February 2007: Opshop, Paul McLaney, Revolver, SJD, Streetwise Scarlet, Taye Williams

Torture the band (in style), vast barren mudflats, fighter pilots, cheerful gloom, and Taye entertains.
Continue reading February 2007: Opshop, Paul McLaney, Revolver, SJD, Streetwise Scarlet, Taye Williams

Revolver “Out Your Window”

2003-revolver-out-your-windowRemember Jackass? And remember when everyone blamed every societal ill on Jackass? Well, there’s another thing to blame on it. Specifically blame goes to the fifth episode of the second season of Jackass where the act of milk chugging was demonstrated. This involves drinking a gallon of milk (3.87 litres) in one go. It also involves lots of multicoloured milk spew because it’s very difficult to drink that much milk without puking.

So director Joe Lonie took the art of milk chugging and give it one of his trademark twists. In this case, a backwards video. Combined with a reference to the song title, the result is a video in which the band members appear at a bathroom window and suck up a thick layer of vomit from the bathroom floor. Eeeeew.

The video begins with a hot chick finishing up in the bathroom. It’s a reminder of how rare video vixens are in New Zealand music videos. As she leaves the bathroom, the camera pans down to reveal the floor entirely covered with regurgitated Primo. The camera’s slow pans looks like the movement of a remotely operated camera, suggesting a scene too gross for a human to film.

One by one the band members pop up at the window and reverse-vomit all the puke out of the room. They’re all wearing t-shirts with the names of Auckland suburbs – New Lynn, Westmere, Kingsland, Greenlane and Arch Hill. This along with the Jackass reference firmly roots the video in 2003/2004.

Then the chick comes back and closes the window. And that’s the video. If you see it once, it’s like, “Whoa, this is crazy!” But it doesn’t hold up after multiple viewings. I mean, who wants to see a bunch of guys reverse puking, again and again?

And the worst bit – the song manages to be the least interesting part of the video. The visuals are so bold and obnoxious that the song pales in comparison. In fact, you could swap it with any song, really, and it would still work. Like, try it with “Yakety Sax” and it would actually be an improvement.

Best bit: the nice clean bathroom floor at the end.

Director: Joe Lonie
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… cyber matrix 2000.

Revolver “Play”

2003-revolver-playThis is not the first time director Joe Lonie has made an excursion into the world of racquet sports in a music video. The last time we saw Goodshirt playing a very unusual game of badminton. This time it’s a fairly standard game of squash played by the boys of Revolver. They’re at the fitness club, shaggy hair partially tamed by sweatbands, ready for a fierce game of doubles squash.

We also see the band performing the song. But wait. This is a Joe Lonie video so it can never just be about a standard band performance.

No, the band and their instruments are squashed into a sauna. They’re only wearing towels and are glistening with sweat. Does this sound erotic? It’s not really. The sight of five hairy sweaty dudes crammed into a tight space just makes me think it’s all going to be a bit pongy.

Back on the court, the doubles game is looking pretty dangerous, with racquets being swung dangerously near the heads of teammates. After one particularly dramatic collision, the camera zooms in on a sign warning “NO DOUBLES!!!” Those three exclamation points mean business.

The the sign gets shown a few more times, which feels a bit like the gag is being laboured over. Well, someone went to the effort of making that sign.

Back in the sauna the lads continue to play and sweat. The game ends in exhausted bodies being dragged from the court, while the sauna action ends in a another sign gag. A towel is flicked at a naked bottom, but – hey! – the sign says no horseplay. Which is a strange thing to have to regulate against in a sauna, in the first place.

The YouTube description notes that the video was nominated for Best Indie Video at the Juice TV Music Awards.

Best bit: the perfect throw of the squash racquet into its case.

Director: Joe Lonie
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… dealing with the competition.