This song feels a bit out of sequence, like it should have been released a couple of years later, but all evidence points to it being from 2004. Ok.
Brooke has got her tongue pierced, which changed the way she sung – a bonus for fans of acquired lisps. She also has a smoky eye thing happening, which I think is when the “set Fraser to stun” phase kicked off.
The video follows the journey of a toy squeezy ball globe of the world. It’s sitting in a rubbish bin and gets kicked and jostled around the city, including hitching a ride on a truckload of manure.
It’s also used as an impromptu rugby ball, manhandled by a dog, and just generally gets kicked around a bit. Oh, won’t someone save the world? Where is Brooke when we need her?
She’s singing at a bus stop, on a very rainy day. With water bucketing down around her, it’s not going to be good situation to busk in. It reminds me of the leakiest bus stop ever, which is Stop B outside Petone Station, in case you’re wondering.
As it happens, the toy globe ends up making its way back to the rubbish bin from the beginning, but this time it crosses Brooke’s path. Oh look – she has saved the world from ending up in a rubbish truck. Hooray!
The comedy antics of the globe aside, the scenes of Brooke at the bus stop are really lovely. They’re shot in a cool blue palette, and Brooke and her cool blue top and the falling rain all making being stranded at a bus stop on a rainy day look awesome and sexy.
Best bit: the dog perfectly dropping the ball out of a moving car.
Note: this video has fan-made Portuguese subtitles, which is pretty cool.
Remember Jackass? And remember when everyone blamed every societal ill on Jackass? Well, there’s another thing to blame on it. Specifically blame goes to the fifth episode of the second season of Jackass where the act of milk chugging was demonstrated. This involves drinking a gallon of milk (3.87 litres) in one go. It also involves lots of multicoloured milk spew because it’s very difficult to drink that much milk without puking.
So director Joe Lonie took the art of milk chugging and give it one of his trademark twists. In this case, a backwards video. Combined with a reference to the song title, the result is a video in which the band members appear at a bathroom window and suck up a thick layer of vomit from the bathroom floor. Eeeeew.
The video begins with a hot chick finishing up in the bathroom. It’s a reminder of how rare video vixens are in New Zealand music videos. As she leaves the bathroom, the camera pans down to reveal the floor entirely covered with regurgitated Primo. The camera’s slow pans looks like the movement of a remotely operated camera, suggesting a scene too gross for a human to film.
One by one the band members pop up at the window and reverse-vomit all the puke out of the room. They’re all wearing t-shirts with the names of Auckland suburbs – New Lynn, Westmere, Kingsland, Greenlane and Arch Hill. This along with the Jackass reference firmly roots the video in 2003/2004.
Then the chick comes back and closes the window. And that’s the video. If you see it once, it’s like, “Whoa, this is crazy!” But it doesn’t hold up after multiple viewings. I mean, who wants to see a bunch of guys reverse puking, again and again?
And the worst bit – the song manages to be the least interesting part of the video. The visuals are so bold and obnoxious that the song pales in comparison. In fact, you could swap it with any song, really, and it would still work. Like, try it with “Yakety Sax” and it would actually be an improvement.
Best bit: the nice clean bathroom floor at the end.
A classic of the “torture the band” genre, director Joe Lonie put Falter and their instruments down a hydroslide. Apparently he used the same idea in the video for Christian hip hop duo Sumix’s song “Jump House”, but could safely recycle the concept given how few people would have seen the original. The Sumix video was filmed at the Waiwera hot pools, so I’ll assume the same location was used for “Falling to Pieces”. Actually – reader Thom says “99% sure the video was shot at Parakai – it’s got a much longer slide with the interchanging grey and yellow panels.”
So, we see the three band members gliding down the tunnel, each playing an instrument. The hydroslide seems to be covered with lichen on the outside and there’s a bit of graffiti which all gives it a kind of broken-down look – not quite a bright fun water park.
The most interesting thing about the execution of the video is how relaxed the band look. There’s no sense of “Woooohooo! I’m in a hydroslide!!!” It’s more just three dudes playing a song and they just happen to be doing it in a hydroslide. It doesn’t help that the lead singer’s hair looks dry and nicely styled.
