Lane Kim grew up with a very strict mother in a very strict household, but things began to loosen (well, she made them loosen in her own mind) when she started hiding makeup and CDs under the floorboards of her room. Eventually, she started drumming in a rock band called Hep Alien. It’s through this band that Lane met her husband, Zack, played at CBGBs (kind of), and realized that you can be a rock star and a rocking mom at the same time. Mild spoilers for Episode 1 of the new series ahead. Luckily, Hep Alien appears in the Gilmore Girls Netflix revival so we can all rock one more time. But what's the song Hep Alien plays in the Gilmore Girls "Winter" episode? It's a pretty meaningful tune, if you ask me.
In the revival, Hep Alien has been a band for like, 15 years, and Lane and Zack are married and Zack has a full-time job in which he has to wear a tie, which is like the worst thing that could happen to a guy that was constantly afraid of selling out. Gil is still there, selling sandwiches, as is Brian. I’m not really sure what Brian is doing, but he’s still playing bass in Hep Alien, and that’s all that matters. Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life shows the chaos of a band practice in the middle of adult life — Lane and Zack's kids, Kwan and Steve, are also there — but thankfully, these guys still rock.
After a little tuning up, Hep Alien breaks into a rousing version of “I’m The Man” by Joe Jackson, and it’s in this writer’s professional opinion that the song was chosen as a tongue-in-cheek nod to the everlasting popularity of Gilmore Girls. Also, it’s a great song. Listen here:
The song opens with “Pretty soon now, you know I'm gonna make a comeback/And like the birds and the bees in the trees, it's a sure-fire smash.” Perhaps this is a testament to the fact that the public eats up anything having to do with Gilmore Girls and everyone knew that this reunion show was going to be a success whether it was critically lauded or not. Later, the lyrics go, “So give me all your money/’Cause I know you think I'm funny, yeah/Can't you hear me laughing/Can't you see me smile,” and I think that says the same thing. It may be a little cynical, especially for Gilmore Girls, but the fact of the matter is that GG is a money maker, and it was sad when Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino, the show’s creators, were not brought back to the series in Season 7. It was a real bummer.
Season 7 of Gilmore Girls was like pizza — any pizza is good, but not all pizza is great. The seventh go was good, but it lacked the flavors of the previous six seasons. Sherman-Palladino and Palladino are the heart and soul of Gilmore Girls, and they could be calling to that via Hep Alien in Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life — which is likely to be a sure-fire smash for fans.
Images: Neil Jacobs/Netflix
