Bill Hader and Fred Armisen want to bring ‘70s soft rock back — sort of. The funny men behind the IFC mockumentary series Documentary Now! debuted their faux band called The Blue Jean Committee during the show’s first season this summer. They’ve now released their first achingly-vintage music video called Catalina Breeze, off of an EP of the same name (which is actually available to download via the indie record label Drag City).
The faux band, which says they’re based in Chicago, features Hader as the aging rocker Clark Honus and Armisen as Gene Allen. Earlier this year, Wired spoke with Armisen (in character as Allen) regarding The Blue Jean Committee.
“I consider myself a brilliant lyricist. Brilliant. A real wordsmith, a real sentence structure king,” said Allen. He further explained that his early lyrics were about driving on the freeway, trees, hair, sunrises, and “the sun painted on the side of a car or a van, that kind of thing.” Reminder: the band says they’re from Chicago, a place not exactly known for hangin’ out in the sun all day.
The whole, entirely fictional story of The Blue Jean Collective was told in a two-part Documentary Now! episode this past summer called Gentle & Soft: The Story of the Blue Jean Committee.
In an interview with Esquire, Armisen explained his perception of the California soft rock sound that The Blue Jean Collective try to emulate. “The tempo and the chords. The chords aren’t folk and they’re not jazz. I don’t even know what to call it… Whatever that is, it reminds me of Southern California and it reminds me of that time. Something about that approach feels very unaffected. What possessed these people? This is not ’60s hippy music.”
Watch the two minute-long music video for Catalina Breeze above and stay tuned for more Documentary Now!, which has been renewed for a second and third season, with dates to be announced.