Because 90% of the video takes place inside the hydroslide tube – and nothing much is happening in there – it actually gets a bit monotonous. Because there’s no visible horizon, the video can be a bit dizzying and made me want to look out the window to reorientate myself.
The near the end a bit of drama happens when a couple of amps at the top of the slide slip down into it. As the band finally spill out into the splash pool at the end, the amps come hurtling after them. There’s the sense that they might have been hit by the amps, but the video quickly ends so that’s never resolved. It’s like the video is ao enamoured with the sitting that it never really figured out what to do with it.
Best bit: the drummer, looking like the only one having old-fashioned waterslide fun.
A limousine pulls up outside the Crystal Palace cinema in Mount Eden. Its passenger is a wealthy but frail old codger who’s come for a private screening.
The limo has the comedy licence plates “GWBUSH” which doesn’t really make sense in the context of the video. Or perhaps the oldster’s name is Gerald Wilbur Bush. They’ve have been better off swapping the plates for some regular ones. Another strange detail – the cinema has posters advertising the film “Kombi Nation”. Was the song on its soundtrack (google says no), or were the posters just there as part of the cinema’s regular line-up?
Anyway, the old millionaire is accompanied by two bodyguards who are terrible actors. The video is trying to be all noir and sexual but the bodyguards are like kids acting in a primary school play.
The codger settles down and watches a old porno, starring Shayla LaVeaux, a real American porn star (you might know her work in The Cougar Club 2, Lesbian Mentors 1: Older Women, Younger Girls, or When MILFs Attack). We also see shots of present-day Shayla in the back of a limo.
The screening is going well when suddenly a thug appears and menacing walks over the seat tops towards ol’ pops where – we assume – he murders him. It seems that Shayla and the codge are/were married, so we assume she’s taken out a hit on him. Well, it’s understandable – it would be a bit weird if your husband was obsessed with your older porn when you were still pretty young and fit.
Hey, where’s the band where all this is happening? They’re out playing the song in a dark alley. The players in the cinema story dominate the video, with the band left lurking in the shadows. But it’s a shadowy song and it works having the band lurking as minstrels in the background.
It feels like the video wants to be a lot sexier and darker than it manages to be. There are some terrifically noir and beautifully photographed shots, but it seems let down by the bumbling heavies, who should be played as smart aides, not comedic thugs.
Best bit: the theatre manager counts the fat wad of cash he’s made – way more lucrative than screening Kombi Nation.
Strawpeople return with the first single off their last album, Count Backwards From 10. This time the song’s vocals are provided by Pearl Runga, whose sister already did guest vocals back in 1999.
Like a lot of Strawpeople videos, this one doesn’t show the musical artists involved. Instead the video features an audition, but being a Strawpeople video, it’s unusual and stylish. It’s directed by Joe Lonie, moving well away from the visual larks of his earlier work.
A number of young model/actresses are each standing in front of a camera. Their first task – to write their name on a piece of cardboard and hold it up to the camera. So, hello to Jessica, Nicola, Andrea, Amelia, Rachael, Jennifer and Polly. As they stand in front of the camera, they lip-sync the song lyrics. (It’s funny to hear the old technology used to illustrate a busy life – “I’ve got my radio on but it don’t drown the fax machine.”)
Next, they appear to have been asked to remove their clothes, stripping down to just their underwear – and they’re all wearing strapless bras. They all look a bit annoyed. Yeah, someone’s agent is getting a phone call.
The strange audition continues, with the women all required to put on a strapless crimson dress, put their hair up in a bun, secured with chopsticks (or if they’re blonde, wear a dark wig in that style), wear some pearl earrings and particular eye makeup.
Even though they’re all identically dressed, they’re still not clones. The individual personalities of the auditionees stand out. Some are smily, some serious, some flirty, some bored looking. Finally, they all hold up their name signs again. Who to pick? They’re all so different. Oh, let’s just use them all.
