Me So Horny – 2 Live Crew

So my brother is seven years older than me and was into all of the bands I should have been into when I was young. I’ve never recovered fully from the decision to call bullshit on his suggestions, but I have benefited from him in other ways. For instance, he was always able to rent the movies (and covertly show them to me) that I was way too young to watch. This is why I saw Clockwork Orange at age ten and Full Metal Jacket at eleven. So when, in my “explicit sexual references are amazing” mode of elementary/middle school existence, I discovered that a movie I had secretly been exposed to was referenced in a song I was supposed to be too young to hear, I was hooked. I bought maybe every 2 Live Crewtape and sung/rapped the tracks with headphones in my room. A lifetime of trying to find the most obscure reference/taste has followed.

Little Green Bag – George Baker Selection

The first Soundtrack I ever bought - besides the Beverly Hills Cop 1 & 2 Soundtracks (which I actually still have on LP). The first Soundtrack I listened to to relive the film.

Admittedly, my brother showed me this film and Clerks, and then I went out and found El Mariachi, started reading a little bit and found the Indie Scene that was already trucking along at that point. But this was the song you’d hear me playing in my room the most…especially when I was planning my own VHS-C Tarantino Copycat movies in middle school. That this was the first music I wrote to might explain why every single early video I made had a gun in it and a group of guys in suits. There are a lot of catchy/memorable tracks on that Soundtrack now that I think about it. Besides the obvious Ear Scene accompaniment “Stuck In The Middle With You” there is the hilarious/creepy pseudo rape song “I Gotcha” by Joe Tex: “You made me a promise/And you're gonna stick to it/You shouldn't have promised/ If you weren't gonna do it/You saw me and ran in another direction/I'll teach you to play with my affection/ Now, give it here/You never should've promised to me/ Give it here/ Don't hold back, now /Give it here/Don't say nothin', just give it here /Come on, give it here, uh…”

Mon Espirit Part En C… - Expression Direkt

A friend of mine bought La Haine (Hate) on a whim at the cool downtown Philly Video Store whose name I can’t remember. A week after that I was back in the store to buy the last VHS copy of the film. I showed it to my brother, to my folks, anybody who would watch it. I repeated the phrase Jusque si, tout va bien. For better or worse La Haine was the first International Film I absolutely fell in love with and treated as though it were a sacred text. I found the Soundtrack amidst a pile of used CDs while being dragged to the local used records store with my Dad and couldn’t believe I’d found it. It seemed too bizarre the French film I’d been watching almost as much as Dawn of the Dead--a whole different list-- would not only have a soundtrack but would appear before my eyes in a bin on one of my Dad’s OCD Jazz-hunting trips. I got the soundtrack and listened to it on loop. I tried to learn French via this song. I was unsuccessful. I remember blasting this song in 9th Grade Geometry, desperately hoping the girls would think I was cool with my French rap and my Jimi Hendrix T-shirt. Ouch. Another reason I had a juvenile obsession with Jodie Foster; the big quote on the back of the La Haine VHS box was from her and it said “This Movie Rocked Me!”

A Quick One While He’s Away – The Who

So, Rushmore. After the French Rap debacle I developed a bit of a crush on a girl in 9th grade who cornered me one day, reminded of something. “Have you seen Rushmore?” Oh my god, she’s not only talking to me but she’s got my taste down!

“Yes! I have! It’s awesome!”

“Yeah. I thought you’d like it. It’s kind of a stupid movie, though. Right?”

Heartbreak, young Miss, heartbreak. But as I began working later that year, commuting 30 minutes after school and on weekends this Soundtrack was my most common theme music. This song especially got me through many an angst-filled afternoon…setting it on repeat and turning out of the school’s parking lot.

