I was riding the metro today and The Elected came on my ipod. This band was a side project of Blake Sennett's from Rilo Kiley. Hearing the song made me think about how Blake Sennett was once engaged to Winona Ryder (they eventually broke up. You think Winona could actually be in a longterm relationship?!). And then it got me thinking about how Winona and Conor Oberst (from Bright Eyes) had dated before Winona and Blake did. And Blake and Conor are friends. They appear on each other's albums. Rilo Kiley and Bright Eyes were both on the close-knit Saddle Creek Records label. Then I started thinking about all the indie band relationship connections (and how 'incestuous' indie dating is). And then it soon spilled over into some actors who seem to enjoy dating indie musicians. So I pulled out the magazine in my purse, found an ad page with open space, and then started drawing a diagram connecting indie musician relationships. Once I got home I transfered the diagram to some notebook paper to make it look neater.
Here's what I came up with:
(Note: Some of these relationships might have just been gossip/rumors, but, regardless, I heard they were in a relationship and that's good enough for me.)
Blue lines = Musical relationship (in a band together/collaborated (i.e., appeared) on each others albums)
Double lines (black and blue line) = They both dated and had a musical relationship
And these are just the connections I'm aware of and could think of off the top of my head. There definitely could be more.
Detailed Explanation of the Diagram:
Conor Oberst (from Bright Eyes, his solo work, Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band, Monsters of Folk, to name some) dated Maria Taylor (from Azure Ray and her solo work, to name some). Both Bright Eyes and Azure Ray were on Saddle Creek Records. Conor and Maria often made appearances on each others albums.
Maria Taylor was in Azure Ray with Orenda Fink. Orenda Fink is married to Todd Fink (né Baechle), the lead singer of The Faint. The Faint were also a Saddle Creek band. Todd grew up in Omaha with Conor Oberst. They were in the band Commander Venus together (also a member was Tim Kasher from Cursive/The Good Life -- two more Saddle Creek bands).
Conor Oberst also dated Neely Jenkins (from Tilly & The Wall). They grew up together and actually lived next door to each other. They were both in the band Park Ave. Also in the band was Clark Baechle (he also is in The Faint. And he's the brother of Todd Fink) and Jamie Williams. Neely and Jamie eventually formed the band Tilly & the Wall.
Jamie Williams (now Jamie Pressnall) dated fellow Tilly & the Wall bandmate Derek Pressnall, and now they're married.
Conor Oberst also dated Winona Ryder.
Winona Ryder also dated Ryan Adams (from his solo work and Whiskeytown).
Ryan Adams is married to Mandy Moore.
Mandy Moore also dated the musician Greg Laswell.
Winona Ryder also dated Blake Sennett (from Rilo Kiley and The Elected. He also was an actor).
Blake Sennett also dated his Rilo Kiley bandmate Jenny Lewis (also from The Postal Service and her solo project. She also was an actress).
Jenny Lewis allegedly dated her Postal Service bandmate Ben Gibbard (who also was in Death Cab for Cutie, as well as other projects).
Ben Gibbard is married to Zooey Deschanel (along with being an actress, Zooey is in She & Him with M. Ward. He also is in Monsters of Folk with Conor Oberst).
Zooey Deschanel dated Jason Schwartzman (in addition to being an actor, he was in the band Phantom Planet and has a solo project called Coconut Records).
Jenny Lewis is currently dating indie musician Johnathan Rice. They're also working on an album together. (Johnathan Rice also recently went on tour with Ben Gibbard)
Jenny Lewis also dated Jake Gyllenhaal.
Jake Gyllenhaal also dated Kirsten Dunst. Kirsten Dunst is dating Jason Boesel (from Rilo Kiley, The Elected, Bright Eyes, and Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band. He also played drums for Johnathan Rice. So there's connections to Jenny Lewis, Blake Sennett, Conor Oberst, and Johnathan Rice). Though, I haven't heard recently whether Kirsten and Jason are still together or not.
Jake Gyllenhaal also dated Natalie Portman. Natalie Portman also dated indie musician Devendra Banhart.
Kirsten Dunst and Natalie Portman also both dated Andy Samberg. Andy is dating indie musician Joanna Newsom (though I haven't heard recently whether they're still together or not).
Kirsten Dunst also dated Ryan Gosling (in addition to being an actor, he's in the indie band Dead Man's Bones). Ryan Gosling also dated the actress Michelle Williams.
Conor Oberst also dated the actress Michelle Williams.
Michelle Williams also dated the director Spike Jonze.
Spike Jonze was married to the director Sofia Coppola. Sofia is dating (and has children with) Thomas Mars from the band Phoenix. (Sofia is also cousins with Jason Schwartzman)
Spike Jonze also dated Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
In conclusion, Conor Oberst seems to be the center of the universe when it comes to indie dating (that man-slut/music-slut!). He is the Kevin Bacon of this diagram.