This is not the first time director Joe Lonie has made an excursion into the world of racquet sports in a music video. The last time we saw Goodshirt playing a very unusual game of badminton. This time it’s a fairly standard game of squash played by the boys of Revolver. They’re at the fitness club, shaggy hair partially tamed by sweatbands, ready for a fierce game of doubles squash.
We also see the band performing the song. But wait. This is a Joe Lonie video so it can never just be about a standard band performance.
No, the band and their instruments are squashed into a sauna. They’re only wearing towels and are glistening with sweat. Does this sound erotic? It’s not really. The sight of five hairy sweaty dudes crammed into a tight space just makes me think it’s all going to be a bit pongy.
Back on the court, the doubles game is looking pretty dangerous, with racquets being swung dangerously near the heads of teammates. After one particularly dramatic collision, the camera zooms in on a sign warning “NO DOUBLES!!!” Those three exclamation points mean business.
The the sign gets shown a few more times, which feels a bit like the gag is being laboured over. Well, someone went to the effort of making that sign.
Back in the sauna the lads continue to play and sweat. The game ends in exhausted bodies being dragged from the court, while the sauna action ends in a another sign gag. A towel is flicked at a naked bottom, but – hey! – the sign says no horseplay. Which is a strange thing to have to regulate against in a sauna, in the first place.
The YouTube description notes that the video was nominated for Best Indie Video at the Juice TV Music Awards.
Best bit: the perfect throw of the squash racquet into its case.
Donald Reid is the brother of James from the Feelers. “The Return” was his debut single, though I can’t find any evidence of there having been a video made for it, though Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision has an entry for the album track “No Ordinary Day”, which isn’t on the NZOA funding list.
Evermore “Pick Yourself Up”
“Pick Yourself Up” was another track from Evermore’s “Oil & Water” EP. I’m not sure if there was actually a video made, but it’s on the list.
Hendrix Warren “Empty”
I wasn’t sure if the video for Hendrix Warren’s song “Empty” existed, but I found the online CV of a camera operator, who lists the video production amongst his work history. Well, that’s good.
Director: Ivan Slavov
Pluto “On Your Own”
Pluto have “On Your Own”, another track from their album “Pipeline Under The Ocean”.
According to the band’s description on Amplifier, Soda’s “Falling Faster Now” video “explores the depths of Karaoke booth kitsch”. More than Rufus Wainwright’s “California” video?
The Brunettes “Boy Racer”
A few months ago The Brunettes’ “Boy Racer” video was on YouTube, but it’s since been taken down. I watched it once back then and I remember it involved the band performing at an empty theatre, as well as their backstage preparations. I mourn the loss.
More relaxing beats from 50Hz. “Smooth Rhodes” has guest vocals from Miss La.
P-Money “Go With The Flow”
There’s a P-Money track listed called “Go with the Flow”, but I can’t find any other mention of a song by that name. As far as I can tell, there were no more videos made for tracks from P-Money’s debut album Big Things.
June 2003
Brett Sawyer “Save Me Now”
“Save Me Now” was the sixth funded video that Brett Sawyer had and – surprise, surprise – it’s also the sixth of his videos to not be online. I’m very intrigued by him now. I’d love to see just one of his videos.
Carly Binding’s single “This Is It” reached No.12 in the charts. It’s not online, but you can see her performing the song live with Donald Reid in 2006.
Emcee Lucia was the first New Zealand female MC to release a solo album. “All This Time” was the first track. She’s one of those artists who had a lot of buzz at the time, but I haven’t been able to figure out if she’s done anything lately.
In one database this track was listed as being by Diane Swann, one half of the Bads. “Don’t Go Losing” was the duo’s first single. I’m not actually sure if a video was made for this track. In 2003, Radio New Zealand broadcast a retrospective of Diane Swann’s music career to date. At that stage, “Don’t Go Losing” was due to be the first single released by The Bads. A profile at NZ Musician mentions that The Bads parted ways with their record company “after several videos had been shot and were poised for release”, so that might explain it.
Evermore “Hold On”
“Hold On” was a track from Evermore’s EP “My Own Way”, their last release before their debut album “Dreams” kicked off their success in Australia.
