Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist Soundtrack (2008)

For some reason, the soundtrack to Nick & Norah’s infinite playlist looked good. Maybe because the Juno soundtrack was so good, and this movie has Michael Cera from Juno and SuperBad in it. Nevertheless, the soundtrack is really good.

It reminds me a bit of Blurs’s Parklife in that it is the mix of different styles of music under one umbrella that gives it character and makes it interesting to listen to.

It is a good listen to from beginning to end. I brought the 18 track itunes editions. I think that is the best value as you get a couple more good songs from it and the itunes qualities is good.

There are a few must download songs if you don’t want get the whole things. So check out:

Speed of Sound by Chris Beil
Middle Management by Bishop Allen
Ottoman by Vampire Weekend
Xavia by The Submarines
After Hours by We are Scientists


What’s cool about the soundtrack for me is that I don’t really know these bands. Being a few years out of High School and College I can’t say that I am down with new bands.

This is indie music which is a genre that evolved from Alternative which evolved from New Wave. So if you can name a good White Snake song, this is not for you. Also, if you have ever corrected someone for pronouncing Fifty Cent as it is spelled and not saying ‘fitty cent’, then this is also not for you. You know who you are.

Now, the indie genre has many sub genres to it. Over the Bush years indie bands have stretched from The Shins to The Vines with a 1980’s retro tip. So, it's cool that this soundtrack is like a sampling of the subgenres within the indie genre. The songs are mixed so that the subgenre’s change from track to track.

It is hard not to hear echo’s of such earlier bands like The Cure and Echo and the Bunnyman but like every retro experience some things are changed. A case in point, in the 1990’s kids dressed in 1970’s clothes except their hair was really short. No one had short hair in the seventies. For a fuller explanation please see Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.

Anyway, this soundtrack is worth checking out.

The Good, the Bad, and the Queen – Live from Soho (itunes Exclusive EP) – 2007

The Good, the Bad and the Queen, the self-title debut, has been the best album I have heard so far this year. In April of 2007, they put an out live EP in New York while on tour. It was part of the “live for itunes” series. (“itunes” is Apple’s popular mp4 music store.)

The band played five tracks:

The History Song
Herculean
Behind the Sun
Natural Spring
Three Changes

In many ways this EP was better than the album. Of course, the album has more tracks. However, this EP sounded better. Even though it was a live recording, you can’t really tell that there was an audience present, expect for the claps at the start. What I really like about this recording was how clear everything sounded. The strings sounded beautiful here as oppose to the how they sound on the album, which pushed down and flatted in the background. The vocals, acoustic guitar, and electric bass sounded like you were in the same room.

The band had been touring for a while before they preformed this live session and you can hear how tight they were playing together at this point. Of course, the band members are all stars. Paul Simonon of the Clash, Damon Albarn of Gorillaz and Blur, Simon Tong of Verve, and Tony Allen make this band. All are all veterans and masters of their craft.

I am not normally a fan of these “live for itunes” series. I think of these itunes only recordings as a waste of money, because they seems to be neither a real live performance with a big audience to affect the music nor a proper studio performance where everything as perfect as it can be. However, this time, you are either getting a brilliant supplement to the original album or a well made sample of the band, depending on how you look at it.