If you?ve ever wished the electric, Jack Black-and-Cusack exchanges of High Fidelity were set to a melody (or performed as a medley), then we?ve got some good news for ya: they?re taking that shit to Broadway! (And yes, we know it was a Nick Hornby novel before it was a movie, but who reads anymore?)
Will Chase, last seen playing Lennon in Lennon (which we heard was pretty awful, save his performance) takes the lead as Rob, the prototypical record clerk cock and unlucky in love, lovable loser. New York Mag recently sat with Chase, dubbing his a “star turn” and probing his indie accumen:
NY Mag: What music do you like?
Will Chase: I?ve seen Rush, like, seven times.NY Mag: No indie cred, then.
WC: No indie cred. Correct.NY Mag: Have you studied the clerks at Other Music?
WC: You mean, what other music do I like?NY Mag: No, I meant Other Music, the store.
WC: Oh, other music stores?NY Mag: Never mind.
Guess he’s still in training.
In honor of High Fidelity?s memorializing, demoralized protaganist, here are our Top 5 quotes from the flick:
5. Barry (aka Jack Black): We’re no longer called Sonic Death Monkey. We’re on the verge of becoming Kathleen Turner Overdrive but, just for tonight, we are Barry Jive and his Uptown Five.4. Barry: Holy shite. What the fuck is that?
Dick (aka Todd Louiso): It’s the new Belle and Sebastian…
Rob (aka John Cusack): It’s a record we’ve been listening to and enjoying, Barry.
Barry: Well, that’s unfortunate, because it sucks ass.3. Customer: Do you have Soul?
Rob: That all depends.2. Rob: Get your patchouli stink outta my store.
1. Barry: Rob, top five musical crimes perpetuated by Stevie Wonder in the ’80s and ’90s. Go. Sub-question: is it in fact unfair to criticize a formerly great artist for his latter day sins, is it better to burn out or fade away?
Burn out! No, wait — fade away. Right?
Sub-sub-question: are obnoxious record store clerks not a ’90s phenomenon? We can’t remember the last time we encountered an indie snob behind the counter. Then again, we don’t visit many record stores these days.
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No one goes to record stores anymore! No one wants personal connection, or the tactile sensation of holding your favorite album in your hands! Soon we will make love only through our iPods and Sidekicks!
i’ve heard some of the songs for this and it is god-awful…i’d say 2 weeks and it closes
Now a Rush musical….that would totally fucking rule!!!
Song clips here – http://www.topfivebreakups.com/
My verdict – yuck.
I still go to record stores.
try Rough trade records in neals yard, london, for keeping it old skool sanctimonious.
i noticed they’d made a mistake in some of the blurb they wrote on the cover of viva voce’s new record (they said it was their fourth album, but it’s their third) and i REALLY wanted to point out that they were wrong AND that they’d way overpriced the black ox orkestrar lp too. But i was too scared, so i just gave them money and ran away.
years ago i did once ask them what record was playing, and you wouldn’t believe the amount of scorn that can accompany the phrase “It’s the liars album”.
Most of the indie snobs have been replaced with jaded hipsters who are too busy being bored to bother with snobbery.
They are still really good at scowling, though.
THESE SONGS ARE BAD. REAL BAD.
Movie was almost as good as the book. I hope Nick Hornby has plenty of money.
———
Barry: Put on some old sad bastard music, see if I care.
———
Barry: Mother what a night it really ::hand gestures:: Angina’s tough!
———
Oh, those indie store bastards are still in full force in San Francisco, trust me. Some of them even work at the Virgin Miegastore on Powell, which is some funny/ironic shit – I mean, the MEGAstore has indie snobs working for ‘em?
I’m okay with indie snobs, and kinda don’t want them to disappear. Though most of the ones I’ve encountered have been nice, but maybe that’s cuz I’m not buying Rush records.
and chaz, you forgot:
“on the night that Laura’s daddy died, sha-na-na na-na-na na na na na”
I work for a company affiliated with this joke of a b’way show. It sucks ass and the people behind is suck even more ass. They think us 20-30 somethings trying to pay our Manhattan and b’klyn rents are really going to want to shell out 110 bucks a ticket for this shit.