Taisha “I’ll Go”
After appearing in OMC’s video for”Land of Plenty”, R&B songstress Taisha had the country-tinged “I’ll Go”. She’s now part of the all-star cover band the Lady Killers.
Director: Ivan Slavov
October 2003
Brooke Fraser “Lifeline”
The original version of Brooke Fraser’s “Lifeline” video is not online. From memory, it involved Brooke and her band, dressed in overalls, playing a board game called Lifeline that administered electric shocks for losing moves – like a low-budget version of the Domination game from “Never Say Never Again”. And I have this idea that it ended up Brooke winning the game and her opponents being reduced to a smouldering pile of overalls.
The video was a bit darker and yet goofier than the song required, so director Joe Lonie filmed a new video, this time with Brooke walking through scenic landscapes (with a typical Lonie twist).
Paselode were a rock band from Wellington. I saw them live few times in 2003 and they were always entertaining. Their songs were always about a minute too long and had one person too many playing on the track (they were a five-piece band but felt like an unwieldy ska band). “C’Mon Hallelujah” was their lone NZ On Air funded single. The band broke up shortly after, but not before the Simmonds Brothers told the band’s tumultuous story in the animated short film “The Paselode Story”.
This month’s consolation video is the super chill “Dawnskate-88” by The Video Kid, a side project by Black Seeds and Flight of the Conchords dude Bret McKenzie. This non-NZOA-funded video shows Bret and pals having a skate down the streets of Mt Victoria, then along a deserted Lambton Quay. It’s so Wellington.
While Joe Lonie’s music videos have a really strong association with Goodshirt, he only directed five videos for the group. “Monotone” was the final, and while it follows the Lonie/Goodshirt style of being a one-take wonder, it’s a lot more surreal than previous Goodshirt videos.
In a gloomy forest clearing, good and evil are having a doubles game of badminton, only they seem to be using a ping pong ball, rather than a shuttle cock. The players are dressed in beekeeping outfits with their player numbers on the back – good are 23 and 42, evil are 13 and 69, of course.
The beekeeper outfits also mean that the players’ faces are obscured, which makes me wonder if the band wasn’t available for the video. Maybe they used pro badminton players instead.
While the game goes on, the camera continuously circles their makeshift court. By the court there’s a table set up to record their scores, with enough room to track up to 999999 points per side.
But there’s not a lot of winning happening. The players are just too good. They effortlessly bat the ball to and fro, with little sign of either team missing. So, four badminton players who never miss, combined with a music video filmed in one take. Well, it’s probably a CGI ball, yeah. Either that or those really are pro badminton players in the costumes.
It’s nowhere near as much fun as the earlier Goodshirt videos. In fact, it seems more like a video art project than a music video. Slow it down by 75%, play it on an old CRT television and there’s your exhibition.
Perhaps this was just the Goodshirt/Lonie partnership coming to its natural conclusion. The next video by the group took a very different approach.
Best bit: the disappearance of the ball after a particularly mighty hit.
The “Sophie” video is one of those classic, beloved New Zealand music videos. It won Best Video at the New Zealand Music Awards in 2003 was on the Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision’s list of 100 iconic music videos.
It’s the third of Joe Lonie’s four Goodshirt videos, and probably the best known. In classic Lonie style, it’s all shot in one take and played for laughs, this time with a stationary camera.
The video centres on a young woman. Let’s call her Sophie. It’s her birthday and she’s just taken a shower. Wrapped in a towel, she sits on her couch and puts on headphones to listen to her favourite song, “Sophie” by Goodshirt.
And she really like the song. She’s so wrapped up its pop-rock charms that she doesn’t notice the four cat burglars who break into her flat and steal all her stuff. There’s obviously a strong demand on the black market for quirky vintage furniture.
The burglars are played by Goodshirt, only the singer Gareth wasn’t available for the video shoot so a stand-in was used. Gareth’s absence is why the concept of the black-masked burglars was created.
While enjoying a piece of birthday cake, Sophie turns around and discovers that all her stuff is gone. The bastards even took her toilet paper. She drops her cake in shock. Don’t sorry, Soph – you still have your stereo and Goodshirt CD. And that gift of music is the most precious taonga of all.
