Josie and the Pussycats

In 2001, the corporatization of the music industry was at an all-time high. With CD sales headed towards their peak, Josie and the Pussycats fought off subliminal messages being embedded directly into their recordings by the evil MegaRecords empire led by Fiona. Join hosts Jon and Mark has they travel to Riverdale to see how this three-piece Archie Comics band went from the bowling alley to the big time with a little help from DuJour.

Don't forget your cat-ear headset!

Transcript

Jon (00:00)
Tonight in the Rock and Roll Theatre, long tails and ears for hats, it's Josie and the Pussycats.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Rock N' Roll Theatre Podcast. My name is Jon and I'm joined by my co-host, my brother Mark, for each episode. Each episode here we dive into music, pop culture, movies, all sorts of fun stuff. And today we're looking at Josie and the Pussycats.

Mark (00:30)
Josie and the Pussycats was released on April eleventh, two thousand one. It runs one hour thirty eight minutes, rated PG thirteen. It's a musical comedy film. It was directed and written by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan.

This is a bit of a strange number. The budget was between $22 and $39 million. Okay, I guess. And at the box office, it only made $14 million. So that is considered a bomb. And that is one of the key things you'll see about this movie if you research it.

Jon (01:01)
All right.

Mark (01:13)
So this movie follows an all-girl rock and roll band who suddenly become superstars with a number one hit song. But they find themselves in the middle of a conspiracy to manipulate the public to buy commercial goods by delivering subliminal messages through their recorded music. It's based on both the Archie Comics series from the nineteen sixties and the Hanna Barbera cartoon from the nineteen seventies, also called Josie and the Pussycats.

Archie comics initially distanced themselves from this movie due to the tone and humor in many of the scenes.

Jon (01:51)
Interesting choice from Archie Comics is considering later on they had Netflix series called Ruby Dale that had much more darker, grittier edge to it. But We're not here to discuss that today. This movie captures a lot of what was going on in the music scene in 2000, 2001. Pop punk was coming back in a big way. We had bands like Green Day, Blink 182, The Offspring, Avril Lavigne, and Sum41 were just around the corner. So lots going on in that space, as well as a lot of pop music. Baxter Boys and in Sync, of course, were huge around that time too. And we're going to touch on all those different topics.

Mark (02:18)
The movie was shot entirely in Vancouver. It stars Rachel E. Cook as Josie on guitar and vocals, Tara Reed as Melody on drums, and Rosario Dawson as Valerie on bass. Now, in the original comic and cartoon, the Valerie character did not actually play bass. She played tambourine, sometimes one, sometimes two. So a bit of a departure here, I guess. Also,

The cartoon was a total ripoff of Scooby-Doo, and reused basically the same character templates and many of the same plots, and did not feature many scenes of the group actually playing music. It was mostly about solving mysteries.

The movie also has an all-original soundtrack without any existing artists having songs featured in the film.

The cast also attended a two week band camp to learn instruments for authenticity when playing on screen. Not sure how successful that was.

Jon (03:19)
Mm-hmm, kind of a mixed bag on that one. Also, Hannah Barbera, we've been down this road before already in the Rock and Roll Theatre Podcast in one of our earlier episodes with Kiss Meets the Fam of the Park. So we're very familiar with this style of film. But before we get to all things Josie and the Pussycats, if you have a quick moment out there in the world, if you could like, subscribe, comment, download, whatever the case may be, it really helps out a small podcast like us. I know you guys hear it all the time, but it does help. Also, we have a TikTok page, a YouTube page. We have a lot of cool short videos there for you to check out. But for now, Josie and the Pussycats.

We open not with Josie and the Pussycats, but with an all-boy band called DuJour. And they are getting off onto a plane to start their world tour. They're a complete Backstreet Boys NSYNC ripoff if there ever was one. It's the total scene of girls going crazy at the airport, De jour leaving for the world tour, girls are passing out, they have signs that say Marry Me Du Jour, and there are product placements everywhere, which is a big theme in this film. There are more than 70 brands of products placed in this film, but reportedly without payment,

they just did to create the overall aesthetic that how commercialized music had gotten. And by this point, the MTV generation product placement was everywhere. Also, a fun thing here, he's not credited in the credits, but Seth Green, legendary 90s early 2000s actor plays one of the members of DuJour. Their song we hear playing by them is a clone of every pop song from that time, that era. If you had it on the background, you probably wouldn't know it was a kind of a jokey song. And the title of this one is Backdoor Love.

⁓ okay, nice title there, boys. And but behind the scenes, once again on the plane, the du jour boys are not getting along. They're arguing with each other, they're fighting with each other, they're throwing insults, they're mad about whose face is on the coke cans, whose isn't. And one of them has a monkey, which we've been down this road before too, as well in the Theatre. Michael Jackson bubbles famously. This monkey's called Dr. Zayas, great name for a monkey, and he is causing havoc on the plane.

Mark (05:11)
But they are able to band together. What does de jour mean? De jour means friendship.

Jon (05:16)
Actually it doesn't.

Mark (05:17)
They also say de jour means teamwork.

