the rollerblading hacker movie that made me move to nyc
plus new music from Romy, Jenny Lewis, Jason Isbell, and a dancehall Sade cover?!?
Everyone has their primal scene for moving to New York. Maybe it was Sex And The City, maybe it was the Strokes, maybe it was CBGBs, maybe it was Basquiat. For me, for better or worse, it was the rollerblades-and-cyberspace 1995 movie Hackers.
I distinctly remember sitting in my friend’s brown shag carpeted “TV room” as he clicked open a Blockbuster rental case, prepping me that this movie was SICK. An hour and a half later, I had so many burning questions: Why were these teens dressed like anime characters? Who goes to high school in a high rise building? Is that what the internet looks like inside???
Luckily, I didn’t get into rollerblading *or* computer programming – I tried both, and thankfully failed – but I was left with a new sensation of teen longing. It was the first time I had seen New York for what it was – a scaffold for endless strange subcultures, a million costumes, and where every weirdo has their crew, ideally with cool hacker nicknames (joking, sorta).
In 1997, there was very little “New York” in my world. Alt-rock radio was all Korn jock-rap or California skate-punk long shorts rock, all fashion was triangle backpacks and Sketchers. The air conditioned excess of the mid-to-late 90’s generally reeked of Florida, from Lou Pearlman to puka shells, with a lingering hangover from Seattle Gen X West Coast cynicism. Certainly nothing felt like a city filled with secretive societies of cyber-elite, making “Hackers” an incredibly mind-blowing experience for me in the suburbs of San Jose.
Really, no matter how silly the movie seems now, I’ve been chasing the feeling of this Orbital drop my entire adult life here in New York:
This all came to mind when I wanted to tap into that feeling for a big beat style remix for my friend Slic, where I, too, tried to conjure up the energy of the best movie with Fisher Stevens riding a skateboard in multiple scenes:
Even though some of movie’s retro-internet aesthetics don’t age particularly well, at the time this shit hit *extremely* hard. Obviously, the movie’s time capsule soundtrack of pre-Fat of the Land Prodigy, Stereo MCs and UK big beat felt like a fully realized portrait of a sexy, strange future, with back to back stellar needle drops. You can find compiled playlists of the soundtrack on Spotify, and every track still goes, especially the well-placed ballads and trip-hop.
Outside of the music, the fashion choices of the movie were also deeply extra, but still feel like they go really hard? At least they would totally work for a night out at Bossa Nova:
That’s part of what made NYC seem so alluring – yes, these high schoolers dressed like Akira-via-Moschino, but it all made sense because it was in New York. Audience reactions to the film at the time said the same thing: "Yeah, but maybe that's the way they dress in New York." The movie’s cyber-fantasy was a movie-length permission slip to imagine what weird shit you’d try in a city where anything might be possible.
It feels like a real dork admin reveal to talk through how a very uncool cyberpunk movie is what got me to ship off to Brooklyn when I hit adulthood. But like Sam Valenti said in his excellent Herb Sunday on the Dare, everyone here embraces the uncool in defiance of your always-cooler predecessors here:
I remember my local record store guys goofing on Interpol's debut EP saying it was a Joy Division ripoff, but every generation if they’re lucky, gets a chance at their version of a thing just like this is an LCD for now. It’s easy to forget Murphy was a dance music interloper too who was switched on by an ecstasy pill given to him by producer/DJ David Holmes (who coincidentally produced the Primal Scream song on this Herb mix). There is always someone cooler than you out there, we are all downstream.
The real bummer isn’t whatever dorky shit that got you here, pr the corndogs making a copy of a copy of a copy of the vibe you once chased – it’s when there’s no one wading in downstream to breathe life into the city. Hack the planet.
On to the week’s best! You can follow along on our playlists on Spotify and Apple Music, which update every Tuesday along with the newsletter.
Romy – Loveher
This is the first Fred Again production that’s hit for me, zeitgeist be damned. His penchant for sentimental minimalism and buoyant, bright, digital sounds works under Romy's iconic voice. As the song’s refrain flips to a loop and the song's LED-lit climax starts to unfold, Fred and Romy's moves feel perfectly molded to each other, Romy’s restraint meeting Fred’s emotionalism in the middle of the dancefloor.
Jason Isbell – King of Oklahoma
Jason Isbell's latest album Weathervanes is self-produced, and he leans into a crispy, chime-y distortion across the record that lends its laid back songs an almost Kurt Vile-like haze. The resulting production makes the songs feel worn in and familiar, but Isbell still knows how to punch through on the chorus on "King of Oklahoma," dropping out of the track's breezy strum into a dramatic half-time. The song’s melancholy is presented so plainly that it’s easy to miss how much detail Isbell packs into the song, heartbreak rendered simply and gut-wrenchingly.
Zoh Amba & Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt – What Emptiness Do You Gaze Upon!
The confident chaos of “What Emptiness Do You Gaze Upon!” makes it hard to believe that this is the first-ever meeting between saxophonist Zoh Amba and Bill Orcutt, but maybe that initial shock of contact is where the song’s explosive energy comes from. The track is taken from The Flower Shop, recorded in San Francisco after Corsano and Amba wrapped their West Coast tour, but nothing here sounds like a victory lap from a live show, instead reaching for a just-out-of-reach resolution. A blast – in the fun sense, the noise sense, the visionary sense, the rocket sense – for its entire six minutes and forty seconds.
Jenny Lewis – Psychos
I'm always in for Jenny Lewis. She's been in her bag for decades now, but it's been particularly satisfying to see her nail LA pop over her last few records. Joy'All doesn't make as many big swings (imo) as 2019's On the Line, but it's better for it – the album’s worn-in bar band confidence makes it feel like hearing from a long-lost friend, or FM classics that somehow slipped your mind. The 70's TV special video vibe matches the track perfectly, but as always, it’s Lewis the narrator who makes you want to stick around and start the track over again.
Mother Tongues – Only You
"Only You" is head and shoulders above other current shoegaze/dream pop thanks to its XL chorus, which dares to scale the heights of their 90s forebears. Where their contemporaries would more than happily vibe in the track’s baggy, shimmering verses, Mother Tongues find a perfect move to escalate into rarified air. Excited to hear more from this Toronto band when their debut LP Love In A Vicious Way hits in July.
th roooowba a a aaa ck
Karen Smith – Paradise
A dancehall Sade cover? Produced by Sly and Robbie?? And it's almost eight minutes long??? Your mixtape game is about to explode. Thanks Ross for the tip.