Joe Lonie – Page 3 – 5000 Ways to Love You

Goodshirt “Place to Be”

“Place to Be” is the third of Joe Lonie’s one-take wonder videos for Goodshirt. The concept has Goodshirt filmed walking around an old building while various amusing things happen to and around them. The video was filmed with the song sped up, so the slowed-down version gives the video a laidback feeling – much like the song. I believe the video was filmed at old St Helens Hospital on Pitt Street in Auckland, which was demolished later in the year.

So let’s take a look at the events of “Place to Be”. Murray enters, holding a bag of fresh fruit and a skateboard. Bro Rodney grabs a banana and eats it as he sings the song, which is really gross seeing his mouth full of half-chewed banana.

Rodney then wanders around the building where various interesting things happen around him. Champagne! Sledgehammers! Gumboots! Toilets! Aerobics! The aerobics ladies are a highlight of the video. Dressed in vintage ’80s Lycra, they conduct an energetic aerobics routine also of the era. Hey, this might also count as formation dancing. It’s important to note that back in 2001, ’80s retro had only just become a thing, so this scene was both hilarious and cool.

Watching the video now, I’m most intrigued by the building, especially the old fireplace in the lounge room. While the building has a cold, rickety feel to it, the presence of Goodshirt’s crazy world helps bring back some life to the old girl.

Best bit: the tray of half-time oranges, offered well before the halfway point of the video.

Director: Joe Lonie
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… it’s complicated.

Goodshirt “Blowing Dirt”

Of the four videos Joe Lonie made with Goodshirt, I’d consider “Blowing Dirt” to be the strongest. There’s a simple concept behind it, it looks good and it fits with the song. Being a Lonie video, it’s not surprisingly based around a gimmick. In this case, the video was filmed in reverse and in one take. So there’s Rodney doing a reverse lip-sync with the rest of the band un-smashing up an old car.

Two versions of the video were shot. This one has a Mazda 929 being un-wrecked, the other used a Austin 1300. The Mazda seems to be the only version online, but I figure the Austin version will be much the same – just more British and less Japanese.

So, the video starts with Rodney popping up at a wrecker yard, which gives it a slightly sinister undertone because as the world of crime drama tells us, bad things happen in wreckers.

Behind Rodney, a mechanical claw un-crushes the car, and we witness the dents and scratches and collapsed panels miraculously pop back to their original smooth shape. Once the car is back to its former shape, the rest of the band come along to un-ding the car and un-break all its windows.

So far it’s all a bit grungy, but suddenly the band change into scuba-diving gear, then a bunch of balloons floats into the boot and the lads cram themselves into car, flipper-clad feet dangling out the window. They drive off with a comedy cloud of exhaust smoke.

The “Blowing Dirt” video works because while it’s a low-budget, one-take wonder, it still manages to be both entertaining and cool, just like Goodshirt.

Best bit: the lone balloon that floats into the boot, long before his rubber brethren join him.

Director: Joe Lonie
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision (version one, version two)

Next… an act of sabotage.

Goodshirt “Green”

So here’s a curious thing. There were two videos made for Goodshirt’s song “Green” and they both appear to have had NZ On Air funding — though only one entry is listed in the database.

The first video was funded in 2000 and released in the same year. The video was directed by Florian Habicht and has the sort of quirky, arty style the director would become known for in the coming years.

The video is set at a West Coast beach, where Goodshirt can be found, buried up to their shoulders in sand. While they’re stuck with nothing to do but play their instruments, there are others at the beach who have more freedom.

Goodshirt are joined by a number of schoolgirls (including a pre-Shortland Street, pre-Power Rangers Li Ming Hu), wearing a boys’ school uniform. (This feels pretty submissive, considering how strong the “sexy schoolgirl” trope is.) The girls have hula hoops and happily hoop away while the band give an energetic performance.

Then about three years later, a second video appeared. This time it was directed by Supergroove bass player (and legendary music video director) Joe Lonie. He became especially known for the videos he made with Goodshirt — four quirky, low-budget one-take music videos that have mostly become classics.

Like a lot of Joe Lonie videos, there’s a gimmick to it – the video is shot upside down with the band dangling into an upside down bathroom.

