NZ On Screen – Page 15 – 5000 Ways to Love You

Bike “Welcome to my World”

Bike finally cheer up and have a bit of fun in one of their music videos. “Welcome to my World” is based around a Kiwi caravan holiday, set some time in the late 1970s.

There’s Dad, played by Ian Hughes, wearing walk socks, Stubbies and a towelling hat for period authenticity. He’s joined by Mum and their son, and with a caravan in tow they head off to a seaside motorcamp.

But it turns out there are three stowaways on board. We discover Bike inside the caravan, playing the song as they’re tossed about with Dad’s distracted driving. A policeman notices and pulls the car over, where we discover – gasp – the cop is played by Shayne Carter!

Jonathan King has directed other videos for Bike, and his treatment for this video works well. It manages to add humour to the video, cleverly letting the band be the straight men in a world of comedic chaos.

The happy campers eventually arrive at Sunnyglade Camping Ground but – uh oh – there’s a gas leak in the caravan. Oh guys, always disconnect the gas bottle when in transit. And always check your caravan for stowaway indie bands, especially ones who like to smoke. Kaboom!

Best bit: Dad’s messy attempt at eating his ice cream. Hey, we’ve all been there.

Director: Jonathan King
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… the Flowers hit London town.

Bic Runga “Suddenly Strange”

We meet Bic Runga in an empty white room. She’s just hanging out, playing her guitar, singing a song. It’s all very ordinary, but suddenly the camera zooms out and – whoa – Bic’s white room is an open-sided cube inside a supermarket. That’s, like, suddenly strange.

But the supermarket isn’t the only location we’ll find Bic’s cube. Again the camera zooms out and suddenly the brand new Sky Tower is visible through a window. The cube is now in the location now known as the Wynyard Quarter, plonked in front of the tank farm.

It’s all a bit Doctor Who. Maybe the cube is Bic’s TARDIS, but rather than fighting aliens, instead she travels around Auckland, singing songs. Where’s a sonic screwdriver when you need one?

The cube also appears in a cathedral and on a beach. There’s something about the supermarket location as stacks of jars keep appearing next to the cube in other locations. It reminds me of the scenes in “Exitenz” where the real world bleeds into the virtual worlds.

But despite all the scifi vibes, it’s essentially a sweet Bic Runga video for another single off her seven-times Platinum debut album.

Best bit: the old couple pashing.

Director: Wayne Conway
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… we’re all going on a summer holiday.

Supergroove “If I Had My Way”

Supergroove had creative differences. The lively pop-rock-funk group of teens had turned into a rock band of serious young men, average age 22. The band was downsized (sending Che Fu out into the world on his own, where he did just fine) and adopted a new sound, less funk and more rock.

At the time, I came across a Supergroove fan site, kept by an enthusiastic Australian fan who was really excited about their new album. But her excitement turned to disappointment when the album was released. Who were these miserable bastards and what had they done with Supergroove?

“If I Had My Way” was the first single of “Backspacer”, a showcase of the band’s new sound. The song has some really fine moments (the opening hook is sweet), but its weaknesses are apparent. Karl’s singing voice isn’t strong enough to carry the song, the group’s vocal harmonies sound like a new trick they want to show off, and the song is about a minute too long. But what about the video?

Directed by bass player Joe Lonie, the video is based around a faux TV show. Clad in their trademark black, the ‘Groove assemble infomercial exercise machines and then ride them in crazy sped-up footage, while the lyrics repeatedly ask “Who would you kill?”

The band also leave the confines of the studio and play in a pigsty (with real pigs and real mud), an ice skating rink (while ice hockey players hoon around them) and the dramatic finale – playing on a desolate beach with a flaming piano as the tide comes in.

There doesn’t seem to be any logic behind these locations, other than they look interesting. It almost feels like the band didn’t have enough confidence in their new sound and so were trying to distract viewers with a crazy music video.

This video won Best Video at the 1997 New Zealand Music Awards, beating the videos for Shihad’s “La La Land” and Dam Native’s “Behold My Kool Style”. It was the third win in a row for Joe Lonie, and the second for Siggi Spath, but I’d say those other two videos are more beloved and have held up better over time.

I feel a bit sorry for “Backspacer” era Supergroove now. From all accounts, they weren’t in a good place at this stage and they broke up soon after. But despite all the misery, “If I Had My Way” still has a hint of the playfulness and energy that infused their first album. Karl wearing lipstick and singing with pigs? Go on, lads!

Best bit: the pigs, happily nomzing on scraps, oblivious to the band playing in their shed.