Jon (05:20)
Also no.

Mark (05:22)
Moving on, we meet their manager, Wyatt, played by Alan Cumming. He's trying to keep the peace amongst the group. Obviously, he's got an interest in how they perform financially. He's representing Mega Records. That's a great name. The group is a little bit concerned. They ask Wyatt, is there a hidden audio track in going on in their record? Is there something's off? They they can't figure out what's going on. There's some sort of

Hidden audio track running behind the scenes. Wyatt realizes this is not a question he wants to answer. So he walks up to the front of the plane to meet the pilot. He calls out a famous line Take the Chevy to the levy from the song American Pie in reference to Buddy Holly. And they both decide to jump out of the plane. So as a viewer, I'm thinking, okay, I guess this isn't a very serious movie.

Plane actually crashes, which I thought was even maybe a little bit kind of too brutal. Like where a plane crash? Like there's people in that plane and they're just playing it off like no big deal. Anyway, Wyatt ends up in Riverdale.

We move along to the main introduction of the movie. We see an opening credits style scene, a montage where we're introduced to Josie, played by Rachel Lee Cook, Valerie, played by Rosario Dawson, and Melody played by Tara Reed. The song playing is called Three Small Words. I actually I never saw this film when it came out, but I do remember that song. So right away that connected with me.

There's a montage, things are going on here. Something really, really stuck out to me here. So, first of all, Rachel Lee Cook in one scene is wearing a Ramones shirt while she's sort of jumping up and down on a trampoline. Okay, I wasn't totally shocked by that. The Ramones had been finished for a while when this movie came out, but their place in history had not really picked up to the point where it is now. So okay, maybe that one was a little bit predictable.

But then I was pretty blown away by this one. Rachel Lee Cook, in this scene of being a waitress in a cafe, is wearing a forest green three quarter sleeve baseball shirt with black flag on the front.

Wow, I was not expecting that. I had to hit pause. Greg Ginn, Henry Rollins, Chuck Dukowski, Bill Stevenson, the list goes on.

Jon (07:58)
Keith Morris.

Mark (07:59)
Yeah. Robo. Where's Robo? I was not expecting such a credible source, shall we say, to be featured in this film. And then she's also wearing a shirt that says Sid in all capital letters, S-I-D. Is that in reference to Sid Vicious? I can't quite tell. I'm assuming so, but I don't know.

Jon (08:02)
Guys.

Mark (08:20)
We see the group playing ⁓ at a bowling alley. So they're sort of off in the corner, no one's really paying attention, they're struggling through their set, people aren't digging it at all. It's time to go. The lights go down, they're leaving the bowling alley, they're outside loading the van.

Jon (08:40)
So they're done, they're set, they've returned their bowling shoes, they're loading the van. All of a sudden, they're inundated by DuJour fans who start mocking them and just saying, What are you guys wearing? Bunny ears? And Melody's like, No, they're leopard ears. So things aren't going so great yet for the girls. we hear the song come on, which is on the soundtrack. We hear it very briefly, and we're introduced to the sort of love interest, the sort of tension in the movie. a man named Alan who has no last name, just an initial. And he's hanging out with Josie and they're talking, and there's there's a lot of tension.

Between them, but neither can tell the other one that they like each other. So they're singing together while they're fixing a car, which also reminds me of a movie watched recently from the same time frame: Eight Mile. there's a great scene with Rabbit and Future. They're fixing their car and they're singing. They're shot very similarly, although the music sounds very different. Then we meet brother and sister duo Alexander and Alexandria. They're kind of useless characters. I mean, Alexander, the brother, is supposed to be the band's manager. But I mean, why would a band this small who's playing the bowling alley for five bucks?

Even have a manager, and apparently a manager who was too busy to go to their set because they're saying, Where were you? And he's like, ⁓ I'm out there, you know, you know, out there working for you guys, getting the name out, getting the word out. ⁓ okay, buddy.

Then we get some horrible news. MTV News comes on. DuJour is playing his Crash in Riverdale. sadly, the boys are all missing. However, Mega Records is already in on this. There's gonna be a limited edition box set available tomorrow. I think it says it includes a CD-ROM. For our younger listeners, you might want to Google CD-ROM and see what that is. And we get an excellent graphic. It says R.I.P. DuJour 2000 to 2001.

Meanwhile, the girls really want a record deal and they're scheming with ideas of how they could get one. Wyatt comes into Riverdale and he has the final Du Jour mix with him. So he comes into a record shop and he slips the DJ, DuJour's final song called Around the World. ⁓ fun little fact here, I worked as professional DJ. I was a professional DJ when the time this movie came out. I own the exact same controller, the Denon twenty five hundred that they're using for this. Good controller.

And the reason why, of course, he has his CD is there's subliminal messages embedded within it. ⁓ getting people to, you know, orange is the new pink or something like that. I really want a Zima, whatever products they're going on. There's a bunch of different things they list. However, there's one goth girl in there, and she thinks this sucks. Why it considers her opinion for a second, kind of brings her around to the back of the store and has her kidnapped.

Mark (11:03)
Kidnapping, definitely not cool. Don't do that.