The Man in Me – Bob Dylan & For Your Love – The Yardbirds

At work I became friends with a few older kids who were kind enough to get me drunk for the first time, take me to pool halls and teach me about the fine art of staying out late and going to Diners. We weren’t very adventurous, but we still wanted Homefries and Coffee, damnit. This was the crowd I watched Fear and Loathing and Big Lebowski with so many times I could run lines. We all had the Soundtracks; we all played them on loop. When we got the chance we would play the songs at work and scream out the words like total nerds. The two that got the most play were “Hotel California” and “Mama Told Me Not To Come” but these were the tracks that I played and sang to myself when I got home. The beginning of my (mostly tame) high school adventures. When I read The Perks of Being a Wallflower later on and Stephen Chbosky mentions “Asleep” by the Smiths as being central to reliving those moments…I guess these are those songs. Later I would get into a car accident driving to work in a blizzard while “White Rabbit” was blasting in the stereo. Bad song for that moment.

Girlfriend is Better – Talking Heads

Another track and film introduced to me by my brother. He had the VHS tapes for Stop Making Sense and True Stories buried in the cabinet underneath the television. When he went off to college I actually excavated his tastes without the threat of him feeling complimented. Embracing the Talking Heads as a teenager is not a new story, and I’ll spare you the impression they made on me – but watching or listening to Stop Making Sense these days I get the same elated feeling. There’s no sentimentality in this choice. The again, maybe I just haven’t grown.

Damaged Goods – Gang of Four

Freshman Year of College I was exposed to Gang of Four and my roommate’s life was forever tainted. A few of us Film Kids had met and decided we wanted to shoot a feature our second semester. So I started writing a screenplay in between classes on roommate Lee’s computer (really to use his nice desk chair) while blasting this song. The project died about three weeks after I finished the script (when everyone got a chance to read it) but the song always reminds me of that first writing assignment and of the first meeting of like minds.

Oh Comely – Neutral Milk Hotel

There are a lot of songs that bring back College memories. And since most of my College experience was spent worrying about Film School-related shit there’s really no separation. I was ignorant of NMH until friend Sandro introduced me to them on one of our evenings spent discussing films till 3am. Yet again, “Oh Comely” was the song I claimed as my own from the amazing Aeroplane album, and it serves as a reminder of nights spent arguing over the artistic merits (or lack thereof) of Irreversible, of repeatedly watching the Dumpster Man scene in Mulholland Drive and the long war over Mystic River. It’s no surprise that those not won over by Jeff Mangum’s voice find “Oh Comely” to be the album’s most grating song, but I think it’s exactly the kind of ornately beautiful storytelling that demands you add your voice to the mix.

A Change Is Gonna Come – Sam Cooke

Florida State’s very own V89 played this song one night as I was headed home, severely depressed for some reason. When I parked my car in the Apartment Complex I sat still for three minutes, listening to the end, completely distracted. I downloaded the song 20 minutes later, remembered hearing it for the first time in the climactic scene in Malcolm X and have held it up as my favorite song of all time ever since. When I was driving my employers around during the Toronto Film Festival a few years ago at this time I kept Sam Cooke’s Portrait of a Legend CD on a loop. It was the only thing I listened to on solo runs. Once, when my boss got in the car in the morning I still had the CD playing, and I was yelled at for not having his music ready. This blasphemy was not overlooked when I quit that job a few weeks later.

Angst In My Pants – Sparks

I must admit my Soundtrack fanaticism has teetered off in the last few years. Though I still pick them up now and again (or get illegal rips), I don’t usually listen to them all the way through to relive the film. So it’s fitting that this song sits atop my itunes Most Played List. These days when writing I usually try to construct a temporary track list, at the very least something to capture the feeling I’m going for while I work on an idea. With every film I write I find influence and inspiration from my friends and their impeccable taste. I’ve gotten a lot of music from Filipe over the years. This song, however, comes from our friend Ryan.

When he and I were writing our Horror film together this song quickly became the End Credits music and could be heard around the apartment, in my room, his or Filipe’s for the following months. It’s definitely a prime example of the communal nature of our current creative environment but only one of the many tracks Ryan and other friends have exposed me to at the exact right moment to spark (zing!) some kind of inspiration.

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