Robyn – Page 56 – 5000 Ways to Love You

Stellar “All It Takes”

takesStellar return with the first single from their second album “Magic Line”. “All It Takes” is a song about determination and sacrifice, but it feels a bit lazy, like Stellar have settled on a specific sound and all their songs are just variants of that.

The video, however, is less than lazy. Going with the themes of the lyrics, the video puts the band on a picturesque fitness assault course. Boh (who has ditched the shocking red hair of “Mix” era videos) and the band aren’t even given boots and cammo to wear, struggling through the mud in their regular rock threads and carrying their instruments.

The group struggle with the challenges, hurling themselves over planks, along wires, under barbed wire, and over a big-arse wall. There are also a lot of shots of Boh away from the assault course, doing her duties as face of the band. She also bravely sings while standing on a wire, looking only slightly nervous while she sings “I’m looking out for someone who’s not afraid of anyone.”

It’s a similar kind of humour that Joe Lonie has in his videos (especially of the “make the band suffer” variety), but Jonathan King’s cinematography gives the action a much more stylish look.

Stellar seem to do ok with the physical challenges, leaving me feeling confident that they could be called on to as a pop-star territorial army, should Six60 ever take their “Rise Up” song too seriously. But then right at the end we disappointingly find the group exhausted, huddling with blankets and a hot cuppa (and one of them is laid out flat getting oxygen).

Best bit: Boh cleverly using her mike stand to hook a rope swing.

Director: Jonathan King
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… double devilwoman devastation.

Space Dust “Some Velvet Morning”

Space Dust’s cover of the Lee and Nancy classic was on the soundtrack of “Snakeskin” bad-trip roadtrip Melanie Lynskey film. It takes the original and roughs it up a little, emphasising the psychedelic sound over the sexual (and gender) tension of the original.

The video uses a lot of clips from the film, but we also see the Christchuch-ish band playing the song in a smoky bar. The films clips are edited to match the tone of the song. It starts with scenes of the “Wheee! Roadtrip!” beginning, slowly moving to drug-fuelled weirdness and Oliver Driver’s menacing skinhead.

I think there’s too much of the film, like video is there purely to sell the movie, with the song just a footnote. That’s not right. A good movie tie-in video should work with both the song and the film.

But the big question is – does the video make me want to see the film? Well, it starts off doing a convincing job, but by the end Melanie Lynskey is alone with a gun in a dark abbatoir and it’s all looking a bit grim. (But watching a clip from the film does refresh my interest in it.)

The bar scenes with Space Dust fit in with the aesthetic of the film, but I can’t help feel that I’d rather see more of the band and less of the movie.

Bonus: Future mayor of Christchurch Bob Parker makes a cameo appearance as a dancing bar patron at 2:09. (Thanks to Philip Matthews for pointing this out!)

Best bit: Violet Space Dust’s horizontal hair.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… survival of the fittest.

Sommerset “Streets Don’t Close”

Oh, this song. Juice TV thrashed it, and loved Sommerset so much it awarded them “Special Lifetime Achievement Award for services to R.O.C.K” (whatever that signifies) at the Juice TV Awards in 2005.

Juice TV played this song so much that during my period of watching Juice too much, I started to find deep resonance in the lyrics. One empty evening in Hamilton I spied Ryan from Sommerset in Victoria Street and I told him how “Streets Don’t Close” was an awesome song, with its message of escaping a “boring town”. Well, yeah.

The video is set at the AUT gym, with Sommerset and friends playing a tense game of basketball. Ryan isn’t playing so well, with his coach yelling at him and furiously gesturing towards a play diagram.

Just when things seem to be improving on the court, along comes trouble in the form of MC OJ and Rythmn Slave (there is not a music video out there that can’t be enhanced by an Otis and Slave cameo). These tattooed badboys are there to battle the tattooed goodboys of Sommerset.

Things ramp up, and Ryan throws the ball at the goal. As the opposition pounce on him, he ball sails through the air and lands a perfect basket. Victory! I guess this means it’s MC OJ’s shout.

Despite all this action, the video feels a little bit empty. Sommerset were great live, but there’s sign of that here. And all the extras make it hard to figure out who’s in the band and who’s not. But, you know, at one point in 2002 none of that mattered to me.

Best bit: MC OJ getting so aggro towards the emo ref that Slave has to pull him off.

Next… a roadhouse pitstop.

Salmonella Dub “Push On Thru”

Hey guys, let’s do a road trip! Salmonella Dub – who by this stage had a pretty strong reputation as a sunny, summery kind of group – subvert things by setting their video in a winter wonderland.

