May 2014 – 5000 Ways to Love You

Lucid 3 “AM Radio”

This song is Lucid 3’s very cool tribute to the pleasures of AM radio, but I assume they’re not including 1300 1ZH, the local Hamilton pop station of the ’80s. Because there was nothing cool or romantic about hearing a fuzzy, monophonic rendition of “The Living Years”. Ew.

The video sees the trio performing the song in a wood-panelled room in front of a small audience of hoodie-wearing dude slumped in their chairs, looking like they’d all be more at home in a Blindspott video.

There’s once latecomer to the performance. He arrives and walks over to a vintage Wave Master radio and switches it on. Soon he and his hooded brothers started nodding their heads to the beat.

And there the video seems to have reached its happy place. The song fades out, which leaves the prospect of the band playing to the audience of nodding, hooded radio heads forever. But being an AM radio station, it’s only a matter of time before an ad comes on for a local muffler repair shop.

Best bit: the shiny silver Wave Master radio.

Director: Richard Bell
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… the bad-boy aesthetic.

Katchafire “Seriously”

A lot of Katchafire’s previous videos have involved the band playing at some sort of concert, but this video goes a step further and is a recording of an actual live performance.

It all looks like a pretty standard Katchafire show, with no rockstar (reggaestar?) antics wheeled out for the camera. And it’s so good to see a real audience in a performance music video. The enthusiastic crowd dance and cheer, seemingly of their own accord.

The song takes a while to get going. In this live version, the bass doesn’t kick in until almost two minutes into the song. Before that happens, the build-up feels like one big tease of EDM proportions.

Strangely enough, throughout the performance we can hear the constant chatter of the crowd. Is this normal at a Katchafire concert? Because it seems to me if you’re talking loud enough to be heard over the music, then you’re probably not really paying all that much attention to the music.

It ends up being a fairly ordinary documentary of Katchafire playing a live show in 2004. Maybe that’s the problem. To be in the crowd, dancing along with your friends with your favourite band would be a great experience. But somehow these emotions don’t translate so well to the screen.

Best bit: the positioning of the NZ On Air logo at the end of a beam of light.

Director: Ivan Slavov

Next… tuning in.

Jordan Luck “Here They Come, There They Go”

After a long, successful run with the Exponents, Jordan Luck went solo, accompanied by his new backing band called Luck. “Here They Come, There They Go” was his only solo video to receive NZOA funding.

The video for his first single attempts to delve inside the subconsciousness of Jordan, starting with the singer asleep in bed, having a dream involving two bikini-wearing chicks who also have the head of a fish. I dunno. I just always imagined Jordan Luck’s dreams would be a bit more interesting than femme-fish erotica.

Fortunately real life proves to be more interesting. He takes a shower then sits down to enjoy a nice full English cafe breakfast, only for the sossies and to transform into chocolate fish and other oceanic delights. Oh, and the waitress has a fish head.

Much of the video takes place on a double-decker bus, full of Jordan’s band (including serial session bass player Mareea Paterson) and various freaky friends. There’s also a bit of action around Western Springs, with even yet still more fish-headed people and some punks feeding jelly worm sweets to the ducks.

The song has a fun singalong chorus and the video joins in with all the energy of that. Even when Exponents videos were being lively, there was always a seriousness to them. Jordan’s solo video just gets down and has a great time.

Best bit: the throwback to the gold commedia dell’arte mask originally seen in the Exponents “House of Love” video.

Director: Ivan Slavov

Next… down in the front row.

Goodnight Nurse “Taking Over”

The video opens with Danny Watson. Forget the distant future where Goodnight Nurse’s lead singer wins a Grammy. All that matters it that it’s 2004 and Danny Watson is in the “Taking Over” music video.

At the peak of his ponytail phase, he plays a suburban dad who’s off for a weekend away with the suburban mum. They leave their teenage daughter home alone. Will she enjoy a quiet weekend? Of course not. Her punk-arse mates in Goodnight Nurse will come over and throw a massive party.

Soon the band set up and a large number of partygoers show up at the door, including a pizza guy, nurses, a mime artist, and Martyn “Bomber” Bradbury. Yeah, pretty much everything you need for a bangin’ time.

