Boombox Serenade

Is Dino Risi's "Il Sorpasso" the First-Ever Pop Music Soundtrack?

If you've seen Gary Leva's 2007 documentary, Fog City Mavericks, you may have heard a few people in it assert that George Lucas' 1973 film, American Graffiti, had the first ever pop music soundtrack. But while American Graffiti was among the earlier films to take that route, it wasn't the first. Not by a long shot.  

All throughout the sixties, in fact, directors were moving toward a more pop oriented approach. Bruce Conner's 1962 short, COSMIC RAY—featuring atomic bomb newsreel mixed with original footage—was set to Ray Charles' "What'd I Say," and was a significant early step away from the old Irving Berlin sensibility about music in film.  Many consider COSMIC RAY, in fact, to be the first real music video, an attribution that Conners himself denies, saying that if he's the father of the genre then he'd like a "paternity test." Whether he's responsible for MTV or not though, he was definitely exhibiting a new willingness to use album-released tracks by real, label-backed musicians as an atmospheric element on par with visual composition, lighting, score, and other, cinematic elements. His work also leveraged the subculture's growing suspicion of traditional American vernacular in general.

Around the same time Conners was making COSMIC RAY, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn composed music for the 1961 film Paris Blues and were nominated for an Academy Award for it, but several pieces of the "score" (a term the Academy now defines as music written specifically for the film) were actually jazz standards that Ellington had recorded several decades before, such as "Take the A Train" and 'Mood Indigo." It was, by that time, commonplace for big budget Hollywood films like White Christmas to spawn chart-toppers in popular culture, but with Paris Blues that direction began to reverse a bit, and existing music started to find a larger audience through film.

On the flip side, the sixties also provide some interesting examples of just how score-happy the industry was at the time. The 1965 film The Knack...and How to Get It is about the sexual revolution among "mods and rockers" of mid-sixties London, but instead of a mod or rock soundtrack it had a score—a choice that would be fairly unthinkable for equivalent storylines today (can you imagine a score for High Fidelity?). Other quasi-edgy films of the 60's like Alfie and Breakfast at Tiffany's almost definitely would have had pop soundtracks had it been a more common practice at the time. During that same period From Russia With Love was released and was the first to use that Bond strategy of featuring a distinct title track, but it was written by Lionel Bart who came directly from the musical theater world. The result is a buttery Matt Monro number wholly untouched by Vietnam, the Civil Rights Movement, or rock and roll. Even fairly racy subject matter was still getting the ol' Irving Berlin treatment. 

Then, things began to change. In 1966 Michelangelo Antonioni released Blow Up, featuring score by Herbie Hancock, but also pop songs by the The Lovin' Spoonful, The Yardbirds, and Tomorrow (featuring a pre-Yes Steve Howe). In 1967, Mike Nichols busted out with The Graduate, and showed the world, definitively, just how powerful a non-score soundtrack could be in a work of serious cinema. Paul Simon had actually written two songs specifically for the film ("Punky's Dilemma" and "A Hazy Shade of Winter") but Nichols rejected both and instead chose "Mrs. Robinson," a song not written for the movie, but one that Simon had already been writing and had originally called "Mrs. Roosevelt," after Eleanor Roosevelt. The song became a hit after the film was released, once again showing film's ability to magnify existing works of music, instead of the more top-down approach of making hits out of music written specifically for a film.

The year 1968 was significant for the release of Yellow Submarine, which furthered and fueled—as many Beatles projects did—the public's appetite for rock set to fantastic images. Then Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider came along in 1969, featuring a full blown "various artists" soundtrack including Steppenwolf, The Byrds, The Band, Jimi Hendrix, Little Eva, and many others. Rock as counterculture was at its peak by then, and Easy Rider's soundtrack was inextricably linked to its power and cultural significance as a film. 

While that soundtrack was certainly groundbreaking, however, a lot of the credit for the approach should actually go to Italian director, Dino Risi. That's because from title to finale, Easy Rider was based on Dino Risi's 1962 film, Il Sorpasso ("The Easy Life") which had a full pop soundtrack featuring snappy Italian hits such as "Saint Tropez Twist" by Peppino di Capri, "Quando Quando Quando" by Emilio Pericoli, "Guarda come Dondolo" and "Pinne Fucili ed Occhiali" by Edoardo Vianello, and "Vecchio Frac" by Domenico Modugno.

Not coincidentally, Il Sorpasso is also considered the first truly modern road movie, with no back projections, no studio work, and no grand old automobiles. Its kicky early 60's sensibility differs dramatically from the late 60's psychedelia of Easy Rider, but several strong similarities are there too, including themes of how a nation chooses to recover from an era of war and repression. (If Il Sorpasso is any indication, Italians recovered by doing the Twist absolutely everywhere.)