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Holy shit, Heather. This is amazing. When I showed this to Luke, he said Chris (the friend of his that I dated, and the dude who kind of set us up) made a diagram like this of the Provo indie kids, and it looked a lot the same.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm glad I didn't scare you away with my Rain Man-esque desire to make connections.
ReplyDeleteAs for the diagram of Provo indie kids...I would totally believe it. Haha. It was the same thing with the scene up here (I guess I don't live in "here" anymore...But you know what I mean). I'll have to make that diagram sometime for my own amusement.
Like I said the last time we hung out, I think we could connect everyone in Utah to that Stan fella.
That got me thinking about how we all met. It's interesting how the music scene can connect so many people (and not necessarily just dating). For instance, when we first met, we lived 2 hours away from each other. And yet we met and became friends. I was just thinking of the connections. I met you through Whitney. I met Whitney through Mike (and with the help of livejournal too, I guess. Haha. Oh livejournal. Whitney found me on Mike's friends list on LJ and added me because she thought I was funny or interesting or something. That's what I do -- lure them in through LJ and then drop the charm once I have them in my web of friendship). I met Mike through my friend Kelly (who lived in Bountiful at the time). I met Kelly through Travis (who also lived in Bountiful at the time). And I met Travis at one of my band's shows -- we started talking and we decided to hang out after the show. Though I had previously met him briefly a few years earlier because he was friends with (and hanging out with) a band that played with my friend's band in Logan.
Utah especially seems like a hotbed for these kind of rampant connections. For one, Utah has one main scene in SLC. Pretty much every kid in the indie music scene attended at least a handful of shows at Kilby. Very few states have one central place like that where everyone seems to congregate. The SLC scene allowed people from Logan to meet people from Provo, for example. In addition, so many people our age move to SLC. Everyone seems to end up in SLC.
Second, Utah is a very "sticky" state. It's a funny term demographers use to indicate that people that grew up in a certain place often stay there (Utah is a high sticky/low magnet state -- those that are from there often stay, but not too many people move there from another state. The saddest are low sticky/low magnet states -- everyone wants to leave and no one wants to move there). Since people often stay in Utah for a while (or their whole life), it allows for someone to meet more people throughout the years and make more connections.
Third, it seems like everyone in Utah is related and that can add to connections. For example, it seems like I had/have a billion connections to Parallax and its members. One of which is that Elliot is cousins with a guy I knew in Logan (in fact, Elliot even briefly went to my middle school).
In fact, that reminds me of some connections I made recently when looking at various friends' facebooks. This is going to sound pretty stalkery, but, here goes: Elliot is in God's Revolver. The singer of that band is Reid, who is from Logan and was in my circle of friends. In fact, he was best friends with and grew up across the street from my brother-in-law. I noticed that Scott is a fan of God's Revolver on facebook. I also saw that Elliot is (or was at some point) dating this girl named Rachel (who I don't think I know). But I noticed you and Scott (and Brittany, whom I've met a few times with Whitney) are friends with her. And so is Eagan's younger cousin that lives in SLC! (That one surprised me the most). It's endless!
Ok, so maybe now I have indeed scared you with my Rain Man-esque desire to make connections...
Ok, that comment is long enough to be an e-mail. Woops. I lose all sense of space and time when I get going.
ReplyDeleteHot damn! You are just about the most impressive person out there, Heather. I am in awe of your connecting skills. And I had no idea about the relationships of half of those musicians. Why is it that I know more about Paris Hilton's ex-lovers than Conor Oberst's? I guess People.com doesn't care much for indie musicians.
ReplyDelete...unless those indie musicians are ex-lovers of Paris Hilton. Haha.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm glad you liked it.
I'm not scared off, because I'm really fascinated by those kinds of connections. I recently made friends with a girl JUST because of the connection/world colliding that surrounded her: she grew up with Eve, Luke's little sister. She was friends with John, a boy I dated, and Ashley, who I met through John. She was friends with Meaghan, a girl who was friends with Chris (the boy I mentioned earlier who I dated and set me up with Luke). And last of all, she is a cousin of Mariah, a girl at the law school who I had a bit of a crush on. I hate when people say, "Whoa! Small world!" but when one girl in salt lake is connected to you somehow through most of the important relationships in your life, it's a fitting thing to say.
ReplyDeleteIt's crazy when you meet someone that you end up knowing through several different channels.
ReplyDeleteWhen people say "It's a small world", I often think "or at least in Utah" (due to the reasons I gave above). Regardless, I'm still amazed by the connections. Even when it's not a very strong connection. Like when I found out Luke's brother married a girl from my high school. Even though it's not that crazy, I still was like "Woah. SMALL WORLD!!!" Haha.