October 2010: Savage, Seth Haapu, Shihad, Street Chant, Supermodel, Te Pamu, The Feelers

The proto-twerk, six shirts and one pair of trousers, a dystopian stilt hut, hanging out in the Coromandel, epic proggy drag race, down at the Mount, the ol’ band is back for one last gig.

Continue reading October 2010: Savage, Seth Haapu, Shihad, Street Chant, Supermodel, Te Pamu, The Feelers

October 2009: Mulholland, Opensouls, PNC, Red Alert, Rosie Riggir, Sarah Brown, State of Mind, The Feelers

Being a serious musician, down at the beach, dinosaur’s day out, water aerobics, lavish and sensual, a tea party, miniature world, and a tropical holiday with the lads.

Continue reading October 2009: Mulholland, Opensouls, PNC, Red Alert, Rosie Riggir, Sarah Brown, State of Mind, The Feelers

December 2008: The Datsuns, The Feelers, The Mots, Trigger Theory, With Hope, Zowie

Teen terrorisers, the boxing sage continues, faux council estate, a night together, lying down, and math nerd rhythm.

Continue reading December 2008: The Datsuns, The Feelers, The Mots, Trigger Theory, With Hope, Zowie

August 2008: The Datsuns, The Feelers, The Lookie Loos, The Naked and Famous, The Tutts, Tiki Taane

A smashing time, a million dollar baby, the joys of skating, ribbons, a rainbow shimmer, and a Rarotonga break.

Continue reading August 2008: The Datsuns, The Feelers, The Lookie Loos, The Naked and Famous, The Tutts, Tiki Taane

February 2007: The Datsuns, The Feelers, The Rabble, The Veils, Tourist, Voom

Smashing goldfish, codgers and saveloys, scribbly guys, city life, sadness, and a gloomy cellar.

Continue reading February 2007: The Datsuns, The Feelers, The Rabble, The Veils, Tourist, Voom

December 2006: The Feelers, The Mint Chicks, The Valves, These Four Walls, Tiki Taane, Tyna & JB

Seeing in the new year, Kiwi style; James Bond, Kiwi style; drum ‘n’ bass, Kiwi style; and walking (off a cliff, in the rain, away) Kiwi style.
Continue reading December 2006: The Feelers, The Mint Chicks, The Valves, These Four Walls, Tiki Taane, Tyna & JB

June 2006: Samuel Flynn Scott, Stylus, The Black Seeds, The Feelers, The Mint Chicks

Face photocopying, the goth life, a social network, nowhere, and the curious case of the street that wasn’t there.
Continue reading June 2006: Samuel Flynn Scott, Stylus, The Black Seeds, The Feelers, The Mint Chicks

Found videos from the 2000s

Tropical crime fighting, police brutality, high street thugs, an interrogation and love (not war).
Continue reading Found videos from the 2000s

The Feelers “The Fear”

2004-the-feelers-the-fearThe Feelers get all existential with “The Fear” and to drive home the point that this is serious, man, the video stars James alone. This is the first time the other two have been absent from a video, so you know it’s serious.

The video opens with James watching some home movies, then we get a 70 second uninterrupted shot of him lip-syncing to the camera. Even in Sinead O’Connor’s epic lip-sync video “Nothing Compares 2 U”, she still got out and wandered around some statues. Mr Reid is stuck in the same room, expressionless, looking like every last emotion has been sucked out of his body.

Fortunately the rest of the video has a bit more variety, with James mooching around the cool studio apartment, playing his guitar and watching some more home movies. But he still looks sullen, even when he’s singing the cheerful lyrics, “Look out on the bright side!”.

He also sings of the fear “that someone can replace you”. But one thing is for sure – since the Feelers’ peak years, there has not yet been a New Zealand pop-rock band come along with the Feelers’ popularity or longevity.

Best bit: the little kids having fun in the projected home movies – I’m glad someone’s having a good time.

Director: Tim Groenendaal
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… art school kids end-term assessment.

The Feelers “Supernova”

2004-the-feelers-supernovaI’m going to declare that of all the NZOA-funded videos I’ve seen so far, this one has have the most moronic plot. The video is shot in a single take, which seems to have led to a whole lot of nonsensical scenes set up purely to have something to film.

Let’s start at the beginning. It’s a wet day. A car has crashed – flipped right over. From it emerges a man who staggers around to the other side and helps out a woman. Ok, those are our protagonists, 04 Bonnie and Clyde.

As they run away from the car, it explodes, which spurs them to run even faster. Then they do something really strange. Instead of running along the road, they detour over the top of a fence into a playground, then over the fence on the other side, emerging at exactly the same place they’d have ended up if they’d just run along the road in a straight line.

They continue up the road into the local pub where the Feelers are playing. Now here’s thing. There’s just been a car crash about 100 metres away followed by a loud explosion, but no one in the pub has gone out to see what’s happened. No, they’re all just sitting there happily boozing away with the Feelers.

The couple – all wet and dirty – walk past everyone like nothing’s up. They go into the loos and change from their matching dark shirts with matching artistic rips into matching white singlets. (This toilet makeover is slightly more convincing than the non-event one in the Feelers earlier “Venus” video, but both are firmly trounced by the saucy 1990s Levi’s ad.)

They head out the back of the pub and see a path down to the river. They quickly run down, but the ground is wet and slippery and the dude actually keeps slipping and crashing into things. And why are they in such a hurry? No one’s chasing them!

At the bottom of the path they find a jetty with a speedboat in which they make their getaway. But here’s they’re at the Riverhead pub – taking the boat upstream is just going to take them into a swampy Kaipara creek. If they’d headed in the other direction, well, that would eventually lead them to the Waitemata Harbour and an easier getaway.

Morons. Actually, the only way this video could make sense is if they’d both sustained a significant brain injury in the car crash, severely clouding their judgement and leading them to make that series of dumb-arse decisions. They’re probably not even on the run from anyone. They were probably just off to the pub to see the Feelers play when they crashed. Always drive for the conditions, kids.

Best bit: the pub patrons who don’t give a damn.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… getting unravelled.