Boombox Serenade

Film-Music Moment of the Day: Dolls Dolls Dolls!

I love asking people what their favorite film-music moments are, and today I got a great email from my friend John, who listed several from Russ Meyer's incredible opus, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls:

• Off-camera debate with visual reference montage segues into "Come With The Gentle People", as the band (The Kelly Affair) heads west to Los Angeles.  Sung by Lynn Carey, unfortunately replaced by another singer on the soundtrack LP.


• Producer Z-Man's party features The Strawberry Alarm Clock in person, rocking out to "Girl From The City" and other songs of their own


• As they're spontaneously renamed by Z-Man, we crossfade to The Carrie Nations recording "In The Long Run", then jump seamlessly into a live show.


• Newly jaded, the group perform their soon-to-be-a-smash "Look On Up At The Bottom", as slabs of vinyl are pressed into records by freshly minted master plates--in time with the song itself


• Near the film's conclusion, a philosophical narration and montage accompany its musical theme, all the way to a final vocal reprise by The Sandpipers.  I had a unique experience with this sequence in a packed theater: as the voiceover began, audience laughter started slowly, steadily (and genuinely) increasing, more and more, until finally one could not hear the movie at all, only laughter.

And John reminds us that there is brilliantly varied incidental music throughout, mostly written by Stu Phillips, also co-author of the original songs.

Film Music Moment of the Day: The Goth Edition

A while back I asked a bunch of people the question: "What's your favorite film-music moment?" Over the past week I've been featuring some of the best answers I got:

• "The amazing opening club scene of Bauhaus singing 'Bela Lugosi's Dead' in The Hunger, plus the incredibly great use of Bach throughout that film."
• "Manhunter which uses a song from Shriekback called 'Coelacanth' when the blind woman gets to pet the tiger."
• "The scene where Donnie Darko and his girlfriend are walking down the stairs in slow motion together to 'Under the Milky Way Tonight' by The Church. It's just after they'd gone to bed for the first time and their movements are perfectly in sync with one another. It's a blissful, relaxed moment just before the movie turns truly apocalyptic at the end."
• "Too much pre-release audience polling ruined the re-make of Willard with Crispin Glover, but the scene where the rats kill the cat to 'Ben' by Michael Jackson is pretty amazing."

Film-Music Moment of the Day: Zabriski Point

A while back I took an informal poll, asking the question: "What's your favorite film-music moment?". For the next week I'll be featuring some of the best answers I got:

"Zabriskie Point, an incredibly dated looking film now, but the ending where he blew up a giant modern mansion out in the desert, using multiple camera angles and slow motion was a first. And then he goes INSIDE, just so he can blow up a few TV sets and a refrigerator. All done to the screaming guitars of Pink Floyd's 'Careful With That Axe, Eugene.'"

Got a favorite film-music moment you'd like to share? Send some of the email my way. shannon (at) boomboxserenade.com

Film-Music Moment of the Day: Ghost with the Most

A while back I took an informal poll, asking the question: "What's your favorite film-music moment?". For the next week I'll be featuring some of the best answers I got:

"Juhn Turturro licking a bowling ball to the Gipsy Kings' cover of 'Hotel California' in The Big Lebowski."

"The opening sequence of Ghost World in which Enid is alone in her room rocking out to 'Jaan Pehechaan Ho,' a Bollywood musical number from the movie Gumnaam."

"The Flash Gordon theme song by Queen when Flash is attacking Ming's palace: Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun... FLASH! AH-AHHH!"

"The Circle Jerks, murdering their own song 'When the Shit Hits the Fan' in a lame lounge style in Repo Man. To which Otto replies, 'I can't believe I used to like these guys.'"

Film-Music Moment of the Day: Dreams of Ferris

A while back I took an informal poll, asking the question: "What's your favorite film-music moment?". For the next week I'll be featuring some of the best answers I got:

""In Ferris Bueller's Day Off, it's the scene where Sloan and Ferris are saying goodbye to each other after getting back home from their adventures, right before Ferris looks at his watch and says "I have to go!" They kiss, and he hauls ass home.  Sloan says to herself 'He's going to marry me.' It's all done to the song the 'Edge Of Forever' by The Dream Academy. Perfect."