Each of the band members take turns at the sink, each introduced by a caption with their name. As they’re all danging upside down, their faces puffy with gravity and blood, perhaps the captions are necessary to identify the members.

It’s a fun video, and we lol at Gareth trying to apply Old Spice while it dribbles up to the ceiling. But I don’t think that tone works with the song. The song has a really cool and sexy attitude. The crazy antics of the video neuter that attitude, turning it from “Hey girl” to “Yo dudez!” And really – no one wants to see someone spitting toothpaste up their nose.

Director: Florian Habicht (first video)
Director: Joe Lonie (second video)
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… I believe the children are our future.

King Kapisi “Screems from da Old Plantation”

This video feels like Samoa. The cloudy skies laden with moisture, the packed buses, cute kids, majestic waterfalls and coconuts to show you.

It’s directed by Joe Lonie and it’s easily one of the best videos he’s directed, rightly winning Best Video at the 2001 bNet Music Awards. While there are traces of the trademark Lonie gimmick style, it’s much richer and more human than his other videos.

For much of the video King Kapisi is hooning around on the back of a truck. It’s reminiscent of Lonie’s video for Eye TV where they perform the song “Dynamite” on the back of a truck while going up One Tree Hill. In that video the location didn’t really have anything to do with the song, but in “Screems” there’s a very strong connection. The song is all about Samoa, as is the location. And a historical bonus – the video shows vehicles driving on the right-hand side of the road, before Samoa’s 2009 switch to the left.

But going back a bit, the video starts with King Kapisi and his DJ doing a broadcast in a local radio station. People around the island tune in on their boomboxes – little kids showering, a man scraping out a coconut, a dude hanging outside a fale with more little kids. Everywhere the song is heard, it makes people happy. And as the NZ On Screen description notes, it’s taking the hip hop video away from its predictable inner-city setting and taking it to scenes of domestic life on a Pacific island.

The “Screems” video is also notable for featuring product placement, the first I can remember seeing in an NZOA video. The product in question is King Kapisi’s own Overstayer brand t-shirts, reclaiming the term as a badge of honour. (And King Kapisi, Teremoana Rapley and their kids still make Overstayer clothing).

There’s something very perfect about this video. Everything just comes together and it doesn’t just just look good, it feels good.

Best bit: the bus following the truck, hazard light flashing.

Director: Joe Lonie
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… aye aye, cap’n.

Tadpole “Backdoor”

There were always rumours that this song was about buttsex. Fortunately I found a definitive response, courtesy of a track-by-track commentary [which now, cruelly, is no longer online] by lead singer Renee herself who explained the lyrics of “Backdoor” thusly:

It is about our struggle thus far to make it in the New Zealand music industry, and the initial frustration of trying to get our music played on radio, TV – or anywhere really. The ‘backdoor’ part came about because we felt we were never going to be accepted by the student radio stations, we’d just have to come in through the back door somehow. And yes – for those who want to know, the metaphor of anal sex is intended. I liken our struggle to getting buggered over, and over, and over again. In a very loving and tongue in cheek way.

See, the buttsexee becomes the buttsexor. Ok, now that we have that sorted, let’s look at the video. It’s set in two places. The first is a cool industrial setting, inside some sort of factory or plant. It’s lit up with bright, flashing rock lights and Renee looks very glamorous.

The second setting is outdoors, in a grim industrial setting. It’s a grey rainy day and Renee emerges from the backdoor of a building. She’s dressed all in black and her hair is lank, looking like Carrie from Homeland on a secret mission/bad mental health day.

All around her the other members of Tadpole are dressed in white boilersuits and hardhats, rolling tyres around and tossing packages to each other. I’m trying to figure out what’s going on here. It’s a Joe Lonie video, so it seems like there should be some trick to it all. Are they actually moving backwards? Has it been slowed down? Maybe it’s just one long shot through a bleak industrial area, as a metaphor for struggling in the music industry. So that would mean the glamorous indoor scenes equal buttsex.

It’s curious. There has been a genuine attempt to feature the other band members, but they just don’t stand out as much as Renee does. This also happens with the videos for Fur Patrol and Stellar. As much as these groups are bands, they all come with charismatic lead singers who are a natural fit in front of the camera. Imagine a Shihad video that let Phil, Tom and Karl fade into the background.

