed by Mark Tierney and Paul Casserly, it has a slick, ’90s western feel to it, probably influenced by the work of Robert Rodriguez.

Shot with a hazy orange filter, the video is set in a dusty yard between a warehouse and a railway track and a big ol’ Cadillac pulls up. So cinematic is the setting that I was even wondering if it was shot in New Zealand, but the car’s number plate and registration sticker reveal its Aotearoan origins.

Greg gets out of the car and he is a troubled man. As he swelters under the hot noon sun, he experiences flashbacks (shot in black and white) of himself getting up to no good with an attractive young woman and another man.

Back to the orange present and we discover the woman’s body in the boot of the car. Greg grabs a spade and wanders off, presumedly to bury her. So how did she die? Well, through flashback we see Greg and the woman in bed, having a good old pash. Then he’s on top of her, thrusting away and suddenly she’s dead, making him a certified dud root. (Before I saw this video I originally predicted he’d do a sex-face in the video. I didn’t realise how accurate that would be.)

It’s a stylish world full of sharp suits and big cars. There aren’t many bands that can get away with such a bold video, but the directors ensure everything in the film looks good. And it helps that Greg Johnson plays a perfect oily crim. Just don’t end up in bed with him.

Update: Director Paul Casserly tweeted some behind-the-scenes details of the shoot. The exterior was shot at “the old AFFCO works out the back of Onehunga” and the interior was shot at Hotel DeBrett (a popular video location due to its photogenic men’s toilets that feature in other videos). Paul’s nieces play the two dancing children and the playwright Linda Chanwai-Earle is the lady in the “weird devil costume”. Richard Long was the DOP.

Best bit: the little girl doing and Irish jig by the side of the train tracks. Fiddly-dee-dee, Riverdance!

Directors: Mark Tierney, Paul Casserly
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… an attempt at excitement.

Emulsifier “Get On Up”

Like Garageland’s later video for “Beelines to Heaven”, Emulsifier have been inspired by old pop TV shows like “C’mon”. But this ain’t no historically accurate costume drama. Rather, it looks like an explosion in an opshop, with clothing and hairstyles from different pop culture styles of the 1960s and 1970s. But then, being New Zealand it is actually possible that all this stuff could have been in vogue one afternoon in the early ’80s.

The video is shot in bright, rich colours with a slightly jerky style. There’s also some green screen magic where the band gyrate in front of insane psychedelic fractel backgrounds. By this stage I’m almost at the point of wanting to embrace this crazy world of “Get On Up”.

And it got me thinking – what was music television like in the 1970s? Well, some of it was really good and edgy, but other stuff was cheesy as. I’d like to send Emulsifier back in time to see what sort of televisual magic they’d could create with the team at Avalon and their smoke machines of drama.

But maybe this digi-psychedelic-opshop style suits the song. It’s a perfectly ordinary piece of early-’90s, Chili Pepper-inspired pop funk, so maybe it works to also have a video that’s trying to be something cool from another era but isn’t quite getting it. It’s not 1974. It’s 1994 and they’re a bunch of young New Zealanders wearing comedy flares and nylon party wigs.

Best bit: the old opshop granny wigs disguised as shaggy cool dos.

Director: Josh Frizzell
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… showdown at high noon.

Bilge Festival “He’s the Mummy”

The “He’s the Mummy” video begins with a shot of a man’s foot being shaved with a straight razor. In one sense it’s a classic “weird” music video shot, but on the other hand, it’s not an uncommon thing to find in a suburban bathroom. See, no one will ever admit this, but if you’re a lady and you don’t want to appear Hobbity in summer sandals, you will shave any rogue hairs off your feet.

But wait – “He’s the Mummy” is just a music video. It’s all about stylish weirdness and it does that well. The video is strongly edited to the beat of the song, with quick rhythmic cuts.

As well as the shaved foot, there are also shots of a rubber-faced man, a naked, undulating male belly, an anonymous pair of thighs, latex gloves, a typewriter and other random accoutrements of weirdness. Oh yeah, and there’s a mummy.

Even though it reminds me of secret lady grooming, “He’s the Mummy” like a video designed more to dance to rather than to shift units. It’s not unlike their earlier independently produced video for earlier song “Wildebeast A Go Go”. The higher budget means a better looking video, but the crazy DIY spirit is still there.

Best bit: the spinning newspaper, coming to stop on a headline involving a bribe and a goat.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… explosion in an opshop.

Moana and the Moahunters with Fagan “I’ll be the One”

Moana teams up with Andrew Fagan for “I’ll be the One”, a big, fast soul-infused rock number (or is that a rock-infused soul number?). Moana’s bold voice dominates the song, perhaps better suited to the genre than Fagan’s punky drawl. Nonetheless, they’re both in the video together.

