Director Alex Ross Perry has come to be known as a meticulous and exact filmmaker, and it might surprise fans to know just how much of an absolute music-head he is. Perry’s latest film – ‘Her Smell‘ – is a total swerve into a booze-drenched rockstar life in which Elisabeth Moss plays a drug-addled punk rocker. To promote the movie – in Los Angeles theaters today – I asked Perry’s people if he would be able to put together a list of songs that inspired ‘Her Smell’. As it turned out, Perry put together a curated list of ten(ish) songs that influenced the film (thanks for giving me a chance to make another compulsive list). His knowledge of 90s grunge rock deep cuts is great, so much so that I had to ask him for spelling at one point.

I spoke with the Brooklyn-based director on the phone where he walked me through the songs. Check out the playlist below before checking out ‘Her Smell’ in Los Angeles this weekend. 

 

“The Shame” by The Blood Brothers

This was the place holder in the script before “Another Girl, Another Planet” became the only choice to open the movie with. I was really listening to those lyrics, “I always flirt with death,” and I knew that had to be the first thing Becky says in the movie. But prior to that though, I always thought that The Blood Brothers’ song “The Shame” would be the first song.

It’s a song I love from a band that really meant a lot to me. The chorus is “Everything’s going to be just awful when we’re around,” and I was like, yeah, that’s Becky. That’s this movie.

 

“Don’t Cry” by Guns N’ Roses

In Act Two, when Becky’s in the recording studio, it starts and ends with an original song. And I described that original song to Alicia [Bognanno, of the band Bully] as like, “this just has to sound like a really rough demo of a song that will later potentially be very good.” So I sent her a demo of “Don’t Cry” from Use Your Illusion. That’s an example of not a good sounding demo which became just an incredible song. In fact, it’s so good they put it on both Use Your Illusion I and II. 

 

“Because You’re Young” and “We’re Coming Back” by Cock Sparrer

There’s this moment in the studio where Becky meets The Akergirls. I wanted her to just grab a guitar and start playing a song that feels like it’s somehow commenting on what’s happening in the movie. That song ended up being “Because You’re Young” by Cock Sparrer.

 

But I got to that song because originally I was thinking of the Cock Sparrer song “We’re Coming Back.” So I kind of swapped out one Cock Sparrer song for another. The lyrics of “We’re Coming Back” go like this, “You remember out there somewhere, you’ve got a friend, you’ll never walk alone again.” I was like, this is clearly what Becky is searching for. And clearly, the message that The Akergirls are here at that moment, even though we know that this is not going to go well. But I actually thought it was a little too positive. So in exploring other Cock Sparrer songs, came up with “Because You’re Young” which goes, “You never listen to anyone because you’re young.” That also comments on The Akergirls in a way.

“We’re Coming Back” is an older song, and “Because You’re Young” was actually off of a Cock Sparrer album from like, just before the events of that sequence take place. I liked the idea that it’s just on Becky’s mind because she’s really been enjoying that record. That kind of fit in perfectly.

 

“The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle” by The Sex Pistols and “Journey to the End of the East Bay” by Rancid

And then for the finale, I gave Alicia [Bognanno] “The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle.” In the script, it said the song is a narrative journey about being in a band with opportunities for every woman on stage to sing a couple of lines. I compared it to this song from The Sex Pistols film of the same name, which is the story of The Sex Pistols told two lines at a time by each member of the band. By that time, the band had broken up, and Johnny Rotten only sings two lines in the song, and the rest of it is sung by not just the band, but the cast of the movie.

 

I said I wanted the finale to be a narrative like “The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle” or the Rancid song “Journey to the End of the East Bay,” which is about the story of Operation Ivy and their rise and break up. I was like, these are great catchy lines where six different women can each take a line or two, but also the lyrics of the songs are incredibly narrative. 

Those are some of the men. So now, falling over to the back half: (starting with) the song “Blue” by Elastica; specifically the live version that’s on YouTube from Glastonbury.

