1994 – Page 5 – 5000 Ways to Love You

The Chills “Wet Blanket”

“Wet Blanket” was an album track on the Chills 1987 album “Brave Worlds”, but was rereleased as a single off the 1994 best-of album “Heavenly Pop Hits”.

The rest of the band (whoever they were at this stage) are absent from the video, but occasionally there’s a shot of a lone instrument, a reminder of the missing. It’s just Martin performing in front of a green screen, sometimes in black and white, other times with a golden red tint.

It’s a song of love, and the simple video gets the message across. Maybe it’s just the mood I’m in today, but I’m totally sold on it. If a Phillipps-esque fellow wrote this song for me, it would work.

Near the end, there’s a shot of Martin’s famous leather jacket, another reminder of the missing.

Best bit: the ’90s background textures, like an old-school webpage.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… the boys take Manhattan.

Shihad “Gimme Gimme”

gimmKeeping on with a general run of surreal themes in this funding round, Shihad go for a partially animated video with all sorts of crazy digital effects. Despite this, it’s a much simpler video – there are no goats or goth brides, just the band.

Jon’s mouth appears in strange places – usually taking the place of his bandmate’s eyes, but also replacing his own nipples. Yep, there’s shirtlessness in this video too. But mainly it’s a world of static, bubbling acetate, and Len Lye-like scratches.

But with the visuals based around just the band giving the camera smouldering looks (that is, when they have eyes to do that), the video allows the song to stand out, rather than be swamped by strong visuals. Those Shihad boys, they know how to write a good chorus.

Best bit: Nipplevision.

Director: Glenn Standring
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… shift left for Lady J.

Semi Lemon Kola “Before Heaven”

I’ll say it again – the Red Hot Chili Peppers have so much to answer for. Anthony Kiedis and pals can take full responsibility for all the shirtless, long-haired dudes in music videos.

The video starts with lead singer Tosh strolling past some shipping containers, while a sunbather, businessmen, a goat and and vaccuming housewife play their music video part.

The chorus has some black and white live footage, then Tosh finds himself on a yellow ARA bus. He leaps off and runs through the old Britomart bus terminal. It’s strange seeing the familiar older buildings of Britomart but with the giant 1950s wet dream of a car-centric bus terminal plonked in the middle.

Tosh is running because he’s being chased by a carload of silver-wigged children, who eventually catch him and get up to no good in some public toilets. I really like these videos that try to be really really weird but years later the old bus terminal is more interesting than the deliberate collection of curiosities.

Best bit: the bus window decorated with names of Mt Eden streets and suburbs.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… the singing nipples.

Tama Renata “Theme from Once Were Warriors”

So, how do you sell a song that is the theme tune for a bleak film centred around themes of poverty and violence? The video for the theme from “Once Were Warriors” avoids all the rough bits, but still leaves plenty of menace.

Tama Renata plays his carved guitar, with plenty of whammy-bar action and intricate fingering. This is cut with scenes from the film showing gangs, fierce hakas and simmering tension that’s just going to lead to you-know-what. But there are also happier scenes – Jake filling up his plate with kai, the two gang bros doing the eyebrows, and a nice pash, and the girls sharing a laugh.

So it’s a pretty standard film soundtrack video. But yet while the song and the video don’t explicitly illustrate the violent bits of the film, we all know what’s coming.

Best bit: the eyebrows.

Director: Lee Tamahori
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Pumpkinhead “Water”

Failsafe Records has a crazy account of Pumpkinhead’s rise and fall, from being “Christchurch’s premier grunge outfit” to being ruined by a junkie spending the band’s funds on smack. Failsafe also describes the “Water” video as having “cliché genre-styled efforts”, that is indeed a fair comment.

The video starts with a foetus morphing into an eye, and then we’re introduced to an old man dowsing on the Canterbury Plains. A bit of live footage follows, then the band plays its “November Rain” card with a wedding. A bride and groom look adoring at each other, but, you know, with sinister undertones.

There’s a shot of the band dressed as some sort of preachy Christians hanging out in Cathedral Square, in the light of golden afternoon sun. But looking at it now, in 2011, it takes on a sad undertone that strangely fits into the video’s theme.

Chorus time sees the band hanging out in a room kitted out in surrealistic overdrive – dead fish, an old dentist’s chair and a green screen background of falling rain. The video then turns into a mish-mash of the (un)happy married couple, the old man, the band and the flaming flames of fire and desire.

It is indeed packed full of genre cliches, but there’s nothing wrong with making a genre video.

Best bit: the Nevermind money-on-a-fishing-line tribute.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… hanging around the old bus terminal.

OMC “How Bizarre”

Guys, we did it. This song was in the August 1994 funding round, but the video wasn’t released until very late 1995, and didn’t become a bonafide massive global hit until 1996. Someone knew they had a hit on their hands.

A bit of history about the video. A first version of the video was made by directors Gideon Keith and Marcus Ringrose (who later directed the Headless Chickens’ “George” video). But their version was rejected because, among other reasons, the lighting made Pauly Fuemana look like “a raisin”.

So a reshoot was ordered, this film directed by film-maker Lee Baker who had also played the memorable guitar part on the song. So Pauly, singer Sina and a Filipino guy named Hill was stood in for Brother Pele cruised in a Chevy Impala along the gardens at Ellerslie racecourse.

