Musical Mondays Week 39 Josie and the Pussycats

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

Now I'm curious as to what you had originally read lol.

I was thinking of Sarah Hyland's character where she was frumpy and good-natured throughout the movie then became a monster when she got dolled up for the prom.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

It's very hard to tell but her lead vocals suddenly have harmonies to them when Val wasn't even singing, and there sounds like there is an extra guitar in there.

 

But you're right, they take an already produced sound and then just produce it more I guess?

The produced track sounded to me exactly like the sound from their bowling alley performance.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

The produced track sounded to me exactly like the sound from their bowling alley performance.

I am taking that one as it wasn't supposed to sound like they were just playing in a bowling alley since it plays over the beginning credits and then boom we find out they were playing that song live. Almost like that's what it sounded like in their heads and then we get zapped back into reality where no one gave a shit lol.

[FisterRoboto 7499]

Sooooo....this is interesting.

 

I've been really busy the past couple weeks, and I'm like, "I'll go check in and see what the new MM is" and I get fucking called out in the announcement.

 

Anyway, I probably fall somewhere in the middle. I don't think the product placement or the subliminal messaging gags work for me at all, but there are certain things I really like about it (mostly related to Alan Cumming and Parker Posey).

 

My biggest problem (which I wrote in my Letterbox review that Taylor referenced when she announced this movie) is that this movie mined pop culture of the 50s and 60s into a movie that was by and large created by a studio by and large to sell a soundtrack (it was released before the movie even came out and was waaaaay more successful than the movie), and then it uses that movie to do satire about how bad exactly the thing they're doing is. Someone posted earlier that the film didn't receive any money from the sponsors who did product placement, but 1) this was free advertising for those sponsors (and the sponsors had to sign a waiver allowing their brands to be used; several brands declined), and 2) part of the agreement for the brand usage/advertising was that instead of paying for the advertising, they had to promote the movie (and/or soundtrack).

 

Someone (sorry, there was quite a bit of thread to go through, and I don't remember who said what) also said something about why this product placement rubs people the wrong way, but the Arrested Development/Burger King gags are great. And I think the difference is in the approach to those product placements. In AD, they are very obviously joking about how they themselves have sold out as a show.

 

JATP on the other hand is basically trying to tell everyone that the thing is bad...all the while doing that thing. The other thing this movie always gets compared to is Wayne's World, but again, the joke is very clearly that they are absolutely selling out. Even though the characters are saying anti-corporate things, they are doing bit after bit. I just don't see the same kind of self-awareness in this movie, especially given how the whole thing is about them trying to stay true to themselves and there's that whole cheesy thing with the ears during the last concert. It just all feels very forced. It's a very Hot Topic kind of anti-establishment views where it's pretending to be above all of these things, while it's all actually just that thing.

 

The last thing I'll say is......I totally agree with Cameron about the music. As soon as she said "punk rock prom queen," I was like, "Oh fucking please." I try really hard not to be the gatekeeper of what is and isn't punk, but yeah...this tier of pop punk has way more in common with the sugary pop groups they are trying to lambast than it does with, say, Jimmy Eat World, The Impossibles or even fuckin' Yellowcard. It's really friendly punk rock for the whole family!

 

Okay, for real last thing. I would have watched the hell out of a Left-Eye Lopes as Val JATP.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

The last thing I'll say is......I totally agree with Cameron about the music. As soon as she said "punk rock prom queen," I was like, "Oh fucking please." I try really hard not to be the gatekeeper of what is and isn't punk, but yeah...this tier of pop punk has way more in common with the sugary pop groups they are trying to lambast than it does with, say, Jimmy Eat World, The Impossibles or even fuckin' Yellowcard. It's really friendly punk rock for the whole family!

Honestly I totally understand not liking that kind of music, but my question really is did they even try to lambast sugary pop groups? I do think the movie itself is parodying boy bands for sure, but never once do our main three actually shit on DuJour. It even seems like Melody is a fan of theirs. The only time they seem to be anti-DuJour is when they find out their own manager skipped their show to get tickets, so it wasn't as much criticizing the other band as much as their own friend who would rather see someone else than them.

 

Also, totally only called you out for the comedy of it and because your review of it was still in my mind and I wanted us all to discuss this properly. I'm still unsure how I feel about Letterboxd's commenting system.

