That Thing You Do!

At my school camp in 2009, we watched three movies.
They were That Thing You Do, The Princess Bride, and Muppets From Space.
That was a good camp.

This mixtape started a few year obsession that has resulted in the weirdest remix album I've ever put together  A few years ago, I heard the Beatles LOVE album and I couldn't help but marvel at how they made 50 year old songs so fresh and new. So I decided to create a remix project around that. After months of scouring, I found 50 songs that were "beatlesque" enough that they almost sounded like mirror images of Beatles songs. I restricted my search to mostly Americans and I found many Beatles-styled musicians like the Canadian Sloan or the Detroit Redwalls or the Ohio Pillbugs. Some music was beatlesque on purpose (like The Vinyl Kings) and some that play around with the homage by mixing their sound with the Beach Boys (like Splitsville). I wanted to make this sound like the ultimate concert album, much like the LOVE album, so I decided to use the band name "The Wonders" (named after the band in the 1995 movie That Thing You Do) and presented a remix album as if this band were actually performing after few more years of performance.

My fictional  Wonders band is made up of fictional musicians from film:

Guy "Shades" Patterson on Drums - The original drummer from The Wonders. After his band dissolves in 1964, Mr. White decides to rehire Guy to finish out the "Wonders" contract with a new band made up of other members of dissolved bands that work under the Play-tone label.

Sid Belvedere on backing vocals and Bass - An American ex-pat living in Great Britain was part of another band, Ming Tea, before their lead singer disappeared in 1967. He renewed his contract with Play-tone and Mr. White put him on this new band.

Brian Slade on Vocals and Lead Guitar - A British Merseybeat singer who was invited by Mr. White to come to America. When asked if he was a Mod or a Rocker, he said, "I'm six of one half a dozen of the other really." He would, in the 1970s, strike out on his own as Maxwell's Demon

...and Ed Cruz (aka Eddie Wilson) on Vocals and Guitar - A Jersey native who signs up with the band after recovering from a car accident. Mr. White hires him on as part of the band out of loyalty to Ed's previous life and he stays with the band until they decide to call it quits in 1969.

Here is the track list with the Beatles song and the appropriate counterpoint song on this mix:

1. "Because" = Sun Reprise/Overture
2. "Get Back" = Pas De Cheval
3. "Glass Onion" = She Says what She Means
4. "Eleanor Rigby" (with "Julia" transition) – Girl with the Camera Eyes
5. "I Am the Walrus" – Chocolate Cake/ending of Elloquent Spokesman
6. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" = That Thing You Do
7. "Drive My Car"/"The Word"/"What You're Doing" = Little Blue Car
8. "Gnik Nus" – Its beautiful (interlude)
9. "Something" = Hung Up On the Way I'm Feeling/Overture Transition
10. "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!"/"I Want You (She's So Heavy)"/"Helter Skelter" = Rainbow People
11. "Help!" – Dance with Me Tonight: Wonders
12. "Blackbird"/"Yesterday" – Tomorrow Tomorrow - Elliot Smith/Hummingbird
13. "Strawberry Fields Forever" – Submarine Dream
14. "Within You Without You"/"Tomorrow Never Knows: Tomorrow Drop Dead
15. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" – Stars
16. "Octopus's Garden" = Richard Randolf
17. "Lady Madonna" = Big Bad Momma
18. "Here Comes the Sun" (with "The Inner Light" transition) = (Symphony for a Sunset Transition) When the day met the night
19. "Come Together"/"Dear Prudence" – Losing My Mind
20. "Revolution" – Good Friend
21. "Back in the U.S.S.R." = Rock and Roll
22. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" – 3:46 - Different Girl
23. "A Day in the Life" – The Lovesong of Brian Wilson/Mr. Blue Sky
24. "Hey Jude" – 3:58 - Fading into Obscurity
25. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)" - Nine in the Afternoon (I am Spartacus Transition)
26. "All You Need Is Love" = I'll Never Fall in love again.

You can download the album by clicking here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bw7f8Ow … JKM2s/edit

While I LOVE this movie, I really cannot recommend the director's cut. It is overly-bloated and the editing is sloppy. Some of the best jokes from the theatrical version fall completely flat because they let the scenes run too long.

Regardless, the theatrical cut is one of my all time favorites.

I liked the discussion of the Extended Cut-versus-Theatrical Cut. There really is a lot to be learned there about editing, paring down a narrative, and sifting the absolutely necessary bits from the superfluous/redundant bits. The economy of the Theatrical Cut is another feather in the cap of Richard Chew.

Also...

* Teague: My girlfriend's brother, a musician, said he's shocked that Tom Everett Scott had never played the drums before getting cast in the film: "He looks like he's been playing his whole life, twirling sticks and shit."

* It's fascinating how it's apparently easier to teach good actors to play instruments convincingly than it is to teach good musicians to be convincing as actors. Why is that? I feel like I could learn to play a dramatic scene halfway-decent before I'll ever learn to to play a song on the piano, but apparently no...

* I've seen Rita Wilson self-identify as Greek. (She produced My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Mamma Mia!). Her mom was Greek and her dad was a Bulgarian Muslim who was born in Greece, according to Wikipedia. "Margarita" is totally a Mexican name, though, but apparently Greek folks use it too(?)

* Jonathan Shaech once played Houdini in a dark, 1998 biopic that I remember liking.

* Mars Callahan appears to be working on a film called Poker Junkies. Looks like he's trying to corner the market on Junkies movies.

You gotta be quick with me: I'm from Erie, Pa

I remember this movie coming out and a big article in the venerable Erie Times news about it. Sadly they only shot a couple exterior shots of Mercyhurst in Erie.  I'm from Erie by the way.  Had to sign up for the forums to post about one of Erie's many important contributions to cinema history. And by many I mean two.  They shot the barren apocalyptic landscapes in The Road here.