By the time American Graffiti came along in 1973, its pop music soundtrack was still a new enough approach to signify George Lucas' sense of adventure as a director, but not so new that it was visionary. Other significant non-score soundtracks leading up to American Graffiti include Midnight Cowboy, Zabriskie Point, and Alice's Restaurant, but it's important to remember that Dino Risi's Il Sorpasso presaged all of these, including Easy Rider, and was truly a breakthrough in that sense.

Film-Music Moment of the Day: Wintour's Touch

"What you touch you don't feel
Do not know what you steal
Destroy everything you touch today
Please destroy me this way."  —Ladytron, Witching Hour (2005)

Well, R.J. Cutler came out with guns blazing for this, his first theater release in some time. Within minutes The September Issue launches into New York Fashion Week footage while Ladytron's darkly glamorous "Destroy Everything You Touch" plays through a flashbulb-spangled montage in which Candy Patts Price describes Anna Wintour as the Pope of fashion and Andre Leon Talley bemoans a "famine of beauty" for the season. In stark contrast to these loud, glorious eccentrics is the preternaturally composed Anna Wintour observing and absorbing the runway shows, wearing her trademark fur and sunglasses. The Ladytron track was made for it.

Enter Grace Coddington, American Vogue's creative director, who serves as creative counterpoint to Wintour's withering eye. The Galliano-loving Grace is everything that Wintour is not: animated, romantic, accepting of physical imperfections, celebrity averse. Cutler captures several of her shoots, each more fantastic than the last and culminating in a Paris couture assignment that elicited gasps from the people sitting next to me. It was beyond gorgeous—impossibly exquisite concoctions, fantasies of color. This is the sequence in which it becomes clear that Grace is an outright magician, and also where my respect for Wintour grew because of the sheer nerve it would take to pare back such peerless work. Wintour is an editor, after all, and her job is defined largely by a manifest not to create, but to discard and delete. Many are saying that Grace emerges as the unexpected star of The September Issue, but my impression is that Anna knew exactly what she was doing throughout, keeping quarter where she always has: above the fray.

This is not to say that there aren't moments of insight into Wintour's personality. She radiates adoration for her children and lights up when describing London in the early 60's, citing the birth control pill and the end of the class system as the reasons behind the social energy of the time. With a twinkle in her eye she observes,"You'd have had to be wearing an Irving Penn sack on your head not to know there was something going on." She also overtly acknowledges that Coddington is a genius, and understands that her own is of a very different nature. When asked what her strength is, she replies, "My decisiveness," a word that has its roots in the old French verb "cædere" meaning, "to cut."

In the end, what is so striking about this documentary is how perfectly it captures the creative process, largely as a manifestation of the healthy friction between two opposites, Grace and Anna. It also benefits hugely from Cutler's unwillingness to waste time manufacturing a kinder, gentler Anna Wintour; instead he celebrates her cool detachment and opacity as key strengths of this formidable editor.

He did a good job with the music in the film too, although he should have been more willing to turn up the volume at times and allow it to take over the scene for awhile. With such rich visual material, I would have liked for there to be at least a few passages allowed to be pure sound and image events. As it was, Cutler seemed afraid to stray from the talking heads for too long, and is a bit reticent with the music as a result. He had some great tracks though, no doubt thanks to some help from Music Supervisor Margaret Yen (Juno, The Hangover, Passion of the Christ). We'll definitely be checking out his future work.

Soundtrack of the Day: Gary Hustwit's "Helvetica"

For his beautifully shot 2007 documentary about the world's most ubiquitous typeface, Gary Hustwit cleverly assembled a soundtrack that just like the controversial font, rides the line between modern minimalist genius and wallpaperish anonymity. Ther soundtrack includes microhouse from Motohiro Nakashima, subtly mathy jazz from Sam Prekop, pretty little loops from Four Tet, and the world's calmest indie rock by The Album Leaf, among others.

It all adds up to a spare, cerebral mood that fits perfectly with the subject matter, and it's evidence that even on a film budget in the "low six figures," as Hustwit put it, you absolutely can craft a first rate soundtrack. In fact, taken in combination with the composition of his shots, I'd argue that his music is what propels this documentary well beyond talking-heads-territory and makes it an cinematic experience in its own right. Hustwit's best known film is the Wilco documentary I'm Trying to Break Your Heart, so it's clear that the guy has great taste in music.