Anyway, by this point in their history, Tadpole were enjoying chart success. Their backdoor entry to the music biz had worked. But the question now is, what sort of metaphor would describe the rest of their career?

Best bit: Renee’s Sporty Spice high ponytail.

Director: Joe Lonie
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Eye TV “Just The Way It Is”

Worst gig ever. Eye TV are playing at a party, but singer Sean is late and he can’t find a way to get into the party house. This leaves the rest of the band to do their best in his absence with just a bassist and singing drummer, like a pop version of Death From Above 1979. However, none of the partygoers seem particularly bothered. Perhaps they’re all desperate to be seen enjoying this two-piece band exploring new musical directions.

Meanwhile, Sean runs around the house, trying to find a window to get inside. It’s raining, with the rain artfully running down the windows, suggesting the building has poor guttering.

Sean gives up and heads over to the pool whereupon he blows up pool toys, chucking them in the water and having a splash around with a giant shark. This actually looks more fun than the party proper.

Ready to give up on the whole stupid thing, Sean finally spies someone going inside and gratefully chases after him. Finally the lead singer/guitarist is reunited with his band. But so powerful was his experience with the pool toys that he lures the partygoers outside where – OMG – pool party! It’s a low budget vid but there’s a sense of silly fun to the video.

Best bit: the dramatic rainy window action.

Director: Joe Lonie
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… prisoner number 710N4.

Missing videos from 1999

February 1999

Bailter Space “So Am I”

“So Am I” was Bailter Space’s final NZOA-funded video from the ’90s. They took a break and showed up again in 2012.

D-Faction “Take a Little Piece”

After having all their videos online, it’s sad that D-Faction’s final video, “Take a Little Piece” isn’t around. YouTube uploader slydogmania notes the group “disbanded in late 1997 before this final single was ever released”

Head Like a Hole “Hot Sexy Lusty”

Head Like A Hole have “Hot Sexy Lusty”, another single from their sex album, Are You Gonna Kiss It Or Shoot It? Guys, in googling for this video, I saw things I wish I hadn’t seen.

Mika “Angel”

Mika, last seen in Jan Hellriegel’s “Geraldine” video, has his own single “Taniwha Angel”. Here’s a live performance.

Director: Kerry Brown
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

April 1999

Brett Sawyer “When It Happens”

Brett Sawyer has the song “When It Happens”. I’m most interested to discover that he and Pearl Runga sang New Zealand’s official millennium anthem, “I’ll Meet You There”, written by sister Bic and James Hall.

Director: Jonathan King
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Delta “Slather”

Delta! “Slather”! I saw them play a few times and I happily bought the “Slather” single. It was a fun burst of pop that should at least have enjoyed one-hit wonder success. But anyway, here’s Delta performing the song at a 2010 reunion show. Nice one.

Director: Garth Maxwell
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Ma-V-Elle “Angel”

Girl group Ma-V-Elle had lost a member (but weren’t renamed V-Elle). “Angel” was the first single from their new album as a duo. Here’s a Tangata Pasifika profile of the group enjoying their early days of success.

Strong Islanders “Shining On”

Kiwihits notes that Jonah Lomu’s cousin is in “Strong Islanders”. Their song “Shining On” is ok, but their main MC has a somewhat lacklustre delivery.

Director: Joe Lonie
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

June 1999

Ardijah “Do To You”

There’s no shortage of Ardijah videos from the ’80s, but the ’90s are AWOL, including “Do To You”.

Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

Ma-V-Elle “Never Say Goodbye”

Ominous foreshadowing! “Never Say Goodbye” was Ma-V-Elle’s penultimate funded video.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Trip To The Moon “Sexual Healing”

The final NZOA-funded video for Trip to the Moon is their cover of “Sexual Healing”, a duet by Bobbylon and the ethereally voiced Rachel Weatherly. NZ Herald reviewer Russell Baillie dramatically described it as having “all the charm of a lavish STD-treatment jingle”.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

August 1999

3 The Hard Way “Front Back Side”

Well, I dunno. This song is on the list of videos that were completed, but I can’t find any sign of a 3 The Hard Way single called “Front Back Side”, or indeed any releases from this time. But there might have been some shuffling – there’s a 3 The Hard Way video for their 2004 single “Girls”. It’s set in the same sexy club world as “It’s On (Move to This”), only it’s so much cheesier.