The video has nothing to do with the song lyrics (a yearning for an unrequited love), but it picks up on Goodshirt’s charms. “Sophie” is a strong song, but I reckon the video is what really helped get it to number one.
Best bit: Sophie versus the sticky piece of tape on her gift box.
Note: The below version of the video is a bit pixelly and the sound isn’t balanced. But over at Joe Lonie’s portfolio at Fish’n’Clips, there’s a really good quality version.
According to an Augustino fan forum from 2001, “Overblown” was a radio-only release for Augustino. The forum is amazing. It’s so full of energy and enthusiasm for this cool band everyone loves, there’s bonding and hugs when September 11 happens, then the forum regulars suddenly peter out just as the band release their debut album. And if a band’s fan base can’t stick around, there’s not much hope for the band.
BJ White “Uptown”
The only thing I can find out about “Uptown” by BJ White is that it was included on a sampler CD from Festival Mushroom Records, in between tracks from Lash and Kylie.
Canvas “Tina”
Canvas were an enthusiastic trio of young men from Wellington by way of Christchurch. “Tina” was a good pop track and the video got decent airplay on music video shows.
So, an artist called Flipside received funding for a track called “Movin'”. It’s almost impossible to google (and it doesn’t help that there are two other artists called Flipside with tracks that involve “Movin'” in the title) so I can’t find anything on this track.
Nurture “Beautiful”
Nurture was a poptastic collaboration between Deep Obsession producer Christopher Banks and singer Phil Madsen. “Beautiful” was their first single and it reached #13 in the charts.
Sumix “Jump House”
Sumix was a hip hip duo consisting of friends Craig Mckenzie and Aidan Richards. Their single “Jump House” is an upbeat number with a insanely cheerful chorus that instantly reveals Craig’s roots in Christian pop. (Seriously, it has such a Christian chorus). The video was involved the duo going down the slides at Wairewa hot pools. The video evidently made so little impact that director Joe Lonie could safely later recycle the video concept Falter’s “Falling to Pieces” video in 2003.
It sounds like the name of a yuletide horror film, but Jester‘s “Eyes 4 Xmas” is actually a sweet guitar-pop tune. The video seems to have taken inspiration from Popstars. Nga Taonga describes it as “An amusing take on a reality TV talent show. We are privy to auditions for the band (“day 12″), recording the single, shooting the video, creating an image and – Jester’s first show.”
Sheelahroc were an all-girl hip hop trio from Christchurch, comprising of Ladi6, Voodoo Child and Tyra Hammond, a powerhouse of talent. The cool and cautionary “If I Gave You Th’ Mic” was their only NZ On Air funded video. My vague memory of it was an overhead shot of Ladi6 in a space like the train station foyer. The video needs to be online! In this documentary, the group talk about the video shoot being a bit of a mess, and the end video not really making much sense.
June 2001
Canvas “Sunday”
Canvas had their second funded video “Sunday”. From memory, it was the band playing the song in a house, going for a lazy-Sunday vibe.
Carmen Steele “Believe In Me”
Kiwihits noted that Carmen Steele‘s song “Believe In Me” was a “reaction to media coverage of the tragic incidence of child abuse in New Zealand” and that the production make it “one of the year’s most evocative songs”. It was Carmen’s only NZOA funding.
Garageland “Highway”
Garageland‘s “Highway” is a cheerful ode to road-tripping, and other pleasures. Nga Taonga describe the video as, “Footage from the road – including the Capitol Records – and on stage on a US tour by Garageland.”
GST, the early incarnation of Opshop, have the song “Put Up A Fight”. Most significantly, it was the making of this video that inspired Jason Kerrison to build his apocalypse shelter. As Jason told Salient, the video was filmed at his landlord’s “monolithic dome structure”, which inspired him to build his own.
PA Styles “Summer Breeze”
PA Styles were twins Naomi and Sharlene Sadlier. “Crowds are drawn to P.A Styles like moths to a flame,” claimed a Southgate Entertainment press release, creating an image of crowds of people madly running around PA Styles. “Summer Breeze” was their only funded video.
