December 2006: Concord Dawn, Cut Off Your Hands, Dimmer, Elle, Evermore, False Start

Hypno Shayne, 12 stripes, Auckland pop, Queensland pop-rock, and raging against the goths.

Concord Dawn “Fly Away Home” – missing

This video isn’t on NZOA’s completed list, but yet there is a video lodged with Nga Taonga. “Fly Away Home” was a track from the group’s 2006 album Chaos By Design.

Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

Cut Off Your Hands “Still Fond”

Director Joel Kefali slices the screen into 12 vertical strips and uses that to show slivers of the band delivering their adorable indie pop tune. Sometimes it’s a mosaic, other times it’s like looking through a glass tile, and other times it’s like the chopped-up animations that Jean Paul Goude did with Grace Jones.

Director: Joel Kefali
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

Dimmer “Under The Illusion”

So, Shayne Carter has been dumped and Shayne Carter’s Ex Girlfriend (for that is her name) is moving to New York. Ordinary domestic drama? Not when it’s filtered through a surreal Hitchcockian world where Shayne Carter’s disembodied head floats in front of a spinning wheel of hypnosis. And then there’s the cup of tea.

Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

Elle “So Typical”

Elle was an Australian high school student living in New Zealand. “So Typical” won the international category of the 2007 Musicoz Awards for independent artists. The song is like the sort of thing Stellar did in the ’90s – sassy rock-influenced pop. The video in an in-your-face pop video, the likes of which has not been seen since the heyday of K’Lee. There’s Elle being cool, confidently dealing with those pesky boys. This was her only NZ On Air funded video.

Director: Paul Taylor
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

Evermore “Unbreakable”

It’s weird to think that Evermore used to be huge in Australia. The “Unbreakable” video catches them on tour, playing gigs to packed halls and exploring tropical Queensland. The video is black and white and at times feels quite low budget, but who cares? It’s Evermore being total rockstars in Australia. How many other New Zealand bands have managed that?

Director: Mathematics
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

False Start “Mall Goth”

Rock whakapapa: some of the guys from False Start were schoolmates with some of the guys from Goodnight Nurse. False Start’s sound is like early Goodnight Nurse, that raw, bratty pop-punk sound. “Mall Goth” is raging against, er, mall goths. “Mall goth, can’t you see that you’re never gonna be like me,” asks the singer, who we presume is a more authentic, 4 real kind of goth. He probably makes his own eyeliner using the charred remains of shitty mall goth eyeliner stolen and burned from a shitty mall. Anyway. The video sees False Start rocking out in a black studio, surrounded by some fans. There’s some really good energy and lead singer Andrew nicely performs to the camera.

Director: Anthony Plant

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