The Sounds of Wicker Park

By chicago_chris in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 22, 2004 5:03PM

Indie-rock haven Pitchfork is good for something besides their cynical reviews: they also break pertinent music information. And today, they revealed the most pertinent tidbit of them all – the track listing to the Wicker Park soundtrack. (How's that for sarcasm, Pitchforkers?) As dreamy as star Josh Hartnett is, Chicagoist isn't really looking forward to this film, which, as we pointed out a while back, sounded better when it was called Vertigo and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The trailer hasn't given us much more faith: it understandably played to laughs and jeers when Chicagoist saw it with a local audience before Anchorman. We just can't in good faith support any movie that misuses Chicago locations, let alone such trendy Chicago locations.

The Wicker Park album, however, is a different story. Featuring music by Death Cab For Cutie, Broken Social Scene, Mazzy Star, The Shins, Mum, The Postal Service, and Mogwai – this will be the rare soundtrack we (Soul)seek out without also going to see the movie. But as great as these artists are, Chicagoist can't help but echo Gapers Block's sentiments and ask, why not feature some artists actually from Wicker Park?

There's a pretty decent music scene in the neighborhood and in our city. If you're going to go out of your way to set your movie so lovingly in the Second City, why not get some good Chicago music to go along with it? How about The New Constitution? Or maybe some acts from Mr. Hyde, the record label run by Loren Wilson – a.k.a. the guy behind the Pitchformula project – that exclusively features Hyde Park artists. In fact, why don't they just make the movie into Hyde Park, where Hartnett would play a brilliant but heartbroken U of C student? He'd have to show some serious acting chops to do that.