Goodnight Nurse prove themselves capable of rocking the house, and it’s perhaps more effective to have a small living room full of people rocking to some punk-pop, rather than trying to fake it with an actual performance venue.

The music video based around a crazy house party is nothing new (Loves Ugly Children used the concept for “Sixpack”), but the trope pretty much demands some sort of payoff at the end. But disappointingly, we don’t get a return visit from Danny Watson. Instead there’s a generic morning-after shot involving one of the partygoers sneaking out. The only way that could be more boring is if we were shown the remaining party guests cleaning up.

Best bit: the awkward camera angle that makes Danny Watson’s daughter look more than a head taller than her him.

Director: Ivan Slavov
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… the Luck bus.

Goldenhorse “Run Run Run”

Goldenhorse return with the first single of their second album, Riverhead. The song is a bit rockier than the band’s previous singles, but it still has the melody and the sweet lyrics the band became known for. But the star of the song is the layers of guitars, chiming and overlapping and threatening to dominate Kirsten Morrell’s vocals, but still managing to perfectly fit together.

The video puts the emphasis on the musicianship by shooting the band using lots of close-ups. It’s a similar technique to the Kitsch video for “Eleven:Eleven”, but while the punk dudes seemed like they were hiding from the camera, “Run Run Run” draws us into the world of Goldenhorse.

The camera provides wider shots as the video progresses, showing the band bathed in red light and Kirsten in a red dress. The band are pretty sedate in their performing, providing contrast to Kirsten’s tense movement. I like this. So many bands do an over-exaggerated kind of rocking out in music videos, but sometimes it can be more effective just to play your instruments like you would when you’re actually, er, playing your instruments.

Previous Goldenhorse videos have tended to be either enjoyable weird or very commercial. This one goes in a different direction with the way it very strongly works with the sound of the song itself. The song didn’t chart, but who cares when the video is a good one.

Best bit: Geoff Maddocks’ fierce strumming.

Director: Adam Jones
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next…

Fast Crew “The Incredible”

Fast Crew return to Britomart, and this time they’re in the old Masonic House, cast as a damaged, graffiti-strewn wreck. It looks great on camera. The corridors are packed full of the Crew and their friends and building seems to heave with the energy of the song.

By the way, I need to note these epic lyrics, a back and forth between Jerome and Rebecca. There are cooldude rappers who try to make threats in their lyrics, but B-Recka just lays it down.

Jerome: And if you critics don’t go back and start to pack your luggage, I’ll be coming for your girl.
Rebecca: And I’ll be coming for your husband.
Jerome: And that’s something kind of rugged.
Rebecca: Yo, I’m on my monthly.
Jerome: Jerome and B-Recka.
Both: This shit is getting ugly.

Anyway, back to the video. The whole building seems to be on the verge of falling apart, with big holes in the walls and the ceiling. It’s quite a nice record of just how grotty Britomart got before the developers came in and started fixing and fancying the place into much posher place it is today. In fact, the video is actually hosted on the YouTube account of the Britomart company – a proud reminder of how far they’ve come?

I have a friend who explored this building in the mid-’00s. Masonic House wasn’t just a name – he came across a room used by the Freemasons for their ceremonies, all pyramids and chequerboards. Now, that would have looked amazing in a music video. But the Fast Crew probably prefer a smashed-up old corridor. Even if it was set dressed for the video, that little piece of mid-’00s Britomart at its lowest is a fine thing to capture.

Next… the tension of the close-up.

Eight “Centre of Me”

There’s never been a consistant look and feel to Eight’s previous videos. “Whale” was like a short film, “Moments Gone” was goofy, “No Way to Decide” was serious, and now “Centre of Me” goes in an arty video direction.

The video begins with a pair of red theatre curtains hanging in the woods (filmed in Christchurch), very Twin Peaks. The curtains part to reveal lead singer Bruce performing in a dark room with some of that music video wallpaper. Then that wall behind him parts and there are the rest of the band. Super indoor-outdoor flow.

Then it’s back out to the woods where the band are lined up along a path, then the band also have a posing session on a big gold-coloured couch. By now it’s starting to seem like a roll call of music video tropes.

The video ends with the band in another room and they’re going all out to rock out for the video. No one just plays their instrument. Everyone is getting in there and putting a ton of energy into their performance. But it still feels like another music video trope.

