A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

JEFFSTER! FOREVER: The other day, Matt linked to a story about the music of Gossip Girl. Long before I quit that show, I remember thinking -- and possibly saying here -- that the music on Josh Schwartz's other show, Chuck, to my taste, was much better. This season only supported that.

Chuck's tone is basically goofy optimism tinged with occasional heartache. So it's no surprise that that's Chuck's musical signature too. Whatever the musical range of the artists chosen, Chuck's music supervisor (or Schwartz himself) seems to hone in on those bands' most jangly, optimistic, upper mid-tempo pop, sometimes whisper-sung and sometimes anthemic, but usually the kind of stuff you could imagine playing over a closing scene with the hero and his girl riding off into the California sunset in a convertible with the bad guys' headquarters burning behind them. Toss in a few angsty scottish breakup rockers, some 80s covers/tributes, and some musical puns, and you get the idea. Don't believe me? Here's my own set of Season Two musical highlights:

• "Now We Can See," The Thermals
• "Skinny Love," Bon Iver
• "3 Rounds and a Sound," Blind Pilot
• "Keep Yourself Warm" (my 2008 Montage of the Year winner), Frightened Rabbit
• "Dropped," Phantom Planet (the OC Theme song band)
• "Mr. Roboto," Jeffster!
• "Bite Hard," Franz Ferdinand
• "Looking at the Sun," Gramercy Arms
• "Twist," Frightened Rabbit
• "Christmas TV," Slow Club

(That last band, by the way, has a great agent: of the 17 songs they have on iTunes, two are used on commercials and one was licensed for a network television show). And while I'm talking about Chuck, TV Week via Sepinwall says that NBC sources are telling them that renewal prospects look good.