Soundtrack of the Day: Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

I absolutely love it when filmmakers are brave enough to put contemporary music in period pieces, like when Katja von Garnier put R&B and soul in Iron Jawed Angels, her film about the suffragettes, or when Sofia Coppola put a bunch of rock and pop in Marie Antoinette. And where most directors would have chosen folksy score for a film about a frontier brothel, Robert Altman instead used three spare and downcast songs by a brilliant young songwriter named Leonard Cohen, who had put out his second album a few years prior.

The most memorable of the three is Cohen's "The Stranger Song." It opens the film and introduces McCabe (played by Warren Beatty) as the newly arrived stranger to the small town of Presbyterian Church, Washington. Although the song has the sound of a ballad, it also subverts the form with new lyrical structures and a loose, modern feeling--the perfect choice for Altman, who was always natural but never traditional in his style.

Lyrically, "The Stranger Song" rivals the likes of Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower" in its capacity to fascinate, though it deals in intimacies rather than archetypes...complex relationships between individuals and the ways in which individuals are both open and mysterious to one another. It's a folded poker hand of a poem that hides as much as it reveals.

"But now another stranger seems
to want you to ignore his dreams
as though they were the burden of some other
O you've seen that man before
his golden arm dispatching cards
but now it's rusted from the elbows to the finger
And he wants to trade the game he plays for shelter
Yes he wants to trade the game he knows for shelter."

The other two Cohen tracks in McCabe are "Winter Lady" and "Sisters of Mercy," and all three are from the 1968 album, Songs of Leonard Cohen. Interestingly, Cohen himself apparently didn't care much for McCabe & Mrs. Miller at first, but ended up loving it upon repeat viewings.

Soundtrack of the Day: 13 Most Beautiful...Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests

A few months back I caught a live performance of new music by Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips (of Luna) set to thirteen of Andy Warhol's most mesmerizing Screen Tests, a series of black and white film portraits he shot between 1964 and 1966 using a stationary 16mm Bolex camera.

Warhol would film these two minute portraits whenever a visitor to the Factory seemed to him to have "star quality." He captured over 500 tests in two years, and this collection highlights thirteen of the most compelling and well known, most of which went almost entirely unseen until after Warhol's death in 1987. 

Many of Warhol's subjects had already attained a certain level of notoriety at the time of filming, but even his anonymous subjects are totally captivating on screen; watching them feels at once like a deeply intimate act and intensely aesthetic experience. Warhol would often light his subjects from one side, creating a Greek statue-like effect across their faces, creating them somewhere between individual and icon. For me the most compelling of these is the screen test of a man named Richard Rheem, whose expression stays relentlessly neutral for the entire duration, a feat against which the rest of the subjects' reactions must be compared and which makes you realize that when Warhol said "screen test," he meant it.

Warhol filmed the screen tests at 24 frames per second but slowed them down to 16 frames per second for playback, a quality that makes Dean & Britta's languorous music a particularly good match and  demonstrates the power of film to reveal character, for each subject's slowed down gestures and microexpressions seem to reveal his or her thoughts. Nico seems the most conscious of the camera's powers. She meets its gaze only fleetingly and is unable to refrain from moving through a model's catalog of poses, while Edie Sedgwick stares directly into the lens, displaying a fascinating mix of vulnerability and worldliness. Many of the subjects rely on little rituals and props to carry them through. Paul America chews gum. Lou Reed drinks a Coke. Jane Holzer brushes her teeth. Ingrid Superstar compulsively touches her nose. Only a few of us are able, it seems, to sit still for this kind of scrutiny.

The Andy Warhol Museum and Plexifilm recently released a DVD version of the films set to Dean & Britta's original songs (as well as a few covers). The title is borrowed from Warhol's original anthology of early screen tests, called "The Thirteen Most Beautiful Boys." The music is gorgeous and the DVD packaging is fancy-- slipcovered and hardbound. It's also available on iTunes.

Soundtrack of the Day: David Lynch's Dark Night of the Soul

A couple of years ago, I wrote at length about how David Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE was proof that his relationship to music was deepening rather profoundly, but even then I could not have imagined "Dark Night of the Soul," the darkly gorgeous album recently released in collaboration with musical visionary Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse) and Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse). 

The album was supposed to have been released with this book of photographs by Lynch, which would have served as a visual accompaniment to the music, but some typical label bullshit from EMI is holding up an official release. You can nevertheless hear the album in its entirety on the NPR site, right here, and it's been reverse engineered so that it's possible to download the individual MP3 files directly. (The album has also appeared on torrent, we hear).

