February 2005
Strawpeople featuring Jordan Reyne “Wire”
“Wire” is the last of the the 17 videos the Strawpeople had funded. That’s a lot of videos – they’re outnumbered only by Salmonella Dub, Katchafire, Greg Johnson, The Feelers and Shihad.
April 2005
Alphrisk “Guess Who’s Here”
“Guess Who’s Here” asks Alphrisk. The answer is Alphrisk. He’s joined by fellow Deceptikon Savage, and notes that the “Deceptikonz are going places”. There’s a live performance of the song on the short-lived New Zealand version of Top of the Pops.
Bennett “Stop Holding Us Back”
Bennett’s second and final funded video is the assertive “Stop Holding Us Back”.
Blindspott “Trevor Sue Me”
The weirdest entry in the old NZ On Air database was funding for a Blindspott song called “Trevor Sue Me”. No song (or video) with this name exists, so I assume it’s a placeholder title. That raises the question: who was Trevor and how did he earn the ire of Blindspott?
Michael Murphy “How Good Does It Feel”
I’m not sure if a video was made for NZ Idol runner-up Michael Murphy’s second single “How Good Does It Feel”, but it’s on the list. If so, it was his one and only funded video. This seems like such a luxury – a reality show contestant being allowed to release an album full of original songs. Murph’s post-Idol solo career didn’t have a future, but he will later show up with his band 5star Fallout. (Bonus: long-term readers of my online oeuvre may wish to think back to #sodamncontroversial and laugh and laugh and laugh.)
Sommerset “Magdalene”
Sommerset has the dramatically titled “Magdalene (Love Like a Holocaust)”, which sounds like the aftermath of a bad break-up. It was the final of Sommerset’s five funded videos.
Director: Andrew Morton
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision
The New Trends “Five Minutes With You”
The New Trends were a high school duo from Taradale. They were finalists in the 2004 Rockquest, the same year Incursa won and Kimbra was the runner-up. But they had their most success with the song “Five Minutes with You”, which placed second at the Play It Strange songwriting awards in 2004, including a performance of the song by Michael Murphy.
Director: Paul Taylor
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision
Instead…
The consolation video for this month is a charity single. “Anchor Me”, the Mutton Birds’ nautical love song, was recorded by an all-star line-up to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the sole act of international terrorism in New Zealand.
Director: Tim Groenendaal
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision
I don’t think this video actually ended up having NZ On Air funding, but still going to include it. “In Between” was filmed by Andy Morton at a gig in Berlin, the same German show that also features in the band’s “Faded” video.
The “Faded” video follows Sommerset on tour in Germany in 2004. It immediately reminded me of the video for Steriogram’s song 
Sommerset’s third video was for “Say What You Want” a lively punk-pop number with vocals from guitarist Milon. The video is basically the band on bicycles, hooning around the Tank Farm area. From memory, the band put out a call for extras on bikes via C4. And I’m pretty sure C4 host Phil can be seen on a bike – at least it looks like him through the chunky pixels of his lowres version.
Auckland punk-arse punks Sommerset return with “Inside”, a rage against the claustrophobic lifestyle. The adventure begins with a loved-up young couple on a couch. This leads to footage of sperm swimming, and the next thing there’s a baby on the scene.
Oh, this song. Juice TV thrashed it, and loved Sommerset so much it awarded them “Special Lifetime Achievement Award for services to R.O.C.K” (whatever that signifies) at the Juice TV Awards in 2005.