The '90s Rock You May Have Missed

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (four stars total) uses slow motion the way most rom-coms use those cumbersome musical montages to show the quick passing of time, but it didn't bother me at all. That's not to say there wasn't music. Oh, there was music all right: music over slo-mo; music in the background; music for silly dance sequences, but it was all cool. The soundtrack has been called "the next Garden State," but I never got that CD so I can't comment (I do love The Shins though). The movie itself has been called "this year's Juno," but I think "this generation's John Hughes movie" would be more appropriate. It has magic realism like Pretty in Pink, raunchiness like Sixteen Candles, and an obscure soundtrack like Some Kind of Wonderful. Needless to say, I enjoyed the movie as the teen comedy it is. Its shots of the city and the piece of ____ car were beautiful touches. It doesn't cross generations like Juno, the dialogue's not beyond the characters' years like in Juno, and there's a little less believability when it comes to the ex-girlfriend and the mostly-gay-easily-getting-gigs-in-over-21-bars band, but I digress. What does Nick and Norah's have to do with the "Brit Pop and Shoegaze" on my playlist? Well, nothing, at least not directly. When I walked out of the theater, I immediately wanted to listen to "Black Metallic," by Catherine Wheel. It's alternately heavy (I figure what the British music press dubbed shoegaze was some kinda response to the U.S.'s grunge) and then super quiet and intimate around the four and a half minute mark. If you like the music in Nick and Norah's, and I myself discovered around five new songs I really like, I think you'd enjoy most of the angst and playfulness of Brit Pop (iTunes has an "Essentials" playlist for the genre). Here's my own:

1. "As You Do" - Medicine
2. "Black Metallic" - Catherine Wheel
3. "Feel Every Beat" - Electronic
4. "Grey Cell Green" - Ned's Atomic Dustbin
5. "Groovy Train" - The Farm
6. "In the Meantime" - Spacehog
7. "Lazarus (Flood Remix)" - The Boo Radleys
8. "Let Forever Be" - The Chemical Brothers
9. "Live Forever" - Oasis
10. "My Biggest Thrill" - The Mighty Lemon Drops
11. "Only Shallow" - My Bloody Valentine
12. "Pearl" - Chapterhouse
13. "Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops" - Cocteau Twins
14. "She Bangs the Drums" - The Stone Roses
15. "Slide Away" - The Verve
16. "Sometimes Always" - The Jesus and Mary Chain
17. "Somewhere in China" - Shop Assistants
18. "Trip & Slide" - Bleach
19. "Unbearable" - The Wonder Stuff
20. "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful" - Morrissey

OUT TODAY ON DVD: 30 ROCK SEASON 2