Time to Pretend

TIME TO PRETEND, MGMT

(February 2010)

Pre-leaving London: A lot of TV shows have great songs in their soundtracks, but very few of them know how to use them well. Take, as an example, Cold Case - because of their time-jumping stories, they play an insane amount of time-appropriate music, but never use it affectively. Shows like Grey's Anatomy, which uses a lot of indie-rock stuff, will have it playing in the background of an intense scene, and it's usually distracting for either the drama of the scene or the music playing. However, Skins used music really well in their scenes, and none better than MGMT's "Time to Pretend" in the second series finale. I heard it once the first time, then was stuck on it. In a weird way, it's a truly epic song, with its very grand dun-DUNs in the background and lyrics, though about the shallow rock-star lifestyle, has wonderful and thoughtful phrasing about the cyclical nature of life in a way that isn't usually mentioned in a song like this.

As a writer, music is really important to me when I write, and a lot of times, songs will figure in significantly to what I'm writing. I can only think of, maybe, one script I've written in the fifteen years or so of me writing where I haven't thought of a song to go in it (and that script was just written a month or so ago). I've decided that I want "Time to Pretend" to be in a script of mine - I can already see it, a music montage of characters growing up and getting into their twenties/thirties. Maybe I should be writing that instead of this blog?

Maybe that's not such a bad idea.

Can't You See

CAN'T YOU SEE, TOTAL

(July 1996)

Eighth grade summer at Summerbridge: it's halfway through the summer, and a group of the teachers are going off-campus to Burrito Express with a few random students, myself included. It was a warm, sunny day, surprising for July in San Francisco, but I remember walking down Washington to Divisadero and one of the seventh grade girls was singing Total's "Kissing You." Because of my R&B obsession at the time, I recognized the song through its butchered rendition. I'm not such a fan of "Kissing You" - I think it's pretty boring, actually, and since Total is on the lower half of '90s R&B girl groups (don't look at me that way, you know it's true. I mean, I like Total a LOT - hence the writing of this blog entry - but they more in line with MoKenStef and Brownstone, rather than TLC, En Vogue, or SWV), it's not vocally impressive really. But then, this girl began singing a butchered version of the song I later found out was "Can't You See," Total's first single.

It had been released the summer before that, before I listened to music on my own. I'm pretty sure I would have heard it then, but I was a year behind. It's a really good song, possibly Total's best song. It has a really great and simple bass line and a haunting quality to it, and I'm not sure I can describe why. I was annoyed, however, when twelve years later and I went to go see The Wackness that the main character, Luke Shapiro, attributes this song to The Notorious B.I.G. (who gives a trademark garble-mouthed intro) rather than to Total, not to mention that "Can't You See" was released in March of 1995, a few months after The Wackness takes place. It doesn't matter - the film uses the song in an amazing way, having it play in the background when Luke and Stephanie kiss for the first time in Central Park, and later on when Luke pulls a Billie Jean and dances on the sidewalk with the pavement lighting up underneath his feet.

Because I was so into that movie, I had the soundtrack. On my last day of working at Design Within Reach before I left for London, I had to take advantage of my discount in buying eyeglasses, and I needed new ones since I was going to London and my Rivers Cuomo glasses were/are kinda falling apart. I blasted "Can't You See" like four times as I drove Casey from Balboa Park Bart station, where she was parked, to West Portal, where the optometrist was. My big red glasses I bought cost me a pretty penny, but I was absolutely delighted with them. It was a hot August day, and as I slipped on those red glasses (which my mom hated initially, then came to begrudgingly accept; which Scott clearly recognized as a ploy to appear hip and fashionable in Europe; which I'm wearing at this very moment), I played the song loudly once again and drove home.

Semi-Charmed Life

SEMI-CHARMED LIFE, THIRD EYE BLIND

(September 1997)

Freshman year at SI: the funny thing about becoming a disciple of Z95.7 is that it completely changed the way I listened to music. When I started to listen to the radio and watching MTV on my own, I was heavily into R&B - TLC, Boyz II Men, Brandy, the works. Gone was strictly listening to the Old School and Latin music my parents listened to. But then, when Z95.7 was introduced, and with my overwhelming need to fit into a high school where I already felt intensely uncomfortable, I became a fan of whatever pop music was deemed cool, and I devoured all of it, even stuff that I didn't initially like. But what did I totally fall in love with? Third Eye Blind. I mean, my favorite song of theirs, "Never Let You Go," wouldn't come out for another three years, but until then, "Semi-Charmed Life" was good enough for me.

