A minute of my life is all that I’ll provide October 16, 2009
Posted by Paula in Muzak.Tags: hard working class heroes, heathers, heathers waiter, project arts centre, think tank
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Irish duo Heathers will be playing The Project Arts Centre in Templebar on October 28th. I have a horribly bad luck when it comes to their gigs, so I’m praying I’ll make it this time. Heathers always casually throw up gig dates on their myspace page a few days beforehand, with no fanfare at all. If you don’t happen upon the listing… tough. I usually find out a few hours before and am inevitably somewhere far far away. In fact, when they played in (the late?) Eamonn Dorans last March, I heard about the gig about fifteen minutes after it ended. Not happy.
The girls will also form part of the 100-strong line up for the Hard Working Class Heroes festival, which is taking place across Dub-a-lin this weekend. They’ll be playing tonight at Think Tank in Temple Bar. A single day ticket is just €21, which covers you for all of the day’s events- of which there are many.
Not much has surfaced from Heathers since they released their first album, Here Not There, last May. This is one of their newer recordings though, and I slightly adore it:
Heathers – Waiter (download mp3) from If You Make It on Vimeo.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
[pic from here]
Random Songs from Winona Ryder films June 23, 2009
Posted by Patrick in Cinematics, Muzak.Tags: Big Fun, Don Dixon, Girl Interrupted, heathers, Teenage Suicide (Don't Do It), Winona Ryder
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Following on from my Heathers post the other day, I have finally located the full version of “Teenage Suicide (Don’t Do It)” from the film Heathers, by the fictional band Big Fun. The song, however, is actually the work of musician Don Dixon.
In an interview with Popdose, Dixon talked about how the track came about.
What they wanted me to do was help them license and pick out a bunch of songs and do a “Pretty in Pink” thing, where they had a contemporary soundtrack that sort of flowed in and out of the movie. And after seeing the movie, I said, “If you do that, you bolt this movie into time in a way that maybe isn’t a good idea for it down the road.” It’s kind of a stylized look, and they had purposely kept it from being too ‘80s, although if you look at it now, there’s some painfully ‘80s hair. (Laughs) The only song you really have to have is the song that they talk about, where he shoots the stereo and all that kind of stuff. You’ve gotta have a song for that, and I can give you a song for that. But my advice is just to go with the soundtrack you have.” As it turned out, it was by David Newman, who has gone on to be part of a long line of cinema composers and done really well. But I said, “Just let me write that song for you. That’s all you need.” So that was fun. I made that song up, Mitch (Easter) and I recorded it, and Marti and Mitch’s then-wife (Angie Carlson) sang on it. We were on a real time schedule, and I remember they were all passed out, asleep on couches of stuff, and I was finishing it up at about 5 AM while they were snoring away because we’d been working on it all day.
The full version is below, thanks to a helpful YouTube user, hoodfan89. (download)
Another song which caught my attention recently was “Downtown”, which is featured in another Winona Ryder film, “Girl, Interrupted”. Not the Petula Clark original however, which is played over the movie’s closing credits, but the impromptu acoustic version by Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie played to cheer up a fellow patient in Claymoore Hospital. It’s not exactly pitch-perfect by any means, but it’s a very different take on a classic song. (download)
Okay, I promise, that’s enough about Winona now.
What’s your damage? June 20, 2009
Posted by Patrick in Cinematics, Muzak.Tags: heathers, Shannen Doherty, Teenage Suicide (Don't Do It), What's Your Damage, Winona Ryder
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So last week I finally got around to watching what is often hailed as the 80s answer to Mean Girls, Heathers. And it was so very. The film, in case you didn’t already know, is centred around a powerful high school clique of four girls, three of whom are named Heather, who rule the school through a combination of intimidation and sex appeal.
It stars a pre-shoplifting Winona Ryder as the main character Veronica, somewhat of an outsider in the group considering her name isn’t Heather. Shannen Doherty of 90210 fame also appears as one of the Heathers. Veronica, together with her boyfriend JD the two try to take down Heather Number One, leader of the clique. Long story short, things get a bit out of hand and bodies start piling up.
If you haven’t seen it, then see it next time you have ninety minutes to spare. Apparently a sequel is on the way, over twenty years after the original, and some of the original cast including Winona Ryder and Christian Slater are slated to return.
In the process of Googling Heathers I stumbled upon a Dublin duo, set to appear at this year’s Oxegen that share the film’s name and whose début album also includes a track titled “What’s Your Damage?”
They’re not actually too bad, and are somewhat reminiscent of Tegan and Sara, which isn’t always a good thing. I’d still rather hear a full version of “Teenage Suicide (Do’t Do It)” from the film itself, which is apparently floating around somewhere online. Check out Heathers’ “What’s Your Damage?” below. (download)
Make and Deux 