When you’re crazy into a band or an artist, you seek stuff out. The harder it is to find, the more you search, and it becomes a sort of quest, especially when the existence of said material is rumored to exist somewhere. And when you finally get it, the acquiring becomes all the more sweet. The joy, for instance, of tracking down Thomas Newman’s Men Don’t Leave soundtrack was well-documented here. And since I offered to post more rare Newman this week, let’s get to it.
Starting at the beginning, this piece of music (as discussed here) was the first time I noticed Newman’s work. I was a movie theater drudge in Santa Fe. The year was 1985. My coworkers and I would crank the monitors during the end credits up in the booth/office when The Man With One Red Shoe wrapped each showing. This was why. It’s a rolling, laid-back piece of instrumental music, easy-going and saxy. Ask most people if they remember the film and you’ll get a blank stare. Ask me, however, and you’ll have to listen to me wax enthusiastic for half an hour.
I never saw this film, but of the legally-issued Thomas Newman scores, it’s one of the harder ones to find. An eBay search today shows a range from $10 to $85 bucks for the CD. The tone of this piece is closer to Men Don’t Leave in style, and hints at his more string-laden compostions to come. But that percussive element that I love so much is still very much evident. It’s a worthwhile acquisition for fans.
Alternately bombastic and moody, this is one of those atypical Newman scores that finds him dabbling in sounds we’re not used to hearing from him. It’s the only “horror” film he ever scored, so I guess we can chalk that up as a reason, but here he’s using electric guitar, large scale organ and rapid-fire percussion to build to that Santa Cruz Carnival of Horror that we all remember so well. The original soundtrack contained very little of the actual score and was geared, instead, to people who wanted to get their hands on Tim Cappello’s sax-drenched cover of The Call’s “I Still Believe.” Uh, no thank you.
Man, remember Emily Lloyd? She was the flavor of the year when this came out, thanks to Wish You Were Here, that button-cute comedy from 1987. Here, she gets Italian on us and slinks about in a Nora Ephron-penned mob comedy that failed to make an impression when it came out. The score is funky and jazzy and seasoned with a wheezy accordion sound, entirely befitting the smoky atmosphere of a neighborhood Trattoria, but there’s some of the trademark Newman sparkle as well, as evidenced by this short cut.
There’s more, but I’m out of time today. actually, it’s not that I’m out of time. I just can’t take the heavy oppressive marine-layer gloom that’s covering Redondo Beach today. I’m going to retreat somewhere warm and bright and get some work done. I’ll drop some more cool bits into the schedule for next week, so stay tuned.
Several weeks ago I blabbed about recent discovery, Love Psychedelico. I’m back. And here’s some more LP love. On April 29, Hacktone Records will release the Stateside debut of the Japanese duo, a collection of stellar tracks bearing the appropriate moniker, This Is Love Psychedelico. And yes, that about sums it up. This is it.
As I wrote before, they have a full, satisfying classic rock style, full of meaty chords and singalong melodies. Good luck actually singing along, however. Kumi’s lyrics drift in and out of English at will, and meaning becomes elusive. It’s like trying to study a landscape through the fluttering of a gauzy, windblown curtain.
And if you think that image was obscure and overwrought, there are plenty more where that came from.
It’s a pretty solid collection and seems to represent the band well, from the obviously beatles-inspired “Lady Madonna” to the country twang of “These Days” and the solid, acoustic melodica of my own fave, “Neverland.” I would have liked to have seen “Everyone, Everyone” or “Aha! (All We Want)” which are my own top tunes from the Japanese duo, but that’s merely an observation. The collection is as solid as they come.
I rather like the simplicity and elegance of muxtape.com. Upload songs. Arrange them. Send ‘em out to people. It’s not unlike making an actual mixtape, except that there are no tapes. And you can skip and jump about at will (which I try to do in public as often as possible.) I tried it out, of course. I’m not one to pass up testing a new web toy. The results are here.
I think it’s a great way to update what’s on your music radar from time to time. And there’s a nifty RSS feed attached, which means I can keep a list in my sidebar. You can, too! I mean, if you really feel like it…
The current track list is almost entirely spontaneous. Something I just threw together in a manner of moments, looking through stuff I’ve picked up in the past little while. As I find cool, new stuff, I’ll add and shift and change things around. And if you don’t feel like clicking on the link, here’s the inaugural lineup:
The The “Lung Shadows”
The Kills “U.R.A. Fever”
Juliana Hatfield “I Can’t Kill Myself”
Love Psychedelico “Aha! (All We Want)”
Goldfrapp “Happiness”
Morcheeba “Hemphasis”
The Wombats “Moving To New York (Alt. Version)”
Vetiver “Been So Long”
Plasticines “La Règle Du Jeu”
Malcolm Middleton “Solemn Thirsty”
Thurston Moore “Honest James”
Mandalay “Insensible”
Enjoy. I was gonna post a funny picture and call it a day since it’s the Trickster’s Holiday, but I’ve got a meeting in the State of Hollywood this A.M. I gotta run.
