Was more than happy to fling a couple nickels into the popcorn bucket this past Friday for movies’ biggest Memorial Day Weekend of all time.
I got fiiiiiiiiive on it!
Thunderbolts* (yes I’m behind, been busy) was zippy and enjoyable, even if you don’t grade on the “this will most likely be mid and I’m totally fine with that” MCU curve.
Whole thing looked great and served as a fun hang, simply by understanding that the heart of the Avengers saga was those two minutes in the middle when everyone was knocking back tall boys.
I’d stop short of calling Thunderbolts* Marvel's A24 movie (outside of the fact that A24 now wants to make… Marvel movies?) but it does have a texture and personality of its own, particularly the Son Lux score that throws a sprinkling of weird into the obligatory bombast.
As it played through multiple post-credit scenes, I pondered which one of my many trenchant insights would get a single like on Letterboxd, then squealed internally…
“Isn’t this a fucking PIXIES SONG?!?”
That sure is Black Francis in the background, warbling about mental illness and/or small fish, accompanied by the sweeping impacts and relentless wubs of the modern day movie trailer (NGL, it’s a pretty good one).
I can understand why the creative team would go on to lift “Where Is My Mind” wholesale for the actual film — it’s an emotional cheat code, whether closing out Fight Club or soundtracking a weight loss commercial about complicated feelings towards your abuela.
It also goes hard enough that you can simply wrestle to it.
Per Frank himself:
There’s something about the major to minor chord shift in the song that resonates along with the universal sentiment of the title. Sonically, if you had to pick a song to sum up our band this would be it. It’s emblematic of what we do with that loud/quiet dynamic [and] it’s the song that pays my mortgage – the gift that keeps on giving. I get offers once a week for yet another advertisement, movie or TV show to use it. I say yes to all of them.
There’s something elemental about that E / C#m / G# / A progression.
Start in the middle and cook up “Say It Ain’t So.”
Or transpose a bit to get the chorus of Post Malone’s pre-face tat slapper “Go Flex,” highlight of a micro-era which I wanna digress upon so badly (the FKi and Makonnen song!!!) but know that it will take me further and further away from Francis’ sync statements…
Here’s the banger sleeve art so we can just move on.
A real testament to the tune itself that at no point in the multi-decade media saturation of “Where Is My Mind” did I think, this song is wack now.
Sure, it can be a lazy signifier. Always love when Wikipedia entries include a passive aggressive read:
But if anything, those Thunderbolts* cues just make me want to fire up Pixies’ entire catalog.
“Alec Eiffel”?
The chillout mix (original slowed and reverb’d?) of “Wave Of Mutilation”?!?!?!?!
Not to mention Last Splash, “Headache” (which kinda just stays in permanent rotation) and Kim Deal’s recent solo album, promo’d by some fantastic Q&As and a Mulaney show b2b with Kim Gordon on the title track and “Little Trouble Girl.”
Every single one of these amazing records made by hall-of-fame oddballs deserve a proper listen, with our feet on the air and our head on the ground.
Claudia Valentina, “Candy” — new UK pop r&b’er / objective baddie with a clear knack for empty calorie bops, but her true calling may be… cigfluencer. CV’s previous vid is even more flagrant with the sticks; thankfully, when it comes to stuff that looks awesome and will definitely murder you, I’d prefer a Japanese sport bike.
Saint Etienne, “Glad” — wholesome!
Ron Trent, Lift Off — groovy new one from a dance mainstay, worth a listen off sleeve art alone. Fun pairing with the new Lindstrøm and Stereolab LPs.
Vinyl Fetish — Matt Wolf, director of the (excellent duh) Pee-Wee As Himself dropped this Substack bonus beat while in production on the doc (an insane story in its own right), fleshing out some of the BTS characters from Pee Wee’s early days in and around the Melrose punk scene.
Sealed Box Of 1994 Mr. Perfect Figures — big one for my fellow toy psychos. Also love how Scots call ‘em “those wee wrestlers.” RIP Curt Hennig.
Jade 4K Blu-Ray Release — the fine (insane) people at Vinegar Syndrome have picked some doozys for their latest batch of UHD reissues, including Bob Saget & Norm MacDonald’s rightfully beloved Dirty Work (which I caught opening weekend on a school trip to St Louis, where we also hit Can’t Hardly Wait and Austin Powers in their debut runs… damn, that should be its own post) and Billy Friedkin’s freak-off noir Jade, worth a purchase for this exchange alone:
Playlists updated!