VARIOUS – MUSIC FROM THE MOTION PICTURE MALLRATS (MCA)
This was my youth. I was very fortunate to be aware of Kevin Smith movies immediately (via a Mark Kermode review on the old night time Mark and Lard radio show) and when Clerks dropped I managed to catch while it was still fresh. This came coupled with my working a pre-career fill-in job at Texas Homecare where Dante and Randall were my heroes as they seemed able to deal with a life of moronic customers in a way that I was not able.
Then came Mallrats. When it was released no one saw it. I almost caught be accident when Sky Movies bought it and buried it in the schedules. However once I had seen it once I was addicted, locked in. These people were my age having to deal with shit I was encountering but again, as with Clerks, they were nailing circumstances so much better than I.
In addition to this it starred Shannen Doherty who was always a crush of my when I was younger, even back to her being in the show Our House. Tales of her tantrums were legendary and they only made me admire her more. With that as I entered secondary school there was a girl named Sarah Smith in the year above who lived on my street growing up. In a weird set of circumstances she wound up dating the guy who was bullying but then went on to send me a Valentine’s Card one year, the only such card that I have ever received in my life. Unfortunately I did not respond the gesture (as dubious as it was) and she never spoke to me ever again.
Arriving at the arse end of the Generation X/grunge/alternative nation era the songs in the movie were pretty great even if not holding the credibility of the bands that brought about the era of rebellion. Obviously with the DVD not being released in the UK
Oxford Street
Oxford Street
To put things further into context this soundtrack occupied me for a very long time. The most memorable moment was one day when my accountancy class at college (well, the Colchester Institute) was cancelled and I found myself invited back to the house of a girl called Ellen who I had an enormous crush on. As we both drove back to her place I was rocking out this sound (even the Bush song) in anticipation of getting my whistle cleaned. Obviously it didn’t happen as we just sat sappy and chatting as I failed to put down any moves. I was too young and stupid as with the theme and characters of Kevin Smith movies. Regardless this was the soundtrack to that experience.
Then a few years later I met the real love of my life in the form of a girl called Bella (who later turned out to be a lesbian but that’s beside the point). More than an admiration, she was an obsession. One of our early bonding points were Kevin Smith movies as she appeared to harbour some kind of attractive towards Jason Mewes. Another Jason. Despite having no money she was happily racking up a huge debt off the back of her fashion course grant and this included an expensive order to View Askew which included an autographed copy of this CD. She was the only ever person in the world I knew that owned this soundtrack. It should have worked out.
Compared to Clerks, Mallrats has quite a cartoony look to it; it’s very bright and very colourful. Now in the wrong hands this could run the risk of going down the Empire Records route but fortunately that never happened as things were flagrantly crass and expletive. And loud!
After a quick piece of dialogue including Jason Lee/Brodie (who everyone wanted to be at the time) the first song on the album is “Bubbles” by Bush. As I said this was the arse end of the Gen X fantasy and the pretenders had long since crept in and taken over. That said this is probably by far the best track Bush ever made not least as it doesn’t necessarily sound like them. I never understood why everyone said Bush were Nirvana copyists, to me their sounds were never even close. “Bubbles” is one of their quickest paced tracks with at least a bit of kick. It was recorded by Barrett Jones, another old Nirvana producer. Yup, this truly was a band worshiping at the house Kurt built.
Following this comes the end credits song “Susanne” by Weezer which was something of a tease towards a future Smith project. Its typical goofy Weezer fodder, one that impressively tended to remain charming when in essence it always felt to me that Weezer were occupying a place in people’s music education that should really have been filled by Pavement. I’ll concede that I heard Weezer before Pavement though, they just had more exposure while containing the ability to geek out and produce awkward music that made an awkward person feel slightly more empowered in themselves.
It is probably “Seventeen” by Sponge than best sums up this exact moment in time. All in all Sponge were on the whole a nothing band but this one song is a truly great/fine moment as it wistfully delivers a sporting piece of empathy and understanding in a form that was digestible and fully owned. It helped make things feel so much more better.
The disc is twenty five tracks long, fourteen of which are songs and eleven are moments of highly quotable dialogue. These were lines that you could (and would) make friends with, words that were solidify bonds and friendships while confounding and frustrating parents and supervisors. Of the spoken bits the “Mission Impossible” clips featuring Jay And Silent Bob (Bob in spirit) and the “Cousin Walter” story (featuring Gill Hicks) are the pick of the bunch.
From here the great and the good appear in the form of Elastica, Girls Against Boys, Belly, Archers Of Loaf and All while some real music bollock is dropped with the attendance of Silverchair and Wax. Then filling things out were Thrush Hermit (sweet song but who?) and Squirtgun (who?) along with Sublime (no Ska, no!).
One final hurrah arrives in the form of The Goops doing a version of “Build Me Up Buttercup” which while being a pretty decent and fun cover also pointed towards the changing times as the distortion of college rock was fast being run out of town by so much pop punk arriving on the horizon.
Listened to now as an “adult” the memories are still there if not the entire exhilaration. In a way it was easier to cope back then. All in all in many ways it takes me back to a very uncomfortable place.
With a cast that also included Claire Forlani, Michael Rooker, Joey Lauren Adams and a cameo from Stan Lee these were truly great times to be young and exposed to awesome. As I said at the top, this was my youth. Perhaps I should revisit it more but then again that would require a Kryptonite Condom. And that would kill me.
Much appreciated.
Thesaurus moment: better.
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