The new San Francisco school of pop cool — Maggie Gently; photographed by Amayah Harrison.

Maggie Gently has been generating some buzz here at home in the Bay Area and far beyond for good reasons. A queer artist that is very much involved in her local/global communities, Gently has been making modern pop meditation cycles styled as sincere vignettes crafted with a pointed velocity and sharp volition. Maggie's art concerns the journey of reconnecting us to our selves, displaying the otherwise inner monologues and psychic dialogues as odes to loving our own interpersonal idiosyncrasies. Following up the 2020 debut Good Cry with Peppermint this coming March 18 through Refresh Records, the San Francisco-based tunesmith presents a desperately needed creative panacea for our turbulent times. Enlisting fellow local luminaries Pllush and The She’s own Eva Treadway, Sinclair Riley and Maggie's brother Joey Grabmeier; Peppermint offers assuaging anthems of love, care and a profound concern for others, ourselves, with a deep empathy for the human experience along the mercurial plane of existence.

Opener “Worried” is an exploration of the super ego, articulating the intricacies and intensities of our attachments to one another. Maggie mulls over the bonds we share, investigating the natures of the substantial connective tissues that intersect at the candid places of conflict and camaraderie. This motif of outward affectionate introspection continues into the perfect DIY power pop punk of “Hold My Hand” that rocks with an assertively urgent and unabashed honesty like a deep cut from the Sadie Dupuis songbook. Bringing the uninhibited rawness with a garage rock ruckus, Maggie bridges the realness with a refinement that is channeled through expressions and statements of communicated needs with the relationship positive chorus hook, ‘I'm not afraid to tell you everything I'm feeling now’. The beauty of “Steady” finds that bedrock of security from the tumult of life confusions, moving on from the soul ripping torments of past hurt toward places of healing and regaining self-esteem, confidence and learning to trust again. “Steady” rediscovers the love from within, rekindling the proverbial little light that shines and casting it as a beacon of illuminated love toward the land, seas and surrounding communities. Peppermint is a transcendent survey into our recommitments to the self and the universes we inhabit together.

Join us now as Maggie Gently explores the fascinating phenomenon of favorite faux bands from films:

Top 5 movies about fake bands (in my opinion) by Maggie Gently

Beyond the blank canvases with Maggie Gently; photographed by Amayah Harrison.

I love movies about fictional bands. I particularly like movies that make fun of indie bands, and that’s coming from a place of love as an indie musician myself. And I’m not talking about the wow, you’re 30 and still trying to be a rock star? kind of teasing — I think that’s just mean. There’s nuance to how to lovingly mock people who make indie rock and I think the next five films do it just beautifully.

Whip It

Whip It awakened something in me. I love roller derby, I love women’s sports and this movie is so lovable through and through. This film takes the #5 spot on the countdown just because it’s not necessarily about the fake band. I don’t even remember what the band is called, or if they even say the name. But if you haven’t seen the movie, basically the main character Bliss (Elliot Page) falls for this singer/guitarist boy played by Landon Pigg. He is totally 2009 indie rock dreamy with long shaggy hair and playful bad-boy jokes and in my opinion, his fictional band rocks.

The band is introduced at a roller derby after party where all of the players and their friends hang out in a hot tub and dance together. When I saw this movie in 2009, a new benchmark for success unlocked in my brain: I wanted to play a show at the roller derby after party with tough women roughhousing and doing keg stands and stuff. I legitimately like the soundtrack to Whip It, and I think Landon did a wonderful job. He’s just so the stereotypical indie rock guy of the moment, and spoiler alert! He cheats on his hometown love while he’s away on tour. Boo! Bliss can do better.

The song he plays at the afterparty:

Jennifer’s Body

If you have not seen Jennifer’s Body, do not read what I am about to say. Instead, skip ahead, or better yet just stop reading, go watch Jennifer’s Body and come back to this later. I watched this movie during the pandemic. I hate scary movies and I hate being scared, but I knew this was a cult classic and the actors and director are all so cool and I heard it was feminist and stuff so I faced my fears and watched it. And oh my god do I love this movie.

I had absolutely no idea it would be such a delicious, horrible, ironic, violent, just PERFECT parody of a bunch of dumb boys in an indie band called Low Shoulder who will do anything for their horribly mediocre band to succeed. This movie makes me feel things. I feel like Diablo Cody pulled back the curtain and shone an ugly light on privileged indie rock egos. It’s definitely scary — there’s really disturbing rape allegory (from the band and from Megan Fox’s character) which is not easy to watch, but damn I felt so vindicated watching these rocker fools fall from grace.

It’s just a hilarious concept executed to perfection. Many of the lines don’t age well, but also some of them are extra funny with time, especially if you’re my age and you were in high school in 2009 when this movie came out. The soundtrack is an epic snapshot of this time, and the band is just creepy as all hell.

Low Shoulder:

Meditations by Maggie Gently; photographed by Amayah Harrison.

Josie and the Pussycats

This movie passes the test of time. The songs all rip and the script is hilarious. It’s about a small-town band that’s in the right place at the right time to be swept away on a silly adventure of fame, fortune and mind control. The songs that Josie and the Pussycats play in the movie are such little pop punk earworms. When I saw this movie as a kid (it came out in 2001) I pictured myself playing music like that with my best friends, tearing it up in cute outfits and signing a fat record deal with the makeover montage and all that. As an eager little singer kid, this move tugged at my heartstrings. As a grown up, it’s a sweet movie about the power of friendship and staying true to your values. And yes, the songs are awesome.

“3 Small Words”

School of Rock

I probably don’t have to explain why School of Rock rocks. It’s a heartwarming story about the power of music, the power of an inspiring teacher, about how expressing yourself through music can help you reveal things about yourself that you didn’t know how to get out in any other way. About how getting older doesn’t mean you have to give up on your passion and that being young doesn’t mean that you don’t know what you’re talking bout. That’s all I’ll say about that movie, it’s awesome and hilarious.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

I saw Scott Pilgrim in theaters with a group of my friends in 2010 — my senior year of high school. Before seeing the movie, I hadn’t heard of the comics and had no idea what to expect. Among my group of friends were a few members of my band at the time — Shut Up James. Our style of music was loud and made no sense genre-wise. We had a three-piece strings section (in addition to two guitars, bass and drums) because we were all friends and wanted to be in a band and we kind of based the sound around that. I was ambitious and took the band really seriously, but I was also writing songs about our collective love of Mario Kart on N64 and writing songs for my friend’s student film about zombies.

There is so much to love about Scott Pilgrim’s band Sex Bob-omb. The Nintendo-y name, the deadpan drummer Kim, the fuzzy garage indie, the silly lyrics. As a front person myself, I have always had a deep love for the humor of Stephen Stills, the band’s anxiety-ridden and ambitious singer/guitarist. Again, I think this movie isn’t really about the band, but the fact that Scott is a flakey, mooching bassist slacker works just perfectly in developing his character. And Stephen’s hunger for notoriety and trouble booking gigs resonated with me so much, and I still think he’s just so hilarious. There’s a little sliver of Stephen Stills in most band leaders I think and the character was written with love and fondness while being the punchline to many jokes about what being in a band that no one cares about is like.

And the music in this movie is really just wonderful.

Opening credits song:

If you have any movie recommendations for me, you can find me on social media @maggiegently.

Peppermint will be available March 18 via Refresh Records, catch Maggie on the following tour dates:

Maggie Gently's favorite movies with fake bands