I’m always jazzed when I hear an obscure song in the wild that makes me stop and go “Wait. I know that song. Fuck. What is that song? Oh yeah! I like that song. Haven’t heard it in a while. I’m going to queue it up right now!”
This happened throughout my favorite Edgar Wright films, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. When XTC‘s Sgt. Rock came on in Hot Fuzz, a song that I’m quite familiar with, it took what felt like an eternity to place it because it just isn’t a song I’d ever expect to hear anywhere in the wild.
Here’s the trailer for Shaun of the Dead. At about 1:24 L7‘s Pretend We’re Dead kicks in.
(SIDEBAR: Start at 1:15 and watch them decide which Prince records are expendable)
The Wes Anderson films used to do that for me too but now that I know he and I have similar musical taste I actually listen for his choices. This took me by surprise though as it was the first Anderson films I watched.
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Spotted anything in the wild lately?
Listeners to NPR’s “Marketplace” will note that the bridge music often acts as a commentary about the previous story. Since the show usually plays an instrumental passage from the song, it can be tricky to figure out the link, esp. if it is relation to the lyrics or the artist. I had a good laugh one day when I placed the bass/guitar line as the one from the Go-Between’s “A Bad Debt Follows You.”
Go-Betweens? Yay.
I didn’t know the song but when the Incredible String Band’s Little Cloud popped out at the end of the low-key French movie The Summer Hours it was a surprise and delight. Wonderful!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8H01nkmMUk
Also, Wes Anderson’s sometimes interesting Darjeeling Express winds out with Joe Dassin’s Les Champs Elysees. Toe-tapping fun as we saw the film at an outdoor cinema. Couldn’t have been further removed from that boulevard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-8MDDtTmmA&feature=fvw
I remember being in the theater, seeing the trailer for Darjeeling Express, and having my mind blown when the opening resonator guitar chords of This Time Tomorrow came on. The movie didn’t seem like something I’d want to see, but that’s my favorite Kinks song.
I know this isn’t exactly what this thread is about, but my mind was just blown yesterday hearing Howlin’ Wolf’s Smokestack Lightning in the background of a Cialis commercial. The song cured my ED without the drug.
I’ve always thought it was strange that Scorsese claims to be a big Punk Rawk enthusiast. When’s he a-going to do his Punk Rawk Opus????
One of my favorite movie trailers continues to be for “Buffalo 66.” Great use of editing to Yes’s “Long Distance Runaround.” Too bad the movie didn’t live up to the potential of the trailer.
And Wes Anderson movies are some of my favorites for many reasons, the soundtracks being part of the pleasure. That Creation song is the bomb!
lady mk,
Yeah the trailer for Buffalo 99 was great, but I think the film more than lives up to the trailer’s potential.
I think the film is probably one of the most important made in the 90s–re: its expressionistic and intense look at the American family adrift, without resorting to pop-cult psychology (see American Beauty).
Also, it does seem that Vincent Gallo’s character is as discombobulated as he is in real life.
I loved Darjeeling Express.
lmk- The NPR nugget is a great spotting in the wild. I was hoping at least one person could come up with something that wasn’t in a movie or a trailer. 3 bonus points for you.
Dr. John, I didn’t say I didn’t enjoy the movie. I agree with you on your take of it. I was just saying that the movie didn’t live up to the trailer – I went to the movie specifically because of the wonderful editing of that trailer. The movie, if I’m remembering correctly, was much more leisurely in it’s pacing. I did love Angelica Houston as the biggest Buffalo Bill’s fan…
Another spotting in the wild: I just got back from a trip to Trader Joe’s. And as I’m nearing the checkout, what do I hear…a now unfortunately familiar xylophone solo. It took me a second to place it. But then I heard that snarky snicker, and I recognized “Moonlight, Feels Right.” Aggghhh! Sometimes recognition is not a good thing!
“Buffalo 66” is da bomb! Great soundtrack too.
isn’t it Heart of the Sunrise in B66?
i don’t think Long Distance Runaround is in it.
Shawn, you’re right. My bad. I’ve been perseverating about it all morning and just watched the trailer on IMDB.
The radio station which broadcasts the Boston Red Sox has used The Specials, Le Tigre, and a number of other unexpected bands as the music leading into innings after coming back from commercials.
Yeah, the football games this weekend had some weird stuff, I think I heard that Elastica hit from many years ago as they took a break from the action that was interrupting the commercials.
My wife and I saw “Date Night” over the weekend and the only only soundtrack items I recall are Blitzkrieg Bop as the morning alarm goes off (Hey Ho Let’s Go to start another hectic day, blah) and Your Love has Lifted Me Higher & Higher over the final credits (slightly better than Let’s Stay Together but still ordinary).
This film could have been much better, like a cross between “After Hours” and a sharp sitcom. And, since this topic started with Scorsese, I was very surprised to look up the soundtrack to “After Hours” to find that a movie taking place entirely in the arty underworld of the Village in the early 80’s had almost no notable songs on it’s soundtrack:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Hours_%28film%29#Soundtrack_listing
Except the Bad Brains of course.
As the baseball playoff season approaches I’ve been paying particular attention to the walk-up music of my Phillies. At the game on Friday night I realized that Jayson Werth changed from his customary Sammy Hagar tune to something like a Coldplay song, with clipped cellos and highly emotive singing. Weird, but it seems to be working for Werth, who finally seems to be out of his long funk.
I also noticed that catcher Carlos Ruiz has started using Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight,” right at the point of the big drum fill. This surprised me because Ruiz took this number from another player, either backup catcher Brian Schneider, who joined the Phils this year, or August acquisition Mike Sweeney – I can’t remember which white journeyman had been using it. Now I’ve got to see if the song is being used by two players, or if Ruiz somehow traded for the exclusive rights to this walk-up song.
My wife and I agree, k., that Date Night should have been at least a notch better. I attribute it to the acting limitations of nice guy Steve Carrell. To me, he’s the Tim Conway of our times.
Every now and then we go to Damon’s for lunch, mostly so I can eat Caesar salads and french onion soup. When we’ve been there in the evening, it’s always big, dumb jock jams and rap or hip hop. In the afternoon,I swear you have no idea what they’ll play next. I was cringing at a Katy Perry song the other day, but the next song was Janie Jones. A little later they played Execution Day by New Pornographers. I think they use some kind of science to make music nerds stick around. There’s no rhyme or reason, the songs just pop up randomly, just often enough to keep me paying attention.
Speaking of great Wes Anderson music choices:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0yucFw3qCQ
the jam’s ‘what you give is what you get’ this morning at burger king.
i liked Date Night. It was exactly what I expected. I attribute it’s mediocrity to the fact that it was made for a mass audience. I can deal with comedies on that level, so i was fine with it.
However, i think there’s no way Blitzkrieg Bop would have been in there if Ramones hadn’t been in Tannenbaums a few years back. Just as I feel there’s no way YYZ would have been in I Love You Man if it prog hadn’t been used in Buffalo 66 a decade ago.
Cultural trickle down, from Art House to Multiplex.
Also, if i’m correct in assuming BJMassacre was used in Boardwalk Empire, it’s probably only because HBO wouldn’t spring for Real Stones.
machinery: I almost posted that one. Overweight Murray in a bathrobe going badass on pirates to Search and Destroy is simultaneously ridiculous and kick-ass. Which is how I often feel during an Anderson flick.
I still feel sad for that dog in The Life Aquatic. And did he get a song?
I can’t hold my tongue any longer. What is it, Nico songs like her version of “These Days” and “Chelsea Morning” playing every time Wes Anderson preciously frames the heavily kohl-lidded Gwyneth Paltrow in The Royal Tennenbaums? UGH! Count me as possibly the founding member of Team Wes Anderson Films (With the Exception of Bottle Rocket) Blow and One Day You Will Thank Me for Explaining Your Eventual Change of Heart! I know I’ve told some of you before of my extreme desire to punch Wes Anderson while watching Tennenbaums. It’s not even that it was a completely uninteresting movie, but every frame was so fucking precious and devoid of life and chance and UNself-conscious moments! Does Anderson take a single dump each week at an appointed time? UGH! I felt the same way about Rushmore and the little bit I could stomach of the The Life Acquatic. I disliked Rushmore so much that I had to consider if I really liked the groovy soundtrack.
Mod, I hear you. Tannebaums started palusibly but in the end seemed to be bits of movie strung together between the songs. Ultimately devaluing both.
I think that former Devo guy Mark Mothersbaugh who is musical advisor on TRBs and other Anderson films.
m mothersbaugh = former and current devo guy
Agree too, Wes Anderson’s track record is rather spotty.
Bottle Rockets: charming at times, but the treatment of the maid/love interest reveals high levels of white male privilege, an ongoing issue for Anderson, it seems.
Rushmore: really funny, maybe doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but hits me on an emotional level. The scene where the Bill Murray character sees the kid working in his dad’s barber shop (and realizes the kid’s class background) is powerful–and shows off Murray’s acting skills.
Royal Tenenbaums: so, I’m supposed to care about this family? Why?
Life Aquatic: half way through the pirate battle, I realized either this is deeply racist or an “homage” to the sort of racist kid tales of high-seas adventure of the past (the latter again reveals high levels of white male privilege). Besides that, it just pretty much sucks.
Darjeeling Limited: After the previous two films, I don’t know why I even watched this. But I’m glad I did, because this is actually good. People are going through real-life issues that are identifiable as such, and the film is a sly, and much more culturally aware (than in his previous films), take on the idea of the spiritual quest abroad.
I don’t really think as ballet/modern dance classes as very wild, and the music is usually re-arranged Classic melodies, some tribal music, or what have you. So last night, what does my modern teacher trot out for us to travel across the floor to? “Mexican Radio” Honestly, the last song I would have thought of. And once in a ballet class, the teacher led us through plies to “Harvest Moon.” I do think there is a significant overlap between dancers and people who love good music.
I think a lot of people misunderstand the Anderson films. They are precious and devoid of real emotion I feel by design. Hence all of the ornate theatre trappings.
I am not a theater fan for the same reasons Mod is not a Tennenbaum fan. But in order to present this exaggerated stage play of a movie chock full of ridiculous faux-literary characters Wes must certainly be in on the joke. Rushmore even has a play within the movie/play that is even more riduclous than the movie.
I get it and find it hilarious. Also loved The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Brilliant. Good but not great soundtrack. Beach Boys, Stones and Bobby Fuller Four are the highlights. Funny to watch animal puppets kicking ass to Street Fighting Man.
Nicely said, Sammy.
Thanks lmk. At the risk of sounding like Barney Fife (“It’s like I always say…”)
After writing that I thought the perfect word to describe Wes’ oeuvre is “staged.” Things in his movies feel extremely staged; characters, sets, framing, dialog… He carries it so far that it becomes delightfully ridiculous and wonderfully creative.
Dr. John asked why he was supposed to care about the characters. I don’t think you are supposed to in an Anderson film. Enjoy them? Yes. Care for them, not so much.
Given that. I certainly can see why he wouldn’t be everyone’s cuppa.
Yes I used “oeuvre” and “cuppa” to make myself sound staged.