My favorite HF movie quote, when Cusack is standing in the rain outside the girl’s apt:
“Charlie! You fucking bitch! Let’s work it out!”
Edward, that Rough Trade story is hilarious.
Music snob story: My first night at college, I’m unpacking and hanging out with my random dorm-mate. He sees me unpacking crates of CDs, so he goes, “So, you like music?” Me: “Uh, yeah.” Him: “Dude, you should really check out the lyrics to this one song, they’re SO fucked up, it’s unbelieveable.” He makes me lay down on my bed to concentrate on the song. And that song was, wait for it… “Bed of Roses” by Bon Jovi. It was a long year.
for the record, SF has nice, approacheable record store clerks. every record store should be like fucking aquarius records, to take a prime example. and amoeba, although not without its share of snobs, also hires friendly non-hipsters who dig what they’re listening to and don’t cop on an attitude when you ask them a question. and if they do cop a ‘tude, they oughta be bitch slapped. some clerks at mod lang throw down the ‘tude every now and again, but even those douchebags are more the exception than the rule.
I’m sorry to say that anyone who considers a clerk at a virgin megastore to be “indie” is a jackass. i’ve tried to figure out a nice way to say that, but there just isn’t. a good rule of thumb is this: if it’s got “mega” in the name and the owner of the record store is a bazillionaire, chances are it’s not indie.
I’d heard good things about the show, but these songs are ter-ri-ble. And I’m totes gay.
Fucking hell. I live in California and even I know Other Music. Has this ass clown heard of Amoeba? Or Hear? Or Sonic Boom? And to dig way back into history Poo-Bah in Pasadena?
Please tell me that he’s read the book at least.
weird coincidence that i rented and watched the movie last night. anyways, those songs are horrible.
The phrase “back alley abortion” comes to mind.
You’d think they’d try and do musical numbers that the characters in the play wouldn’t hate. I have a hard time believing an indie record store clerk would bust out singing like a schlockier Meatloaf. But maybe the writers are more fringe than I am.
I’ve encountered my fair share of snobbery at Waterloo Records here in Austin. I was given a hard time for buying Rejoicing in the Hands by Devendra without having owned his first release. (as hipster cred goes I had known about him for quite a while having seen him open for xiu xiu at Rubber Gloves a year or so prior)Surprisingly, though I bought a used copy of Forever Changes shortly after Arthur Lee died and was not accosted at all. To back myself up I was ready to tell the clerk I had owned a burned copy for a few years that had become too scratched, which was true. I don’t think he cared.
Ugh, fuck me with a chainsaw, those songs are awful. They make Rent seem subtle.
Put one hat on and I’m an indie rock geek like you. Put on another hat and I love Broadway musicals. I think this show could be cute.
Hell, if the Wedding Singer is making bank on Broadway these days, then a musical like this is going to do pretty well, too. It’s the popular trend – taking movies and making them into musicals. They’re putting out a Legally Blonde musical as well…so attack that one if you must!
Oh and I love Rent. So there!!!
For indie snobs, try Rotate This! in Toronto. Those guys are fucking ridiculous.
Soundscapes is a pleasant alternative though, with knowledgeable staff who aren’t out to make you feel like an idiot. And with a better selection. And they also sell concert tickets.
As a matter of fact, fuck Rotate altogether. …dicks.
I don’t think i’ve been to a record store in 4 years. I either buy straight from labels’ websites or just fucking download for free. Other Music can suck my nuts. They have a decent obscure selection, but i always thought their used section was a little bit overpriced and that was enough to keep me away. My used cd shopping has been replaced with binging on free MP3s through file sharing. If i really give a fuck about a band or a label, i go right to the source and buy some t shirts and samplers.
I think I will forever call Belle & Sebastian sad bastard music, because it is. And I love it.
My hatred for digital compression forces me to continue to buy vinyl. It’s alright, but it’s a real sausage fest in in record stores. The only thing that makes vinyl shopping difficult is that record stores’ stock and prices rely heavily on a very subjective definition of worth. When I was in college, there was one record store where the owner and I had the exact same tastes that made it more a matter of choosing than shopping.