Jon (11:06)
Seems like a massive overreaction for someone who said, I didn't like this song. But hey, this is how it's going on in Riverdale.

Mark (11:13)
We move along to an evening scene now. We're in downtown Riverdale, we're in front of some of the stores downtown. And Josie and the Pussycats decide, well, you know, in order to drum up some interest here, we're gonna play an outdoor acoustic set. So they have a few acoustic instruments, acoustic guitar, acoustic bass. I think Melody just has a snare drum, and they start playing about I don't know, ten to fifteen seconds of a song.

And the store owner runs out front, you can't do that here. I'm gonna call the cops, shuts it down pretty quickly.

I also noticed in this scene there's a very strong promotion of Samick musical instruments, not Fender, not Gibson.

Jon (11:53)
Samick was definitely the brand of choice for struggling musicians in the late 90s, early 2000s.

Mark (12:00)
Wyatt is driving down the road, of course, at the exact same time. the girls are crossing the road and they cross in front of his van. So he slams on the brakes. He hears the song Paradise by the Dashboard Light by Meatloaf. And he's like, What am I looking at? There's three women in front of me. They look like musicians. This must be fate. He jumps out, he offers them a record deal. I guess it's that easy to get signed in Riverdale.

They go over to the coffee shop, they debate this, they sit down, they decide, okay, well, hold on. We need to talk about this more. And then the girls say, We we each have to go to the bathroom. They all go into the bathroom. They kind of find ways to delay dealing with Wyatt, et cetera, et cetera. Then they come back out and they immediately sign and they get into the Mega Records jet. Alan ⁓ from earlier on is now promoted to Guitar Tech. Alexander is

Still the manager, I guess, even though they are with Wyatt, but he's still around. Okay. And why is Alexandra there? Well, she's there, as she says, because she's in the comic.

Is that funny? I don't know.

Jon (13:11)
One of the only references to the fact that there actually is this is based on a comic would be that

Mark (13:17)
We also see the three main characters, they all kind of share a moment where they look at their bus pass photo where they promise to put friendship first. And apparently this was the only bus pass photo ever taken in Riverdale where three people were allowed to be in the frame.

Jon (13:35)
So now the girls are with the label. they're off the jet, and it's time for a makeover. So we see a whole montage here to the song You're a Star. Good song. And the video has a lot of scenes. I remember from videos like we got the beat by the go-go's, the hairdryers, that sort of stuff. It's a fun scene. And now they all have new looks, which are pretty much their same looks, only they got better outfits. And as soon as they walk out from the beauty shop, beauty salon, whatever you have there, there's a huge billboard now for them hanging in Times Square. And all of a sudden the name has changed.

It's no longer the Pussycats, it's Josie and the Pussycats. Val seems a little concerned by this and is like, like that's not the name of her band, Wyatt. And he's like, No, no, no, no, this is much better. She's not convinced, but we're gonna go with it. And as they all get into the limit, well, Wyatt tries to leave Val in the streets, he didn't like that she, you know, sort of any sort of pushback on him.

We see a mystery man in the shadows, very Scooby-Doo-ish, even like the cheese music, like dun dun dun. You see this, you know, shadowy figure that's looking at the limousine. Then we move on to the head of Mega Records, who's Fiona, who's played by Parker Posey. ⁓ I mean, of course, 90s, 90s, two, early 2000s. I'm not surprised Parker Posey's in this movie. she's in charge of their solutional tech program. She has a whole bunch of heads of state.

Showing them how she puts all these messages into songs, getting people to buy things, basically how to influence the youth, shall we say. And in a good scene here, too, quick cameo, Eugene Levy pops in to host the corporate video. He's an alumni here of the rock and roll Theatre. We've covered him several times. both him and Parker Posey are in a mighty wind, which we did a couple episodes back. He also plays a voice in the animated film Heavy Metal we looked at a little while ago. So nice to see Eugene pop up, and his little segment is pretty funny.

And the overall goal basically is to how do we milk all the cash from teens? They have babysitting money, they have part-time jobs, how are we going to separate them from their money? And they figured this subliminal message program is the way to do it. And when one of the heads of state asks, like, well, you know, what if the what if the rock stars resist? What if they don't they're not in on this? And she immediately cuts to, Well, a lot of rock stars die young and shows a montage of e true true Hollywood stories footage, I mean fake footage, of what happens to rock stars when they disagree.

Mark (15:43)
Time to get into the studio. So Josie and the Pussycats are in the studio and they got some new gear. No surprise, some more Samick gear. This time, though, it's looking pretty slick. It's kind of got this sleek gray, almost kind of late 90s, early 2000s kind of space vibe to it. There's a new mixing board. The Mega Sound 8000. Do not touch its top secret.

The band proceeds to record three small words. So we hear that one again. But this time it's done with mega sound mix. All of a sudden, when the group is done playing, they start saying things to each other like, I really want a Big Mac. I really want to stop by Foot Locker. Kinda weird, right? What's going on? We then see a video montage for Pretend to be nice, it looks good.

Jon (16:18)
Mm.

