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The Straitjacket Fits are a New Zealand band notable for their melodic interplay of guitars and vocals combined with muscular, dynamic rock songs. They stood apart from the “jangle guitar pop” associated with the “Dunedin Sound” of most other bands on the Flying Nun record label which they were signed to. The band achieved critical success both nationally and internationally, released 2 EP’s and 3 albums and are well known for their singles “She Speeds”, “Dialling a Prayer”, “Sparkle that Shines”, “Hail, “Down in Splendour”, “Done”, “Cat Inna Can” and “If I Were You”.
This is the official music video for “She Speeds” from the album “Hail” by the Straitjacket Fits.
It opens with a tracking shot driving past numbered warehouse doors acting as a countdown to the opening guitar line Then becomes a sequence of close-ups of the band singing and playing instruments with coloured patterns projected onto them, the band performing on a trailer being driven through a tunnel and the band performing against a red wall.
"She Speeds was made by Johnny Ogilvie. The 'budget' was 250 dollars. I think most of that was spent on hiring a camera crane. Most of the other special effects came courtesy of coloured cellophane, a projector and the band members lying in a bath and being shot from above. I think it was shot on 16mm but there wasn't actually that much film so pretty much every shot had to be right. I suppose it became almost the iconic Straitjacket's clip if ever such a thing existed. Whenever TV played a clip from the band it'd always be that shot from the chorus where I turned my head to reveal the self-styled haircut which to this day, still gets a laugh from anyone else in the room. I can remember I just used to grab handfuls of peroxide throw it on the back. We shot the outside shots on the back of a truck going through the Lyttelton tunnel and I can remember it being so cold that despite the consumption of quite a lot of vodka beforehand we were completely stone cold sober after one run through. Despite the occasional sync problems and the obvious budget limitations I always liked this clip. It was bold and it's homemade psychedelics really captured some essence of the band - a lot more so than some of our later, more rockist efforts with a hundred times the budget. It was our breakout clip really cos it was the first one we ever did. Despite the Haircut we looked cool too. That's always important..." - Shayne Carter in conversation with Roger Shepherd, 2008