5000 Ways to Love You – Page 72 – Exploring the world of NZ On Air music video funding

She’s Insane “Broken”

I’m vexed. She’s Insane seem like the kind of band I would have actually seen live in the ’90s and I probably would have enjoyed them and thought they were cool. But without having had them imprinted on me in the ’90s, they just seem a bit flat.

Again the lyrics sound like dummy lyrics that don’t actually say much. (It might be about cocaine. I’m not sure. This is New Zealand. Cocaine is for property developers.) This song sounds a lot like the Pixies, particularly “Where Is My Mind” with some sub-Santiago guitar. And this time the vocals sound more like Tanya Donnelly of Belly. It’s just a big 4AD homage. It also reminds me a bit of Bush. What a confused family tree.

The video is based around a performance filmed in a gloomily lit space, all black and green. Sometimes we see band members behind water-splattered glass. This does not appear to be an actual window getting rained on. Rather it’s a sheet of glass that is wet because it is in a music video.

The visuals are more successful when the focus is just on the band doing their thing. But there’s not a lot of that. The darkness of the video and tight camera shots mean the band is more suggested than shown.

The thing is, it’s not a bad song and the video does look pretty sophisticated at times. If things had just been tightened up all over, it would actually be really good. I guess this is what frustrates me – She’s Insane just never seem to quite get everything working.

Best bit: the wet glass, in need of a good squeegee.

Next… nothing like a bit of the old ultra-violence.

The Nomad “Where Are You”

After Salmonella Dub’s earlier excursion to the Gathering, The Nomad’s video also uses footage from the popular turn-of-the-millennium festival. Specifically it’s G2000 which saw in the new millennium, and is also known as the one where it rained and rained and rained.

The video, directed by Chris Graham, uses footage from the Nelson area festival as well as stuff shot around Wellington. The scenes are sliced into thin horizontal or vertical stripes, directing the focal point to particular scenes, whether it’s a sweeping panorama of the festival, a shirtless man standing in the mud or downtown Wellington.

Digital effects allow festivalgoers to appear in front of different backgrounds, even overlapping with Wellington. There’s a sense of real life impinging on the escapism of a vacation… and vice versa.

The scenes of Wellington contrast with the Gathering. Wellington is dry. People look more purposeful and less out of it. The breakdancing happens at a specific time at a specific place, where as at the Gathering, hey, anything goes. In Wellington, the graffiti is traditional and conservative; at the Gathering people make art by smearing mud over their bodies.

But as the main refrain of the song goes, “All you have to do is be you.” Whether sloshing around in the mud at festival or hanging out in Cuba Mall is your thing, all you have do to is do it, man.

Best bit: watching people getting muddy from the comfort and privacy of my own home.

http://vimeo.com/38701204

Director: Chris Graham
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… the windows need cleaning.

Mary “Kissing Booth”

What’s inside Mary’s kissing booth? Let’s take a look. The video is set at night at a fun fair, with all the romance and intrigue that brings.

The fairground is populated with a number of interesting people. There’s a guy in a cowboy hat, a bearded dude, a fortune teller, an older woman, a candyfloss girl – some of whom are played by members of Mary.

All these people are drawn to the kissing booth. From the outside it looks like a simple tent, but it turns out to have a Tardis-like interior. Inside it’s not just the band playing the song, but a selection of fairground attendees who’ve been drawn to the pash shack.

These people also give spoken testimonies of the kissing booth experience. The older woman gushes, “I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. It was beautiful – just beautiful.” What? It’s just a tent with some smoochy people in it. The older woman is so taken by her kissing booth experience that she goes on a fairground ride and throws up. I hope the booth has some Listerine.

“Kissing Booth” is another fun guitar pop tune from Mary and the video is a perfect match to the song. By the way, if you think this video makes kissing booths looks appealing, here’s a cautionary tale. A couple of years ago some friends of mine had a kissing booth at a party. Everyone who took part in the kissing came down with a bad cold. Be careful out there, ok?

Best bit: one of Mary flirting with herself dressed as a guy.

Director: Matt Palmer
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… mud, mud, glorious mud.

Fur Patrol “Now”

The video opens with the startling image of Julia Deans with glowing orange eyes, holding up a comedy voodoo doll. Just what is going on here?

Before any answers are given, the video flips into a parallel universe. Fur Patrol are performing in front of a large audience at Wellington Town Hall (or possibly Auckland Town Hall). It looks like it might be part of a festival rather than a headliner gig, but they’re still playing to a huge crowd who are loving it. [Commenters Lisa and Sam have figured it out. It was a Victoria University orientation gig at Wellington Town Hall in March 2000, where Shihad and HLAH-side project Baconfoot also played.]

