1996 – Page 4 – 5000 Ways to Love You

Thorazine Shuffle “Harry”

I used to hear this song a lot in the mid-’90s. I was never quite sure what the lyrics were about, other than some fellow called Harry. Will the video shed more light on the mysterious Harry?

So, yep, there’s Harry, driving the band somewhere in his vintage car. Cool. Harry drops them off at a vintage shop, where a shop attendant files her nails. This is what bored shop attendants did in the days before Facebook.

Harry waits outside while the band do stuff in the shop. Has Harry employed the boys as his personal stylists, getting them to pick up some fresh threads? But oh dear – the band has been spotted, causing a flock of teen girls to surround the shop. Getting a shopfront worth of extras to appear in a music video is a great achievement. This must be what it’s like for One Direction every single day.

Is this about the music industry? An Aotearoan “Frankly Mr Shankly”? Harry is still a mystery. Perhaps it’s better that way.

Best bit: the lecherous guy outside the shop who rubs his nipple with excitement. What.

Director: Steve Morrison
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… one D and some puppets.

Superette “Kiss Someone”

Their adventure involves a hunt for a tiger (played by Dave Mulcahy in body paint), a betrayal, a bit of cannibalism and some wind-up black and white camera footage.

The song itself is about betrayal, a really bad breakup. That’s all in the video, but the viewer isn’t necessarily going to get that out of it if they’re not in the mood. The video is either about the bad breakup or it’s about an expedition gone hilariously wrong. Like the songs of Superette, there’s darkness under the cheerful surface.

The YouTube uploader N0ISYLAND has lots of interesting information about the video shoot, including details of old cameras, lighting, location and “Bad Tony”.

Best bit: Dave Mulcahy’s alarmed man-tiger.

Director: Stuart Page
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… what it’s like for One Direction.

Strawpeople “Taller Than God”

Strange things are afoot at the Moturemu Motel, where Fiona McDonald plays a bored clerk at the kitschy motel. In real life it’s in Parakai, but it has a not-quite-New-Zealand feel to it.

Fiona mans the front desk, where a handsome young man checks in for the night. In other rooms we meet a elderly cellist, fellow Strawpeople person Paul Casserly conducting strange experiments, a yoga lady and a lonely seductress. This motel only attracts unusual solo travellers.

The song has a spooky quality to it, with a killer chorus. Fiona knows how to do melody. The video picks up on the spookiness, making the motel seem both comforting and uneasy.

Why has the handsome young man come to the motel? Why is he staring into a shard of broken glass? Will motel lady Fiona ever find happiness? The morning brings no answers. Everyone seems just as troubled as before. The handsome young man eats dry cereal out of a box, swigging down milk from a glass bottle.

Looking at the motel on Streetview, it appears to no longer be operating as a motel, now looking like an unremarkable block of flats. I don’t know how much of the video was set dressing, but I like to think that the Moturemu Motel used to be as crazy as what appeared in this video, complete with the troubled guests.

Best bit: continuing from the 50c coin in the “Trick with a Knife” video, this video features a big old 20c coin as part of a nervous fidget.

Director: Justin Pemberton
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a tiger hunt.

Nothing At All! “Get Some”

Nothing At All! return with more crazy-fool antics. This time around, good fortune has come their way, with Dion stumbling across a briefcase containing $20,000 cash, earlier lost from a security van. And remember, kids, this was 1996, so $20,000 was a lot of money back then.

With this newfound booty in hand, Dion does what most of us would do in a similar situation: he orders a stretch limo. Collecting his mates from their lowly jobs (newstand guy and forecourt attendant), the lads set off drinking sparkling wine and tooting party whistles.

They finish off their big day by getting a haircut at a fancy salon, and finally enjoy cigars with a cigar-smoking seriousness that only a young man can manage. This is all cut with footage of the band playing the song live with plenty of their usual energy.

Like “Busted”, this is another Andrew Moore directed video, and it’s also unashamedly set in Auckland. There are ordinary landmarks galore, and it’s strangely exotic getting a glimpse of lower Queen Street back when it was a pedestrian mall.

I kind of wish that the Nothing At All! party limo from the ’90s would drive by and pick me up.

Best bit: a cameo appearance from a vintage ’90s Fanta can.

Director: Andrew Moore

Next… check in to the Moturemu Motel.

DLT feat Che Fu “Chains”

It was 1996. Supergroove had regrouped as a serious rock band, squeezing out Che Fu. DLT had left Upper Hutt Posse and was branching out as a solo DJ and producer, and everyone hated the French because they had resumed testing nuclear weapons in the South Pacific. These three factors combined to create “Chains”, one of the greatest New Zealand songs.

The song alternates between Che Fu’s angry verses spitting at France for dropping bombs, and the clearer chorus with the memorable line “Living in the city ain’t so bad”.

The Kerry Brown-directed video captures both sides of this, with edgy urban scenes mixed with apocalyptic imagry. Scenes of Pacific-flavoured graffiti mix with skulls, gas masks and a cross made out of money. Interestingly, the Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision notes there were two videos made, with the other one directed by Gideon Keith and Grant Fell. There’s no sign of it online.

But back to the best known version and there’s a naked lady boob, which I had not previously noticed. But there it is, being all arty. It’s interesting which videos get away with nudity. I guess if you’re not being terribly sexist, no one minds.

But the star of the video is Che Fu. Wearing his ever present backpack, he is full of attitude. Sometimes seen with equally cool DLT, it’s like Che has taken everything he’s learned from his years with Supergroove and put it into the song and the video. He works the camera with such menace that it almost feels like this song could single-handedly put a stop to French nuclear testing in the South Pacific.

Best bit: the rotating hand grenade, like a macabre gameshow prize.