My personal favorite is "Jaykub" featuring Jason Lytle, but I also love "Star Eyes" and the atmospheric title track, "Dark Night of the Soul" is a perfect little postcard from the edge...a wonderfully psych-surf sounding Vic Chesnutt and Burton's lilting loops. Other contributors include a dream team-like array of artists including the Flaming Lips, Frank Black, Nina Persson (of The Cardigans), and Iggy Pop, yet little traces of Lynch's signature sound design remain a constant throughout the album. The quietly manic radio waves in Mark Linkous' "Daddy's Gone," for instance, are exactly the kind of touch Lynch would use to add tension to a scene and "Insane Lullaby" brings to mind the dense and demonic "Walkin' on the Sky" from INLAND EMPIRE: thick, unhinged rhythms slathered atop James Mercer's tenor like so much cadmium on canvas. It's all further evidence of Lynch's continued influence on music, as well as how thoroughly he means to explore the relationship between image and sound. Highly recommended.

Other contributers to "Dark Night of the Soul" include Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Super Furry Animals, Susanne Vega, and Julian Casablancas of The Strokes.

Soundtrack of the Day: Jim Jarmusch's "The Limits of Control"

(video: Jarmusch discussing past collaborations w/ Neil Young and RZA)

I haven't had a chance to see Jarmusch's neo-noir The Limits of Control yet, but it's already ranking as one of the most interesting soundtracks this year, what with its "power ambient" sensibility. This time around Jarmusch is taking more of a licensed/various artists approach (click here for the full soundtrack listing on the Playlist blog), and his sense of adventure is still very much in tact. 

Jarmusch has said that when when he starts writing scripts he'll listen to music that "kick start" his imagination, and if that was true with Control, then it was tickled to life by some truly unlikely muses. How Japanese sludge rock trio Boris, a for instance, could have given rise to a film Betsy Sharkey described as a series of "sun-saturated French impressionist paintings" is of an un-small amount of interest. How could tracks by drone doom pioneers Earth have any business in a film with a globe trotting, cappuccino swilling protagonist who is, according to Roger Ebert, "handsome, exotic, cool, impenetrable, hip, mysterious, quiet, coiled, enigmatic, passive, stoic and hungry?" Maybe the music will just loom in dark irony or slide sideways into post-modern Bond-ness of it all.

In any case, I really like the idea of this guy ordering his foamy coffee beverages to the tune of "Omens and Portents." I mean, most directors would have chosen some generic Buddha Bar dross or unobtrusive Spanish guitar for this subject matter. I love that Jarmusch is gloriously unwilling to pad his images in such car commercial fare, and instead lights out for the territories. It may or may not all hang together, but in a year dominated by the schlocky backwash of the 2007 writers' strike, I would take even a failed experiment over a seamless rehash. And I'm not worried. With fellow seekers Christopher Doyle, Bill Murray, and Tilda Swinton involved, I am, in fact, not even going to bother to read the reviews before seeing it.

Five Days of Film-Music: Day Five, Remembering Sarah Marshall

 

Our special pre-Oscars retrospective continues...a dementedly detailed account of the music that populated the films of 2008. Today we'll tackle 38 through 48 on the list, where Forgetting Sarah Marshall Director Nicholas Stoller along with Music Supervisor Jonathan Karp showed humor and imagination by eschewing overplayed originals and instead using Hawaiian-language covers of well known break-up songs like "Nothing Compares 2 U," and "Everybody Hurts." They also get points for including traditional Hawaiian music (by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole and others), which helped to give the film a much deeper sense of place than most romantic comedies. Bonus points for using the neo-Tiki lounge stylings of a personal favorite of mine, Ursula 1000.

In this batch, I also like that the horror movie The Strangers played against type through soundtrack, favoring sweet, folksy tracks from the likes of Gillian Welsh and Joanna Newsom instead of the more predictable hard rock and/or metal sounds that dominates this genre.

38. The Happening, directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Score by James Newton Howard.

39. Role Models, directed by David Wain. Score by Craig Wedren. Other music staff listed here. Non-score tracks include "Beth" by Kiss (this is the song Paul Rudd sings to Elizabeth Banks at the end of the film), "Mr. Blue Sky" by Electric Light Orchestra (beach & games scene), "Detroit Rock City" by Kiss (battle scene), "Chedda" by Big City (party scene), "Best Believe" by Pete Rock (with Redman and L.D.) (second party scene track), "88" by Cool Kids, "Call Me the Breeze" by Lynard Skynard, "Broken and Bent" and "Ladislas of Leisure" by Peter Sallet, "Love Gun" by Kiss (first credits song), "Love Take Me Down (to the Streets)" by Amy Miles and Charles Gansa (second credits song). 