 

“Blue” by Elastica (Live at Glastonbury)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew7QoNGHung

Agyness Deyn (Marielle Hell) and I were sending Lizzy (Elisabeth Moss) a lot of music because Lizzy, by her own admission, had never listened to very much or any of this new stuff. Agyness is like an encyclopedia of all punk music, all female music from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. She grew up in Manchester and her taste is impeccable. I thought I was going to be the one educating people, and she educated me – not even just about the songs because I know that song and I know that album.

When Lizzy saw this Glastonbury performance after all the songs we’d sent, she was like, this is what I think the band feels like: dual female harmonies, it’s not really punk, it’s not really pop, it’s catchy, it has the guitar chords and rhythms of punk. It’s a song that you can play at a festival of 30,000 fans.

 

“Tell the World” by Vivian Girls

This is a Vivian Girls song called “Tell the World” that I really like. Vivian Girls is a band I listened to in New York like 10 years ago when I was working at Kim’s Video. My friend Ames Scott was friends with the band and he turned me on to them. We had their seven inch before they got big and Ames was like, this is it, this is the future, this is the next thing. I was so into their music, I met some of them a couple of times through him – although I’m sure they don’t remember. I think the Vivian Girls are really, really incredible and kind of didn’t get their due. Vivian Girls were on my mind a lot while writing this movie. 

I think a lot of their music really holds up, there’s something low-fi and catchy about it. But as a trio, they were something that I was thinking about for both Something She and The Akergirls. The song “Tell the World” has this perfectly fuzzy, distorted rawness to it that kind of sounded like a song from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s.

 

“Fuck and Run” by Liz Phair (Live at Matador 21st Anniversary)

It was kind of a late in the game idea, but there’s a video on YouTube of Liz Phair performing her song, “Fuck and Run” from the Matador 21st Anniversary celebration. And it’s one of my favorite songs off of Exile in Guyville, period. In the live version, she’s joined on stage by Ted Leo, which had nothing to do with her music or anything, but for some reason, he walks out on stage with a tambourine to join her on this song. It just feels like you can picture being at this big celebration where 15 bands are playing one or two of their most popular songs. And then everyone just kind of comes out and jams with each other. 

So that song in general – and her in general – but specifically this video of her performing at this kind of big anniversary celebration was really on my mind a lot. And I look at that video pretty often.

 

“No Looking” by The Raincoats and “Hollywood Dream” by The Runaways

The last two songs are The Raincoats song “No Looking,” and The Runaways song “Hollywood Dream.” “No Looking” is just a song that plays over the end credits of the movie. So this is the one that’s kind of a cheat: that song is like a tonal finality in the way that it sounds like it’s coming from both the left and right speaker and then it just comes together at the end. That is like Her Smell in a microcosm to me.

That song was very inspirational. The Raincoats are essential, a big bang of all of this female punk music, and certainly one of the earliest and most important acts that we looked at. That song really was on my mind a lot when thinking about how to end the movie.

 

And then The Runaways’ “Hollywood Dream” is the song I’ve always loved. I would describe the last 10 minutes of Her Smell as a Hollywood ending with a big reunion. Every character in the movie is there. Everyone gets to see feedback. You have a moment of triumph. Becky’s daughter runs into her arms, a Hollywood ending. And then, this deep cut Runaways song. The only ending for a Hollywood ending is “Hollywood Dream,” in my opinion. You end this movie about women in rock by throwing it back to The Runaways, it’s just like the circle is closed.

It’s a very obscure song, it was a B-side on a live album that might even be a bootleg, and it’s always been on YouTube. And we pulled it off YouTube to edit with and then when we had to get it for the sound mix, Universal Music Group had to create it for us because there was no proper version… it’s not on iTunes or Spotify or anything. It was a fun, deep cut. Even if you love The Runaways, maybe you haven’t heard this. Those were the two songs that speak to what the ending is meant to feel like. 

 

Here’s the full playlist:

Interview has been edited for clarity and length