 

EDIT: Unless I'm once again misunderstanding the statement made, in which case there are definitely some IRL pop-punk bands that will shit on sugary pop but have way more in common than they think.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

Also also, I hope y'all know I kid when I say we can't be friends anymore lol

 

[FisterRoboto 7499]

Also, totally only called you out for the comedy of it and because your review of it was still in my mind and I wanted us all to discuss this properly. I'm still unsure how I feel about Letterboxd's commenting system.

Haha I totally got that. We're cool.

 

Also also, I hope y'all know I kid when I saw we can't be friends anymore lol

 

Except that we're not and you're dead to me, Taylor!

[tomspanks 9039]

I've been really busy the past couple weeks, and I'm like, "I'll go check in and see what the new MM is" and I get fucking called out in the announcement.

 

Hey Fister! How's your secret project coming along? WINK

[FisterRoboto 7499]

 

Hey Fister! How's your secret project coming along? WINK

It's coming along very well! I think we're just waiting on the member of our group handling the website to get it up and running, and then we're ready to launch. It's exciiiiiting!

[Smigg. 509]

I'm not involved in this whole thing usually, but I actually really like this movie.

[FisterRoboto 7499]

One thing I will say about this movie (that I hope doesn't sound at all like a slam, because it's totally not how I mean it) is that the main thought I had throughout my whole viewing was, "Man, I bet Taylor loves this movie so hard." Like, I totally see why this movie would be one that resonated with Taylor, especially given when it came out and how it was probably pretty formative for her.

 

Side note: if you guys don't listen to Blank Check w/ Griffin and David (a podcast I'm pretty sure I've mentioned many times on these forums before), they did an episode on this movie, which is why I watched it. They did it as an interlude between two of their main series. They always have a friend of the podcast come on in between miniseries to talk about a movie that the friend picked. The one they did before their last miniseries was when Paul guest starred and they talked about the movie Running Scared. Most recently, they had their intern-cum-associate-producer on, and she chose this one (although my favorite, most-unexpectedly-enjoyable "palette cleanser" so far has been when Griffin's sister came on and did The Devil Wears Prada, which I have watched so many times since because it's fucking charming).Anyway, both the Paul ep and the JATP eps are really good, and I highly recommend them.

 

And all of that brings me to trivia last week. One of the questions was about which singer-turned-actress was in Carmen: A Hip Hopera, and I immediately knew it was Beyonce. My whole team was like, "Have you actually seen that movie?" because it's a very non-Fister bit of trivia to know. And I was like, "No, I know it, but I can't remember why, but it's for something else that I'm pretty sure is a lot more on brand for me..."

 

And then it turned out that I knew it because Bey chose Carmen as her first film role after she didn't land the part of Val in the JATP movie. The consensus among my team was that that wasn't any better of a reason to know the answer.

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

I do enjoy this movie and have spent time defending it, but I should say that I do acknowledge the flaws. Some of the squabbling between band members is pretty predictable and uninteresting. The side characters are way more entertaining than the leads. They probably do go with the "massive product placement" joke a little too often.

 

I enjoy the satire, but it depends on your expectations. It's trenchant for this kind of movie, meaning something aimed at pre-teens and based on Archie comics. It's not terribly edgy if you compare it to Dr. Strangelove or something. I'd put this movie more in the "pleasant surprise" category than "best of the year" category.

[Smigg. 509]

I have to admit in all of my viewings of this movie I don't remember a young boy having to hide his love of this band. Also never saw Backdoor Lover as anything more than a butt sex innuendo song that would easily go over the head of any child watching but then be a subtle sex joke for adults (gay or straight). In my opinion I thought everything about DuJour was brilliantly done to poke fun at boy bands of the time. Especially cause I'm sure there are a lot more sex references in Backstreet Boys and N*SYNC than even I realize.

 

I channeled my inner Paul Scheer, and actually listened to this movie while I was working on the garden this afternoon, and this post sprung to mind.

 

Even in the first song you hear Josie and the Pussycats sing, you hear one. Although, it's probably me thinking about this post as making me hear things differently

 

I'm a punk rock prom queen

Brown paper magazine

Hotter than you've ever seen

Everywhere and between

I'm a ten ticket thrill ride

Don't you wanna come inside?

Five star triple threat

Hardest of the hard to get

No one's little red corvette

Ain't seen nothing like me yet

 

Just looking at the lyrics just makes me think there's a sly connotation, with references to porno mags, being a "thrill ride". It's filth.

[Cameron H. 23786]

I just found out Kay Hanley of Letters to Cleo was Josie's "voice."

