Baumbach on mix tapes in LA Times
In the Los Angeles Times music blog "Pop & Hiss," Todd Martens spoke with Noah Baumbach on music, character and mix tapes. He points out, as Baumbach has often recounted, the origins of the film Greeenberg "could be traced to a specific song. LCD Soundsystem's "All My Friends" is a 7 1/2-m
In the Los Angeles Times music blog "Pop & Hiss," Todd Martens spoke with Noah Baumbach on music, character and mix tapes. He points out, as Baumbach has often recounted, the origins of the film Greeenberg "could be traced to a specific song. LCD Soundsystem's "All My Friends" is a 7 1/2-minute tragi-comedy, a post-partying reflection from principal James Murphy." Through out the post, Baumbach talks about the use of popular music in the film as meaningful in many different ways. At one point, Florence (Greta Gerwig) picks the 1971 Paul McCartney song "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" for an emotional connection. For Baumbach, the choice says more about Florence than contemporary music: "You can justify that her parents had some Wings albums and she liked that song." In the end, for Baumbach:
I’m interested in music as an extension of character....Taste is an important part of self-definition for many of the characters I’ve written, particularly Greenberg, since he is so about his opinions. There’s a notion that music is defining you. There are the people who overthink making mix CDs and playlists, and how that works generationally is all really interesting to me.