Tuesday Tunes

It’s the common luxury of the modern world. People enjoy complaining of the little inconveniences involved, but I think that’s just a sign that being able to catch a flight has become as commonplace as grabbing a taxi, although usually more expensive. My tiny complaint is the amount that my feet swell in the air: I end up having to tie my shoes very loose beforehand, and usually end up doing some weird clown walk to board the plane. With the advance of time and technology, I can’t wait to see what new modes of transportation catch on …

The Song(s)
Song: Big Machine
Artist: Mark Duplass
Composer: Ryan Miller of Guster
Album: Safety Not Guaranteed (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) - 2012- ABKCO Music & Records Inc.
Method of discovery: Safety Not Guaranteed

Theory: Big Machine goes through a couple of verses consisting of I6-I-I6-I-vi-IV-I6-I. The I is played higher on the neck with a lower drone note, which is nice because it sounds fancy, and because that sounds fancy. The Pre-chorus has a sense of building pressure, helped along by the melody of course, the chords below progressing through IV-I7sus4/IV-IV-V6-V7-V6-V. The Chorus is where those extended chords take a break for a more familiar sound until the Major III and the Sharp v diminished 7 (IV-V-I, IV-V-III-vi, VI-V-#vdim7-vi, IV-V-IV). The Outro is simply I-II-IV-iv repeated over the ‘nah nah nah hey’.

Research: The song is from a 2012 movie based on a fictitious Personal Ad run in a 1997 publication. The ad asks for someone to travel back in time with, including the passage:

“… Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. …”

It had appeared in one form or another for several years before being used as a springboard for the film, but it was originally used as a ‘filler’ in Backwoods Home Magazine when publisher Dave Duffy asked his friend for something to fill some empty space. John Silveira wrote the ad, which was an opening line to a never published book, and expected nothing of it. The consequences were more than he had anticipated. I recommend listening to a podcast named Reply All, which is about internet related things. Episode 17 delves into this story in more detail than I can do justice. Link below.

Personal thoughts: When I first saw this movie I was on a plane. I read the description and thought, ‘heh … sounds interesting’. Much like John Silveira when he wrote the original ad, I did not expect the impact that decision was about to have. I’m not saying I’ve re-written my life based on that movie, but I was struck by it. In particular, the scene where an excerpt of the song is played by Mark Duplass, in character. Apparently it only took two takes, and Aubrey Plaza’s reaction is real. If interested, I urge you to watch the movie in it’s entirety, because watching the scene out of place on YouTube would be like hearing the middle of a story.

Give it a go: If you can bring your own weapons

Give it a miss: If you need your safety to be guaranteed

[links]
Spotify: Tuesday Tunes, Big Machine from Safety Not Guaranteed (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
The Movie: IMDB, HuffPost Article about it
Backwoods Home Magazine: The Time-Travel Ad (2010), on Wikipedia
Other: Guster on Wikipedia, The Reply All Episode