December 2010: Adeaze, Autozamm, Avalanche City, Barnaby Weir, Brooke Fraser, Computers Want Me Dead

School assembly, a comforting sameness, a beardy trek, freaky friends at the club, on stage but not, and a wild road trip.

Continue reading December 2010: Adeaze, Autozamm, Avalanche City, Barnaby Weir, Brooke Fraser, Computers Want Me Dead

August 2010: Anika Moa, Annah Mac, Atlanta Fall, Autozamm, Black River Drive, Brooke Fraser, Chazz Valentine, Die! Die! Die!

A very wet phone call, change management, paper boats, the band and the song, thrift store art, damp hair in a cool cafe, the romantic punk, and chaotic scribbles.

Continue reading August 2010: Anika Moa, Annah Mac, Atlanta Fall, Autozamm, Black River Drive, Brooke Fraser, Chazz Valentine, Die! Die! Die!

March 2010: Anika Moa, Annabel Fay, Autozamm, Black River Drive, Boh Runga, Bulletproof, Computers Want Me Dead, Concord Dawn

Running through the ’80s, over yonder in old Havana town, haunted by a ghost, doctoring the rock, rocking the winery, Slave takes over, computron 2010, down at the Prater.

Continue reading March 2010: Anika Moa, Annabel Fay, Autozamm, Black River Drive, Boh Runga, Bulletproof, Computers Want Me Dead, Concord Dawn

October 2008: Addison, An Emerald City, Annabel Fay, Antiform, Autozamm, Beneath the Silence

The ticking of time, sand dunes as desert, a trip to the beach, a trip around Auckland, murderous revenge, and some bad-ass shredding.

Continue reading October 2008: Addison, An Emerald City, Annabel Fay, Antiform, Autozamm, Beneath the Silence

June 2008: Anika Moa, Anna Coddington, Autozamm, Brain Slaves, Clap Clap Riot

Pashfest ’08, a favourite T, the invisible train pole, the lonely speaker, and the shadowy shadows .
Continue reading June 2008: Anika Moa, Anna Coddington, Autozamm, Brain Slaves, Clap Clap Riot

October 2007: All Left Out, Anika Moa, Annabel Fay, Autozamm, Bleeders

The wild west, shocking Amsterdam, a boring wander, jumping off a waterfall, and the guys that punched.
Continue reading October 2007: All Left Out, Anika Moa, Annabel Fay, Autozamm, Bleeders

December 2006: 48May, Autozamm, Bling, Brooke Fraser, Bruce Conlon, Chong Nee

A WWII fever dream, adventures in Sydney and London, a forced commercial song, a failed seduction attempt and a MySpace URL.
Continue reading December 2006: 48May, Autozamm, Bling, Brooke Fraser, Bruce Conlon, Chong Nee

Autozamm “Don’t Worry”

This is the premise: Autozamm are each suspended in a cage attached to a crane and are twirled around a city at night. It sounds like it could be a really amazing visual, but it just doesn’t work.

It’s all done with CGI and there’s no sense that Autozamm are literally being hurled around in cages. Rather, it looks like four dudes filmed in the comfort and safety of a green screen studio, superimposed onto the dizzying scene. Compare this with Goodshirt’s “Green” video, a classic in the “torture the band” genre. Even though the band members were essentially going about ordinary bathroom tasks, there was still no denying that they were all doing it hanging upside down. There’s no sense of this discomfort or indeed peril in the Autozamm video.

The night setting of the video seems to be done to remove the need for an elaborately animated city backdrop. When even the band members are shot in partial darkness, there’s so much less work required. Though, the familiar hilly Wellington skyline is still visible, possibly a nod to the $1500 grant from Positively Wellington Business’s Made In Wellington scheme.

40 years prior, the Mary Poppins film managed to create a more thrilling scene involving flying people. And – one might argue – with a better soundtrack.

Best bit: I dunno, the CGI buildings look like buildings?

Note: This video was previously available on MySpace but has since been removed.

Director: Ed Davis
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… street craps.

Autozamm “Sweet Love”

2004-autozamm-sweet-loveThis is like a low-budget James Bond title sequence. Much of the video involves a young woman wearing a bikini, sensually writing in a bathtub. But just to mix things up, all the footage of her is shot in negative.

It’s a strange world. Who takes a bath wearing a bikini? Er, contestants on Big Brother and girls in music videos. The film negative makes the footage seem less pervy and more psychedelic, but then there’s the undeniable fact that most of the footage focuses on her boobs and bum.

Autozamm haven’t performed as a band in their previous two videos, but “Sweet Love” actually sees them rocking out. Sort of. Footage of the band is layered with the bath girl so we only get tiny glimpses of them.

In positive - a girl in her undies in the bath.
In positive – a girl in her undies in the bath.

While the bath scenes do have that somewhat elegant, Bond-style feeling, that’s largely down to the effect of the film negative. Viewing the footage in positive and it’s just a girl in her togs sloshing around in a shallow bath. But maybe that would have made for a more interesting video.

The video was another recipient of the additional $1500 grant from Positively Wellington Business’s Made In Wellington scheme for producing the music video in Wellington.

Best bit: the random wide shot that reveals the girl alone in a suburban bathroom.

Director: Sam Buys
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… an icon of Auckland.