Tadpole – Page 2 – 5000 Ways to Love You

Tadpole “Alright”

“There ain’t enough to go round in this world. It’s alright!” sings Renee. Is this an upbeat anthem in favour of inequality? Well, kind of. It’s not on a world scale. Instead it’s intended as the voice of wisdom for a younger woman worried that her boyfriend doesn’t love her as much as she loves him. That situation, it seems, is alright.

It’s an energetic tune that makes conscious use of a DJ, putting it bang on trend in the world of nu metal. The video goes with this energy, staging it as a live performance. It’s a slick but simple video, keeping things basic but making it look good. It reminds me of Stellar’s “Bastard” video but with an audience.

The video opens with a doorman sliding back a metal door where an audience moshes in slowmo. Then it all kicks off. The first band member we meet is the DJ, just to make sure we know that Tadpole have DJ. And he is scratching.

Eventually Renee appears, with exotic makeup that includes rectangular eyeshadow with little pearl beads glued to the corners. I blame Bjork for this alien chic look that invaded fashion at the turn of the millennium.

To help illustrate the song, we also see young couples at the venue who are having issues in their relationship which conveniently enough match the theme of the song.

We also see the rest of the band, each shot as individuals. This might actually be because they’re not playing on a full width stage. I mean, we never actually see the band together as a full group. Maybe it was a conceptual performance art piece where each member played his or her part individually. Or perhaps this also ties in with the theme of unequal relationships. Whoa.

Best bit: Renee’s eyeball acting, emphasised by her exotic makeup.

Director: Michael Lonsdale, Alex Sutherland
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… the honeymoon is over.

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

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.