Far Out There Character Soundtracks: Layla

Last time I made a big, huge deal about how innocent and naive Trigger is, and how he’d listen to bright, happy music as a reflection of that. Well, now we’re talking about Layla. Layla is many things, but “innocent and naïve” are not among them. Smart, sarcastic, clever, ruthless, and slightly terrifying, maybe, but none of that hippy-dippy peace and live crap. Still, Layla and Trigger DO share one thing in common: they both drop direct, in-universe close about their musical tastes, so I have something more canon to go by than just “Well, here’s what I think…” (because, you know, the comics I MYSELF WROTE AND DREW aren’t “what I think” at all, don’t be silly) Actually, Layla give us some of the clearest answers of the entire Far Out There cast. She told Disonar a whole list of bands she likes during the music festival/black market storyline, and we’ve specifically seen her like the group Skyscraper Girls on several instances since. The problem, of course, is that this is a COMIC, so we never actually HEAR any of these bands. Dropping names doesn’t really tell us much, since I picked those names more for how evocative they sounded than whether or not they actually meant anything. (Heck, we’ve since seen that “Skyscraper Girls” are an entirely MALE group) The only real information we ever got is that Layla prefers “modern” rock to Skye’s retro jam band stuff that Trigger dragged her to. And let’s all ignore the question of what “retro” or “modern” even means in a comic that’s set in the distant future, okay?

Anyway, I figured someone with Layla’s personality would be very much of the “keep it simple, stupid” school of music theory. This girl doesn’t have time for ambient soundscapes or elaborate album concepts or ten-minute bass solos, she’s got stuff to do. Layla’s all about catchy riffs, memorable melodies, simple instrumentation, and short runtimes. And nothing overtly dance-oriented either, because Layla DOES NOT DANCE, YOU GOT THAT, BUB? But really… Well… Okay, this is gonna sound a bit weird, but bear with me for a sec. With Layla, I had this mental image of what her favorite music would LOOK like, more than what it actually SOUNDED like. There was this picture in my head of a lead singer leaning over a mic stand, messy hair and dark sunglasses, barely moving while the band rocked out, not really paying attention to the audience, and generally trying INCREDIBLY hard to look too cool to actually care about anything. When I started working on Layla’s soundtrack, I basically just looked for songs that sounded like that mental image looked.

The first place that little image sent me was the 2000-era Garage Rock revival. The Strokes were one of the biggest names in that fad, and lead singer Julian Casablancas pretty well embodied that whole “trying desperately to look like he’s not trying” thing, so their song “12:51” was in. From there, we have other bands who were relevant across the world for five minutes like The Soundtrack Of Our Lives and The Raveonettes, represented by “Sister Surround” and “That Great Love Sound” respectively. And then we’re on to the bands who didn’t even manage to get those five minutes of fame, like Clearlake (“Finally Free”) or The Go (“American Pig” and “Capricorn”), indie darlings who were never really going to be trendy in the first place (“Saturday Morning” by eels) formerly trendy acts clinging to relevance (“Virginia by The Jeevas, their frontman Crispin Mills was previously in Kula Shaker, who were on Trigger’s soundtrack) and a few songs by Japanese bands, because of COURSE I’m gonna slip in a few Japanese songs (“Juniper Hotel” by noodles and “The End of Shite” by Yuki, which fans of Awesomely Bad will know better as “the one with the gnomes”).

But the more I tinkered with Layla’s list, the more my little mental image guideline felt… off. Those turn of the millennium bands weren’t ALL given over to that disaffected coolness thing, after all. You had plenty of acts like The White Stripes, The Vines and The Hives who cultivated far weirder, more manic personas. Really, the bands that BEST fit my guideline picture weren’t from the’00s, but the ‘90s. You know, those Post-Grunge and Britpop bands from the Golden Age of Irony (and also heroin, but let’s not dwell on that part).  The more I thought about it, my weird criteria should have led me to include songs like Stone Temple Pilots’ “Big Bang Baby” or Garbage’s “I’m Only Happy When It Rains” or The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Today” or literally any single Oasis ever released… but I didn’t. I just couldn’t picture Layla actually sitting still for any of that stuff, and it gradually dawned on me why.

To draw a comparison between Layla and Trigger again, Layla isn’t just grouchier than Trigger, she’s WAAAAY more complicated. With Trigger, I could start with “kid in a Technicolor poncho” and basically be done, because what you see is what you get with him. Layla’s got all these contradictory layers to deal with. Sure, there’s the angry, devious tough girl who yells at Ichabod, but there’s also the kind young lady who dotes over Trigger, the deadpan snarker who plays the straight man to Tabitha’s wackiness, and the bright-eyed little girl who just wants to be with her daddy. They all get a say in picking Layla’s soundtrack too, and they’d all prefer something a lot more fun. Like, old school late-70s/early-80s power pop kind of fun, something exuberant and catchy. From deep cuts like The Undertones’ “Teenage Kicks” or The Soft Boys’ “I Wanna Destroy You” to classic rock hits like “Ecstasy” by The Raspberries, “20th Century Boy” by T. Rex, or “Surrender” by Cheap Trick to that one-hittiest of one hit wonders: “My Sharonna” by The Knack. Oh, and also “Xavier” by the pillows and “Quavers” by Shonen Knife because I clearly needed to squeeze some more Japanese songs onto this playlist. If I were going to assign a mental image to THESE songs, it’d be less “too cool vocalist slouched over a mic stand” and more “wacky montage of best friends finally cutting loose for the weekend.” What’s funny is how these songs don’t REALLY sound all that different from the ones I’d already picked. They’re all short, energetic, hook-laden rock songs with catchy guitar riffs, it’s just a minor difference in attitude that separates them. In fact, a lot of people would probably question which side of Layla some of these songs more properly belong to. “I Wanna Destroy You” is arguably the most cynical thing on the whole playlist, while “That Great Love Sound” is possibly the most bubblegum, despite me bringing them up  in the opposite context earlier. But I’m gonna say that’s a good thing. It’s complicated, just like Layla. 

Oh, there is one more song that I wanted to devote special attention to: “Choose What You’re Watching” by thenewno2. This is a protest song about how evil and greedy big corporations are and the way they brainwash everyone through the media. The thing is, aside from being a really forced reference to The Prisoner, thenewno2 is a vehicle for Dhani Harrison, son of George Harrison of The Beatles. So, Dhani has been unimaginably wealthy literally from birth, spending his life casually hanging out with rich and famous rock legends when he’s not working at Apple Corps to get Beatles songs more prominently features in mainstream media (Beatles Rock Band was mostly his brainchild). THIS guy is lecturing us on how bad rich people and the media are. I think Layla would listen to this song a lot, partially in ironic protest of slander against evil rich people, but mostly to snicker at the lack of self-awareness.

(I don't have much to add about actually finding videos this time, though believe you me, I'll MORE than make up for it on the next one.  Whoooo boy...)

Layla's Playlist