Space Dust’s cover of the Lee and Nancy classic was on the soundtrack of “Snakeskin” bad-trip roadtrip Melanie Lynskey film. It takes the original and roughs it up a little, emphasising the psychedelic sound over the sexual (and gender) tension of the original.
The video uses a lot of clips from the film, but we also see the Christchuch-ish band playing the song in a smoky bar. The films clips are edited to match the tone of the song. It starts with scenes of the “Wheee! Roadtrip!” beginning, slowly moving to drug-fuelled weirdness and Oliver Driver’s menacing skinhead.
I think there’s too much of the film, like video is there purely to sell the movie, with the song just a footnote. That’s not right. A good movie tie-in video should work with both the song and the film.
But the big question is – does the video make me want to see the film? Well, it starts off doing a convincing job, but by the end Melanie Lynskey is alone with a gun in a dark abbatoir and it’s all looking a bit grim. (But watching a clip from the film does refresh my interest in it.)
The bar scenes with Space Dust fit in with the aesthetic of the film, but I can’t help feel that I’d rather see more of the band and less of the movie.
Bonus: Future mayor of Christchurch Bob Parker makes a cameo appearance as a dancing bar patron at 2:09. (Thanks to Philip Matthews for pointing this out!)
Best bit: Violet Space Dust’s horizontal hair.
Next… survival of the fittest.