Third Eye Blind was the personification of the late-90s in San Francisco for me. I mean, it's probably because of the video, with Stephen Jenkins running around the Mission, that I think that if my high school life were ever to be shown in a montage, that song would play over it. It wasn't my favorite song as a teenager by far, nor the most meaningful, but because it was the first song I heard in that late-90s rock-pop style that would become the dominant musical trend of my high school career (along with teen pop, but more on that in another entry) that I feel that it encapsulates high school for me in a weird way. It would have nothing to do with the lyrics - despite what you might think, I was not a crystal meth addict as a fourteen-year-old - but the "feel" of it, for lack of a better word.

Because it's theoretically coming up next year, I keep thinking about my high school reunion, but aside from the fact that I'm sure I'll be completely awkward and will need to get completely sloshed beforehand in order to maintain some semblance of social behavior, I keep wondering what kind of music will be playing. I will be really upset if this song isn't played (though really, why wouldn't it be? Though if it's all 'NSync and P.Diddy (or Sean "Puffy" Combs, as he was known then), I will be really pissed and make a drunken fool of myself), but then again, I'm not in charge of the music. Though I'd like to think that if I were, it would be hella awesome.

Let's Make Love (And Listen to Death From Above)

LET'S MAKE LOVE (AND LISTEN TO DEATH FROM ABOVE), CSS

(December 2009)

Pre-Christmas in San Francisco: It was snowing, I was sick, and it was miserable. I was going back to San Francisco for Christmas the following day, but on this day, I had tons of shit to do. I had to do last-minute Christmas shopping (Selfridges on Oxford Street to buy some candy for my parents, Camden to buy a pashmina for my grandmother, etc.), I had to print my flight itinerary, and pick up a package for Nick from the post office. All while it was snowing. Heavily. Did I mention that living in London totally took away any sort of theoretical magical qualities that snow had for me?

I returned to Old Street at a fairly late hour (well, probably about ten o'clock), after having fallen on my ass around several places in London several times, and placed my snow-covered bag on my bed, took off my boots, and turned on the TV, hoping to catch an episode of "Come Dine With Me" on Channel 4. I had been unexpectedly surprised that morning when "The Ten Commandments" popped up on screen. So, I had high hopes that another one of the things that made my life the bright and sparkly thing it is would show up on my airwaves.

And what do I see? This perfume commercial, or at least it looks like a perfume commercial. You know, black-and-white, glossy, full of models erotically fondling a perfume bottle? I mean, usually the perfume bottle is the giveaway, but sometimes you're not sure. Anyway, in this commercial, the models were Chloe Sevigny, Clemence Poesy, and some other blonde chick, and the ad was literally close-ups of their faces and bare shoulders, holding the perfume bottle and, like, making out with it, all while this really cool electroclash instrumental is playing. When the 20-second ad was over, I was like, "Okay. I need to find out what song that is! (And so glad to see Chloe Sevigny not all Big Love-d out.)"

The interwebs informed me that this song was called "Let's Make Love (And Listen to Death From Above)" by Brazilian band CSS, or Cansei de Ser Sexy, which, like, really, what an obnoxious thing to call your band, even if the urban legend of them taking it from a Beyonce speech or whatever. They actually aren't sexy at all, unless you're into self-consciously indie goodness. In which case, pop in their video, unzip, and go to town.

I become obsessed with the song pretty much overnight, while I'm packing up to go back to San Francisco. I have to get to Heathrow really early in the morning, so I figure "Why sleep?" Especially since I have an insane twelve-hour flight. So, I play this song, like, five times in a row, then listen to an episode of "This American Life," then listen to the song another five times, trying to imagine what this lead singer looks like. I find out, later, that "Lovefoxx," as she calls herself, doesn't look like the dusty lean and thin model-type that I had in my head, but like an impish cross between my friend Liza and a Cabbage Patch doll.

I play the song when I'm back in London one day, and Nick is like "Oh GOD! I hate 'Let's Make Love'! It was played all the time, like, three years ago." I then started thinking about what music makes it big in the States versus the rest of the world, and this was just another example of a song being a big hit one place and being virtually nonexistent elsewhere.

And, despite the fact that I do find the band really up their own ass in terms of how too cool for school they are, the video makes me smile. It's so joyous. Weird.