Blindspott “Yours Truly”

“Yours Truly” was the first single from Blindspott’s second album, End the Silence. The band had moved away from the nu metal stylings of the first album and had gone for a more traditional metal sound. And as drummer Shelton explained, “It doesn’t really fit into a genre, like the whole ’emo’ sound that’s around now.”

The non-emo “Yours Truly” opens and closes with an animated swoop around a city, where all the buildings are adorned with religious symbols: a star of David, a Dharma wheel, the star and crescent, and a cross. Completely separate from this, Blindspott are rocking out on a front lawn in front of an old villa at night.

The video is full of meaningful symbols. Inside the villa, a glass of milk bleeds, white lilies burn, and a statue of the Virgin Mary hangs out on a table. Shelton takes a nice hot bath, except he also has a mouthful of blood. Purity! Innocence! Ebola!

But that’s all basic music video stuff. Blindspott then bring out some classic Tool stylings from the ’90s. Damian finds himself with large tree branches sprouting from his back. And then there’s a bald-headed dude (dudes?) with two torsos and no legs. I’d like to see follow-up on this. What’s everyday life like when you have a tree growing out of your back? How does your girlfriend feel when you have another head instead genitals?

Blindspott have always paid a lot of attention to their music videos. “Yours Truly” isn’t anything amazing, but yet it’s still a quality Blindspott video and more ambitious than what most New Zealand metal bands of the era did.

Best bit: the two-headed dude manages to do a push-up.

Directors: Stephen Tolfrey, Marcus Ringrose
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… going for a drive along the beach.

Duchess “You Buried Me Alive”

2004-duchess-you-buried-me-aliveBefore there was Duchess, there was Handsome Geoffrey, a trio from Hamilton Girls’ High School who won the Smokefree Rockquest in 1998. They added Jon Corker (formerly of Rubicon) on drums, dropped the Rockquest theatrics, and emerged as Duchess, still with Anna Coddington’s melodious songwriting at the heart.

The “You Buried Me Alive” video is a simple performance video, with the band set up in a black room. Anna and Aidee have really sweet vocals, but the song has slightly dark lyrics. The video goes even darker, shot in a shadowy, gothic palette. Against this gloomy setting, Anna’s vocals sound even sweeter and more innocent, which in turn adds tension when the crunch ’90s-style guitar riffs come along.

The footage is also interrupted by animated plant roots, a dark weed twisting around the scenes. This actually seems unnecessary, like an attempt to underscore how dark and gothic things are, in case Aidee’s chipper blonde style was too distracting.

But all up, it’s a good introduction to Duchess. Sweet, girly, but a lot darker and stronger than first appearances might suggest.

Best bit: Jon’s fedora, sitting at a jaunty angle.

Director: Stephen Tolfrey

Next… girl fight.