Directors: Joe Lonie, Sigi Spath
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Bailter Space “Dome”

The star of the “Dome” video is “Miyata Jiro”, a performance art robotic businessman – a “corporation solider” – that crawls along the ground in his nice suit. It’s the work of New York-based Japanese performance artist Momoyo Torimitsu, who also appears in the video as the businessman’s nurse/technician.

Momoyo created the work as a commentary on the Japanese salaryman, but its new context outside the New York Stock Exchange works just as well, if not better. And 15 years later, it has even more layers of meaning, worthy of a heaving sigh at the shitness of the modern world of finance.

As Jiro-san crawls along Wall Street, the Marc Swadel-directed video cuts this with footage of Bailterspace performing, New York city life, black and white scenes from the subway, and a visit to Battery Park, previously seen in Madonna’s “Into the Groove” video.

Finally, the corportation soldier is carted off on a stretcher. Evidently the nurse’s fix-up job on his bottom was not enough to fully repair his system error.

Best bit: the nurse’s repair job on the businessman’s bottom.

Director: Marc Swadel
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… Che cuts a mean silhouette

Bike “Circus Kids”

It’s another excursion into the slow-motion world of Bike. Shot in gloomy black and white, the band perform the song in front of a backdrop painted with a circus mural.

Andrew Brough is back wearing his giant round sunglasses. As he is a bespectacled man, I suspect his frequent sunglasses wearing is done for the same reason that Kirk Pengally of INXS often wore sunnies – because they’re more rock than clear glasses.

Cut with the band, we also see actual circus kids. A girl walks a tightrope and a guy slowly rides a bike along the tightrope (oh, a bike – clever).

We also see a boy in 1940s clothing wander about the circus, and he is terrified by a sinister clown who gives him a sinister clown look. The kid flees, but ends up being lured into a trunk by the tightrope girl. “Hooray! The circus has come to town!” sings Andrew Brough. This, guys, is irony.

Best bit: the magnificently flared nostrils of the scary clown man.

Director: Jonathan King
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… Marcus the paperboy.

Shihad “Home Again”

Ah, good old “Home Again”. It’s possibly the song most beloved of Shihad fans, and the video captures its feelgood spirit. It’s shot in one continuous take with a static camera. So it’s up to the band to do enough for three and a half minutes to keep viewers entertained.

The video has also been shot at a slower speed and sped up, giving it a manic energy. This condensing of time allows several Polaroid photos to be taken and develop in front of our eyes.

Most of the action takes place on or around a blue couch. There are also a number of different backdrops hung in the background, a wheeled-in TV for a glimpse of off-set action and a drum kit which various band members have turns on.

The image is slightly altered by different fliters and frames being clipped to the camera, but really the star of the video is the fish tank. For about 40 seconds, some goldfish are wheeled in, where they happily swim around, oblivious to the rock dudes running and jumping around them.

In a way, what happens (or doesn’t happen) in the video doesn’t even matter. It’s such a good song that the video is almost like a screensaver, just some images to watch while you listen to a great song.

Director Mark Hartley was awarded Best Video at the 1998 New Zealand Music Awards, breaking the three-year winning streak of nominee Joe Lonie.

Best bit: the goldfish, just chillin’.

Director: Mark Hartley
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… Russell’s seduction techniques.

OMC “On The Run”

“On the Run” was OMC’s third single and last NZOA-funded video. It was the lowest charting OMC single in New Zealand (#30), but it charted in the UK (#56) and the Netherlands (#98). It’s a far cry from the glory days of “How Bizarre”, but it’s certainly not bad going.

The song is a moody track with a disco funk bass and some fab 1960s guitar tremolo, while Pauly raps and sings about being on the run, a simultaneous blend of pop star and badass.

After an introduction with a Betty Draper-ish, we meet Pauly, hiding out in a dark motel room, his face cast with shadows from venetian blinds. We also see him in a colourful room, sometimes playing his guitar, wearing a silver jacket at a press conference, and wearing a 1960s leisure suit as he is spun around on a rotating wall.

Betty also makes an appearance in these locations, but never at the same time as Pauly. She’s in the company of a sinister-looking man who seems to be keeping her prisoner. If she knows anything about Pauly’s whereabouts, she’s not snitching.

There’s no conclusion, no hint that this drama will be resolved. The video ends with a pause on Pauly and then a fade to black.

In his book How Bizarre, Simon Grigg notes that the video shoot was masterminded by the Australian record company. He describes the video as, “excessively glitzy, and devoid of anything resembling personality – Pauly’s or anyone else’s. It completely missed what it was that made Pauly stand out from the international mire.”

Best bit: Pauly banging out some instro guitar – a perfect way to pass the time when laying low.