It’s a high energy song and the video builds on that with an almost manic pace. Moana and Fagan are joined by an array of colourful characters. There’s a cute little girl, drag artistes, b-boys, an old lady, kapa haka perfomers, modern dancers, rock dudes, and of course the Moahunters. Everyone is happy as they dance around in front of different coloured bright background. A few people seem to be reacting to a “do something crazy” direction, but mainly it’s people dancing and having fun.

Meanwhile, Moana and Fagan are wearing black skivvies (she’s accessorised with a red hat, he with fingerless gloves) and there’s a choice chemistry between them. Moana even gets to pull Fagan on a leash, which manages to be more comedy than kinky.

The video is directed by Fagan’s missus Karyn Hay and the colour and energy reminds me of other videos she’s done – like “Hey Judith” and “Arm and a Leg”. It looks like a low budget video but the simple concept is executed well and it matches the tone of the song.

Best bit: “DISPARITY” chalked on a wall, possibly a first for a New Zealand pop song.

Director: Karyn Hay
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… amateur Egyptology.

3 The Hard Way “Many Rivers”

“Many Rivers” takes its chorus and inspiration from the Jimmy Cliff classic, “Many Rivers to Cross”. It’s full of contemporary hip hop beats with extra vocals provided by Sulata and Cherie. The video funding was granted before their massive hit debut single “Hip Hop Holiday”, so presumedly someone once thought this was the strongest song.

The video sees the three lads of 3 The Hard Way go to the beach, but it ain’t no sunny seaside moment. No, it’s the rugged west coast beach at Piha with Lion Rock towering in the background as the trio hang out on the empty beach.

Sometimes the beachside setting feels like it’s getting uncomfortably close to a literal depiction of the lyrics, but there’s still that feeling of unease that comes from such a wild beach. Here are three dudes decked out in fresh urban threads, alone in the wilderness. (Given they’re all wearing long sleeves and that the beach is deserted, I’d guess this was filmed on a chilly winter’s day.)

Sulata shows up for the chorus but she’s in Devonport with an evening cityscape of Auckland looking all sexy in the background. Things seem to be far more uplifting for her in the city, and sometimes she’s joined by the boys.

We also see the trio in their natural habitat – wandering K Road at night. It’s like a roll call of dearly departed K Road retail establishments – Deka, Rendalls, Modern Bags and there was even once a Hannahs.

But the video always comes back to the beach, finally leaving us with the trio as they wander off to metaphorically cross the many rivers.

Best bit: Deka, K Road – a good place for pick ‘n’ mix.

Director: Clinton Phillips
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… everybody have fun!

Voom “King Kong”

“King Kong” is Voom’s ode to feeling awesome and the video is also pretty awesome. It starts with the two-piece playing the song in what looks to be a fairly ordinary spare room in an ordinary house. But wait – there’s a gorilla spazzing out in the corner.

As the video progresses, the two Voom dudes are seen wearing the gorilla costume – and sometimes only the gorilla head or the gorilla pants. It’s like the costume gives them powers. We also see the full gorilla go out wading through the sticky mud of a mangrove swamp and having a roll around in the mud. As gorillas do.

Back in the house, the two gorilla-headed dudes relax with a class of sparkling wine in a hot tub. They’re joined by a sexy lady gorilla. We know this because she has pink fur and pouty lips. (And I just checked in case it was something made for the video – pink lady gorilla costumes are a real thing that actually exists).

The two kongs also do a little dance with pompoms. And it’s at this point I started to wonder if this state of feeling awesome and invincible wth the occasional burst of aggro was actually a cautionary tale about smoking the P. After all, it’s one thing for a cool music video gorilla to go frollicking in mud, but as the video’s coda demonstrates, it also means there’s a dude in a gorilla costume asking “Shall I go over there where there’s no sticks?”

Best bit: the dog, with a thought bubble saying “Voom”.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… things that make you go uh-oh.

The Relaxomatic Project “Every Day There’s Something New”

The Relaxomatic Project was a cool jazz-rock collaboration between Dan Sperber, Luke Casey (Eye TV) and Justyn Pilbrow (future Elemeno P) and “Every Day There’s Something New” is the first of their two NZOA funded videos.

The track is a cool instrumental number, and the video goes along with that vibe. The vid starts with old footage of a radio being tuned to various stations. Curious, I googled the call signs and discovered that it’s an Australian radio (WF = Westralian Farmers, QG = Queensland Government). But the radio is tuning in classic New Zealand radio, including Aunt Daisy’s cheery “Good morning, everybody!”

Then the video kicks off with old film footage that looks to be from the 1920s. And as the song repeats a sample of a woman saying “every day you die a little”, we see footage of death-defying stunts.

There’s tricks performed in, on and around aeroplanes, acrobatic flips done off a rope suspended from a hot air balloon, one guy who smashes through a flaming wall as he’s hanging from an aircraft, and a car that jumps over a building and then smashes apart upon landing.

