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Edgar Wright VS Bryan Lee O’Malley: The Soundtrack

July 8, 2010 | 9:55 pm, by radiomaru

This morning I read a review of the Scott Pilgrim movie soundtrack and this afternoon I had a chance to listen to all the songs in order, so I thought I’d talk about them a little!

Edgar Wright (the director) and I were sending mix CDs back and forth in the early days (2004-5) and then just bombarding each other with MP3s as the years went by, and all of the “library” songs on the soundtrack come from those conversations. (I’m not going to talk about the newly-recorded material, since most of you haven’t heard any of it yet.)

Plumtree: “Scott Pilgrim”
The EP version is on the soundtrack, and to my knowledge it’s only ever been on vinyl before! Me & my sister used to have it and I made my own mp3 rip at my friend Carlos’s house, which is the version I sent to Edgar back in the day. Widely acknowledged by experts as the greatest song of all time. Point: O’Malley

Frank Black: “I Heard Ramona Sing”
I actually had never heard the first Frank Black solo album when Edgar sent me this track, although I was a huge fan of “Teenager of the Year” and some of Black’s later countryish stuff (“Show Me Your Tears” in particular). So this is an Edgar pick. Point: Wright

Beachwood Sparks: “By Your Side”
I was really into Beachwood Sparks as part of a whole cosmic alt-country Gram Parsons kick in 2003-4. I put it on my initial Scott Pilgrim mix, “Scott Songs”, which set the tone for me when I was starting the books. I played the mix for Edgar in 2005 while we were sitting around chatting. He sat up at one point and said “…is this a SADE song???” Ever since then I knew it’d be in the movie. And yes, it is a cover of a lovely Sade song from the early 00s. Point: O’Malley

EDIT: Edgar would like to add… “Sade was actually the first to sign her clearances for SHAUN OF THE DEAD and had no problem with Diamond Life being thrown at a zombie. So for that and ‘By Your Side’ I am eternally grateful.”

Black Lips: “O Katrina!”
This is an Edgar choice. I believe he is the one who introduced me to the Black Lips in the first place. Their album “Good Bad Not Evil” got a lot of spins during the making of Scott Vol 5. “O Katrina!” was one of Edgar’s song references for what Sex Bob-omb was supposed to sound like. Point: Wright

T. Rex: “Teenage Dream”
This is another Edgar (obviously!) — he’s used T.Rex a few times now I think. I have one T.Rex hits compilation that I’ve listened to numerous times over the last five years, so yes, I love them, but I am not as big a fan as Edgar is. Point: Wright

The Bluetones: “Sleazy Bed Track”
This one’s tricky! I was BIG into this track and this album back in the late 90s, but they were pretty hard to come by in Canada in the pre-itunes days, so I fell away from them. When we were first talking, Edgar brought up this band and I instantly remembered my fierce devotion to this song and put it on the vol 2 soundtrack. So we each love them, although, I mean, he directed a video for them. However, he brought up the band, I brought up the track, so… Point: TIE

Blood Red Shoes: “It’s Getting Boring by the Sea”
Edgar sent me this track when it first came out in summer 2007 (I think it was just a pre-album single at the time) and it rocked my world. I wasn’t actually able to procure a copy of the record until 2010 — they’re another band that was only available in the UK due to licensing blah blah blah. Anyway hopefully this will bring them to an overseas audience! Go Edgar! Point: Wright

Broken Social Scene: “Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl”
Broken Social Scene was sort of everywhere during the early 00s in Toronto. Every human I knew was a fan of Broken Social Scene. It was the age of “Broken Social Scene as air”. Anyway, I put this song on a list for Edgar at one point, so I think it’s technically my pick, but really, it’s everyone’s song. Point: O’Malley

The Rolling Stones: “Under My Thumb”
I pulled this song at one point because I thought it was thematically relevant for Vol 5 and hilariously inappropriate for Scott. It’s a very confident, strutting song about a guy who feels very in control of the situation, which is not like Scott at all. Edgar agreed with the choice, and apparently this song was really hard to get, the Rolling Stones being kind of a big deal, so let’s have a round of applause for our hard-working staff! Point: O’Malley

Final tally: TIE! We’re split down the middle! I can hardly believe it… to be honest, I had a sneaking suspicion Edgar would cut out all my picks and turn it into a britpop extravaganza. Having 4 and a half song picks on this compilation is like a dream come true.

The soundtrack (from Abkco Records) will be in stores, on iTunes, etc, August 10th.