Bike “Gaze”

Bike’s final NZOA-funded single is “Gaze”, which also appeared on the “Scarfies” soundtrack.

Brett Sawyer “Where We Wanna Be”

“Where We Wanna Be” is Brett Sawyer’s ode to his partner for sticking out a decade in Britain with him.

Fiona McDonald “Wish I Was a Man”

Fiona McDonald gets dirty and grungy with “Wish I Was A Man”.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Moizna “Summer Goodbye”

Moizna’s final NZ On Air-funded video is aptly titled “Summer Goodbye”, a sweet tale of a break-up.

Satellite Spies “Please Never Leave”

Satellite Spies apparently had a song called “Please Never Leave”, but it’s ungooglable.

TrueBliss “Freedom”

TrueBliss’s third single was a cover of the Wham song “Freedom”. I’ve found an 2001 Australian documentary about the “Popstars” phenomena that shows a short clip from “Freedom” at 8:01. It features the group dressed in red, white and blue costumes, performing on stage in front of thousands of screaming fans.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

October 1999

DNE “Be There”

DNE was a “cyber collaboration” between Aly Cook and David Horizon – their name for the now commonplace practice of online collaboration. Their old bio at Amplifier promised a fabulous web experience with “CLUBDNE interactive”, and directed viewers to NZmusic.com to watch their video for “Be There”. Sadly all is but a cyber memory now.

Greg Johnson “Beautiful Storm”

Greg Johnson gets drench in meteorological metaphors with the upbeat “Beautiful Storm”. Nga Taonga describes the video as, “Greg Johnson tours an Asian city and sings “Beautiful Storm” to camera as the surroundings move rapidly around him.”

Director: Bernadine Lim
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Ma-V-Elle “Don’t Be So Shy”

Ma-V-Elle have “Don’t Be So Shy”, described by the Kiwi Hit Disk as a “cool slice of original, soulful pop”. It’s the final Ma-V-Elle track funded by NZOA. The duo was to eventually disband, with Lavina ending up in the Australian Idol final 12 in 2006, among other achievements.

December 1999

Ardijah “Way Around You”

I’m pretty used to Ardijah videos not being online, and indeed “Way Around You” isn’t available. It’s a breezy house jam

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Breathe “Sick & Tired”

“Sick & Tired” is another track from Breathe’s second album, the one that seemed really big at the time, but has now faded into history.

Fiona McDonald “Bury Me”

Described in a review I found on a vintage website as a “edgy, emotionally charged” song, “Bury Me” is another single from Fiona McDonald.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Garageland “Good Luck”

Garageland have the blusey “Good Luck”, another track off their second album “Do What You Want”.

The D4 “Come On!”

Another early track from The D4. “Come On!” is an typical piece of energetic rock. Here’s a fan video, setting the song to clips of rally cars sliding around corners.

Director: Alex Johnson
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

The Exponents “Big World Out Your Window”

“Big World Out Your Window” was the final Exponents track funded by NZOA. It was a single off their 1999 album “Hello, Love You, Goodbye”, a half-studio, half-live collection. There’s no sign of the “Window” vid, but I do know it was filmed on Mt Eden.

Director: Andrew Moore

Instead…

Here’s a video from the world of non-NZOA funding. Director Marc Swadel made the “Crystal Chain” video for Flying Nun group The Subliminals for “300 bucks and one re-used 100 foot reel of 16mm film”. As a NZ On Screen commenter notes, 100ft of film is only two minutes, 45 seconds. The solution? “A lot of repeats, keying over footage with footage, and other lo fi tricks”. It’s a moody delight.

Director: Marc Swadel
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

Tadpole “For Me”

From memory, this song was written in the style of a suicide note. While the music is somewhat uplifting, the lyrics have dark undertones and the music video treads that line.

The video takes place in two locations – a men’s toilet and a fancy apartment. The toilets are the magnificently green-tiled toilets at Hotel DeBrett (thanks to Peter at DubDotDash for IDing these!) and they’ve previously featured in the Cicada “Future Folds” video and in Joint Force’s “Static (Part 1)” vid. But this is the first time a girl has ventured into the men’s room. The band perform the song in sped-up mode, as confused businessmen make their way through the band on their way to have an executive pee.

