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.
Alicexx
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