The video is directed by Chris Graham, whose work we’ve previous seen with Upper Hutt Posse’s “Dread on a Mission” video and Te Kupu’s “Vision” vid. With “Now” he both captures Fur Patrol’s live energy and gets a bit arty with the strange world.

Yes, back to the strange world. There’s Julia lookin’ fierce, wearing a tracksuit and standing in a not-quite-natural world that seems inspired by Nirvana’s “Heart Shaped Box” video. But wait – it’s not just one Julia, it’s two, a green-screen clone to add vocal harmony. There’s also a grumpy-faced small girl with two dolls, a snake, and the other Fur Patrol members hanging out with dogs.

The band also gets to have fun with great balls of CGI, including one that looks like a Swiss ball with a CGI baby surrounded by an orange plasma glow, and two smaller balls with Julia’s eye and lips. It’s a bewildering world of crazy. Parts of the CGI feel like someone mucking around with all the cool new toys in the edit suite, but other stuff – like the two Julias – just feels normal.

This all makes the live footage seem a little dull in comparison, but there’s one moment from the town hall that stands out. Julia does a sideways kick, revealing that she’s wearing a skirt over trousers – long flared trousers with a tunic-like top hanging down. It’s like hitting the late ’90s/Wellington style bingo.

Best bit: the clever cut from Julia reaching towards the camera to a concergoer doing the same.

http://vimeo.com/38703040

Director: Chris Graham
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… pucker up.

Fiona McDonald “Let Me Dream”

Fiona McDonald’s previous music videos have all had a dark side to them, so I approached this one wondering if something twisted would happen, like Fiona suddenly stabbing her bassist with a shiv carved from a carrot. But no. It’s a sweet, romantic song and the video doesn’t have an ounce of cynicism in its heart.

The video has a simple, elegant set. Fiona wears a rose-pink sequinned gown, with perfect hair and make-up, performing in front of a green chiffon backdrop. She has a band and a backing singer, but they’re left alone in the background. It is – in the old-fashioned sense of the word – charming.

To add a bit of interestingness, split-screen is used. This adds to the feeling of old-school 1960s elegance, and I kind of expect the inspiration for this video to have come from an old album cover.

Maybe the video is too lovely. The chorus, after all, begs “let me dream”, a state of longing. Does Fiona look too happy, too loved up? Or perhaps she’s actually reached that dream state, three perfect minutes of loving bliss.

Best bit: the perfectly applied eye shadow – beat that, MAC.

Director: Jonathan King
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… double trouble.

Dark Tower “Baggy Trousers”

“Baggy Trousers” is an ode to large pantaloons, but rather than just focus on clothing, the video is styled as a parody of “The Blair Witch Project”. The groundbreaking horror film was released in New Zealand in December 1999, so it must have been very fresh in the minds of Dark Tower and director David Stubbs when it came to make their new music video.

The video starts with a title card, telling of “three baggily panted rap musicians” who went missing while on a music video shoot. We’re then treated to the “found” footage of their adventure.

The trio arrive in the “Dark Tower Mystery Machine” (hey, you might as well cram in those pop culture references) and they set off into the woods, kitted out with backpacks and baggy trousers. You know, baggy trousers aren’t really all that practical for a bush walk. The low hemlines are going to drag on the ground and get all dirty.

The group continue to explore, but there’s no sign of any strange goings-on. They’re content to revel in their baggy-trouseredness. A strange bundle of sticks is no cause for alarm. It turns out there’s a mic in the bundle, perfect for busting out some dope rhymes.

Just like in the film, the trio discover an old house in the woods. Could the Blair Witch be found inside? No? What about the Baggy Witch? No? Okay, how about peeing against a wall in a parody of the final scenes of the Blair Witch? Ah, there we go.

Best bit: the closing credits alarmingly thanking Search and Rescue and the Westpac Rescue Helicopter.

Director: David Stubbs
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… sequins, eye shadow and glamour.

Tim Finn “Twinkle”

“Twinkle” was the only single from Tim Finn’s fifth solo album, the self-released “Say It Is So”. It’s a very simple video and seems on par with other indie efforts from the era.

The video starts with a mysterious woman smoking a cigarette. This is a subtle change from smoking in music videos from the mid-’90s. In this video, it’s not the artist smoking, but rather a character. It’s used to convey unease, not coolness.

Tim plays a businessman. He comes home, flops his briefcase down on his bed, pours himself a scotch and sits in an easy chair. What happens next is very interesting. He’s sitting in his chair, looking at the camera, singing the song. And it looks like a webcam.