Director: Rongotai Lomas
Purrr “Oxygen”
Purrr‘s final funded video was “Oxygen”, but I’m not entirely sure if a video was actually made. Oh well, it was nice knowing you, three-piece girlband.
August 2001
D-Super “The Moths”
D-Super go for a janglier, poppier sound for “The Moths”. It was their third and final NZ On Air-funded music video.
Meno Panteboy “Any Kinda Weather”
Meno Panteboy were an Auckland group made up of musicians who’d previously worked with artists such as Che Fu, Greg Johnson, Nathan Haines and John Rowles. “Any Kinda Weather” was a bFM hit. (In case you’re wondering, panteboy is the Greek transliteration of rendezvous and is another name for a coffee house.)
Slim “Crumbling”
Slim have their final NZOA-funded video “Crumbling”, an upbeat song about someone who is struggling with drink and drugs.
I’m disappointed that Aaria‘s “Cry No More” video isn’t online. The slick bilingual pop vocal group had a top 10 hit with this single, but it was to be their last. From memory, the video had a similar vibe to the Spice Girls’ “2 Become 1” – all city-at-night cool.
The Relaxomatic Project “At The Onset”
There’s no sign of the final video “At the Onset” from Auckland groovsters the Relaxomatic Project.
December 2001
Garageland “Crazy”
I’m not sure if Garageland actually made a video for “Crazy”, but it’s worth celebrating as it was their last lot of video funding. They had a total of 15 videos funded over seven years, which is an impressive rate. From the low-budget fun of the early years to the more sophisticated vids of later years, Garageland made good use of the medium of music video.
Lavina Williams “So I Cry”
The “V” in Ma-V-Elle, Lavina Williams went solo with “So I Cry”. In 2006 Lavina made it to the final 12 of Australian Idol, following younger sister Emily who placed second in the 2005 series.
According to the bio on Amplifier, Michelle Kazor‘s debut single “In This Life” was the “highest charting song from an unsigned act ever on radio” – but that’s referring to a radio plays chart, not the singles chart. I’m not totally sure if this video ended up having NZ On Air funding, but it’s in the Nga Taonga archive, nonetheless.
There were two non-funded videos that made a significant impact in 2001. One was the Deceptikonz‘s “Fallen Angels”, the other was Blindspott‘s debut “Nil By Mouth”. It was self-funded and made with a budget of a mere $800. With a solid song behind it and a great scream-along chorus, it proved a popular hit and won Breakthrough Video Artist at the Juice TV awards and launched Blindspott as alternative metal heroes. (There’s a slightly-higher-budget alternative version, but it’s not as much fun as the original.)
This song feels a bit out of sequence, like it should have been released a couple of years later, but all evidence points to it being from 2004. Ok.
Remember Jackass? And remember when everyone blamed every societal ill on Jackass? Well, there’s another thing to blame on it. Specifically blame goes to the fifth episode of the second season of Jackass where 
A classic of the “torture the band” genre, director Joe Lonie put Falter and their instruments down a hydroslide. Apparently he used the same idea in the video for Christian hip hop duo Sumix’s song 
A limousine pulls up outside the Crystal Palace cinema in Mount Eden. Its passenger is a wealthy but frail old codger who’s come for a private screening.
Strawpeople return with the first single off their last album, Count Backwards From 10. This time the song’s vocals are provided by Pearl Runga, whose sister already did guest vocals back in 1999.
This is not the first time director Joe Lonie has made an excursion into the world of racquet sports in a music video. The last time we saw Goodshirt playing a very unusual game of badminton. This time it’s a fairly standard game of squash played by the boys of Revolver. They’re at the fitness club, shaggy hair partially tamed by sweatbands, ready for a fierce game of doubles squash.
While Joe Lonie’s music videos have a really strong association with Goodshirt, he only directed five videos for the group. “Monotone” was the final, and while it follows the Lonie/Goodshirt style of being a one-take wonder, it’s a lot more surreal than previous Goodshirt videos.
The “Sophie” video is one of those classic, beloved New Zealand music videos. It won Best Video at the 