Mark (16:38)
Maybe a little bit in the style of Miss World by Hull.

Of course, it's a hit everywhere. They're big deal now, big time. Josie and the Pussycats are taking over. But Josie thinks this is kind of weird. Like, you know what I mean? All they did was record a few songs, but all of a sudden everyone's into it. What's going on? The same Du jour fans who originally kind of gave them some guff at the bowling alley, they crashed the hotel. They are now hardcore fans for Josie and the Pussycats.

So we move along. Fiona is hosting a party, but it's only for Josie. The invitation does not include the other two members. So basically, if they want to go, they have to beg. Fiona reveals that there's going to be a very big stadium show, this big concert that's really going to take the band to the next level.

Jon (17:28)
That's a huge step up for a band that played a bowling alley, what, three, four days ago? Hey, you know, that's how it's rolling at Mega Records. And Mega Records has a plan though. They're gonna avail their new 3DX Pussycat headphones to push their subliminal messes on the people. the headphones are just like the leopard ears the girls wear, and you have to have them in order to watch the concert on pay-per-view.

Pay-per-view might be another thing that, you know, you might need to Google and see what that is before streaming. And funny enough, the voice they realized the voice that is actually pushing the messages, it's Mr. Movie Phone, another staple from the late 90s, early 2000s. Fiona explained this all to the government agent they have there. They start to get kind of weird with each other. Okay, it's kind of awkward. Are they flirting? Are they not? We don't even need this scene in the movie, quite frankly.

But it's there, and we're here to cover everything. while this is going on, we see Melody in the shower, which is covered in McDonald's logos, and we see the mystery man again. He appears in the background. Is this like psycho? Is he gonna get Melody? No, he writes beware of the music and lipstick on the mirror, which kind of freaks Melody out until she realizes if she puts a heart over the eye in music and makes a smiley face out of the O, that things are gonna be okay. I don't think she even mentioned it to anybody that this happened.

Meanwhile, Alan stops by to hang out with Josie. I totally forgot he was even in the movie, but he's back. They're having a moment, they're the tension again, they're being all flirty with each other. All of a sudden, Wine interrupts them, says, You gotta hang out tomorrow. Josie's way too busy. So they go to this party that's in in theory just for Josie, but she lets the other two pussy cats come. And Fiona makes this big entrance. It's kind of strange. all the people there don't really seem like they want to be there.

And then immediately as soon as though she she gets in the room, the the girl's been there for like, I don't know, a minute, 30 seconds. She says, Okay, let's leave the the main part of the party and go to my party room. So I guess the party's over. I don't know. So she goes to this party room where she's trying to bond with the girls. They think she's really weird. they're not really into it, and she's super awkward with them. So as they're leaving, we start to realize that this whole thing is being recorded and there are plans being made behind the scenes to get rid of the other two pussy cats.

Mel and Val and only leave Josie as the star.

Mark (19:35)
We move along to Josie and Alan going to the aquarium. So they're having some alone time. He tells her he's got a gig he's gonna play. And she promises that she'll go. All right. He's pretty happy about that. We see a montage with some crazy fans. You know, the start stardom is building for the band. They're really getting big. The song is Shapeshifter. This was the other one from the movie that I did remember, even though I never actually saw the movie way back when I do remember this song.

I do remember the opening riff. It sounds a little bit sort of like s some other songs from that time, maybe something by Lit, maybe something by Sugar Cult or Phoenix TX, something like that. It's it's it's an all right song.

Josie is worried though. How is this going to play out? How is this going to go? But Alan is very encouraging and he tells her, you know, just do your best. Things will be good. We see a Josie.com blimp fly through the sky. I guess you got to get people online. You got to get people to your website. How are you going to do it? Fly a blimp through the air.

Val and Mel though, they need something to do, right? We haven't caught up with them in a while. So they're booked to go to TRL on MTV, Total Request Live, also a staple from this era. Also fun to point out here that Tara Reid dated Carson Daly in real life.

Wyatt, though, he's giving Josie a new remix and he's kind of keeping her distracted from going to Alan's gig. He keeps telling her about all these messages that are downstairs waiting for her that she just never got. He keeps quoting the song Rock Superstar by Cyprus Hill.

Valerie and Melody go down to this Total Request Live set, and it it's looking really weird. It's fake. It's like cardboard. Like they they're they're not sure what they're looking at. This is really, really weird. All of a sudden, behind them, Carson Daly, along with Aries Spears, show up with baseball bats. Not cool. Apparently, they're plants from the Mega Records label, and they've been sent there to kill them.

Okay, this is not cool. Like you shouldn't be threatening to kill people with bats. this this movie again is taking a bit of a weird turn. I thought this was supposed to be for kids.

Jon (21:51)
Maybe this is why Archie wanted to diss themselves from them. I'm not really sure. I mean, yeah, so the girls are in trouble. And we hear the dent dun dun music, of course, like Scooby-Doo style. And we have a quick cutout though to Alan who is doing that show that Josie missed. And he's not having a good set. They put him beside the bathroom. He's kind of bombing. Alexandra is there, the the sister there of the manager, and she's a big fan, and she's yelling everybody to shut up and pay attention, which doesn't help anything. So yeah, Alan had a rough gig.

