There Is No Cat - First I’ll shoot up and then it’s your turn

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

First I’ll shoot up and then it’s your turn

A little over a year ago, I was musing about an old compilation of music videos put out by New Zealand record label Flying Nun and how I would love to see a DVD compilation of Nunvideos. So I went to the Flying Nun site to tell them about these amazing new kind of shiny discs that they could use to cram a whole truckload of videos on to, make it region free so anyone in the world could watch it, and sell them by the carton. I know they got the message, because on their customer contact and FAQ page, they also had something about how Chris Knox is willing to record custom versions of his classic song "Not Given Lightly" for weddings, and I enquired about that in the same message and wound up trading a couple of DVDs to Chris for one of those custom versions for our nuptuals.

Anyway.

I’m not claiming that I had any impact on this, or that the fine fine folks at Flying Nun hadn’t somehow taken note of these wacky DVD thingys before I mentioned the possibility of dumping a metric ton of videos on an unsuspecting public. In fact, I’m sure I had nothing to do with the fact that Flying Nun last week released their first DVD, entitled Very Short Films, containing 41 videos dating back to the earliest days of the label. A number of them are on that old VHS tape of mine, so I know them, and some of them are quite creative. I think my favorite was "Gascrankinstation" by the Headless Chickens, although Tall Dwarfs’ "Nothing’s Gonna Happen" gives it a run for the money. There are some notable omissions, though, like Tall Dwarfs’ "Turning Brown and Torn in Two", which was also incredible.

They didn’t take me up on the idea of making it NTSC compatible as well, but I’m pretty sure I can play PAL DVDs on our computer, if not on our DVD player and TV. If you can do the same and you’re interested, Smoke CDs in NZ has the DVD on sale.

Posted at 12:10 AM

Comments

Hey thanks for the heads up on this... I didn’t even know they were coming out with a dvd. Looks really good, although I would have chosen something different by the Verlaines, I think. I love Look Blue Go Purple, and Chris Knox, and The Chills, but, yep, Tall Dwarfs’ Nothing’s Gonna Happen would prolly be my favourite off the whole thing.

Posted by deb at 6:41 AM, May 12, 2004 [Link]

thanks for reminding me about this (i have somehow gotten myself on the flying nun mailing list three times so i got the announcement from them in triplicate, but still hadn’t gotten around to doing anything about it). i’d like to believe that you had a hand in it, so i will. i took the opportunity to order the new dimmer album, the new "speed of sound" comp, and the verlaines greatest hits thingie as well. it still thrills me to only have to pay about $12 to get 4 cd’s shipped from half-way ’round the world. what an f-ing bargain.

i have no idea why i needed to tell you this, but i did. (perhaps it’s because i haven’t talked flying nun with anyone in awhile?)

Posted by shirley at 11:27 PM, May 12, 2004 [Link]

Yeah, Shirley, I took the opportunity to order a few other things too, including that new Dimmer album. I wasn’t crazy about the last one, but it’s Shayne Carter; I have to believe he’s still capable of greatness. The CDs aren’t as cheap as they were when the dollar was strong, but I agree, it still feels like a bargain. I even took a flyer on a CD of 1960s NZ garage bands on Zodiac Records, a label I don’t remember hearing of (but it’s probably mentioned in that huge book about the history of rock ’n’ roll in NZ, the name of which escapes me at the moment....)

Deb, I don’t know if I’ve actually seen any other Verlaines videos. So I can’t say if any of the others would be a better choice, but my guess is that they probably would, since the Death and the Maiden bunnies video is honestly only appealing in an "it’s so bad it’s good" way (and of course is for a fantastic song).

Posted by ralph at 9:21 PM, May 13, 2004 [Link]