The band’s music sounds like very mature, serious rock (helped by Bruce’s deep voice), and yet it’s obvious that band are relatively young. Eight’s videos seem torn between presenting their serious maturity that comes across in their music and the more youthful vigour of the band themselves.

Best bit: the cut between the woods and the couch, where a close-up of the drummer conceals the edit.

Director: Richard Bell
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a strange Masonic ritual.

Del Rey System “Sweet Division”

“Sweet Division” is a reflection upon younger years from the perspective of someone who isn’t even all that old to begin with. Vocals are by Dallas Tamaira (aka Joe Dukie) of Fat Freddy’s Drop, and it’s the first New Zealand I’ve come across that mentions the Defender video game (though the Beastie Boys had a reference in “Body Movin'”).

The video begins with time-lapse footage of downtown Auckland, which didn’t seem like a particularly promising start, but soon the action moves to a train and it becomes obvious – we’re going into town.

From then on we’re hanging out on Queen Street one night. The song’s lyrics are lip-synced by a number of people hanging out along the road, particularly in the block between Wellesley and Victoria Streets.

With the lyrics reminiscing about youthful antics, the video manages to capture that great pastime of teens – going into town and hanging out. Too young to get into bars without trying, there’s nothing much else to do but go into the McDonald’s or Wendy’s, then wander around, sit on a planter box, have a smoke, hoping you’ll meet someone cool.

The video is also a nice time capsule of Queen Street in 2004. Some things are the same, but there are definitely a lot fewer one-hour photo places than there were a decade ago. The “Sweet Division” video captures one night in Auckland, where hanging out with your friends on Queen Street is the best place in the world.

Best bit: the inner city resident taking photos of the night light out her window.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… tales of the gold sofa.

Brooke Fraser “Arithmetic”

It’s curtain up on a stage, revealing a grand piano, a string quartet and several kilometres of fairy lights strung around the place. All this provides the setting for Brooke Fraser to perform her very sweet ballad “Arithmetic”.

It’s a very pretty, very atmospheric video that perfectly works with the tone of the song. Brooke always looks serene in the golden glow of the fairy lights. Sitting on the piano is a frame photo (her inspiration for the song, perhaps) and a glass of water, which – OMG – the number one rule is no drinks on the piano, ok?

Interestingly the string quartet members are all senior citizens. It’s a bit of a cliche having attractive young orchestral players, all long hair and sensual poise, so it really stands out that the video used a group of grandparents for the video. It gives the song’s message – a declaration of long-term love – a more serious context. It’s not just a young girl declaring she’s sooo in love with her bf. No, it’s the message of someone who sees herself growing old with the love of her life, just like the oldies down the back.

NZ On Screen notes that the video was the “winner of the (satirical) award for “Most use of fairy lights in a video clip” at the 2004 Studio 2 Awards”. And a rightly deserved award.

Best bit: the playing face of the granny on cello – she’s seen it all.

Director: Tim Groenendaal
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… Friday night in town.

Bleeders “All That Glitters”

There’s nine seconds of silence and stillness, as the camera moves through the corridor of an old warehouse, then suddenly – “Let’s burn the bridges!” and the anti-bling anthem kicks off. The Bleeders were a hardcore punk band, though they became more metal on their second album. “All that Glitters” was their explosive debut.

The band has a ton of energy as they deliver the impossibly catchy tune with its tight singalong chorus. This is captured well by Greg Page, who was like the go-to guy for videos that rocked as hard as they bands within.

The secret is that despite all the black hair and tattoos and attitude, “All that Glitters” is secretly a pop song, cleverly hiding under all the guitars and fringes. And really, no one’s going to notice when the lead singer has a Straight Edge “X” tattooed on his hand. (Remember Straight Edge? I tried being Straight Edge for a week before I inadvertently engaged in non-SXE behaviour and gave up.)

Lead singer Angelo brings energy and swagger to the video. When he sings, it’s like he’s using his whole body to get the words out. It’s the sort of video that makes the band seem like they’d be really amazing to see live – and it sounds like they were.

Best bit: the pink Chucks go en pointe.

http://youtu.be/uOmUcF0qBm4

Director: Greg Page
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… not enough fairy lights.