But meanwhile, the girls are having a much rougher time at TRL. I like that the whole crowd is like fake cutouts of like Gwen Stefani, J Lo, Christian Aguilera, Jonny Depp. There's probably a whole bunch of other ones there I didn't catch. I think there's several Gwen's actually in the crowd there, ⁓ to simulate the crowd. So they're chasing them around, they're trying to get them. Val tricks Aerie Spears and he crashes into the fake set. And then Carson and and Tara kind of have a moment melody, sorry. ⁓ and they say, you know, in real life, we could date together.

But Melody's fighting for her life. So she picks up the Mark Wahlberg cutout and smacks Carson up with it, saves a day. They run out of the building. Meanwhile, the Josie's in the bathtub listening to the new remix. the messages behind it are yours should be the star, Josie. You don't need the other two. You need a solo career. You could have a TV series, all those different types of things. So once the girls get back, Josie's a completely different person. She starts, telling them like this is my music. And the girls are like, huh?

Like this is our music. We all rode together. She's like, nope. And she starts mocking them with the who's a rock star? I'm a rock star the girls are sad and they just basically leave. so Josie starts to walk around town. that you hear the song, the ballad from the movie, which we'll we'll go into more detail later on. It's called You Don't See Me. in a montage, she's walking around the city, listening to the music, looking at herself and all the posters, all the TVs and all the stores. Everything is Josie and the Pussycats.

Fun little fact here for the punk rocker fans in the building tonight in the rock and roll Theatre. ⁓ there's definitely a clown who looks a lot like Koki the Clown, which would be Fat Mike from No Effects Alter Eagle, like right down to the exact costume that kind of bumps into Josie. when she falls over though, however, her Walkman breaks, her bus pass comes flying out, and she realizes, like, what have I lost? What am I doing? What's going on here? This isn't who I am. I miss the girls. I want them to be in my band. So she knows something's wrong. She just goes to see her manager, Alexander.

this is the first time he really does anything to help the girls in the movie. So they go to the studio, they take the CD, and they start mixing it down. Actually now that I think about Josie's the one that finds the hidden track. The manager really didn't do anything. So she figures it on the mega sound 8,000, but right as about she's, all triumphant, Fiona comes in and busts her.

Mark (24:21)
We move along to the concert night. We see Carson Daly, he's the host. He's looking a little rough though.

Jon (24:26)
Looks like Mark Wahlberg got the better of him in that fight.

Mark (24:30)
He's telling the audience, don't forget your headphones. You need your headphones. You know those special headphones. Make sure you got them. But Josie, she doesn't want to play. Now that she's had this revelation about the Mega Sound 8000 and these subliminal messages that are embedded in the music, she's not down with giving her music out anymore. She brings in Valerie and Melody, and she apologizes to them. She explains what happened. She explains her discovery. But then all of a sudden, they win a new car.

Not sure how that happens.

Jon (25:02)
Like total game show style, it really seems like they've won a new car. And I'm like, what why'd they win a new car again? Wait a second. No, they didn't win a new car. Fiona shows them the MTV news footage that's already pre-prepared of a car explosion that sadly takes the life of Val and Melody. So it's basically telling her, Hey, if you don't get up on stage and play, this is what's gonna happen.

So Josie has has to relent here and says that she loves everybody. She loves Mel, she loves Val. And we just have to do this because evil Fiona w won't give us any other choice. So Rise Mother goes on stage. my god, De jour are alive and they're here to save the day. Well, not really, but they're there. So turns out when the plane landed, crash landed outside of Riverdale, they landed at a Metallica show.

And the fans beat them senseless. only way they survive is they knew the lyrics to enter Sandman, which is the only thing that saved their lives. So they don't really do anything. They're all still in body cast. They can't really enjoy the fight. But everyone else starts a fight. And Josie frees the girls during this. We hear Wild One cover Vicky Pop song, which is also on the soundtrack. During this fight, Fiona accidentally destroys the Mega Sound 8000 with hitting with a Josie's guitar. So everybody's headphones feed back. The headphones are toast.

All of a sudden, the subliminal message that was playing, we get to hear it. And it was basically the message was Fiona is cool. Fiona is awesome. You should be her best friend. That seems like a hell of a lot of work just to have people like you, but okay.

So she starts to confess to everybody that she's not actually Fiona. She grew up as Lisa the Lisp because she had a Lisp growing up. And Wyatt, of course, then all of a sudden confesses too. I was, Wyatt White ass or something like that. I don't even remember. It's a really dumb scene. But I guess it turns out they went to high school together. They didn't recognize each other up until now. Okay. And now all of a sudden they're they're a couple, I guess. I don't know.

So the government shows up and realizes the mega sound 8000 has been exposed. So they immediately throw Wyatt, Fiona, everybody at Mega Records under the bus. And then they break the fourth wall and they turn right the camera and they go, actually, these messages work better in movies. Wink wink.