40 . Forgetting Sarah Marshall, directed by Nicholas Stoller. Score by Lyle Workman (Superbad, 40 Year Old Virgin). Music supervision by Jonathan Karp (Pineapple Express, Superbad). Non-score tracks include "Dracula's Lament" performed by Jonathan Segel, "You Can't Break a Heart and Have It" by Frank Black,  "Love You Madly" by Cake, "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" by The Smiths, "Inside of You" and "We've Got to Do Something" by Infant Sorrow, "Get Me Away from Here I'm Dying" by Belle & Sebastian, "Animal Instincts" by The Transcenders and JD7 D'Star, "Baby" by Os Mutantes, "Everybody Hurts" by R.E.M. and performed by the Coconutz, "These Boots are Made for Walkin'" by Lee Hazelwood and performed by Coconutz, "F******g Boyfriend" by The Bird and The Bee, "Jungle Love" performed by Morris Day and The Time, "Intensified" by Desmond Dekker and The Aces, "More Than Words" by Extreme and performed by Aloha Sex Juice, "The Secret Sun" by Jesse Harris and the Ferdinandos, "Nothing Compares 2 U," by Prince and performed by Sinead O'Connor, and another version of "Nothing Compares 2 U" performed by Coconutz with Daniel Ho (plays during credits). Still other tracks include "Agua de Beber" by Astrud Gilberto. "Aloha Ka Manini" and "Henehene Kou Aka" "Ka Huila Wai" and "'Ulili E" by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, "Amber" by 311, "Character" by Van Hunt, "Colour Me" by Dot Allison, "Heavy Lifting" by Ambulence Ltd., "Ka A'noi" by Martin Pahinui, "Mai Ha'l la Hai" by Brothers Cazimero, "My Little Grass Shack" by Hawaii Tattoo, "Non Fermati Mai" by Classe 1900, "Playa Azul" by Los Amigos Invisibles, "Samba 1000" by Ursula 1000, "Stone Love" by Pepper, "Treasure" by Zuco 103.

41. I am Legend, directed by Francis Lawrence.  Score by James Newton Howard (The Dark Night, Sixth Sense). No music supervisor listed. Non-score tracks included a handful of Bob Marley hits including  "Little Birds," "I Shot the Sherrif," "Stir it Up," and "Redemption Song." 

42. Baby Mama, directed by Michael McCullers. Score by Jeff Richmond (30 Rock, Mean Girls). Music supervision by Kathy Nelson (Pulp Fiction, Enemy of the State). Non-score tracks include "Mistletoe" by Colbie Caillat, "December" by Ed Roland performed by Collective Soul, "Stay Up Late" by Talking Heads, "Party Nights" by E Sloane, "Endless Love" by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie, "This Street" by Marshall Crenshaw, "Red, Red Wine" written by Neil Diamond / performed by UB40, "Hot Cookin'" by G Love, "She Bangs" performed by Ricky Martin, "Careless Whisper" by Wham!, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" performed by Cyndi Lauper, "Throne of Bone" by Rob Laufer, "Bad Reputation," by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, "Hey Ladies" by Beastie Boys, "Back Again," by Mr. Cheeks, "Welcome to My Party," by Shut Up Stella, "Get Busy" by Sean Paul, "The Lady in Red" by Chris De Burgh, "Starry Eyed Surprise" by Oakenfold, "100 Days, 100 Nights," by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, "Fingerprints" by Katy Perry, "Jump This Joint," by Tom Hall, "Jump This Joint" by Flattop Tom, "Be Gentle With Me" by The Boy Least Likely To, "Don't Speak," by Gwen Stefani, "Miles Behind Me," by Hotel Lights, "Family," by Zach Gill and Jack Johnson, "Be My Baby" by Phil Spector, Jeff Barry, and Ellie Greenwich / performed by The Ronettes. 

43. Burn After Reading, directed by Ethan Coen. Score by Carter Burwell (Fargo, Being John Malkovich). Other music staff listed here. Licensed tracks include "CIA Man" by The Fugs.

44. Saw V, directed by David Hackl. Score by Charlie Clouser (Resident Evil: Extinction).

45. The Strangers, directed by Bryan Bertino. Score by tomandandy (Arlington Road). Non-score tracks include "The Sprout and the Bean" by Joanna Newsom, "My First Lover" by Gillian Welch, "Mama Tried" by Merle Haggard, "At My Window Sad and Lonely" written by Woodie Guthrie performed by Billy Bragg, "Hopeful" by Jennifer O'Connor, "Ariel Ramirez" by Richard Buckner, and "At My Window Sad and Lonely (Jeff Tweedy Guitar Solo Version)" written by Woodie Guthrie performed by Billy Bragg. 