It seems that in the early 20th century, all this new technology – aeroplanes, automobiles, motion picture – was combined to create the 1920s equivalent of Jackass, crazy stunts done to entertain. Of course, all this stuff never actually went away. It’s just that instead of watching stunts on their own, modern audiences see them contextualised in action films.

Combining the vintage tomfoolery with the chilled jazz of the Relaxomatic Project takes away a lot of the power of the stunts. If it had been accompanied by thrilling orchestral music, that would ramp things up a lot. But instead the cool beats like it more like “Heh, you guys.”

Best bit: the brief mention on the radio of a recipe for beetroot chutney.

Next… fur, mud and bubbles.

Steriogram “Soccerstar”

Punky whippersnappers Steriogram had a bit of international success in the mid ’00s, but when they showed up with “Soccerstar”, they were still a new band trying to figure out their sound.

The punk-funk song has obvious Red Hot Chili Peppers incluences, but at this stage I can’t help feel that they’ve also been influenced by Supergroove, a kind of “Oh, so that’s how nerdy whiteboys from New Zealand do it.”

Tyson Kennedy is best known as the group’s frontman, but in their early days he was squirelled away at the back while guitarist Brad Carter was on lead vocals.

The simple vid is directed by legendary music journalist and series football fan Dylan Taite and it has a dash of his eclectic charm.

Much of the video involves the band performing the song in a studio while a football match is projected on them. Singer Brad spends much of the video wearing sunglasess, which I’d guess was done to protect his eyes from the projector’s bright light. Sensible, yes, and good health and safety practice, but it results in a video where the lead singer is hidden behind bogan shades.

It’s strange seeing Steriogram in this early form. They seem like a remnant of the ’90s, not like a group that was going to go crazy with lively punk pop rap. But I suppose watching them get there is all part of the fun.

Best bit: the black and white footage of football dramas.

Director: Dylan Taite

Next… vintage tomfoolery.

Salmonella Dub “Love Your Ways”

“Love Your Ways” looks like a pretty low-budget video. It’s a fairly standard sort of video that’s cobbled together from video of the band performing in various locations. Sometimes they’re at a small club, other times they’re on stage in front of a packed arena at the Big Day Out 2000.

The video also features Tiki Taane in a dark room, with no shirt on, singing the song. And there are other shots of him hanging out, playing his guitar, (standing near my old flat on K Road) and getting a tattoo on his belly.

The footage varies in quality, some looking it was shot with a home video camera, other stuff looking pro. And the editing is a bit messy too, often a rapid-fire series of shots that doesn’t work with the music. It’s directed by Greg Riwai who made the much slicker “Broken Wings” vid for K’Lee, which shows he can work to different budgets.

But that doesn’t actually matter. “Love Your Ways” is a really strong song, and at number 11, it was Salmonella’s highest charting song. It has an uplifting, feelgood vibe so who cares if the video is a bit rough? It probably just reminds people of the happy time they had dancing to to Salmonella Dub.

Best bit: the shot that makes the Sydney metro look like Tokyo.

Director: Greg Riwai
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… shooting and scoring.

Marvey King “Rosary”

Marvey King was the former stage name of singer-songwriter Tanya Horo, but in the ’00s she was arguably better known for her ongoing role as “Miss Lucy” the know-it-all travel nerd star of a series of ads for a local travel agent.

Back in the world of Marvy, “Rosary” is a sweet acoustic pop song, and the video is exactly what you’d expect from an up-and-coming young singer being launched upon the world. We meet Marvey in bed, clad in classic striped pyjamas. She wakes up with thick eyeliner, still perfectly applied. If this were the real world and not a music video, she’d actually look like Alice Cooper after sleeping in that much eye makeup.

There seems to be someone missing from the bed as Marvey runs her hand over the satin sheets. But she’s only been sleeping with one pillow, so whoever is missing isn’t a regular in that bed.

Suddenly things get a little surreal. Marvey still in bed but appears to be naked. Her duvet is pulled back to reveal she’s wearing a glamourous red strapless gown. And, with a reference to “American Beauty”, she’s surrounded by red rose petals (but just a few).

This saucy Marvey gets the choruses, while the pyajama-clad Marvey has the verses. It comes across as a kind of duel, with Saucy Marvey making things difficult for Pyjama Marvey. The end of the video sees Pyjama Marvey demurely singing the chorus, as if she’s realised – in a “Fight Club” style twist – that she is both Pyjama Marvey and Saucy Marvey.

In a way the video is a bit more fun than the song, but as YouTube commenter Pendarves1 says, it was “a great song that never made it big. Underated.”

Best bit: the strangely erotic shot of a knife slicing through a strawberry.

Director: Tom Fowlie
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… love on tour.