Toronto booty girls, a freaky fairground, rooftop rock, grotesque cinéma, and some quite good graffiti.
The Have “Soul Without Sale”
The Have had the very rock “Soul Without Sale”, the opening track off their debut album. The video is shot in black and white and puts the band on a wet downtown rooftop, rocking out while surrounded by city skyscrapers. It’s a little underwhelming, maybe because this is the sort of thing bands release today as a DIY unfunded video.
Director: Jonathan Gerard
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision
The Madison Press “Don’t Say Anything”
The Madison Press is a daily newspaper serving Madison County, Ohio. It’s also a band that emerged from the remnants of Augustino. The video for “Don’t Say Anything” is inspired by the works of French film directors Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro (especially Delicatessen), so it’s French (subtitled in French, just to get the point across) and a little grotesque, combined with the band’s emo fringe aesthetic.
Director: Ivan Slavov
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision
Tyna & JB featuring Chong Nee & Ethical “Not Your Regular”
There’s a theory called Laver’s law – created by the English art historian James Laver. His idea was there’s a cycle of attitudes towards fashion. Things that are 50 years old are considered “quaint” (hello, Mad Men costumes), something a year old looks dowdy (re my blue cardigan) while something five years before its time is considered “shameless”. And something 10 years after its time is “hideous”. And that’s the issue I’m finding now that we’ve reached music that’s a decade old. It just seems really naff. How can a song like “Not Your Regular” work when in 2015 there super cool hip hop coming from artists like David Dallas and Sid Diamond?
Here’s a song that’s just a run-of-the-mill mid ’00s hip hop tune. Its high point of ridiculousness is when it advises New Zealanders to “stay off the crack pipe”. Ok, I will. It’s super conservative, following all the rules, not realising that it needs to start breaking them. The video isn’t any more inspired, just set in a generic urban decay setting. But within it are hints of more interesting artists – there’s a mural by Misery on one of the walls, and someone has written “Coco Solid” on a window.
Tyree featuring Kardinal Offishall & Deach “Ladies & Gentlemen”
“Ladies and Gentleman” features the Canadian MC Kardinal Offishall, and the video is also shot in his home town of Toronto. While the song is yet another in-the-club track, it has heaps of energy which lifts it beyond the usual. The video features booty girls understandably dancing to the track. But there’s also another dancer who spends the whole video lying on the ground, sensually writhing. Just imagine if this happened in real life, if at hip hop clubs people were so taken with particular tracks that they’d drop to the ground and spend the whole song rolling around on the floor.
Director: Andrew Morton
Voom “B Your Boy”
The “B Your Boy” video takes place at an animated fairground. The video follows a cowgirl as she strolls through the amusements The band all feature, but lead singer Buzz can be found in many forms, including Madame Voom, the animatronic fortune teller. Will the girl and boy meet? Or will the general weirdness of the fairground keep them apart?
Directors: Ian Hart, Rebecca Hart, Shane Mason
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision