See here for the Musical Supervisor at Gossip Girls' Holiday Gift Guide. I love that the only thing she says about Jane Birkin is that she has Hermes bag named after her!
Check out the other videos for Leighton Meesters' pop video and other videos about music on Gossip Girl, good stuff.
As everyone else is doing it, I thought I would too, here it is in no order my list of my favourite songs of 2009. Surprisingly indierock heavy, where was all the electropop?
In no particular
Allo Darlin' - The Polaroid Song Why? - Even The Good Wood Gone Karen O and The Kids - Rumpus The Postmark - No One Said This Would Be Easy Phoenix - 1901 Camera Obscura - French Navy The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Falling Over (DJ Downfall Sprechenbann Mix) Drums - Lets Go Surfing Still Flyin' - Aerosmith Take me to... The Other Side Yo La Tengo - All Your Secrets James Husband - A Grave in the Gravel The Wooden Birds - False Alarm Wilco - You and I Veronica Falls - Beachy Head Best of 2009 Spotify playlist
Other releases, which aren't on spotify... The Declining Winter - Haunt The Upper Halls Shrag - Rabbit Kids The Bright Lights album Champagne Riot - Scandinavian Warfare
Oh yes, my band Arthur and Martha released an album this year too, why not take a listen?
It has to be said that you really don’t want to be John Safran’s ex-girlfriend, in his latest T.V series ‘Race Relations’ the aussie comic has already stolen his ex-girlfriend’s dirty knickers for a sniff test and asked to make out with his exes mums all in the name of science. Surprisingly he managed to steal ten pairs of panties and all the exes mums obliged for the make out sesh some of them looking rather excited at the prospect. What does this have to do with indierock I hear you say? Well John spends a lot of the series pining after one particular ex, Debra Kee Higgins who left John for Barry Hogan, organiser of the All Tomorrows Parties festival. This comes to a head in episode four of the series where John confronts Debra and Barry in an interview (they think they’re doing MTV talking about the festival) and he falls embarrassingly on his face in front of the obviously in love couple, this is car crash telly.
John has also done a series completely devoted to music, 'John Safran's Musical Jamboree'. In one episode of which he dressed up as Beck and goes to a Scientology convention (surpisingly this was before Beck came forward as a Scientologist), he's probably the most unconvincing Beck ever.
Q "is your voice monotonous rather than varied in pitch?" John "I think that's unfair, mellow gold was meant to sound like that"
John Safran is a total genius, but no never ever go out with him, you don't know what will happen!
I ventured to the cinema in the rain today to see Where the wild things are, the Spike Jonze/Jim Henson adaptation of the book of the same name. An adorable film with enough cutesyness and unrequited love to keep us indie kids happy.
OK, so technically this is not a film that should be reviewed on this blog, there are no indie bands name dropped in it, and no famous cameos (though I do think Max Records is too cool a name for him not to form a band in later years)
1.Dialogue - sorry thats a 0 cardigan points
2.Music paraphernalia yeah another 0 cardigan points, that fort is clearly missing a nice Wild Beasts poster...
3. Ok no real cameos though Paul Dano, voice of Alexander (the goat monster that no one listens to) is in the NYC based band Mook no I haven't heard of them either, but some of their songs are ok in an epic sounding indierock way. Check out their merch website where you can buy Mook teddy bears, BBQ aprons, coasters, mugs, wall clocks, pillows and mousepads, now there's a band that show initiative! Ok I guess that's 1/5 cardigan points
4.Soundtrack - The film was definitely made by Karen O and The Kids' awesome soundtrack. Part Arcade Fire, part Architecture in Helsinki it really complimented the movie and she even covers a Daniel Johnston song. Three cheers for Karen as she's been nominated for 2 Grammys for it too. Listen to the soundtrack on Spotify Easy 5/5 cardigan points
5. General indieness - Hella indie! Cute furry monsters that no one understands - check! Two monsters that are clearly in love with each other but don't want to deal with it - check! Kid in a cute wolf costume - check! Cutesy title drawings and cinematography - check! 5/5 cardigan points
OK so 21/50 cardigan points, not really that indie but definitely worth watching
Firstly apologies for my absence, my excuse is as ever, life, though since I last wrote I met Stuart Murdoch (ok I took his coat when I was working the cloakroom, no I didn't check his pockets!!), had a band practice with one of my many new musical projects, went to a crazy experimental show where a woman screamed into a piano and Simon Bookish played the recorder (that was just weird!) and celebrated American Thanksgiving. Phew!
So thanks for the emails guys recommending video clips to show and props to Alan for emailing this particular video. This is probably the most random thing ever, Chris Packham famed for his role on the Really Wild Show joined the presenters on Springwatch earlier this year.
Apparently it was a bet to see how many Smiths tracks he could reference throughout the series, and this is a montage of all those clips, I just love how some of them were rather set up, and good to see Bill Oddie get a mention too. And watch out for Chris wearing a Jesus and Mary Chain tee shirt in one clip, sorry Chris but you doing this isn't going to make Springwatch cool! So watch, enjoy and (like me) groan a lot...
Will be back soon with some movie reviews next week finally got to watch 10 Things I Hate About You and now obsessed with Julia Styles, she is so cool! Now I'm off to go watch some dudes get married, congratulations to Shummers and Spangles, may you spend many years being nerds in love!
A rare opportunity for me to feature some British telly, yey! For any American's reading, your kid from the wrong side of the tracks was The Fresh Prince where as we had this 'gritty' north eastern show about kids that hung out at Byker Grove youth centre. The show spawned such celebrities as the monstrosity that is Ant and Dec (or as in the show PJ and Duncan) though they did produce this genius rap song, you had Will Smith, us PJ and Duncan, obs we win! erm?
This scene is flawed though, what self respecting teenager of the 90s would have ever said Half Man Half Biscuit were her favourite band? And sorry were they ever in the top 20? I imagine John Peel would have been proud though.
Half Man Half Biscuit have some shows coming up, see here for more details.
Found this video clip showing one of my favourite name dropping scene from Gilmore Girls. Shame on Jesse for not knowing who Slint are, but props to the record store guy (played by Chuck E Weiss a Tom Waits collaborator and co-owner of the infamous Viper Room, fact kids) for helping him out. I like the fact he described them as grunge, obviously post rock requires too much explanation for the average Gilmore Girls fan. Also a triple whammy of the pixies playing in the background and chat about The Go-Go's.
A video from the vaults of TV gone past, it still slightly disturbs me to hear a classic being murdered in this way by Courtney Taylor of The Dandy Warhols. This was from Season 2 of Veronica Mars when the programmers were obviously struggling so much that they had to put cameo appearances in nearly every episode, these worked to our amusement, but really this is just a bit wrong.
Nice of them to get The Dandy Warhols on there seeing as their song 'We Used To Be Friends' was the theme tune to the program, (and was also, according to Wikipedia the theme music for the Australian reality series My Restaurant Rules). Must also mention their song 'Solid' was also used as the theme tune to the Apatow series Undeclared, another program that was cruely cancelled in it's prime, maybe it's the curse of The Dandy Warhols?
So, here we go, first review on the blog, the indie non-romantic comedy of the summer, enjoy!
(500) Days of Summer is a film charting the 500 days it takes for Tom Hansen (played by the lovely Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to fall in love, get his heart broken and get over the Summer Finn (played by indie princess Zooey Deschanel). Already the workings of a good indie movie cause indie boys are always pining over pretty indie girls in pretty dresses aren't they?
1. Dialogue - Where do I start? Well the fact their first conversation is about their mutual love of The Smiths is a good one though the best line in the whole film is when Tom laments that "It pains me to live in a world where no-one has ever heard of Spearmint". Spearmint, of all of the bands languishing in London late 90s indie all-so-rans obscurity they picked Spearmint, WTF!!! Interestingly enough my old band played a show with Spearmint about 7 years ago, I remember being very amused that they turned up with their own sound man, lighting man and guitar technician who all had matching 'Spearmint Crew' embroidered shirts. I was rather jealous, I want to be in a band that has roadies with embroidered shirts, did look rather out of place in the Bull and Gate though...
Obviously the writers must have thought that Spearmint represented the obscure cool they were going for with the movie, but come on, has anyone ever even thought the above statement apart from maybe the band and their mums? Good on Spearmint though, I hear they played the ICA recently, anyone go?
There's also a nice reference to Summer's love of Belle and Sebastian, and her quoting 'The Boy With The Arab Strap' in her college yearbook. And they have a chat about Springsteen too, the cool indiekids favourite troubadour. Points are lost cause she states that Ringo is her favourite Beatle, everyone knows that Paul is the best Beatle!
So The Smiths, Belle and Sebastian and Spearmint, that's hella indie, but a - point for her love of Ringo takes it to 4/5 cardigan points
2. Music Parapanalia - Well Gordon-Levitt wears not one but two different Joy Division teeshirts which is good but there's not really much indie product placement in this film (surprisingly even in the record shop scenes) so I guess that's 2/5 cardigan points
3. Band Appearances - Sadly no band cameos in this movie so a big fat 0 cardigan points EDIT, how did I not know at the time about She & Him? this must be changed to 5 cardigan points!
4. Soundtrack - pretty indie at times, The Smiths, of course... Regina Spector, Feist, The Temper Trap... he sings The Pixies in the Karaoke bar. Probably the boldest move is having a big song and dance number to 'You Make My Dreams' by the glorious Hall and Oates, a bold move for an indie film, I bloody love Hall and Oates.
OK so Cardigan points... has to be 5/5
5. Generally indie - this film is hella indie, for starters Zooey Deschanel is the top indie princess, she wears lovely dresses and has the ultimate indierock husband in Ben Gibbard. Joseph Gordon-Levitt wears cardigans and skinny ties and does the pining indie boy perfectly. And then there's the kooky cinematography and cutesy graphics which are really nicely done and not too twee (so as not to put off potential outsiders from seeing our indie flick).
One of the many things that make me smile about a good movie is when the character pops out a line about a certain indie band, when they're wearing a band tee shirt, when there's good music and even better when an indie band makes a rare cameo appearance. It makes me smile and it makes me feel like the movie maker gets my lil indie gal world and we have a bond over a shared love of indie rock (even if they may have put the reference in for marketing means, I maybe indie but I aint no fool!).
In brief this is a blog to amuse and celebrate the random indie references that appear in our favourite films and TV series. I will also look to rate movies and TV programs in terms of their indieness and indie music references by awarding them cardigan (the indie-est of apparel) points for five categories giving the film a final indie rating out of 25.
The five categories are...
1. Dialogue - points will be given for band mentions in dialogue and the more bizarre references will of course get max points, eg. Young Marble Giants, Slint (oh how I did spit out my tea when I saw that) and of course countless others being dropped into conversation in Gilmore Girls. The infamous triple whammy of The Shins/Death Cab/Bright Eyes in the Chrismukka episode of The O.C.
2. Music Paraphanalia - eg. posters,tee shirts, records in record shops, who can forget the Ladybug Transistor/Of Montreal poster in High Fidelity? Or the lovely Seth Rogen wearing a Sonic Youth tee shirt in 40 Year Old Virgin. Points again go for the most obscure band. Incidentally I actually booked a show for those two bands a few years ago and pretty much the first thing I said to them when they turned up for sound check was "it's just like the poster in high fidelity",see I maybe a dork but I have booked shows for bands that are totally cool, but then I go and blow it by behaving like a dork in front of them...
3. Band cameos - the obscurer the better, and if the band acts in the movie/film even better. I'm sure we were all watching with bemusement when Kim Gordon acted as the afficiate for Rufus and Lily's wedding on Gossip Girl, and also the common band playing in bar trick eg the bait shop, The Bronze, the Karaoke bar in Veronica Mars have all provided endless entertainment all round.
4. Soundtrack - how indie is the soundtrack? sometimes a film can be totally indie but not have any references to it, eg Lost In Translation (Jesus and Mary Chain, Kevin Shields), But I'm A Cheerleader (Dressy Bessy! April March!)...
5. General indieness - eg. cute girls wearing cute indiegirl dresses, boys with side partings in skinny ties and cardigan, cool vintage furniture, kooky cinematography, holding hands, cuteseyness
So I end my first post with links to a couple of videos of one of my favourite recent cameos, of course it's the lovely Kim Gordon marrying Rufus and Lily and Sonic Youth performing afterwards BTW, "I Don't Really Know Who is Sonic Youth, But They Seems Old School..." is one of my favourite quotes of the week.
See you soon for my first reviews of my favourite summer indie flicks 500 Days of Summer and Adventureland.