Director: Mark Hartley
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

It would be nice if the OMC videography ended here, but there was also “I Love LA”, an irony-free cover of the heavily ironic Randy Newman song, recorded for the “Mr Bean” movie soundtrack. Simon Grigg notes: “The embarrassing video, in a Hollywood pool, cost more than every video and recording made by Pauly to date, combined. An almighty flop, a terrible record, and a career killer. Its on my label but I disowned it before release.” View with caution.

Next… outrageous sexy ’90s party.

Headless Chickens “Magnet”

“Magnet” was the first single from the post-Fiona Chooks. It’s a ghostly love song with an unseen singer (Rachel Wallis) providing Fiona-esque backing vocals.

The video takes place at night in a wasteland, complete with an upturned car. Back when this was made it probably seemed like a cool dystopian fantasy, but now there are parts of Christchurch that literally look like this. Chris also spends some time inside a munted car, and the band performs in the ruins of an old warehouse that looks like Detroit decay porn. The video is like a premonition of 21st-century disasters.

There’s a lot of tiredness in this video. The song feels tired, the band looks tired and the environment seems to be on the verge of just collapsing, with the facade of civilisation being just too much effort.

It’s not a bad song – I should make that clear. In fact, it’s easily one of the Headless Chickens better songs. It’s just that the video seems to reveal more about the band than the song.

Best bit: the ruins of an old motherboard, kissing goodbye to computers.

Director: Jonathan King
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… Jan’s furry friend.

Joint Force “Static (Part 1)”

After bursting onto the scene as hip hop duo MC OJ and Rhythm Slave, Otis and Mark later teamed up with DLT, previously of Upper Hutt Posse. Together the three were Joint Force – a nice short two-syllable name.

The “Static” video is incredibly ambitious. Rather than just showcasing the first single of this new trio, a rage against the media, the song becomes a soundtrack to a stylish action film, very strongly inspired by the hip new films of Quentin Tarantino.

There are plenty of music videos from the mid ’90s that were gripped with Tarantino fever, but the “Static” video actually manages to pull it off this particular style. I reckon it works because Joint Force were as cool as characters in a Tarantino film.

We meet Otis and Darryl in the particularly photogenic men’s toilets at Hotel DeBrett. These toilets also feature in Cicada’s 1996 “Future Folds” video and Tadpole’s “For Me”.

A mysterious Russian woman takes a phone call and some evil scientists attempt to decipher the secret codes in the group’s performance. Meanwhile, Mark emerges from the sea and then joins his bros in the loos.

As this may all suggest, there’s a lot of plot and acting in the video and sometimes the song takes second place. But that’s ok. It’s such a strong song that the snippets that bubble up from under the acting make me want to hear more. (And the full version can be heard below.)

All the mystery and intrigue in the video leads to a thrilling cliffhanger with a bomb about to explode. What happens next? Forget the video – next I’m going to try and track down the group’s “One Inch Punch” EP.

And here’s “Static (Part 2)”. It’s the full song – no high jinks – just the raw performance footage of the group that’s occasionally featured in Part 1. DIY Steadicam provided by a bungy cord.

Otis explains (via Facebook) how the second version came to be released:

We actually just shot this version so we had something to put on the monitors in the ‘CIA’ office when they were trying to decipher our codes in the other video. But it’s kinda nice and slick ‘n’ simple so we thought, Fuck it… Put ’em both out.

Director: Josh Frizzell
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Loves Ugly Children “Sixpack”

Hey everyone, Loves Ugly Children are having a party. Starting the party prep nice and early, Simon jumps out of bed and has barely made it out of the bathroom before the suasage rolls are thrown in the oven. It’s going to be epic.

He gets on the phone and invites all his friends along. Kids, this is what people did in the days before Facebook. He even invites a person in a horse costume. Totally off the hook. (How off the hook was it? Director Andrew Moore says “This shoot was mental. Ended in an epic party scene that resulted in them having to dye their living room carpet another, darker colour.”)

Party prep continues, but I can’t help feel there haven’t been enough invites. Fortunately a young Mormon comes door-knocking. Simon drags him inside, yells at him for a bit and soon enough the young Mormon is helping out with the party prep.

The balloons are out and the party people have arrived. Things are cooking. Everyone’s having a good time – the Mormon, the horse, a kung fu guy, a girl in a cheongsam dress, a sheik, a devil – everything your momma warned you about.

The song is a fun punky love song and director Andrew Moore captures the manic energy of the song. It’s a crazy party as a metaphor for love. And that’s just fine with me.

Best bit: NZ On Screen have also noticed this – the pineapple hedgehog is brilliant.

Director: Andrew Moore
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… it’s NZ Music month!