Thomas Newman Posts RestoredMarch 31st, 2008 at 5:30 pm · · As promised on my 404 Page, I’ve restored the mp3’s to my Newman posts. I get a surprising amount of traffic from fans looking for info, including the occasional plea to re-post the tunes that I took down a year ago. Here’s the category. Just three posts. Check back later this week. I’ll post some more rare Newman before Friday. · (0)
I’ll be honest. It’s a bit shocking. I took eight months off and retreated to Santa Fe, New Mexico where I relaxed, got some work done, wrote two screenplays, wrote a novel, detoxed and slowed way, way down. I’m like one of those gym rats who’ve jumped off the treadmill for a moment to adjust his ipod and now that I’m trying to lower myself back on in that goofy, Flintstones way, I’m realizing the belt is really, really fast.
But I’m rested and I’m invigorated and I’m healthy and I know what I want. I realize the job market is still kinda on the suckish side, but I’m going to see what I can do to get one a job in the following areas:
Assistant to a Music Supervisor.
Assistant to an Assistant to a Music Supervisor.
Anything that involves working with and playing around with music in film and/or television including selecting, licensing, researching, sorting, beat matching, bloviating and completely baseless opining.
Coffee guy.
Oh, and need I mention? Successful Screenwriter belongs on the list there somewhere. Probably at the top. Or at the bottom, below “Coffee guy.” What I DON’T want to do is retail. I loved working at Rocket and Amoeba for those years, but I’m done with that. Forever. And I also don’t really want to do freelance web design, but I’ll take it for now, since at least I get to work in my pajamas.
This is just me, experimenting with the new Word Press gallery feature. It was a private post, so y’all didn’t have to see it, but it occurred to me that there’s just no such thing as too much PT Cruiser.
Gigabytes of Mu-ziqMarch 27th, 2008 at 6:16 pm · · Yes, this is my lowly first post since arriving in California. All I wanted to say is now that I’ve got my music consolidated onto one single drive, the total comes to 386 GB. Somehow, I thought it would be more than that. (brag, brag) · (0)
The final selection in our week of L.A. Songs is a bit on the obvious side. But I’m a child of the Eighties, and when I caught it in the theaters as a young teenager, William Friedkin’s film electrified my nerve endings. It was the second time I’d heard Wang Chung in the theaters. The first was “Fire In The Twilight,” their contribution to the Breakfast Club soundtrack. That tune was sort of a throwaway, but I saw TBC twelve times before it left theaters. I knew the song well.
This song is about as romantic as it gets when it comes to songs about Los Angeles, and when seen in the context of the film, it demonstrates how a nifty song can completely elevate what is otherwise a bland scene. I say this because I have a vivid memory of the film’s electrifying first few moments. But having watched it again recently, I realize that in those first few moments, nothing actually happens. Wang Chung kicks off. There’s a motorcade. And that’s it. But Los Angeles sure as hell looks beautiful, doesn’t it? All gauzy and gorgeous.
Anyway, enjoy. I’ve still got packing to do. Next time I write something in this blog I’ll be doing it from the warmth and sun of Redondo Beach.
And incidentally, that’s obviously not Jack Hues and Nick Feldman in that photo. It’s William Petersen and John Pankow. You wanna know how many decent, high-res images of Wang Chung there are on the Net? None. That’s how many.
I’m not entirely certain why I want to move back to L.A. This New Mexico sabbatical was supposed to be a break from the smog and the water and the panic, but I’d forgotten how much I love the Land of Enchantment. The air is clean and cool. The vibe is chilled out. The wilderness is huge and absurdly beautiful.
This song doesn’t help matters in the least. Chalk up another one against the City of Angels. Death Cab For Cutie weigh in heavily against Los Angeles in a characteristic sing-song, free-verse style.
It’s a lovely summer’s day
I can almost see a skyline through a thickening shroud of egos.
Is this the city of angels or demons?
And here the names are what remain: stars encapsulate the golden lame
and they need constant cleaning for when the tourists begin salivating.
Yowtch. But I’ll tell ya something. For me, there is a certain joy to be found in contrast, in good mingling with bad, in beauty vs. desolation. The beauty is enhanced by the presence of the wicked. And I’d even go so far as to say that the desolation itself takes on a certain wistful beauty. Sunset Boulevard is a crass, capitalistic nightmare (at least between Doheny and Fairfax) but when the sun is just right, and the breeze carries, beneath the exhaust and the perfume, that subtle tang of salt, it takes on a sort of melancholy luster.
So bring on the bad. L.A. is nothing if not a contradiction.
Today’s Los Angeles song comes from those proggy, anachronistic minstrels from Portland, The Decemberists. From Her Majesty, comes this off-kilter and oddly pleasing tune. It’s considerably more upbeat than yesterday’s Go-Go’s tune, and may not be the quintessential L.A. cut, but it’s a nice balance.
From Saturdays to Mondays
You hill and valley crowd
Hanging your trousers down at heel
This is the realest thing
As ancient choirs sing
A dozen blushing cherubs wheel above
Los Angeles I love
I’m off to Las Vegas (New Mexico) again to hang with relatives and take a few pics of my old house. I’ll be back tomorrow with more words and another Los Angeles tune.
The Man With One Red Shoe
Those Secrets
The Lost Boys
Cookie
Several weeks ago I 