46. The Forbidden Kingdom, directed by Robert Minkoff. Score by Bill Brzeski (Ellen, As Good As It Gets).

Five Days of Film-Music: Day Four, Devil and a Blue Dress

Our special pre-Oscars retrospective continues...an unasked for and over-caffeinenated foray into the world of 2008 film-music. Today we'll tackle 28 through 37 on the list, where we travel into slightly more hipsterish territory but where Hellboy II nevertheless scored one of the most memorable film-music moments of the year with an old Barry Manilow hit. Still, an indie rock aesthetic is primarily what dominates here, despite the fact that half the "indie" bands are on big labels now, including MGMT, a couple of Conneticut fellas who broke out this year in part due to their song "Time to Pretend" having been used in the otherwise useless 21 (as well as Gossip Girl and the new 90210). But since that gorgeous, shiny little piece of pop has long since become overplayed, let's let it rest for the time being and click around on some of the other really good stuff here instead, especially Simple Kid, The Aliens (three members of Beta Band), Ratatat, and Joan as Police Woman.

28. Jumper, directed by Doug Liman. Music supervision by Julianne Jordan (The Italian Job, Swingers, Bigger Stronger Faster). Score by John Powell. Licensed tracks include "Ahead by a Century" by The Tragically Hip, "Look After You" by The Fray, "Blackened Blue Eyes" by The Charlatans UK, "Ladies and Gentlemen" by Saliva, "Tick Tick Boom" by The Hives, "Lay Down the Law" by Switches, Lil' King Kong by Simple Kid, "We Does That" by C.M.D., "Stompbox" by Qemists, "Sexy Boy" by Morning Musume, "Rabbit Hole" by Eastern Conference Champions, "Piu Forte Delle Bombe" by Colle Der Fomento, "Lucky Girl" by Black Summer Crush,

29. 21, directed by Robert Luketic. Score and music supervision by David Sardy. Licensed tracks include a remixed version of the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by Soulwax, "Alright" by Knivez Out, "Big Ideas" by LCD Soundsystem, a clean version of "Time to Pretend" by MGMT, "Young Folks" by Peter Bjorn and John, "Giant" by D. Sardy (composer) featuring Liela Moss, "Tropical Moonlight" by Domino, "L.S.F. (Lost Souls Forever)" by Mark Ronson featuring Kasabian, "Mad Pursuit" by Junkie XL featuring Electrocute, "Always" by Amon Tobin, "Sister Self Doubt" by Get Shakes, "I Am the Unknown" by The Aliens, "Hold my Hand" by Unkle, "Tender Buttons" by Broadcast, "Shut Up and Drive" by Rhianna, "Everybody Get Dangerous" by Weezer, and "Music is Happiness" by the Octopus Project.

30. What Happens in Vegas, directed by Tom Vaughan. Score by Christophe Beck (American Wedding, Bring it On). Music supervision by Deva Anderson (Charlie Wilson's War, My Big Fat Greek Wedding). "Grace Kelly" by Mika, "Jungle Rock" by Scott Schreer and Tamara Loeffler, "Steady" by Dukes of Daville, "Pink Flamingo" by Jo Part, "Can I Get Get" by Junior Senior, "Shake" by Ali Dee performed by DJ Melvin Paisley, "If You Love Me (TG Remix)' by the Buzz Junkies, "Freek U" by Bon Garcon, "You Sexy Thing" by Hot Chocolate, "We Are the Champions" by Queen, "Love" by Matt White, "Wanna New Drug" (written by Huey Lewis) performed by The Greenskeepers, "Hustle Man" by Tyrant the Don, "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" by Jet, "Hey Man (Now You're Really Living)" by The Eels, "One Love" by The Blockheads, "Get Down on It" by Kool and The Gang, "Tonight I Have to Leave It" by Shout Out Louds, "Put a Record On" by Unkle Bob, "I'm Not Over" by Carolina Liar, "Save The Best for Last" by Vanessa Williams, "I Hate You (My Friend)" by John Oszajca.

31. Cloverfield, directed by Matt Reeves.  Soundtrack includes "Pankhida" by Lekha Rathnakumar, "West Coast" by Coconut Records (actor Jason Schwartzman's band), "Taper Jean Girl" by Kings of Leon, "Beautiful Girls" by Sean Kingston, "Do I Have Your Attention?" by The Blood Arm, "Got Your Moments" by Scissors for Lefty, "Don't Make Me Wait" by Locksley, "Give Up The Funk" by Parliament, "19-2000" by Gorillaz, "The Underdog" by Spoon, "Pistol of Fire" by Kings of Leon, "Disco Lies" by Moby, "Do The Whirlwind" by Architecture in Helsinki, "Grown So Ugly" by The Black Keys, "Four Winds" by Bright Eyes, "The Ride" by Joan as Police Woman, "Seventeen Years" by Ratatat, "Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Mind Games" by Of Montreal, "Fuzz" by Mucc, "Sunday Ticket" by David Robidoux, "Going Up" and "Cleanup in Aisle 19" by Stephan M. Sechi. Finally the Cloverfield Overture by Michael Giacchino.