Meanwhile in the apartment, Renee Tadpole plays a spoiled diva. She’s just won an award and is throwing a party. Her apartment is full of people who are partying like they just don’t care. The diva receives some flowers but she just rips up the card, throws the flowers down and laughs.

In the middle of it, there’s a shot of a man sitting on a toilet, wearing sunglasses, talking on the phone. Who is he? Who is he talking to? Why is he wearing sunglasses?

But soon the party gets out of hand. There’s a tussle over the diva’s award trophy and soon she’s angrily kicking out her guests. She goes to the bathroom to take off her makeup and we discover: one man collapsed in the shower, another man luxuriating in a bubble bath, and another man passed out under a glass coffee table. The diva, blissfully unaware, lays down in her comfortable diva bed and snugly curls up with her trophy.

Whenever I see a video like this, I figure the band probably had a lot of fun making all the party scenes, but yet I think the performance footage in the toilet is a lot more effective.

Best bit: the teen-style gluttonous pizza pig-out at the posh party.

Director: Joe Lonie
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… Don meanders.

Tadpole “Blind”

I like a good debut. Tadpole burst into the world of indie pop with “Blind” and a Joe Lonie-directed video.

It has the Lonie signature – a good old gimmick. The band are playing the song in some sort of disused silo. Singer Renee starts off singing the verses in an claustrophobic tunnel, backing into the main chamber which lights up revealing the rest of the band for the chorus.

Things get a little repetitive. It’s obvious they are working in a very small space so there’s limited room for either the band or the camera to move in. The predictable path of the camera becomes a little distracting as the video goes on – into the chamber, pan right to the guitarist, down to the drummer, left to the bassist, back to the singer.

So it’s up to everyone involved to make the video come alive. Most of this work falls to singer Renee Brennan and she handles it well. I’m tickled to see she’s wearing body glitter in the video, which is like a pop culture carbon dating for 1998.

Tadpole were part of trio of successful female-fronted bands, rounded out by Stellar and Fur Patrol. Tadpole always felt like a band that on the verge of being massive but hadn’t quite got the mix right. The “Blind” video is a bit like that too. It’s a great introduction to Tadpole but it just feels like there’s some vital mojo missing from it.

Best bit: scratched on the tunnel wall, “JC 1964”.

Director: Joe Lonie
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… pre-millennium tension.

The Feelers “Pressure Man”

The Feelers have had 25 music videos funded by NZ On Air, second only to Shihad who have 28. Even though they had funding for “The Leaving” in 1995, it all starts with “Pressure Man”.

As far as debut singles go, this is a good one. The first time I saw the video, I was really impressed that this great pop-rock song had come out of New Zealand. But I’m not sure what happened, but no other Feelers song has connected with me.

I happened to see them perform at Homegrown earlier this year. They performed to a large audience of fans. People love them, sing their songs and feel really happy. So while I’m not especially into the Feelers, I appreciate that they have a role to play in mainstream New Zealand music.

The “Pressure Man” video is directed by Joe Lonie, but it doesn’t quite feel like a typical Joe Lonie video. This might be on account of it having a bigger budget than what he’d had with other bands. I figure Warner Music wanted to launch the Feelers properly.

The video is based around four locations. We discover a guy dressed in jeans, no shirt and with dyed yellow hair, like it’s 1990 and he wants to be Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He’s running from something, pounding along an empty country road.

Then we meet the Feelers in three locations. They’re running along a pipe. James Feelers is wearing silver trousers and a matching jacket. You know, round about this time, I really wanted some silver jeans. I was going to wear them with a black top and look really cool.

The band can also be found playing in some sort of boiler room. There are pipes, gaskets and flames. It’s like a cool music video checklist. This look never goes out of fashion – even Britney Spears did it last year.

And finally the Feelers also perform outside at an old factory. With a wide outdoors location, they have plenty room to stretch out with rock poses.

That’s pretty much it. The video just cuts between these four locations, showing the Feelers or the wannabe Flea. The video makes the band look cool, but it doesn’t necessarily work with the song. But then, if the purpose of this video is to get people interested in this cool new band, then it’s done that well.

Best bit: the reminder that the Feelers were young once too.

Director: Joe Lonie
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… he used to do lots of things.