We catch up with three of the Dub as they’re cruising along in a Saab convertible in the South Island countryside. From a main road, they’re soon cruising along a gravel road with clusters of snow around the edges, heading towards some snowy mountains.

Tiki’s singing the song as he cruises along past the icy landscape. And I can’t help think that everyone in the video looks freezing. Who drives a convertible in winter? The band are wrapped up with jackets, scarves and gloves, but there’s a real sense of “OMG, it’s freezing!”

The roads get even snowier, with the camera lingering on the whitening landscape like a kid who’s never seen snow before. Eventually the trio arrive at a skifield, where they are met with hugs by the other band members. Then they hit the snow, frollicking in the frozen whiteness.

Actually, this video is playing like an Aotearoa prequal to Wham’s “Last Christmas” video. That video starts with George Michael turning up to a ski resort (sensibly in a nice warm enclosed Land Rover) and also hugging his pals, settling in for some heterosexual ski lodge fun. I’d like to blend these together, with the scraggy Dub posse showing up at the resort to – hugs – join the Europosh Wham crew. And you know they’d all get on like a ski lodge on fire.

Best bit: the awkward hug, caused by an over-eager hugger going in before the hugee had climbed out of the car.

Directors: Nathan Puhoi, Jane Gray
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… nothing but net.

Pluto “Bananas In The Mist”

Pluto pack a lot into this video, showing a day in the life of a glam metal band. The band lives in a Monkees-like house, all sleeping in the same bedroom. They wake up looking fairly ordinary but soon transform themselves into gödz of glam.

They head off for a photoshoot, then jump on some toy scooters and go hooning around Auckland, including an arduous trek up Mount Eden. Then it’s over the Haslett Street-Waima Street overbridge (and I need to note that this is the second Pluto video that has been shot outside an old flat of mine).

They spill off their scooters, but some comedy sexy nurses come to their rescue. And then it’s off for a skinnydip, which lands them in jail. They escape, though, and are shown fleeing from the actual police headquarters in Auckland.

Their limo driver comes to the rescue, transporting them off to their gig where a crowd of screaming fans awaits. Only their fans are more interested in the limo, piling in and hooning away, leaving the glam boys alone and dejected on New North Road.

The song itself is a bit average, but the video, an antipodoean descendant of “A Hard Day’s Night”, is much more interesting, an alternate reality where Pluto are the hottest glam band in Eden Terrace.

Best bit: the expertly executed photoshoot lip-bite.

Nesian Mystik “Nesian Style”

“Nesian style is here / Ladies beware.” And with that declaration/threat, Nesian Mystik arrive on the scene, determined to change things.

New Zealand had attempted boy bands before, most successfully with Purest Form; least successfully with En Masse (and little in between), but Nesian Mystik did things differently. They wrote their own songs, they played instruments and did rapping as well as sweet harmonies. And – most importantly – they managed to create their own sound – a South Pacific pop-soul-hip-hop-R&B mash-up.

The group had come together at Western Springs College and were in the 2000 Smokefreerockquest finals along with Evermore and the guys of Die! Die! Die! And then there they were, a year later, with their first single.

The video is mostly set in downtown Auckland, in a canyon of skyscrapers and urbanity. The boys spend most of the video hanging out on top of a parking building, with cool cars and hot chicks. It might have just been a fantasy for the purposes of the music video, but they were laying down some pretty bold ground rules. These guys were ready for some next-level pop stardom.

We also see the six-piece group hanging out around a bonfire in a suburban/industrial part of Auckland. That’s a bit of a trope in New Zealand hip hop videos – the ordinary suburban Auckland street. And it’s interesting what they’re doing with the video – posing, cars, women – all standard cliches from hip hop videos. But because the song is so sweet and the group seem like really nice guys, they get away with it. I mean, who wouldn’t want to party with Nesian Mystik on top of a car park?

Best bit: the breakdancer who spins around then flops down flat.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… the importance of being glam.

Goldenhorse “Baby’s Been Bad”

“Baby’s Been Bad” is a cheerful ska number, but like the group’s previous video “Golden Dawn”, this one gets a bit weird. It’s like Goldenhorse are slightly afraid of the straight pop songs they’ve written and have to do something to warp them a little.

This time the video gets a bit sci-fi and a bit surreal. Starting with a dystopian, black and white world where Geoff Goldenhorse climbs into a giant drawer which starts to transport him somewhere. We also meet Kirsten Goldenhorse who’s in a colourful caravan in the desert, mixing up crazy potions, involving a human heart, paper dolls and pasta.

It seems Geoff is visiting the desert to put a mysterious canister down an equally mysterious metal tube. But is he going to go back to the dystopian world? No, he is drawn to the caravan atop the sand dune.