Record label owner Simon Grigg notes that the video “had over 15,000 TV plays in the US between 1997 and 2000 and cost a total of $7000 to make.” And indeed it doesn’t look particularly fancy, with most of the action taking place in the lyrical Chevy or on a circus themed stage.

And Simon tweeted some more info about the making of the video.

it was a real rush job as we had rejected the first. It went to number 1 in NZ without a vid.

…and the opening sequences – the car – was copied countless times in the US. The director was offered heaps of US work

Then we left NZoA logo off accidentally and brendan rang asking if we could please add it. Happy to of course.

It’s the first video I’ve seen so far that has proper dancing girls – wearing sequinned bras and not playing any significant role in the video, other than to shake their booties. It’s a clever move – a lesser video would have had clowns in it.

Listening to the whole song for the first time in years, I suddenly realised that there’s a lot of accordion in it. This make it seem even more improbable that it would become a massive worldwide hit, and yet it did.

But at the centre of “How Bizarre” is Mr Fuemana, Mr Pauly Fuemana, looking dapper-as in a cravat. “How Bizarre” seems like a moment in time when Pauly Fuemana stood on top of the world, with unlimited possibilities in front of him. Knowing how the story ended is sad, but doesn’t stop the spirit of “How Bizarre”.

Doof it up, Pauly.

Best bit: Sina’s practical sports bra.

Note: Can things get more complicated? There are at least two versions of the music video. This version has the NZ On Air logo so I assume it was the first to be made.

And this video looks to be the second version. It’s based on the same clips at the first, but with less of the car and more of the dancing girls.

Director: Lee Baker
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… playing the November Rain card.

Eye TV “Basement Static”

Eye TV had a few changes. Their gear was stolen, forcing the band to record a more acoustic album, forging a gentler, newer sound with a new drummer.

The “Basement Static” video sees old gothy Shaun curled up in shadowy places, a man on the verge of a nervous spaz-out. The song has shades of Radiohead, but still manages to keep that slightly uneasy, slightly off sound that was Eye TV’s trademark. But when the chorus kicks in, we’re treated to glimpses of the band decked out in garish showbiz sequinned suits. Woo!

This seems to symbolise the crossroads where the band were – caught between their older gothic roots and the allure of a more poppy future. Which path were they to take?

Best bit: the old lady glitter disco fairy.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… something really amazing.

Headless Chickens “Cruise Control (Eskimos in Egypt mix)”

First, let’s watch the original “Cruise Control” video from 1991. It’s not hard to see why some Headless Chickens fans didn’t like Fiona having joined their favourite band. It’s like light vs dark, good vs evil. The sunny, cheery Fiona vs the gloomy goth Chris. But as it happened, “Cruise Control” was the gateway drug for my love of the Chooks.

A few years later it was remixed. The problematic Shona Laing sample was removed, Fiona’s vocals double-tracked, and most of Chris’ rap disappeared. It was a heavenly pop hit for the Australian market, with the video cheekily funded by NZ On Air.

The band are hanging out in a car, with a bewigged Fiona playing a forlorn passenger. The rest of the band take turns driving, as well as playing cards, reading the newspaper, talking on giant cellphones, sucking on lollipops, and displaying a Knight Rider banner.

It feels like the Chickens are mocking the trappings of success, and acknowledging that sometimes things aren’t always so happy.

Best bit: the establishing shot of Auckland, just to prove that they’re actually on the (pretend) road.

Director: Jonathan Ogilvie
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… the battle between goth and pop.

The Exponents “Like She Said”

The pre-renovation Parnell Baths, empty for winter, are the location for the Exponents. Jordan and the lads play the lament of lost love amid the stagnant fountain and the waterless waterslide.

But they are not alone! Because this is a music video, they are being watched by a mysterious woman with a dalmatian dog. She is wearing a matching dalmation-spot coat, so perhaps she’s a young Cruella de Vil (no wonder Jordan’s heart is broken).

Also lounging by the side of the pool are an elderly couple. The woman has a transistor radio, and the man seems very comfortable with his body as he dances in his shorts, his saggy old-man boobs jiggling with great vigour. The woman seems to enjoy this.

“Like She Said” is very much a music video, but it’s good to see the poolside antics happening in a recognisible Auckland landmark.

Best bit: the old couple’s tussle over the radio.

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

Next… Fiona and the boys go for a hoon.

Dave Dobbyn “Language”

Finally, Dave Dobbyn. Finally you grace us with your presence. Dave is a man of many appearances, so I feel it is important that these be logged. In “Language”, Dave wears a goatee beard, but it should be noted that in 1994, goatees were very hip. Although, like any youth fashion, that hipness did not necessarily extend to dads.

“Language” takes part in two universes. There is the colour, gloomy world of Dave Dobbyn. He lurks about in the shadows of either a junk shop or maybe the symbolic cluttered home of the tortured subject of the song. The other world is black and white, evenly lit, and with people of all sexual orientations who stare at the camera and look soulful, intense, angry or gloomy. This video must have been a boon for unemployed actors.

I don’t think this video does the song many favours. The video takes the gloomy tone of the lyrics, and ignores the much more upbeat music. And why dress Dave Dobbyn like a bogan dad?

Best bit: the hot guy with jean-clad legs akimbo.

Director: Kerry Brown
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… what happens at the pool in winter.