32. 27 Dresses, directed by Anne Fletcher. Score by Randy Edelman. Music supervision by Buck Damon (Garden State, Erin Brockovich). Licensed tracks include "Be Here Now" by Ray Lamontagne, "Happy Together" by The Turtles, "So Here We Are" by Bloc Party, "Valerie" by Mark Ronson featuring Amy WInehouse, "Call Me Irresponsible" by Michael Buble, "Laleh" by Elton Ahi, "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough" by Michael Jackson, "Sun/Rise/Light/Flight" by Kasabian, "The Cow" by Gene Loves Jezebel, "Cherry coloured funk" by Cocteau Twins, "Who Knows" by Natasha Bedingfield, "Paris Cafe" by Rick Rhodes and Danny Pelfrey, "Eastern Spirit" by Aaron Wheeler, "Unfair" by Josh Kelley, "Hips Don't Lie" performed by Wyclef Jean and Shakira, "Lady West" by Jamie Scott and The Town, "The Sky is Crying" performed by Albert King, "Freckle Song" by Chuck Prophet, "Anna" by Bad Company, "Bennie and the Jets" by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, "Under the Influence" by James Morrison, "Like a Star" by Corinne Bailey Rae, "Love Has Fallen on Me" by Chaka Kahn.

33. Hellboy II: The Golden Army, directed by Guillermo del Toro. Score by Danny Elfman. Music supervision by Kathy Nelson (Pulp Fiction, Gone in Sixty Seconds). Licensed tracks include "Noir" by Embers Deep, "Can't Smile Without You" by Barry Manilow, "All I Want to Do Is Rock" by Travis, and "Beautiful Freak" by The Eels.

34. Vantage Point, directed by Pete Travis. Score by Atli Orvarsson (Iron Man, NYPD Blue).

35. The Spiderwick Chronicles, directed by Mark Waters. Score by James Horner (Titanic, Braveheart, Troy).

36. Fool's Gold, directed by Andy Tennant. Score by George Fenton (Groundhog Day, Anna and the King). Music supervision by Julianne Jordan (The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith). Licensed tracks include "Let's Get Crackin'" by the DeeTown Allstars, "Love and Affection" by Majek Fashek, "Could You Be Loved" by Bob Marley and The Wailers, "You Can Get it If You Really Want It" performed by Desmond Dekker, "Tighten Up" by Lee Scratch Perry, "Call Me Thumper" by Classic, and "Truly Madly Deeply" by The Dualers.

37. Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour, directed by Bruce Hendricks. That's enough said about that.

Five Days of Film-Music: Day Three, The Red Headed Step-Blockbusters

Our special ramp-up to the Oscars continues...an ill advised and largely caffeine fueled attempt to document music that permeated the films of 2008*. Today we'll tackle 20 through 27 on the list, the segment I call the "Red Headed Step-Blockbusters," because somewhere around number 25, we dip below the $100M gross profit mark. Heaven forfend!

20. Eagle Eye, directed by D.J. Caruso. Score by Brian Tyler (Constantine, Alien vs. Predator)

21. Step Brothers, directed by Adam McKay. Some score work by Jon Brion (Synecdoche, New York, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). Music supervision by Hal Willner (Gangs of New York, Talledega Nights). Licensed tracks include "The Impression That I Get" by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "Ice, Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice, Queen, and David Bowie, "A-Punk" by Vampire Weekend, "You Make My Dreams Come True," by Hall & Oates, "Sweet Child of Mine" by Guns N' Roses, and "Por Ti Volare" by Andrea Bocelli.

22. You Don't Mess With the Zohan, directed by Andrew Adamson (Shrek 2, Chronicles of Narnia). Score by Rupert Gregson-Williams. Music supervision by Brooks Arthur (The Wedding Singer, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry). Licensed tracks include "The Beautiful LIfe" and "Hallo Hallo" by the Ace of Base, "Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Aaja" by Bappi Lahiri, "(Keep Feeling) Fascination" by Human League, "Somebody's Watching Me" by Rockwell, "Pump up the Jam" by Techtronic, "I Can't Wait" by Nu Shooz, "Strip" by Adam Ant, and "I Wanna Sex You Up" by Color Me Badd, and "Artillery" by Infected Mushroom/Swollen Members.

