Tag: Kitsch

Punk-pop band Kitsch had a very American sound. It’s like all these local bands go to the effort of singing in their New Zealand accents, then along comes a band who get all punk and piss off the elders by sounding like they’re straight out of the suburbs of America and probably don’t even know where New Zealand is.

Maybe because of this they were ashamed to show their faces, because the “Eleven:Eleven” video is shot in extreme close-up, with many shots of sections of musical instruments and body parts. And when we do see lead singer Sam, he’s hiding under a hat, his eye closed as he sings. It seems like some sort of technical or instructional video, rather than a thrilling music video.

But the video is actually bookended by two good shots. The vid opens with a 25-second continuous shot as the camera follows a microphone lead across the floor and up the microphone stand, where Sam starts to sing. And right at the end the camera dares to do a wide shot of sorts (it’s very low so you can’t see the heads of the band members), zooming in on the bass drum, going right in through the hole, where the drummer hits the pedal on the final beat.

It’s a frustrating video because it seems to be ignoring the song’s theme of troubled love, and isn’t particularly bothered about promoting the band. But maybe that’s the point. The song is short enough that the extreme-close-up style doesn’t have time to become really boring. Kitsch are still together, and I reckon they’re the kind of band who have a loyal following and don’t need to go making a cool music video to expand their audiences.

Best bit: the band’s set list, with the song title circled. Such an attention seeker.

Next… you cannae change the laws of physics.