There’s the same blue screen light and unflattering angle. It actually looks like someone who’s settled down for a good, long Skype session with their sweetie in another town. But back in 1999, webcam technology wasn’t that advanced. The best you could manage on dial-up was ever-changing black and white stills.

So, ok, Tim isn’t Skyping or vlogging. He’s just sitting in his chair getting sloshed. He briefly gets up to make a phonecall and paces about for a bit, but the video is largely him just sitting.

But suddenly drama! Cigarette girl gets all “Hunger Games” on Tim. She pulls back a crossbow and shoots him in the back, through the chair. I’m not sure how this works out as she appears to have been shooting from outside and yet the arrow comes from inside the apartment. I don’t even think Katniss can shoot that well.

Director: Marc Swadel

Next… behind the bamboo curtain.

Strawpeople “Drive”

Bic Runga does vocal duties on this cover of the Cars’ bleakest song. It’s the highest charting Strawpeople song, reaching number 7, but yet I don’t think it’s held up as well as the original.

Perhaps it’s just down to music trends. The moody synths in the Cars’ version are right back in fashion, whereas the drum and bass styles of the Strawpeople’s version sound like an awkward trend from the late ’90s. Perhaps in another 10 years, this version will sound just fine.

The video is computer animated and its quality is a sign of how advanced CGI had become in the late ’90s. Sure, the lip-sync isn’t precise, but it’s better than the pixelly comedy worlds of earlier videos.

Bic is represented as a blue chanteuse performing in a bar with an insect band. Disappointingly, the insect DJ does not take advantage of his many legs and just uses two for his turntable work. Bic has a far off look in her eyes, as if she’s seen too much.

Hey, we’re in New York City, cruising on the Hudson River, past the Statue of Liberty (yay!) past the World Trade Centre (oh…). Combined with the bleak tone of the song, the appearance of the WTC – only two years from its end – takes on a somewhat tragic tone.

The trio also put in an appearance at Grand Central Station, with the sped-up commuters bustling behind them. There’s a sense that the gravity of the song has created a bubble around the trio, making them immune to the outside world. All that matters is this seriousness.

Best bit: the insect muso cigarette break.

http://youtu.be/sAVF77LZieU

Director: James Cunningham
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… Tim’s vlog.

Stellar “Undone”

Are any music videos ever set in boring flats? The kind with beige-walled, under-decorated rooms that are so common in real life New Zealand. Music videos always seem to take place in a world of interesting spaces, and the setting for “Undone” is one of those.

It’s a song about the importance of chilling out and the video takes a similarly relaxed feeling. Boh and the boys relax in their cool flat. It’s that minimalist style with modern furniture, strategically placed interesting things and a few touches of shabby chic, like a Pinterest board in video form.

Boh relaxes on a beanbag while listening to music and reading a magazine, she does a crossword puzzle with heir hair in a towel, she contemplates life while enjoying a cup of Nescafe, she swivels in a chair while dressed in casualwear and generally hangs out on the staircase.

The rest of the band also have some relaxing activities. They read the paper, make a phone call on a mobile phone (remember, this was the ’90s – that’s all you could do on a mobile phone), race cars on a Scalextric set, assemble a model plane, puzzle over the crossword and play a game of pinball. Actually, it sounds like the boys get to have more fun than Boh.

The video seems like a good match for the song. It’s just a nice video that lets the song do its thing without any sense of great ambition.

Best bit: the super sticky model kit dilemma.

Director: Jonathan King
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… Blue Bic in the Big Apple.

Sola Monday “Medic Kate”

Not to be confused with Sola Rosa or Solaa, Sola Monday was the stage name of Dunedin artist Ingrid Ekdahl. The video is remarkably slick and I think much of the video is taken from Stephen Downes’ 2000 Otago noir short film “The Somniloquist”.

The video is set at some sort of institution, probably a hospital for the criminally insane. It’s full of foreboding corridors and stern people in uniform. The video shows early signs of literally presenting the lyrics (“Sucking milkshake through a straw” = Sola Monday as Kate, drinking a milkshake), but this doesn’t continue. Just as well, considering the lyric “there was no clean underwear” could be asking for trouble.

Shuffling into a fancy office, Kate sits down and watches some telly, which is where the short film footage starts. It involves an old-style black and white noir thriller and a colour film styled in a similar era. There’s an electric chair, some pocket-watch hypnotism, Sophia Hawthorne and a whole lot of drama, which bleeds in with the reality of Kate.

The video ends with Kate shuffling off, leaving me most intrigued about the short film clips that have made up the video. The video still works as a teaser for the film, but I’ve googled, but sadly there’s no sign of it online.

Best bit: The elegant electric chair acting.

Director: Stephen Downes
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… a lazy afternoon.