Let's face it, the '90s fucking sucked. This is plain to anyone who has attempted to be nostalgic of the era and found it to be a little more work than you bargained for. It can be done, it just takes a little hunting and pecking.
Case in point, I get a good stone going and then stumble into "Dumb & Dumber" less than halfway through and decide to not change the channel. I know the movie like the back of my hand, but still get a kick out of the flick. Sure, you've got enough physical comedy for ten Melissa McCarthy movies, but the script itself (the shooting draft I procured from a script shop whilst living in L.A.) was a fookin' gem, too. The Farrelly brothers can do no wrong in my book.
The secret weapon of the movie was the music.
The first time I saw the movie was in theatres and I remember being immediately enthralled by "Where I Find My Heaven" by Gigolo Aunts, which was the evocative ear candy used during the film's cross-country moped montage.
I remember thinking that this was a band that I was gonna go out and buy the album right away but ultimately kind of lose to the world because they're music winds up being everywhere. If that sounds selfish, so be it. Remember the first time you heard Fastball's "The Way"? It was one of those songs you heard once and immediately bought the CD. But we'd wind up hearing the song so much in such a short period of time that it lost its mystery. When we hear it now, we can't quite remember what all the fuss was about.
Would I have wound up feeling that way about "Where I Find My Heaven" had it met with that same success? Good question. My honest answer is that I've played the song a gazillion times in my car, not to mention the times I've seen the movie, so the fact that every time I watch that scene, when the song kicks in, my heart rate goes up. It's like an injection of caffeinated adrenaline.
But enough about the Gigolo Aunts. This last viewing of the flick led me to dig out the soundtrack CD and take a long and winding trip down memory lane.
Even before the movie had come out, you couldn't turn on Q101 or flip open a Reader or Illinois Entertainer without seeing something about The Lupins, a local band signed to RCA during that alt. rock frenzy where every new local band got a deal after their third gig, or so it seemed. I seem to recall a couple of the members were DJ's on Q101. That must have been the fucking shit: got your own radio show on the city's hottest rock station and your band is signed to a major label.
Sadly, this would prove to be short-lived as the band's eagerly-anticipated debut album never came out and the band's high stature on the local scene fizzled.
Now that the "Dumb & Dumber" soundtrack is in my player, I scan the track listing and am reminded of the second "holy shit" song on this album: Pete Droge's "If You Don't Love Me I'll Kill Myself". Man, talk about a song I wish I had written.
Also, damn I love the Primitives, always have, which is why I was so chuffed to hear the song in the movie. It was at this point I was saying "Hats off to the music supervisor" instead of Googling it because we didn't has no internetz back in the dark agez. Props to Marcus Barone and Dawn Soler for doing a masterful job.
Funny how every time I catch the beginning of the movie, I'm reminded that Todd Rundgren wrote original music for the score, including the pivotal theme for the limo ride/airport scene:
Which begs the musical question, How on Earth Was That Song Not On The Soundtrack?!
Of course, the song that kinda sorta stole the whole movie was Crash Test Dummies' "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm", but its not on the soundtrack album. For some odd reason, the band's "The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead" is on the album instead. Plus, how could you not put the Rembrandts' "Rollin' Down The Hill" on the soundtrack? Argh, it's this kind of stuff that actually keeps me up nights.
But then I hear Green Jelly's "The Bear Song", Echobelly's "Insomniac" or the Butthole Surfers' "Hurdy Gurdy Man" and lose my fookin' mind at how the music supervisors made this rag-tag team of musical misfits fit the scenes like a glove and still work as a cohesive listening experience, which is a prerequisite for any movie soundtrack album that wishes to be taken seriously.
All things considered, if you're trying and still failing to successfully become nostalgic of the nineties, this cool little moment in time known as the "Dumb & Dumber" soundtrack is worth checking out.
Case in point, I get a good stone going and then stumble into "Dumb & Dumber" less than halfway through and decide to not change the channel. I know the movie like the back of my hand, but still get a kick out of the flick. Sure, you've got enough physical comedy for ten Melissa McCarthy movies, but the script itself (the shooting draft I procured from a script shop whilst living in L.A.) was a fookin' gem, too. The Farrelly brothers can do no wrong in my book.
The secret weapon of the movie was the music.
The first time I saw the movie was in theatres and I remember being immediately enthralled by "Where I Find My Heaven" by Gigolo Aunts, which was the evocative ear candy used during the film's cross-country moped montage.
Would I have wound up feeling that way about "Where I Find My Heaven" had it met with that same success? Good question. My honest answer is that I've played the song a gazillion times in my car, not to mention the times I've seen the movie, so the fact that every time I watch that scene, when the song kicks in, my heart rate goes up. It's like an injection of caffeinated adrenaline.
But enough about the Gigolo Aunts. This last viewing of the flick led me to dig out the soundtrack CD and take a long and winding trip down memory lane.
Even before the movie had come out, you couldn't turn on Q101 or flip open a Reader or Illinois Entertainer without seeing something about The Lupins, a local band signed to RCA during that alt. rock frenzy where every new local band got a deal after their third gig, or so it seemed. I seem to recall a couple of the members were DJ's on Q101. That must have been the fucking shit: got your own radio show on the city's hottest rock station and your band is signed to a major label.
Sadly, this would prove to be short-lived as the band's eagerly-anticipated debut album never came out and the band's high stature on the local scene fizzled.
Now that the "Dumb & Dumber" soundtrack is in my player, I scan the track listing and am reminded of the second "holy shit" song on this album: Pete Droge's "If You Don't Love Me I'll Kill Myself". Man, talk about a song I wish I had written.
Also, damn I love the Primitives, always have, which is why I was so chuffed to hear the song in the movie. It was at this point I was saying "Hats off to the music supervisor" instead of Googling it because we didn't has no internetz back in the dark agez. Props to Marcus Barone and Dawn Soler for doing a masterful job.
Funny how every time I catch the beginning of the movie, I'm reminded that Todd Rundgren wrote original music for the score, including the pivotal theme for the limo ride/airport scene:
Which begs the musical question, How on Earth Was That Song Not On The Soundtrack?!
Of course, the song that kinda sorta stole the whole movie was Crash Test Dummies' "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm", but its not on the soundtrack album. For some odd reason, the band's "The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead" is on the album instead. Plus, how could you not put the Rembrandts' "Rollin' Down The Hill" on the soundtrack? Argh, it's this kind of stuff that actually keeps me up nights.
But then I hear Green Jelly's "The Bear Song", Echobelly's "Insomniac" or the Butthole Surfers' "Hurdy Gurdy Man" and lose my fookin' mind at how the music supervisors made this rag-tag team of musical misfits fit the scenes like a glove and still work as a cohesive listening experience, which is a prerequisite for any movie soundtrack album that wishes to be taken seriously.
All things considered, if you're trying and still failing to successfully become nostalgic of the nineties, this cool little moment in time known as the "Dumb & Dumber" soundtrack is worth checking out.