Long Tails and Ears for Hats

When is a guilty pleasure not a guilty pleasure?

Let's put the bad news and sad stories on hold for a bit and concentrate on pure, sunny pop music.

I love Deborah Kaplan & Harry Elfont's 2001 movie Josie and the Pussycats. It's a real guilty pleasure -- with Rachel Leigh Cook, Tara Reid, and Rosario Dawson as the Pussycats, Seth Green as a member of a boy band, and Alan Cumming and Parker Posey as evil music industry tastemakers. The plot mixes a sappy love story with an over-the-top satire about putting subliminal messages (voiced by Mr. Moviephone himself) in pop songs to help sell products (and convince teen girls that orange is the new black).


It's a mixed bag, but has some wonderful moments (like Tara Reid's then boyfriend Carson Daily trying to kill the Pussycats on a TRL appearance gone very, very wrong).

Still, the music is a real pleasure -- no guilt necessary.

Kay Hanley (ex of Letters to Cleo) sings Josie's parts and the music comes from writers like Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger, Babyface, Jason Falkner, Matthew Sweet, Jane Wiedlin (of the Go-Go's), Adam Duritz (of the Counting Crows), and others. The sound is mostly power-pop, sweet but with an edge.

And it's hard to argue with the equation Rachel Leigh Cook + Kay Hanley = punk rock prom queen (not to mention a late-night head rush and no one's little red corvette).