 

 

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

I just found out Kay Hanley of Letters to Cleo was Josie's "voice."

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2tYHI63OQU

 

 

Man, get in line.

 

 

They got the singer from Letters to Cleo to sing as "Josie" in the movie, which seems pretty legit to me. I'm sure Ben Wyatt would agree!

 

 

[tomspanks 9039]

I just found out Kay Hanley of Letters to Cleo was Josie's "voice."

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2tYHI63OQU

 

 

 

Man, get in line.

 

Get further back in line, behind me.

 

 

Omg no wonder the songs reminded me of Letter to Cleo. I can’t believe I never knew that.

[Cameron H. 23786]

Wow! I totally missed those posts! I’m glad we both immediately thought of Ben, though!

[Smigg. 509]

The bit at the start when they play the "posthumous" single from DuJour, the girl who rants about how she "plugs her ears whenever that crap comes on!" just reminded me of when I was back at school, when there was pretty much a turf war between the people who listened to pop music, and the people who listened to rock music, and it came to a head when there was an actual fight between the two groups over the CD player.

 

Now, as the Metallica fan, you'd think I'd be whooping ass in the name of the rock music, and you'd be wrong, because I couldn't stand the "rock" group, because I found them to be arrogant and pretentious, because they looked down their nose at the people who listened to pop music. But the irony is, they were listening to the most mainstream of "alternative" music, and telling the pop listeners that they should be listening to "real music".

 

I was no better, because as a thrash/death metal fan, I just found it somewhat humourous that the people on the rock side were acting like they pop side were pussies, while they're rocking out to Muse.

 

So, hearing that girl just took me back to just standing off to the side watching the fight unfold like I was Clint Eastwood.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

The bit at the start when they play the "posthumous" single from DuJour, the girl who rants about how she "plugs her ears whenever that crap comes on!" just reminded me of when I was back at school, when there was pretty much a turf war between the people who listened to pop music, and the people who listened to rock music, and it came to a head when there was an actual fight between the two groups over the CD player.

So would you say that the Metallica fans beating the shit out of DuJour was more accurate than we thought?

[Smigg. 509]

So would you say that the Metallica fans beating the shit out of DuJour was more accurate than we thought?

 

If we're talking about Metallica in the 80s? Absolutely. There was this hatred from the thrash guys towards the glam/hair bands, so a boyband showing up, there'd be some words. However, more recently, probably not so much with Metallica, but with the more extreme bands, like Slayer and Death/Black Metal. which makes me look awful, because I love Slayer and a bit of death metal.

 

Metal fandom has this weird dick measuring contest among some fans for want of a better term. To me, there's a certain amount of "heavy" you can reach before it just sounds like absolute shit, but then you'd have some who'd say "What?! You don't listen to Scandanavian Folk Black Metal?! You fucking pussy!" they're basically the hipsters of Metal.

 

This scene from Metalocalypse kind of encompasses the attitude:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Uqz03Fgngk

[Cakebug Tranch 6873]

 

 

 

Get further back in line, behind me.

All y'all get way back there behind me.

 

(let's be clear: I'm not claiming to have had any part in the Kay Hanley posts. I'm mostly just staking my claim to be Adam Scott's future best friend)

[Cameron H. 23786]

I can’t believe how badly I Jim Steinman’d that...

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

I can’t believe how badly I Jim Steinman’d that...

 

I . . . don't understand this reference.

[FisterRoboto 7499]

I can’t believe how badly I Jim Steinman’d that...

Hey Cameron.

 

Did you know it's pronounced Mee-la and not My-la Kunis?

[Cameron H. 23786]

 

 

I . . . don't understand this reference.

 

Lol - That might be from before your time.

 

When they did Streets of Fire, someone on (I think) the first page of the thread said that the music was written by Jim Steinman - which was totally fine. But then, on like every subsequent page, some rando would write the same exact thing. I mean, they would be, like, literally right on top the other. It was ridiculous. They would post it with such authority, too. Like, “nobody’s pointed out this yet! I can’t believe it!”

 

(See also: ”Mee-la not My-la” [as Fister pointed out] and “that’s not how maxi pads work” from Jupiter Ascending; and the definition of “disaster” from Lifeforce. There were a few others I can’t remember right now.)

 

Anyway, it became kind of an inside joke to make fun of people that don’t read the thread and just want to post their shit. It’s just kind of rude. Be a part of the conversation, you know? Don’t just shout into the void hoping to get a C&O read.