Got a favorite film-music moment you'd like to share? Send some of the email my way. shannon (at) boomboxserenade.com

Film-Music Moment of the Day: Blow Up

A while back I took an informal poll of people's favorite film-music moments. For the next week I'll be featuring some of the best answers I got:

"The scene in Antonioni's Blow Up where David Hemmings walks into club while the Yardbirds are playing 'Stroll On.' London never looked so hip, a crowd was never so icy with cool, and man was never so haunted by the woman he could not find."

Five New Noteworthy Soundtracks for Early Fall

Choke (release date: Sept 26 2008) This soundtrack has quite the indie rock pedigree what with Death Cab for Cutie, My Morning Jacket and the like on it, but we'll see whether or not director Clark Gregg can pull off any genuinely memorable film music moments in this highly anticipated film written by Fight Club screenwriter Chuck Palahniuk. Gregg has, of course, turned out consistently great stuff like The Usual Suspects and Iron Man, but working with music hasn't proved a particular strength so far. Iron Man seemed practically devoid of it, somehow, and what little music was perceptible was surprisingly low key. For this soundtrack, it looks like Gregg brought on music supervisor Lyle Hysen (Diggers and Junebug) so it seems as if soundtrack is playing a more prominent role this time around. Other featured artists include Radiohead, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Alap Momin, Fiery Furnaces, Ben Kweller, The Twilight Singers, Rogue Wave, and composer Nathan Larson on score.

Elegy. (out now) Really nice to see a non-score approach to film music that centers around classical and neo-chamber selections. It's the perfect choice for this somber and grown-up drama, adapted from Phillip Roth's The Dying Animal. Director Isabel Coixet acted as her own music supervisor on this one, which is usually a good sign for soundtrack. She included some interesting artists like Colleen (Cecile Schott), an avant garde composer who recently recorded an entire album's worth of material using only music boxes. There are some downtempo jazz selections here too, of the rainy-day-in-the-city sort. And whether or not you agree with Roth that melancholy intellectualism is sexy, Elegy does look like a finely acted piece of cinema.

Rachel Getting Married. (release date: Oct 3 2008) Everyone knows Jonathan Demme for Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia, but he also has quite the roster of concert films and videos including Stop Making Sense, Neil Young: Heart of Gold, and New Order: Substance among others, so I'm excited to see a feature from Demme that looks as if it weaves together his gift for sophisticated narrative with a longstanding interest (and good taste) in music. TV on the Radio's lead singer, Tunde Adebimpe, plays one of the lead roles in the film, and Palestinian-American musician Tareq Abboushi makes an appearance too. The intriguing trailer is set to Rogue Wave's excellent cover of Buddy Holly's "Everyday." Extremely promising.

Synedoche, New York. (release date: Oct 2008) Charlie Kaufmann directs Phillip Seymour Hoffman? Yes please. This is the story of a theater director attempting to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse, so you know you'll be getting lots of those Escher-esque story-within-a-story puzzles that Kaufmann loves to play around with, but how will one of the world's greatest screenwriters work with music in his directorial debut? Bonnie Greenberg (The Sandlot, Pleasantville, The Mask) stepped in to do music supervision on this one, so the soundtrack will definitely be something more than wallpaper. Fingers crossed. 

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. (release date: Oct 3 2008) A teencom purporting to be about two music snobs had better deliver on soundtrack, and several signs suggest that it will. The prolific Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo) wrote the score and seasoned music supervisor Linda Cohen (There Will Be Blood, American Splendor, Be Kind Rewind) was on board for this one too. The cutesy title is a little gag-making though and the plot sounds a bit thin-slash-precious, so for us this one remains a "we'll see." Soundtrack includes contributions from Devendra Banhart, Vampire Weekend, We Are Scientists and Richard Hawley, among others. Several indie rockers appear in the film itself including Banhart, Bishop Allen, and Project Jenny, Project Jan.

Other soundtrack goodness coming up soon: Burn After Reading by The Coen Brothers (August 27, 2008), Milk by Gus Van Sant (January 2008), Sex Drive (October 2008).

