5000 Ways to Love You – Page 99 – Exploring the world of NZ On Air music video funding

Mana “Ain’t Gonna Stop”

It’s a dilemma of music videos – how to film the band performing in front of a (fake) audience when no one wants to give up their weekend pretending to go mental over the same song again and again. Add children into the mix and you’re just asking for trouble.

“This is for the choowdrun!” And with that a hoarde of kids burst into the Freemans Bay Community Hall where the band play their latest single. The song starts with some synthesizer strings, hilariously brought to life by getting a teen string quartet (minus one) to “play” the string parts.

The lead singer of Mana is wearing a drive-through mic, which means he can engage in daggy dancing while he sings. The rest of the band look swamped on the large hall stage. Perhaps this is the largest gig they’ve ever done.

It seems like the original idea of this video was to have the band play the song at a concert full of children. But in the big group shot, I can only count about 16 kids plus a few grown-ups. Obviously Mana are not the reggae Wiggles and don’t have the pulling power for that demographic.

The children can be seen dancing along with a slight self-consciousness, and the ones who end up dancing on stage seem to be doing so like a under-rehearsed school production, rather than a spontaneous get-down.

I can’t help think that this song would have been better served by a family fun day at the beach setting.

Best bit: the spotty string section.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… eating a flower.

Greg Fleming “Codeine Road”

Nurofen Plus – it’s my wife and it’s my life. I’m not sure what this song is about. It might be about homebake, or it might be about debilitating lower back pain. All I know is that only Auckland could produce a gritty life-is-tough song based around an over-the-counter analgesic.

Regardless of the dramatic lyrics, the video is still pretty interesting. It’s shot around Karangahape Road when it was still seedy and grimy, a good decade before it started to get gentrified and all the pink bits moved away.

K Road regulars can be seen hanging around, and there’s even a shot of the old McDonald’s before K Road became too cool for a McDo. Another ’90s memory – the mural by the Baptist tabernacle that was all “No one comes to the father except through me”. Cut with this footage, Greg Fleming mooches around the area, sometimes with his bros, other times on his own.

I’m trying to think – was K Road scary and dark back then? Maybe it only felt that way if you were luxuriating in a warm blanket of Panadeine.

Best bit: the wistful looking lady holding an elaborately wrapped gift.

Director: Bruce Sheridan
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… for the children.

Grace “Confessions”

This is the first single for the group based around the three Ioasa brothers, but you know what? The video is better than the song. This is for one simple reason: ~~Anthony~~ Jason Ioasa’s fabulous cheekbones. The video, directed by Jonathan King, takes full advantage of this, with dramatic lighting to emphasise his features.

But, ok, it’s not all bone structure. While the video does linger on the singer, the rest of the band can be seen working away in the background, even with wide shots that reveal more of the studio set-up of the video shoot.

It seems like a low-budget video, but one done with skill and technique so it doesn’t look low-budget. As well as the moody lighting, it’s shot in black and white with an olive tint. Pretty stylish for a first video. The Ioasa bros were obviously going to have to raise the stakes for their next.

Best bit: Jason Ioasa’s cheekbones, ok?

Director: Jonathan King
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… over-the-counter pain relief.

Crash “Red Velvet”

Crash is another mysterious band that managed to show up in the ’90s, release some songs, then vanish without really leaving much of an impact. Yet this video remains as a reminder of what once was.

“Red Velvet” – which appears to actually be an ode to a couch, or possibly a woman who is like a couch – is a poppy but slightly gothy Britpopesque song. That is, a perfectly respectable ’90s song.

The band’s frontwoman spends the verses lounging on a – wait for it – red velvet sofa, in the style of classical tableaux. In these tableaux, she’s joined by a couple of other women who look like they’d live in the Hutt and do medieval reenactments on the weekend.

When the chorus comes around, the action switches to the band. The drummer is steadily playing along, the guitarist is doing a full-on rock face, and the bassist is nervously jigging about, as if someone’s mum has said, “Come on, you’ve got to look a bit more lively than that!”

Best bit: the wind machine owns the dreamy chorus.

http://youtu.be/mVoC9IC7oKE

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… fabulous cheekbones.

Bailter Space “X”

I listened to a lot of Bailter Space in the ’90s, but I don’t remember many of their videos. “X” is a great song in that the vocals are obviously the lowest priority sound behind the guitars and drums. Yeah, Bailter Space were a guitary band; a dude band (though now they’re a cool-dad band).

The video sees the trio playing their song in an old warehouse, probably in America judging from a “police department” sign proclaiming “no guns beyond this point”. The video is filmed in black and white, with lots of scratchy, grainy layers, as if the film was retrieved from the bottom of the Hudson River, still encrusted with city sludge.