Director: Kerry Brown
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… stretch limo party!!!!

Garageland “Beelines to Heaven”

I like to think of 1996 as the golden age of Garageland. Every one of their videos from this era is a mix of cool and naivety, like they knew what they wanted to be, but weren’t quite sure how to get there.

“Beelines to Heaven”, which is ever so slightly reminiscent of Buddy Holly’s “Every Day“, is given a classic 1960s television pop treatment. Taking its cue from legendary New Zealand pop show “C’mon“, Garageland play their song surrounded by go-go girls in silver boots and cool beatnik youth.

But looking back at an old episode of “C’mon”, one thing is clear – the go-go dancers were there for the up-tempo numbers. A song as slow as “Beelines to Heaven” doesn’t quite work with the go-go girls shakin’ it in slow motion. What would “C’mon” do? Well, one slow song had the singer reclining in a chair, taking off his shoes. Er…

Ok, it’s the ’90s, not the ’60s. Garageland aren’t gunning for historical accuracy. The video is simple and visually interesting. It lets the sweetness of the song stand out, and thankfully doesn’t involve literal use of honey.

Best bit: the la-la-la beatnik at 1:52. He’s well in character.

Bonus: A second video for “Beelines to Heaven” was made in 1997 as part of the group’s big UK push. Using a tszuj’d up version of the song, it was directed by Gina Birch and uses a similar split-screen technique that she later used for her second Garageland video “Feel Alright”.

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

Next… the worst fizzy drink brand name ever.

Crash “Castrato”

This is the last of Crash’s funded videos and it’s a strange video to go out with. It’s shot in a continuous take, and seems to also have been shot at a faster speed and slowed down a little, which is all perfectly fine for a music video.

The trouble is, the camera operator doesn’t seem to be able to guide the camera to where the action is. Lowlights including an extreme close-up of a comedy sticker on the drum kit, and a lingering upside-down, out-of-focus shot of random band action.

The lead singer, who has a perfect music video pale face and power bob – spends most of the time lurking in the corner, either as a blurry blob, or with her face blown out by the bright lights in close up. The camera operator seems to be more comfortable shooting musical instruments, walls and floors. People are hard.

I feel like maybe I’m missing something. Maybe it’s meant to be this messy confusing world. Maybe the floor is deliberately given as much screen time as the band members. Maybe it’s all a trick to distract the viewer from thinking of the titular castrated male.

Either way, even though this is a great mid-’90s pop-rock song, the video doesn’t sell it as well as it should.

Best bit: The “Alien Detection Unit” stick. El oh el.

Director: Greg Page
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… buzzy bee indie pop a go-go!

Bic Runga “Bursting Through”

Bic is back with her second single, “Bursting Through”. The video is much more sophisticated than the previous “Drive” video. A line has been drawn and Bic is now very much on the grown-up, sexy side of it.

The video seems to be all about introducing Bic Runga to the world (or at least New Zealand). The video is all about her, as she elegantly poses in a couple of glamorous white outfits. She’s exposing about as much flesh as Britney Spears did in her later videos, but somehow Bic seems quite modest.

The video works as a 1996 introduction to Bic Runga, but how does it hold up now that Bic is a New Zealand music icon? Well, it feels a little empty. There’s Bic on a couch, with a dove, in a corner, underwater, but there’s more to this song than Bic Runga’s youthful elegant face.

Looking at this video in 2012, it feels more like the sort of thing a record company would stick up on YouTube in advance of the proper video being release. It’s perfectly all right, but just seems a bit lacking by today’s standards.

Best bit: the white dove that wouldn’t fly away, but that’s cool.

Directors: Melanie Bridge, Mark Lever
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… they’ve got a Steadicam and they’re not afraid to use it.

Snort “Poison”

Snort are an all-girl grunge rock band, ticking all the mid-’90s boxes. “Poison” is a crunchy, sneery attitude-laden song that seems to signal the arrival of a key bit of the ’90s.

The video is a lot of fun, starting with some “Prisoner: Cell Block H” style. The band is in jail and they pour a noxious black liquid over a cake, which they use to poison the evil screw (guys, that’s prison slang for warden).

The band escapes to a beach, where they attack a guy who looks like a Mexican Ray Columbus. I don’t know why he is the victim of their kicking. Perhaps they didn’t like his hat.

The video is at its best when it dispenses with plot and we just see the band rocking out in an old garage. The lead singer looks proper ’90s cool with her dyed red hair and nose ring.

The prison escape plot slowly fades away, leaving us with the band rocking out, surrounded by various rogues stuffing their faces with the poisoned cake. It’s a much stonger ending, and I reckon the video would have worked better if it had focused on the performance.

Best bit: the prison guard’s finger-licking icing appreciation.

Director: John Chrisstoffels
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… the elegance of the wide-legged trouser.

Martin Phillipps and the Chills “Dreams Are Free”

The Chills return with a cheerful two-minute punk-pop love song. Only because it’s the world of Martin Phillipps, it’s a song of forbidden love. Nonetheless, the rollicking organ and crunchy guitar make it a feelgood pop tune that’s begging to be danced to.

The video sees the Chills dressed in white, performing the song in a dirty white room. It cleverly reflects the lyrics – not-quite-pure-white meets not-quite-pure-love.

But just in case things got too close to the world of commercial pop, there’s a bit of weirdness thrown in for good measure. Martin Phillipps is shown with his face covered in some sort of white goop, looking like a cross between The Moon from “The Mighty Boosh” and some sort of Leigh Bowery performance art. It almost seems like a deliberate act of sabotage, as if making a more sunny video could risk the single becoming – gasp – popular.

Best bit: What looks like a hopscotch grid on the ground.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… those girls are poison.