Here’s something special we don’t get everyday. We were emailing with Greg Mottola and we asked nicely and he gave us a list of all the music featured in “Adventureland” with accompanying notes. Pretty rad if we do say so ourselves. Greg tell us a soundtrack is forthcoming, but the tracklist and rights are being hashed out as we speak so that’s TBD for now. Here’s all the music featured in the film, plus the director’s notes.
– “HERE SHE COMES NOW,” “PALE BLUE EYES” – Velvet Underground (“I didn’t know Pale Blue Eyes was in ‘The Diving Bell & The Butterfly’ until after I committed to it … but its a perfect song, so how can I complain? …and HERE SHE COMES NOW is a great, but not overplayed song … there are good Galaxie 500 and Nirvana covers of it [too].”)
– SATELLITE OF LOVE – Lou Reed (“Used in many movies, but has a story justification … and is lovely.”)
– BASTARDS OF YOUNG, UNSATISFIED – Replacements (“Two great songs by probably the most important band to me in the mid/late 80s.”)
– ROCK ME AMADEUS – Falco (“My dumb parody joke in college was ROCK ME, ANN B. DAVIS, in case you were ever tormented by The Brady Bunch.”)
– “DON’T WANT TO KNOW IF YOU ARE LONELY” – Hüsker Dü (“We had an earlier Husker Du song in, but the SST label was in a legal dispute and we couldn’t get anything from their catalog.”)
– “I’M IN LOVE WITH A GIRL” – Big Star (“We cleared the album cover, too — the one with the great William Eggleston photo … it’s hidden in the opening shot of the scene.”)
– LOOKING FOR A KISS – New York Dolls
– TASTE OF CINDY (acoustic B-side version) – Jesus And Mary Chain (“Fantastic song.”) [ed. hell yes]
– TOPS – Rolling Stones (“Scorsese and Wes Anderson have the corner on ABKCO-era Stones, but 80s Stones are still fair play … plus I have a real soft spot for EMOTIONAL RESCUE and TATTOO YOU.”)
– HOT BLOODED – as played by a fake Foreigner cover band
– SO IT GOES – Nick Lowe (“For the Connell (Ryan Reynolds) character, who’s still stuck in the 70s … this song takes me straight back to junior high.”)
– DON’T DREAM IT’S OVER – Crowded House (“One of the greatest romantic pop songs of the 80s.”)
– LET THE MUSIC PLAY – Shannon (“One of several dance songs in the movie.”)
– I WANT ACTION – Poison (“As seen on a music video.”)
– POINT OF NO RETURN – Expose
– OBSESSION – Animotion (“Used to great effect in ‘KING OF KONG’ … credit where credit’s due.”)
– YOUR LOVE – Outfield (“Because I simply had to.”)
– DANCE HALL DAYS – Wang Chung
– JUST LIKE HEAVEN – The Cure
– BREAKING THE LAW – Judas Priest (“Underscoring a chase scene.”)
– IN MY HOUSE – Mary Jane Girls
– HERE I GO AGAIN – Whitesnake (“Yes, Whitesnake”)
… “and maybe a cover of an INXS song for the end credits” (to be determined!)
Motolla originally had written in some spots for Brian Eno and The Smiths, but some songs are pretty fucking expensive and like the Stones once sang, “you can’t always get what you want” That said, there’s a crazy outrageously long list of songs in a film that did not have a huge budget. How his music supes pulled that off is incredible (the fact that they have a Rolling Stones song itself is pretty remarkable).
PS, we’d like to do more of these so if you’re interested and you’re a filmmaker, email us. “Adventureland” is a coming of age comedy set in the summer of 1987, centered around a recent college grad who has to take a menial summer job instead of following his post-grad dreams of a European trip. It stars Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Martin Starr, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Ryan Reynolds and is due in theaters March 27 via Miramax.