A better question would be, how many people reading this blog worked at record stores during the 90s? im willing to bet the number is quite high.
all those record store clerks became bloggers
all those obnoxious record store clerks from the 90′s became bloggers
I know two small-time investors in this enterprise, both middle-aged straight men who probably have never been near an indie record store in their lives, but they would talk it up to each other as “a musical for straight guys,” which begs the question of whether that niche really needs to be filled.
Also the clerks at Atomic in Milw. used to suck but have gotten nicer over the years. Haven’t been to the LA Amoeba yet.
Former indie record store clerk here.
It’s funny: I never though of myself or any of my old colleagues as snobs, we were all dying for someone to ask us what was playing or what they should buy or whatever. But then I’d talk to people at shows who would give me static about how “snobby” we were at the shop. I came to believe a lot of the perceived snobbery said more about customers’ sensitivity/insecurity. Then again, this was pre-internet when we were pretty much the only ones who knew about whatever new was coming in that week …
HA HA
I was just working at the Imperial Theatre today, striking the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels set. The whole day I was wondering what show was coming to the threatre next. Question answered.
Everytime I see Belle & Sebastian in LA, I pray that Jack Black will either introduce them or do a song with them. Dare to dream. His wife’s band comes dangerously close http://myspace.com/letsgosailing
The staff at amoeba are generally very helpful. However, the jerkoffs that worked at Aarons deserved to lose their dead-end minimum wage jobs. They were all such better than thou pricks that I was actually glad to see it close. I had quit shopping there a year or two before it went out of business b/c they were such jerks.
Great quotes from the movie, all. I like it when Dick is talking about his upcoming date and Barry tells him to “smoke that ass”. I laughed out loud in the theater, and I continue, to this day. Great movie, although it gets a taste schmaltzy towards the end. Book’s better, as usual; although I saw the movie first, so when I read the book I pictured Cusack, and that was cool.
Scott, you do great work, but try and keep the fact that most of us don’t read on the dl. I try and fool myself into believing I’m semi-literate. That’s one of the great things about largehearted boy; the reccomendation of Bookslut and Bookdwarf. If you can Scott, try and post about books a little more often.
Sorry about the late posting. I’m a bored college kid.
Now we’re naming and shaming record store fallibles, a big shout MUST go out to Avalanche Records, Edinburgh, Scotland, who FUCKING STINK.
Now, I don’t mean this as a metaphor or whatever, but there’s one guy at Avalanche who has such overpoweringly bad body odour that the whole shop gets stunk out when he’s working to the point where it’s IMPOSSIBLE to spend more than a MINUTE in the shop, let alone browse anally for hours like I .like to do.
So, IF YOU ARE READING THIS STINKY AVALANCHE GUY, have a bath, man, regularly, please, FOR THE LOVE OF INDIE ROCK!
All those 90s record store clerks died at that Yo La Tengo roof collapse tragedy a few years back…
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/27870
I used to have that Onion headline taped to my cubicle! Ha. I hope the Yo La Tengo chopper doesn’t burst into flames.
what’s a record buying experience without the snobby clerks? i’d miss them if they all disappeared.
and long live arons!
“Did you ever even cook her dinner? No, I’m guessing.
And, I am full-on PMSing.”
Jesus fucking Christ.
“You paved the way for romance
when you kept him out of your pants”
Au contrairé, Waterloo Records in Austin I have not found to be “snobby” in the least.
i love move and i love high school musical
I have a BFA in musical theater.
I am a huge music fan.
I was a music store clerk in the 90′s.
This show is a gaucho with a donkey fetish, it sucks so much ass. Seriously, it sounds like a parody or something written for a community theater someplace like Bakersfield, CA. I half expect Rob to be played by Christopher Guest or Fred Willard.
I liked High Fidelity. I saw it a few weeks ago. It ‘s enjoyable and and the music is fun. I think it is a decent adaptation of the Hornby novel. It got across Rob’s neruoses cooncerning relationships and his immaturity through the musical numbers. I say good luck to them on Broadway. The show will run for quite some time in my opinion.
hey