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.