I saw the film “Up In The Air” today. The movie is directed by Jason Reitman, who also did “Juno”. It stars George Clooney as an expert in opportunity, or at least that’s how some phrase it. Clooney’s character isn’t so sunny, but more realistic, in his job traveling across the country and telling strangers that they have just lost theirs. It’s deeper than that, as Clooney’s character has a whole philosophy to him that I’m not going to get into here. What I am going to get into is the late “song of the year” candidate that came on somewhere towards the end.
That song is “Help Yourself” from Sad Brad Smith, who turns out is a 29-year old resident of Lincoln Square right here in the Windy City. He was discovered by Reitman (a friend of his brother-in-law) during a coffee shop gig. Reitman asked him to write some music for “The Air Up There”, and “Help Yourself” is the stunning result.
I remember when this song came on during the movie. I immediately started to repeat the chorus in my head so I could go home and google it. Unfortunately, it won’t be up for any Oscar’s because of a really stupid rule that Smith violated when he admitted that some of the song’s structure was created before he met Reitman and began writing just for the movie. Either way, it’s a great song.
You can check out the song below. It is out on iTunes now.
Sad Brad Smith: “Help Yourself”
[audio: http://rubyhornet.com/media/rh/music/brad_smith_help_yourself.mp3|width=180]