The vid also includes a remnant of the past: a cigarette. As the video begins, Alister casually lights up. This used to happen in music videos. Cigarettes were a visual shorthand for cool. Then parents got angry about the effect that cigarettes in videos would have on their children, and all the ciggies vanished. Now the only smoking you’re likely to see is a blinged-up cigar, if that.

Bailter Space, the smoking gentlemen of New York, get to hold on to that memory.

Best bit: the brief road trip, with doggy-style head out the window.

Director: David Kleiler
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… an ode to home decor.

Upper Hutt Posse “Stormy Weather”

Let’s go back to April 1991, the very first NZ On Air music video funding round. When I started 5000 Ways, I could only find two of the three videos in this found. But it turns out that four days after I posted the entry saying the “Stormy Weather” video wasn’t online, it was uploaded to YouTube by its director, Upper Hutt Posse frontman Dean Hapeta. Nice one!

“Stormy Weather” starts provocatively with footage of riot police, which I’m guessing was from the Springbok Tour protests. We discover D Word is watching this on his TV. It affects him deeply, prompting him to pick up a Sharpie and notepad and make a list of the troubles of the world.

The video is made with a green screen, with members of the Posse performing against scenes of global strife. Nuclear bombs, Bastion Point, troubles in the Middle East, the KKK, bombs over Baghdad – these are a few of my least favourite things.

But despite all this strong imagery, the song itself is laid back, with the ever-popular “Funky Drummer” drum loop and a particularly smooth chorus courtesy of Teremoana Rapley’s silky vocals. And it’s just as well. With lyrics like “I got a real strong fear, you know, that things will only get worse”, there needs to be a little sweetness.

Despite the international influences in the song, it’s a very New Zealand video and it seems a perfect choice for being one of the first three videos to receive NZ On Air funding.

Best bit: the really nice handwriting on the list of troubles

Director: Dean Hapeta
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Missing videos from 1994

There’s a Rockquest winner, some more bogan rock, a bit of hip hop, and some reggae.
Continue reading Missing videos from 1994

The Mutton Birds “In My Room”

Two Mutton Birds videos in one funding round! This is outrageous! “Heater” was released in February, the same month as this funding round, where as “In My Room” wasn’t released until a couple of months later.

“In My Room” didn’t chart as well as “Heater” (only reaching 14, compared to the number-one spot for “Heater”) and its video isn’t as much fun. In the lyrics, the protagonist of the song seems to live a similar shut-in life to that of Frank from “Heater”, though the “In My Room” guy seems to have better luck with the ladies.

It’s very performance based, with the band playing the song in a room, sometimes joined by cardboard cutouts of the themselves. The video is shot in black and white with colour tints, and it’s just a bit boring.

It seems like the video is too much about the band and not enough about the song. Yeah, they’ve set it in a room, literally, but that’s not really want the song is about. Maybe Virgin blew their budget on “Heater” and only had the $5000 left for “In My Room”.

Best bit: the window frame that, when it’s out of focus, looks like the as-yet-unbuilt Sky Tower.

Director: Leon Narbey
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… Tim’s Irish roots.

Head Like a Hole “Spanish Goat Dancer”

More high-jinks from the HLAH lads. This time they are under the influence of a goat (presumedly a Spanish goat, that is also a dancer) which is making strange things happen.

First a pack of dogs roam the streets, leading an unsuspecting cyclist to the goat. The action then turns to a suburban house where the band are subverting the kitchen with a crossdressing housewife and 1960s-style cheesy ad salesman.

Then the goat is on the street where a demonic preacher sternly preachers to a crowd gathered below. What further chaos could the goat cause? Well, he finds HLAH’s rehearsal space and gets all Batman on them – DOOF!

One thing’s to be said for HLAH – they make visually exciting videos.

Best bit: the dinosaur kitchen cleaning spray.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… adventures in a room.

Halucian “Good Morning Mrs Earth”

Winners of the 1993 smokefreerockquest, Halucian got themselves a music video directed by Stuart Page. It incorporates lots of old footage of things like nuclear explosions, floods, volcanos, hurricanes, and Galloping Gertie, the ill-fated Tacoma Narrows bridge.

The band plays in front of an old scrapheap, suggesting they live in a post-apocalyptic world with no girls, leaving them to personify the earth as “Mrs Earth”. I reckon she is a benevolent mother who looks after them as the last humans on earth, soothing her with their Faith No More-inspired anti-lullabies.

But the most exciting thing about this video is discovering that Halucian’s long-haired lead singer is young Mr Sean Clarke, who went on to front Augustino with shorter hair but no less presence or voice. Some people, they’ve just got it.

Director: Stuart Page
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… bitchin’ in the kitchen.