The Boxer Rebellion- Going the Distance

It is very interesting to see the recent trend of strong ties with movies and indie music. This thought occurred to me when I first saw a movie called,  (500) of summer, staring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. It became one of my favorite movies not only because of the very truthful story line; but also the amazing sound track, compiled with a number of songs by the indie bands. In fact, Australian indie rock band, Temper Trap, became world widely recognized with the song "Sweet Disposition", which was used in the movie.



 Another example of this trend, is the Drew Barrymore’s "Whip it".  Although the soundtrack did not have 
 the strong hit like Sweet Disposition, it is still an decent one, including Go! Team, Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah!, and The Raveonettes. Moreover, one of the main characters was played by Landon Pigg, who is a Nashville-born singer/songwriter. I fell in love with his music since I first heard his most well known song; "Falling in love at a coffee shop" I am sure that you have heard of this song somewhere. It is very cheesy but I love it :)


In the movie, Landon featured in a band called Turbo Fruits and performed a song called "High Times"

The latest movie that I really came to realize the strong tie was "Going the Distance", a romantic comedy with Justin Long and Drew Barrymore. I saw a movie with my Korean girl friend, EunJi, who just went back to Korea this Tuesday (we miss you, EunJi!!) It was a great movie for a girl's night out. Despite the fact that lots of people think this movie is a typical unrealistic happy-ending movie, it was pretty fun and the story line was stuck with the reality of how harsh long distance relationships can be. Overall it was enjoyable to watch it (in fact, one of my favorite actors, Charlie Day, was in the movie too!)

Aside from the interesting storyline about long distance relationship, where the couple was struggling with the time difference, the  phone sex, having a doubt about each other, and all kinds of jazz, what most impressed me was the UK band, The Boxer Rebellion. As EunJi was pretty surprised when I told her that it was a real indie band, the band fit perfectly with the storyline about  Garrett (Justin Long)'s career. He works for a major music label, who committed to  juvenile artists( well in the real world, these "artists" like Justin Bieber, and Jones Brothers,, ) The couple saw the UK band played and really impressed with the performance. Then Garrett wishes that an amazing band like them should get the deal... well I don't wanna spoil the details of the movie, just in case you are planning to see the movie. When The band is performing on the stage during the movie, though they are supposed to be the background of the story, my attention was automatically drawn to them and I was wondering who they are and they really exist, which they do!

The Boxer Rebellion is UK alternative rock band, consist bands members from all over the world in UK formed around 2001: The U.S lead singer, the Austrian guitarist and English rhythm members. Their second album, Union, released in January 2009, and this album which climbed up on the UK iTunes ranking and triggered a number of attentions. They are touring the North America and they will be in Toronto On September 27th at the Horse Shoe Tavern.

What I like about this band is the beautiful harmony created by the lead singer and the melody lines. Nathan Nicholson, the lead singer has such a strong yet very clear voice that it just echoes with the melody created by the band. The melody line is so smooth and strong and it almost reminds me of the Cold Play (it is not because they are from UK though.) When I first listened to a song "Spitting Fire," I thought this song takes me to somewhere which is completely different - somewhere very imaginary and fantasy.

The movie, Going the Distance, was clearly awesome exposure to the public for the band. However, if the Boxer Rebellion did not have something to take, it would have not worth doing it. -which they do have something to take! It is always fantastic to see these unknown artists to get more publicity to these who are “music blind”.

I cannot wait to see them in a live to see how good they sound at a gig!! Here are a couple of songs from the movie by the band. Enjoy!