So now it's showtime. Joes goes up the hydraulic lift to the stage. She takes off her ears and tells the crowd, ⁓ I'm not sure if you guys like us or what have you, but we're gonna open with a new song you've never heard, and I hope you guys like it. They open with Spin Around, which is another really good song, a real another really strong pop punk kind of song.

The crowd scenes and all the performance is really well shot. Everything looks good. Everything looks great. It looks like a concert from 2001. so during the breakdown of Spin Around, which goes on for a long time. So the bass and drums ⁓ kick for about a minute or two here. And we see Alan He's crowd surfing up to the crowd, and all of a sudden he yells out, Josie, I love you. She's like, I love you too. So he crowdsurfs right to the stage. Band's still going, a hell of a long opener. They kiss and then they realize,

We're still doing a show. And he's like, ⁓ yeah.

We hit the final chorus to spin around. The credits roll. We hear the Josie and Pussycats theme from the original cartoon. And that's a wrap on Josie and the Pussycats.

Mark (27:57)
Looking at the movie's soundtrack, Josie and the Pussycats music from the motion picture was released on March 27, 2001. It was released by Sony Music Soundtracks and Play-Tone Records. Play-Tone Records being the same fictional label from That Thing You Do, another episode of ours that we've covered recently. It was certified gold for sales of 500.

thousand copies and the album peaked at number sixteen on the Billboard two hundred. So I guess it was pretty successful.

There were a lot of contributors on this record. We had Babyface, who's produced for the likes of Bobby Brown, TLC, Tony Braxton, Whitney Houston. We had Biff Naked, Matthew Sweet, Counting Crows, Jane Wideland from The Go Go's. They're all there. Josie's vocals were done by Letter to Cleo's front woman, Kay Hanley. All of the actresses in the movie contributed backup vocals.

And we also had some contributions from our friend from a few episodes ago, Adam Scheslinger from Fountains of Wayne. He's back this time. He was on the that thing you do soundtrack, and he's back here again making some contributions.

Jon (29:12)
I I do think it was odd that Babyface produced this soundtrack because he's mostly known for R and B work, like of course, Bobby Brown, Whitney Houston, Boys to Men, all that. But he does a great job here. This record sounds great. It sounds crisp. It sounds like two thousand and one.

Mark (29:23)
The soundtrack was also reissued on vinyl by Mondo in 2017. That also had a celebration commemorating the movie's 15th anniversary. That was at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles. They had a screening of the film. They had a QA session with the writer-director Deborah Kaplan. all three stars were there. Wow. There was a set of five songs performed by Kay Hanley, and the songs.

Original sessions players, including Adam Scheslinger, once again.

There was also a bonus seven inch single of the two DuJour songs.

Jon (29:59)
Man, I'd love to get my hands on that seven inch.

Mark (30:01)
We got 13 songs here. Let's go through them and see what we're working with. First up, well, it's mostly Josie and the Pussycats. There are two du jour songs, we'll call those out, but for for all other purposes, we're going with Josie and the Pussycats. First up, three small words.

Jon (30:18)
I really like this one. It's a great pop punk song. It's got big open chords. It's got a great chorus. It's super sing-alongable. ⁓ I remember people probably know this song if they're around from that time period. I think this may be a case where maybe the soundtrack was actually more popular than the movie. Cause you know, I I said to my wife, I'm like, I'm doing Josie and the Pussycats is like, I don't remember that. And I played the star of the song. She's like, yeah, yeah, no, I totally remember that. So it was, I guess, a minor hit at the time. it's got the, the blink sound, the

Soon to be Avril Lavinge sound, that type of thing. perfect two thousand one production.

Mark (30:49)
I remembered it as well, even though I never saw the movie. It's a good one. Up next, pretend to be nice.

Jon (30:55)
Well, this is a really cool intro. ⁓ it's it's a real pop punky song again, but it reminds me almost more on the pop vein. definitely reminds me of the go-go's. not surprising. Jane Wheel and one of the contributors on this record is a go-go. there was, we got the beat references in the movie as well. Too. it even reminded me of a much later song on by the band The Bomb Pops, girl band from California called Be Sweet. Same kind of arrangement, same kind of style.

There's some good backup focus as well, and the outro's done well too.

Mark (31:20)
I like the go-go's and I like the bomb pops, but I don't like that song. Up next we got Spin Around.

Jon (31:26)
similar to the first two songs. but I also like it. So I I'd give this three for three so far to start the album. it's got that perfect, soft loud dynamic that a lot of the style of music has. Super catchy and like the na na na's are in full effect. And of course at the end they do one of the staples of pop punk, of hair metal, of pop music, where they go up an octave to create excitement to end the song.

Mark (31:49)
Fourth song is You Don't See Me.

Jon (31:52)
this is the ballad in from the movie, and it's the one slow song they kind of have here. It's got more of a Lisa Loeb kind of jewel kind of 90s ballad singer, songwriter, girl kind of style. Jane Wheelam's one I think actually contributed a lot to this one. This could have fit on one of her solo albums, no problem. It's well done. It's it's predictable, it's only missing those like acoustic guitar taps, like kind of thing that all those songs seem to have.