The video doesn’t quite work for me. The song feels a bit weak from all its repetition and so the video seems like an attempt to distract from that. I’d be much more impressed if Goldenhorse could just make a straight video for their pop songs.

Best bit: the most important ingredient – a house made of macaroni.

Director: Marek Sumich

Next… ladies, beware.

Anika Moa “Youthful”

So here’s Anika Moa. She’s had a lot of videos funded – at least 16, but possible more. “Youthful” was her first single of her poppy, New York-recorded debut album. Legend has it that her record company were trying to push her further down the pop route, but she went “nah” and took a step back to Aotearoa. It was a good move. “Youthful” was a hit for Anika, charting at #5 and getting the 2002 APRA award as the most performed work on New Zealand radio and television.

We meet the young Ms Moa (she was only 21) standing in the hallway of an ordinary looking house. She’s dressed very casually (denim jacket and bootled trousers) with scraggly Kim Deal-style hair and no noticeable make up. Hey, it’s Anika.

But from this ordinary scene she steps into a side room and is suddenly in a winter wonderland. It’s snowing and stands wearing an ice princess version of her streetwear casual style.

Off to the other side is an autumnal themed room, with the warm colours of deciduous leaves. And this time it’s dead leaves that are falling everywhere. A house with a tree in the middle of it seems a bit weird, until you consider that Korean restaurant on Queen Street that actually has a giant tree growing up in the middle of it.

But those seasonal rooms aren’t even the strangest. No, that belongs to the room with shelves full of mason jars with sheets of A4 flapping over each jar. With preserves being rather fashionable at the moment, it all looks like some sort of cool concept restaurant.

The song, with its themes of dominion and exploitation, has a sinister edge to it and the Paul Casserly-directed video goes with that uneasy vibe. I almost don’t want Anika to venture into the weird rooms, staying in the safety of the hallways, away from the mason jars and A4.

Best bit: the leaf that hits Anika on the side of the face.

Note: In one of C4’s Homegrown profiles from 2005, Anika talks about the making of this video. She chose the treatment out of several submitted, but felt that the lower budget of the video didn’t let it look as good as was originally intended. And people told her that she looked like Beth Heke. See more here, in part two.

Director: Paul Casserley
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… the caravan of love.

Slim “Real World”

The video begins with Aaron from Slim dressed as yuppie scum. This is signified by him wearing a suit and talking on a cellphone. Yes, kids, once upon a time only wankers in suits had cellphones.

Aaron’s an important businessman having and important business call near the entrance of the Lyttelton Tunnel (Slim were from Christchurch, so good on them for using local locations) when two heavies kidnap him.

In their secret lair, Aaron is given a few off-camera kicks and dragged through the building. His previously neatly coiffed hair has taken the form of wild spikes. That’s the first step in brainwashing – they get the hair. One of the heavies then spraypaints an “S” on his shirt, with the downward slash of his tie making it a dollar sign. Yeah, how’d you like that, yuppie boy? Now you have a dollar sign painted on your shirt.

While all this has been going on, Slim have been playing as a three-piece. They seem to be coping, with a guitarist singing his middle-eight part, but they are obviously in need of a proper lead singer as suddenly a reprogrammed Aaron bursts in and starts rocking out. Obviously having that dollar sign painted on his shirt was all he needed to successfully front a punk band.

The song is all about conformity (or lack thereof), so the question is, are Slim conforming to the cliches of a punk-pop music video, or are they subverting the genre with irony? Also, some dry-cleaning fluid will get that paint off the shirt.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… shaken and stirred.

SJD “Tree People”

The “Tree People” video takes place within an actual pop-up book. It’s a handmade work, with scenes sketched out in watercolour paint. A pair of hands pushes and pulls the levers and opens the flaps, bringing movement and depth to the story.

The video opens with a large outside a nightclub (Club Sandwich), waiting to see the sold-out SJD gig. Inside, SJD takes to the stage and the audience wave their hands in the air like they just don’t care.

The next day SJD goes for a ride in his lowrider (which I’m sure is an accurate real-life detail) and head to the beach. The beach is full of hot chicks in bikinis, who wiggle their bottoms in appreciation. I feel a bit sorry for them. There they are at the beach, but for some reason there are no guys. Then along comes beardy musician in corduroy with a drive-through mic. Well, any port in a storm.

But this life of bitches and money isn’t for SJD. He relaxes on a hillside and sweetly watches the sunset with a bunny rabbit friend. Of course.

This is a very enjoyable video to watch. A lot of effort has gone into the pop-up book, but behind it is a solid narrative, so it’s real pleasure to see all the bits working together.

Best bit: the slowed down beachside bum wiggles – the male gaze on cartridge paper.

Director: Gerald Phillips

Next… reprogramming.