Film-Music Moment of the Day: Sundancing into that good night

So happy today to see that the Sundance Channel is now running a long and genuinely affecting promo set to MGMT's excellent "Time to Pretend." Whoever made this trailer really understands just how glamorous and funny that song is...how ultimately wistful too.

I first heard it when my pal Greg played it for me as we were zipping along some Marin backroad, headed toward a picnic table at oyster farm. Along with another friend, we'd decided to play hooky from the "back-to-back bullshit"* of our normal work week and spirits were running high. The sun had just made a surprise appearance and I was having all those big, heady feelings you get when you step out of your routine for no good reason and the instinct proves right. And this song, God. It made me light up. Made everything feel airy and epic. I got a sunburn on my cheeks before we even arrived at the farm. I ate oysters straight out of the sea with people I want to know 'til I'm old.

Later Greg played the song again at his house and it put a golden seal on the day forever. He'd decided to throw an impromptu party with all the fancy cheeses he'd bought at Cowgirl Creamery that morning, and everyone headed over to his house with bottles of champagne and beer. Friends Rebecca and Zach had scored a twelve pack of vampire teeth. Much photography ensued.

I'm feeling rough, I'm feeling raw, I'm in the prime of my life. Let's make some music, make some money, find some models for wives. I'll move to Paris, shoot some heroin, and fuck with the stars. You man the island and the cocaine and the elegant cars.

With all the news of indie film houses going under lately and Mark Johnson's Ballast unable to find a distributor even after doing so well at festivals this year, this song also strikes a particularly poignant note for the Sundance Channel right now because it perfectly explains why none of these tribulations ultimately matter, and why peril should always be greeted with a big smile and a middle finger. Filmmakers will make films. Musicians will make music. Artists will make art. Come what may.

There's really nothing, nothing we can do. Love must be forgotten, life can always start up anew. The models will have children, we'll get a divorce. We'll find some more models, everything must run it's course.

Oh Sundance. I don't care if you are a bunch of champagne socialists. You do good work and you know good work when you hear/see it, and that's all that matters. As for MGMT, I'm almost as crushed out on you as I am on my friends.

*Thank you Stef

Film-Music Moment of the Day: Grinning at the Gates of Hell

Part of the gospel I preach on this blog is that the most memorable film-music moments frequently hinge on unexpected music. Surprisingly, it's often the freshest young directorial talent that has the hardest time pulling off this trick, as most of them are still lodged squarely in their earnest years, where personal taste in music still seems paramount. This year there have been some outstanding feature film debuts by the likes of Josh Safdie (The Pleasure of Being Robbed) and Barry Jenkins (Medicine for Melancholy), but the "various artists" soundtracks were somewhat monochromatic—a wash of almost too tasteful indie rock tracks that didn't really yield any standout music moments.

Enter Guillermo del Toro, who is anything but indie at this point. The 44 year old director typically gravitates toward score for his music needs, but in Hellboy II: The Golden Army, he shows that he knows his way around a licensed track too. The Hellboy trailer, of course, features some demographically friendly power metal from the mighty Ramsteinn, but when it came to storytelling, del Toro relied on the adult contemporary stylings of one Mister Barry Manilow.

The scene in question features characters Abe Sapien and Hellboy, who are by that point have been bewitched and bewildered (respectively) by two different ladies. They get drunk and pine for their women while the besotted Abe blasts Manilow's "Can't Smile Without You" at top volume. At first Hellboy disparages the choice, but eventually he can no longer resist the simple, white-boy blues of Manilow, and he ends up bellowing out the tune in spite of himself.

It's a bold choice on Guillermo's part, for Manilow's music defies even ironic hipster appreciation, and yet there's no denying that "Can't Smile" is deeply ingrained in our minds or that 99.9 percent of us could not, if our lives depended on it, write something as memorable as this grotesquely sincere tune.

In this way, the great Del Toro shows us how it can be a powerful choice to play directly against his audience's taste in music, and in so doing, he lets the real world in a little, where bad music can (and does) happen anytime. It's sophisticated storytelling, and also, funny as hell.