Mark (32:17)
Too slow for my tastes. Up next we got Euro.

Jon (32:21)
this is a short one. It's pretty quick and it's pretty quick in the movie. gives me sort of a green day vibe to it. It's kind of just there. It's not bad. they do the pull-on, pull off staccato kind of playing. A lot more na na na like just like the last song.

Mark (32:36)
Next we have one of the more memorable ones, Shapeshifter.

Jon (32:40)
Yeah, you mentioned this movie. This has a very nineties rock sort of alt sound to it. I don't love it. I I like it. It's done good. But yeah, by the second bridge, by the second half, it's just, you know, it gets a little bit better in the second half of the song, I think. It's just a mimic of, like you said, lit, all those types of bands from that time period.

Mark (32:58)
I think it's one of the strongest ones. Next up, I wish you well.

Jon (33:02)
We're starting to get kind of repetitive here. it's it's a lesser shapeshifter, shall we say, or pretend to be nice. it's kind of I'm kind of forgettable. I'm trying to remember how it goes right now, and I probably listened to it three times this week.

Mark (33:14)
Real wild child.

Jon (33:16)
Iggy pop cover that's briefly in the movie. It it does it does its job. it's barely noticeable in the movie. It's an all right cover. I think we're starting to stretch here for material for this soundtrack.

Mark (33:27)
Up next, come on.

Jon (33:29)
Yet again, not much to say about this one. It's a quick scene, the movie as well too. it's okay. It's all right.

Mark (33:37)
Money in brackets, that's what I want.

Jon (33:41)
This is Barry Gordy from Motown's first hit. the Beatles cover version, of course, is very famous as well.

It's used of course the the theme of the product placement of the movie for all the shoppers. it's okay, I guess, for what it is.

Mark (33:52)
We're going to du jour now for the next two songs. Du jour around the world.

Jon (33:57)
This is the total Backstreet Boys NSYNC vibe. It's a perfect satire of that style of that genre. And it's not bad. It's done pretty well. I mean, it could pass if your lyrics weren't what they are. It's pretty funny. as a DJ, I could probably have slipped it in around that time period and maybe people wouldn't have noticed. And we keep saying du jour means friendship throughout the podcast. Actually, de jour does not mean friendship, it means of the day in French.

So soup of the day, soup de jour, that's what that means. And of course it's a reference to that, hey, they're the flavor of the week, they're the flavor of the month type of thing.

Mark (34:30)
We're with Dujour again for backdoor lover.

Jon (34:33)
Back to our lover. I think this one's under aid. It's pretty funny. It yet again, I it's kind of repetitive to the other song. You don't really need two du jour songs, but hey, here we are. And I I'm trying to picture like, you know, Justin Timberlake singing this or something like that. ⁓ of course, you know, read between the lines with this one.

Mark (34:49)
We close it out with the theme song for Josie and the Pussycats called Josie and the Pussycats.

Jon (34:55)
I mean, why not? A punk pop version of the theme song from the cartoon from the 70s. Actually, they had like a intro song and an outro song to the cartoon. This is the outro song to the cartoon. And this is one of the only real nods to the comic that exists at all in this movie. If you didn't know Joe's and the Pussycats was a comic or a cartoon back in the day, they don't mention it here. I guess maybe the Archie people really did not want to be a part of this. So I this is one of the only nods to it. And sure, it sounds like a p pump pop-punk version of the original, and that's exactly what it is.

Mark (35:28)
Looking at the critical reception for Josie and the Pussycats on Rotten Tomatoes, we have 54% on the tomato meter, 53% on the popcorn meter. Those are some close numbers.

We're looking at a five point seven out of ten on internet movie database.

Jon (35:45)
I think that's a little low. I'd give it maybe like six and a half.

Mark (35:50)
I think those are a little high. I'd be more like in the neighborhood of a four and a half.

Jon (35:54)
Out.

Mark (35:56)
No awards to speak of. However, the film was nominated for three Teen Choice Awards in 2001. Rachel Lee Cook was nominated for Choice Movie Actress. She did not win. Julia Stiles from Save the Last Dance won. Rosario Dawson was nominated for Choice Movie Breakout. She did not win. Carrie Washington from Save the Last Dance won.

Jon (36:24)
Hmm. Maybe we should do save the last dance. if people want us to do it, let us know in the comments.

Mark (36:30)
The movie was nominated for Choice Movie Comedy. It did not win. Miss Congeniality won.

Notable critic Roger Ebert gave the film one half star out of a possible four, commenting that Josie and the Pussycats are not dumber than the Spice Girls, but they're as dumb as the Spice Girls, which is dumb enough. He gave the British Girl Group's nineteen ninety seven film Spice World the same rating.

Jon (36:59)
Hmm. He left them in a tie. ⁓ I don't know, that sentence is pretty mean. neither one of these movies what I would call smart, but I mean I think they're both fun their own way. We looked at the Spice Girls movie a couple episodes back too, and we might compare them a little bit here towards the end.

