Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

I don't get to movie theaters as often as I used to, so when I do go it's usually for a film that I'm really psyched for. Two years ago a bunch of my friends and I went to see The Dark Knight at a midnight showing, and we all left the theater with our expectations fulfilled and then some. This year, I've seen two summer movies in actual theaters and I was blown away by both. The first was Inception, which I enjoyed so much I've seen it twice, and the second is Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

Everyone has been talking about Inception since it was released, so apart from saying that I love it and that Hans Zimmer's score is brilliant I'll save the rest of my thoughts on that piece of celluloid. Scott Pilgrim though, that's another story. I just came back from the theater about an hour ago and was knocked for a loop by how incredible it was. Not only was it visually enticing as hell, with the whole film and comic being an homage to classic video games, the characters were wonderful and the story engrossing. I was amazed how many times I thought about my ex-girlfriends and my current relationship. It made me think about what I've done wrong, what I've done right, what I've wished I could have changed and what I learned from those relationships that made me stronger. It wasn't preachy or heavy handed either, rather it conjured those feelings in a way that made me happy to think about my rights and wrongs. I left the theater feeling recharged, and that usually doesn't happen.

The music in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is just as important as the story. The soundtrack is like an incredible mixtape filled with songs you recognize and songs you don't but sound like you should. There are classics from T-Rex and the Rolling Stones as well as indie classics from Plumtree, Frank Black, Black Lips and my personal favorite on the soundtrack, Beachwood Sparks' cover of Sade's By Your Side. But the score is incredible too! Primarily created by Nigel Godrich with help from Beck, Dan The Automator and many others, the score captures the video game theme while also focusing in on that woozy feeling you get when you're falling hard for someone. Beck contributed five songs, mostly given to Scott Pilgrim's band in the film, Sex Bob-Omb, while Broken Social Scene gave two songs for Crash and The Boys, one of Sex Bob-Omb's competitors for a record contract as well as letting their classic, Anthems For A Seventeen Year Old Girl, be used in the soundtrack.

I hope to go see Scott Pilgrim again in theaters, but this, along with Inception, is a film I will be purchasing on DVD the day of it's release (as I'm sure many know, I'm anti Blu Ray, but we won't go there). You should definitely get there and check it out, and if you love the music like I do, grab the soundtrack for that mixtape feel with the songs written by Beck and Broken Social Scene, and you can get the score for Nigel Godrich's awesome contributions to the film. Both soundtracks are available digitally, but you can get the standard edition CD in stores with the "songs". And if you haven't read the comics yet, you'll want to dig in after seeing the film, so visit your favorite comic shop or bookstore and they'll hook you up. Hope you enjoy it all just as much I did!


PS - Yes, I wanna see The Expendables too, but I might just wait for the R5. Yeah, that's kind of evil, but you know a lot of you do it too. If I love it though, I'll totally buy it on DVD (cuz Blu Ray SUCKS!).

Blip, Bleep (Soundtracks To Imaginary Videogames)

Lucky Kitchen is a label started in NYC by Daniel Raffel, Alejandra Salinas and Aeron Bergman in '96. I guess it would be considered an "artsy" label, but that's only because their releases are so diverse. They've released field recordings, family tapes, non-academic electro acoustic recordings (say it five times fast!) and were self-aware enough not to take themselves too seriously. Their releases feature incredible packaging, but the first batch came in numbered, hand crafted packages and the sounds contained therein were just as unique. All in all, Lucky Kitchen puts a lot of time and effort into their releases and it shows. Take a few minutes and visit their site and you'll be able to see the majority of their releases and their awesome packages.

Probably the best known release in Lucky Kitchen's catalogue is Blip, Bleep (Soundtracks To Imaginary Videogames), a wide spanning collection based on the rather obvious subject matter. When it comes to game-inspired music, I'm used to hearing a lot of 8-Bit style sounds, so it's a pleasure to hear music not confined to that rather limited palette. That's not to say the 8-Bit spirit isn't there, and it would be wrong if it was missing, but everything doesn't sound like Super Mario Bros and that's a blessing.

Blip, Bleep was issued in a quantity of 746 copies and was an instant hit. David Byrne and Jim O'Rourke praised it and the accursed Rolling Stone even interviewed the label for a planned article. That article didn't happen which is probably a good thing, but when there are only 746 copies in existence of a highly coveted release it's hard to gauge how the world would react to hearing more than mumbles about you. Because of that, a lot of tracks from Blip, Bleep were reissued on other compilations, but that's just not the same thing as having that hand-crafted package.

I searched for years for an original copy of the album, but the best I ever came up with was an excellent quality 256kbps rip. Thankfully, someone was nice enough to upload the packaging from their copy to Discogs.com and a perfect FLAC rip has since appeared online, so that's probably as close as we'll get to the real thing. So, today I present to you the aforementioned 256kbps MP3s with the artwork from Discogs.com for your listening (and viewing) pleasure. Of course, you should take the time and visit Lucky Kitchen's fascinating site for additional info about this and their other releases, and you can always also check the Discogs reference to see the original artwork in case you don't want to download the album. But if you haven't heard this one yet, grab it and enjoy. If you like videogames and/or videogame music, you'll most likely find yourself very pleased!


Blip, Bleep (Soundtracks To Imaginary Videogames)
Part One
Part Two

01 Nick Birmingham & Daniel Beattie - Trashcandan
02 V/Vm - The Swedish Model With Big Bazoomas and No Implants Bedding Game
03 Soundcard - Thula
04 Colongib - Megablasterfiend
05 Egghatcher - Chaos Equilibrium
06 Jake Mandell - Botanical Seppuku
07 Personal Electronics - A Seller's Variation's
08 Thug - Theme From Tsunami Brothers
09 Marumari - The Vaus
10 Blitter vs. Hrvatski - Nuclear Cats Get New Home
11 Flexible Products - Get Soaked
12 Aerospace Soundwise - 1985
13 MHAR66 - Access Denied
14 FlatlinerRacingSystem - Video Tic-Tac-Toe
15 Stupid Lepton - Star Cruncher
16 Wheaton Research - Soul Transport
17 Suetsu & Underwood - Family Tree Polo
18 Underwood - Leonardo DiCaprio Game