Minnesotans Kick Some Ass At The 80th Annual Academy Awards; Once Wins Best Song Oscar (Plus Video of "Falling Slowly" Performance)

Download: The Moldy Peaches - "Anyone Else But You"
Download: Michael Cera & Ellen Page - "Anyone Else But You"
Download: Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova - "Falling Slowly"

For those of you Minnesotans who didn't watch the 80th annual Academy Awards should know that, if you had, you would have felt some serious hometown pride. Not only did No Country For Old Men, the twelfth full-length feature from St. Louis Park-born filmmaking duo the Coen Bros., won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem) and Best Adapted Screenplay, but the winner for Best Original Screenplay went to none other than Diablo Cody. Cody is the Minneapolis-based, Chicago-born (yay Chicago and MPLS!) "something-something-turned-something-or-another", who was awarded a statuette for her screenplay Juno. And while this writer can't show them some hometown love, lest I defy the laws of physics, congratulations all around are in order all the same.

In music related Oscar news, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova defied the odds once again by winning the Best Song Academy Award for "Falling Slowly", the centerpiece of the film Once, in which both Hansard and Irglova co-starred. Watch video of their performance, and listen to the original version, at the top of the post.

Once Soundtrack MySpace Page
Juno official website
No Country For Old Men official website

(Jonathan Graef)

The Moldy Peaches Perform On "The View" - Plus Stray Observations About Juno

(YouTube Clip)



(via TV Pop Crunch)

Download: The Moldy Peaches - "Anyone Else But You"
Download: Michael Cera & Ellen Page - "Anyone Else But You"


The Moldy Peaches, everybody's favorite "new" band, went on "The View", of all shows, to perform an rendition of that goddamned song* beloved indie-folk classic "Anyone Else But You", which has been introduced into the mainstream via the film Juno. Footage at the top of the post. Furthermore, I saw said film over the weekend and enjoyed it. A lot of the dialogue was too capital-Q quirky, but I thought Juno absolutely hit the mark when it came to the sincere and emotional moments (my favorite was the scene between Ellen Page and Jennifer Garner interacting in the mall). But I have some stray observations:

--"I bought another Sonic Youth CD and it's just noise!!". Based on this line, is it reasonable to assume that Juno bought NYC Ghosts And Flowers by mistake?
--Speaking of SY, is it even possible for someone whose favorite band is The Stooges not to have heard any Sonic Youth? And furthermore, to dismiss the band as noise? I know the comment was said out of spite, but let's at least have some consistency. How could she not think that Raw Power had its fair share of noise?
--I thought that the conversations between Mark (Jason Bateman) and Juno had some weird, unintended meta-awareness about them. Because if they were shooting the shit about underground/cult movies, music and TV in real life, then surely someone would have brought up "Arrested Development"?
--Minnesota shout-outs that I picked up on: St. Cloud, Stillwater, Mankato. There's gotta be more, for obvious reasons.

MP3s of the Juno cover and the Moldy Peaches original up at the top.

(Jonathan Graef)


*a reference to the song's ubiquity, not a quality judgement. Settle down, Beavis.