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Sep 11, 2009 Jens Lekman By Kyle Lemmon

According to Sterogum, Jens Lekman agreed to give one of his love-weary tunes to the Drew Barrymore-directed movie Whip It. The comedy aims to revive the alternative extreme sport of roller derby and tells a athletic love story set in the small town of Bodeen, Texas. Think of a folksier (and possibly less annoying) Breaking Away, Blue Crush, Bring It On.

Kristen Wiig, Ellen Page, Drew Barrymore, Alia Shawkat and Juliette Lewis star and indie rock heavyweights such as The Breeders, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Peaches populate the soundtrack (see the tracklisting below.) Overall, the whole venture looks pretty harmless and actually quite funny. Lekman got onboard the project after Barrymore whisked him away from his new home in Australia to her studio in L.A. Over some morning coffee she convinced him that Night Falls Over Kortedala‘s “Your Arms Around Me” would fit in nicely and she wouldn’t mangle his baby. Long story short, he agreed to license it to her film. Then they apparently had a chat about monkeys. Read all about it below or on Lekman’s blog.

“There’s a few of my songs in Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut “Whip it”. Drew was really nice, she flew me out to LA, we had a cup of coffee and she showed me some clips from the movie. Usually I say no to film synchs because you just get a short synopsis from someone’s agent’s agent, and I always feel awkward my song will end up in the wrong context. You know, I write my songs for specific people, I find it hard to find them applied to someone elses story. But Drew listened to my concerns and we discussed the scenes she had in mind.

At some point our conversation drifted away and I think we were talking about monkeys, and it just struck me right there and then how surreal my life has become. And how absurd it is when anyone expects any kind of real compensation in this business. Compensation for what? I’ve been touring on and off like crazy, I’ve put so much work into recording and writing. And in the end what I make my money from is talking to Drew Barrymore about monkeys…

The soundtrack is compiled by Randall Poster, who put together the soundtracks for the Wes Andersson movies among others. His soundtracks are like amazing little jukeboxes of random goodies. I haven’t seen the movie but it seems to be falling smoothly into the category of American movies about teenage love and alternative sports. From Breaking Away to Bring It On.”

You can watch the Whip It trailer here. The soundtrack is out September 29th on Rhino and includes the following UTR-friendly cuts. Sadly, there’s no sign of Devo:

01 Pot Kettle Black - Tilly and the Wall
02 Sheena Is a Punk Rocker - The Ramones
03 What’s the Attitude - Cut Chemist, Hymnal
04 Bang On - The Breeders
05 Dead Sound - The Raveonettes
06 Blue Turning Grey - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
07 Your Arms Around Me - Jens Lekman
08 Learnalilgivinanlovin - Gotye
09 Boys Wanna Be Her - Peaches
10 Jolene - Dolly Parton
11 Caught Up in You - .38 Special
12 Never My Love - Adam Green, Har Mar Superstar
13 Black Gloves - Goose
14 Crown of Age - The Ettes
15 High Times - Landon Pigg, Turbo Fruits
16 Unattainable - Little Joy
17 Lollipop [Squeak E. Clean & Desert Eagles Remix] - The Chordettes
18 Doing It Right - The Go! Team
19 Breeze - Apollo Sunshine

(www.jenslekman.com | www.foxsearchlight.com/whipit)