April 2006: Juse, Katchafire, Lemuel, Luke Buda, Luke Thompson

A really unflattering pink jumper, a rool-trippy-as road trip, a fairly straight road trip, and so much wood panelling.

Juse “Tied Up”

Pua Magasiva (aka Shane the Red Ranger from Power Rangers Ninja Storm aka Nurse Vinnie from Shortland Street) stars as a pink-jumper-wearing guy who discovers his girlfriend has been cheating on him. So there’s a lot of yelling, the girl leaves and pinkie invites his mates around for a consolatory party. In the YouTube comments, director Andrew Morton explains the unflattering pink cable-knit jumper: “I had to give a realistic motivation for her to be cheating on him… the pink sweater did that”

Director: Andrew Morton

Katchafire “Collie Herb Man”

There are rool-trippy-as videos and then there are rool-rool-rool-trippy-as videos. This is the latter. It’s animated and involves a guy driving his car through a colourful, pulsing landscape. He likes the countryside (chill-dude face) but not urban areas (angry-dude face). One YouTube commenter has a suggestion that might improve viewing pleasure for those in the target audience: “Listened to this on acid. So nuts”. Cheers.

Director: Paul Herschell
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

Lemuel “Pop Pop” – missing

In googling for this, I kept finding the obituaries of old men named Lemuel who were known as Pop Pop by their grandchildren. This in-the-club song isn’t about a grandpappy. Instead Lemuel insists his club hottie “let me dance like a dancer, wiggle like a snake-uh, pop-pop like a toaster”. The audio is here.

Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

Luke Buda “Special Surprise”

“Special Surprise” was Phoenix Foundation member Luke Buda’s solo side project. The video plays off Luke’s 1970s European pop star aesthetic and puts him in a soft-focus world of wood panelling, cravats and giant headphones. It also gets a bit surreal, with Luke playing a human drumkit and using a clone of himself as a guitar. And yet it all makes sense.

Director: Luke Savage
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

Luke Thompson “Perfect Drive”

Luke Thompson’s previous video featured him walking along a beach and a rural road. All “Perfect Drive” does is add a car to the mix. Luke is picked up by a hitch-hiker (a pretty lady) who drives him from a rural area to the beach. They don’t seem to even talk when they’re in the car, but as he walks off, she’s seen crying. Boohoo. This is mixed with Luke and his band performing the song in a recording studio. This is probably in a city, but let’s just pretend that cities don’t exist, ok? “Perfect Drive” was Luke Thompson’s only charting single, reaching No.17.

Director: Jozsef Fityus
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

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