Kool Thing.

I'm sure most of you have seen the film Juno by now, if I'm to believe that the population of horn-rim wearing McSweeney's readers referenced in the dialogue is likely to overlap with those sorts of individuals who would read a college radio station's smart-ass blog. I don't want to get into a heated discussion about the movie here, although it seems to be ripe for picking apart. To get it out of the way, I enjoyed the film well enough for what it is, although I was definitely hyper-aware (almost to the point of being completely turned off from the movie) of the fact that the music/cultural references so carefully utilized in the script were very much intended to pander directly to me, the sort of person who writes for a college radio station's smart-ass blog. Nevermind the fact that I saw the movie with my middle-aged schoolteacher mother (her choice) & had to explain to her later why I almost gagged on my popcorn at the first of MANY truly weird references to the Melvins. Definitely wasn't expecting King Buzzo & Company to be so prominently name-dropped in a cloyingly cute indie comedy about teenage pregnancy. Anyway, maybe this just illustrates what a nerd I am, but I experienced some hardcore disruption to any suspension of disbelief during the film when Juno points out that two of her favorite bands are The Stooges & Patti Smith, only to express an apparent lack of awareness about Sonic Youth (although she seemed to know who the Melvins were? Huh?). Y'know, the whole "I bought another Sonic Youth CD & it was just a bunch of noise!" thing. I'd just like to go on record & say that as I was once a sixteen year old girl myself who listened to Iggy & The Stooges, there's no way that any girl who cites 1977 as the best year ever for music would be completely unaware of Sonic Youth (hello, the Year Punk Broke?). Maybe my view is slanted because I came of age during the hey-day of grunge, but it seems inplausible that some high schooler would stumble upon a copy of Raw Power without Daydream Nation or Dirty having popped up on their radar at some point. And say what you will, but as far as I know, the Melvins haven't turned up as guest stars on an episode of Gilmore Girls yet.



WHAT WOULD THE MELVINS SAY?!