No one — save Winona Ryder after she asked her Magic 8-Ball of Christmas Lights — knew that Stranger Things would become the summer’s biggest hit. Netflix, in particular, seemed unprepared: the supernatural series hasn’t been renewed yet (despite the Television Critics Association press tour being a great time to do that), and an official synth-y soundtrack, with music from Austin band Survive, is “coming soon.” Not soon enough, though, for DJ Yoda, who made a mixtape of “music featured in and inspiring” Stranger Things.
It’s 52 minutes of Jefferson Airplane, Dolly Parton, The Smiths, The Clash, and Joy Division, spliced with dialogue from Chief Hopper, Nancy, and Jonathan, who kicks things off by telling Will, “I made you a new mixtape.” He’s basically Natalie Portman in Garden State (“You gotta hear this one song, it’ll change your life, I swear”) if she was talking about Johnny Thunders, not The Shins.
As for Survive, band member Kyle Dixon told Rolling Stone that co-creators the Duffer Brothers are “fans of Survive somehow and it’s kind of a mystery… like, they don’t really know how they found us.” He continued, “But they did, and then they emailed us and asked if we were available. They put our song ‘Dirge’ from our last LP in their trailer for the show. Like, they made a little mock trailer to pitch their concept to Netflix… They were like, oh sh*t. That works pretty well for the trailer. It kind of got the vibe across.”
As does blasting Reagan Youth to signify the 1980s.
(Via Rolling Stone)