But before we get to that, every episode of the Rock and Roll Theatre, my brother digs through the Balzier net to find a one star review of anything and everything that we watch. And I'm guessing this week it wasn't too hard to find one.

Mark (37:23)
This time we're back on Internet Movie Database. We have a review called Awful Awful Awful. One star out of ten. I'll do my best to read it, grammatical errors included.

A movie that desperately wants to be hip and funny and succeeds at neither. The original cartoon series had more depth and wit than this tired, bloated, unwatchable film. Rachel E. Cook is okay, but both Rosario Dawson and Tara Reed are one dimensional airhead stereotypes in brackets, and anybody who thinks that Tara Reed can in quotes really play drums after watching this is out of their mind.

The big problem, the story wants to be a tale about being true to yourself and independent, while the movie is the most shameless shill for corporate America in the history of film. Can't have your cake and eat it too, pussycats. Also, the in quotes jokes and the in quotes humor in brackets, I guess that's what they'd be called, fall flat time and time again.

This movie is so bad you can't even laugh at it in mystery science Theatre 3000 style. Do not watch this in the Theatres. Do not watch this on video. Do not give the studios an excuse to make a sequel to the horrendous excuse for a movie. Easily one of the worst movies made this year. F minus. Five people find that helpful. 18 thumbs down.

Jon (39:08)
I disagree with this review. I think everyone should go and watch this on video or stream it wherever you can. So we have that finally long-awaited du jour sequel that I so desperately want.

Mark (39:17)
Looking at the lasting legacy of Josie and the Pussycats.

So a lot of the research I was looking at says this has since found success as a cult film. I guess so. I don't hear about it very often. It was kind of big at the time. I definitely remember it and some of the choice songs that I've mentioned earlier in this episode.

It's also praised for its satirical take on American pop culture. And obviously, product placement's a big deal here. And the corporatization of the music industry as a whole. I do think it is a pretty good time capsule for the music business era around 2001. It definitely nails that that vibe. You you definitely feel like you're in two thousand and one when you're watching this movie.

For me, it doesn't rekindle any memories of Archie or anything Hannah Barbera related. So if the goal was to distance themselves from that material, they did.

Apparently, a year after the film's release, director Deborah Kaplan met U2 frontman Bono, who told her he loved the film.

I don't know about that.

My own take is that this is better than Spice World, I'll I'll say that. But again, ⁓ it's a failing grade for me. I would not watch this again.

Jon (40:35)
I think that Bono story sounds completely made up. If there's proof of it out there, hey, send it off to us, put it in the comments, and hey, we'll check it out. But I don't really think Bono watched Josie and the Pussycats. Hey, but I could be wrong. the comparison is, of course, with Spice World that we we actually covered a few episodes back as well. I also think this is a better movie than Spice World. Spice World was really thrown together. Go back and listen to it and you'll you'll hear what we think about it. And also the whole thing about the product placement stuff, yeah.

They were doing it kind of as, not so much to actually place the products since they weren't getting paid for them. It's more just the take on product placement and the music and the culture. But I mean, it's two thousand and one.

Product placement's been going on for a long time in music. Pepsi sponsored many, many, many concert tours. you can see Doritos in almost every single movie we watch from a certain era. So it's nothing really new. So I don't think their take is like super hot when it comes to, ooh, you know, the music's getting too corporate. Yeah, it's been corporate for a long time. But I do think this is a fun movie.

The music's really well done. It's really well written. If you like that kind of style, you'll like this. so it's worth watching once go back and kind of get the nostalgia of it. I probably will not watch it again after living for a week here with Josie and the Pussycats, but it's definitely worth definitely not as bad as some of the people are trying to make it out to be.

Mark (41:47)
One of the things that stuck out to me in terms of why this movie was a bomb or why why it failed was maybe it didn't really understand its audience.

It was supposed to be made for kids, preteens, around the age of 12, 13, 14. But you can clearly see that with a lot of the humor and again, some of the scenes that we talked about earlier, like the playing going down and the baseball bats, et cetera, et cetera. That just I don't know. There there seems to be a mismatch between what they were going for and their actual intended audience.

Jon (42:16)
I agree completely. I think everyone has an archie comic book phase in their young life. I sure did. I still see them on the supermarket shelves to this day. So when you hear Josie and the Pussycats, you immediately kind of think of a cartoony sort of thing. they could have just called this any random girl band name, and it probably would have been the exact same story. you could have flipped it and had De Jour play the whole movie out as being the corporate underlings band, what have you. That probably would have worked too for what was going on that era. So yeah, I think it does like suffer a little bit from a branding perspective of like,

Is is it a kid's movie? No, but it's not a kid's movie. Is it Archie? No, it's not really Archie. So I think that that's why it does fall flat in a few certain areas.

Thank you so much for joining us on the Rock and Roll Theatre for this episode. Please do us a quick favor, wherever you are in the world, if you could like, subscribe, comment, share with a friend, let them know if you enjoyed it. Maybe they'll like it too. If you got a music nerd buddy out there, that would really help us out. We're a small podcast. We're always trying to grow. Check out our TikTok, check out our YouTube, and we'll see you next time. But for now, the Theatre is closed.