(Bit of trivia: "Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Aaja" is from a 1982 Bollywood movie called Disco Dancer. It was remixed by M.I.A. on her album 2007 album Kala. Disco Dancer was expecially known for its song "I Am a Disco Dancer," which in 1988 was possibly the inspiration for a song by Devo called "Disco Dancer.")

23. 10,000 B.C., directed by Roland Emmerich (The Day After Tomorrow, Independence Day). Score by Harald Kloser (The Day After Tomorrow, AVP: Alien versus Predator) and Thomas Wanker (The Day After Tomorrow, AVP: Alien versus Predator).

24. Beverly Hills Chihuahua, directed by Raja Gosnell (Scooby Doo, Never Been Kissed). Score by Heitor Pereira (Team America: World Police, Shrek 2, Dark Knight). Music supervision by Buck Damon (Garden State, Mean Girls, Erin Brockovich). Featured a couple of licensed tracks including "Rich Girl" written by Dr. Dre and Eve, performed by Gwen Stefani and  "Wow" by Kylie Minogue.

25. High School Musical 3: Senior Year: directed by Kenny Ortega. Composition/soundtrack by David Lawrence XVII (American Pie, American Pie 2, High School Musical). This soundtrack album sold 297,000 copies in the first week and debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200, losing the top to AC/DC's Black Ice. The album sold over 920,000 copies in the U.S. and 2,000,000 copies worldwide

26. Bolt, directed by Byron Howard and Chris Williams. Score by John Powell (Shrek, Happy Feet). There were a couple of non-score tracks too: "Barking at the Moon" by Jenny Lewis and "I Thought I Lost You" by Miley Cyrus.

27. Four Christmases, directed by Seth Gordon (The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters). Score by Alex Wurman (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, March of the Penguins). Music supervision by Bob Bowman (Magnolia, Wedding Crashers). Licensed tracks include "Baby It's Cold Outside" by Dean Martin and Martina McBride, (There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays by Perry Como, "Christmas All Over Again" by Tom Petty and "O Little Town of Bethlehem" by Sarah MacLachlin, among several others. 

27. The Pineapple Express, directed by David Gordon Green (All The Real Girls, Snow Angels). Score by Graeme Revell (Sin City, Daredevil). Music supervision by Jonathan Karp (Superbad, Knocked Up).  Licensed tracks include "Paper Planes" by M.I.A. (trailer), "Electric Avenue" by Eddy Grant, "Bird's Lament" by Moondog and the London Saxophonic, "Shaggy Dog" by Danny and the Velaires, "Pineapple Express" by Huey Lewis and the News, Grace Jones' cover of "Ring of Fire" by June Carter Cash, "Dr. Greenthumb" by Cypress Hill, "Lost at Birth" by Public Enemy, "Wanted Dread or Alive" by Peter Tosh, "Don't Look Around" by Mountain, "Coconut Girl" by Brother Nolan, "Hilawe" by Arthur Lyman, "Tha Crossroads" by Bone Thugs 'n' Harmony," "I Didn't Mean to Hurt You" by Spiritualized, "Woke Up Laughing" by Robert Palmer, "The Fixer" by Humble Pie, "Love is Blue" by Claudine Longet, "Time Will Tell" by Bob Marley and the Wailers, and "I Know I Got Skillz" by Shaquille O'Neal. 

*Note: our ordering is based on the-numbers.com's box office gross results for 2008. While their list includes any film that made money in 2008, we skip over those that were released in 2007.

Five Days of Film-Music: Day Two, The Other Blockbusters

Our special ramp-up to the Oscars continues...a long and totally unsolicited backward glance at the music that permeated the films of 2008. Today we'll tackle 11 through 19 on the list.

(Note: our ordering is based on the-numbers.com's box office gross results for 2008, but we're skipping over any movies that were actually released in 2007, such as Juno.)

One of the real soundtrack standouts in this group is Tropic Thunder. Ben Stiller is fantastically unafraid to turn up the volume on the music in his films and he rightly picks exactly the kind of turgid gas guzzlers that underwrite his broad sense of parody. Dropping Enigma's "Sadeness" during the fake trailer for Satan's Alley, for instance, had to be the funniest film-music moment of the year. The wonderful George Drakoulias did music supervision on this one too, which never hurts.

The other standout in today's list is Twilight, a project that managed to snag Alexandra Patsavas (The O.C., Chuck) to do music supervision. Patsavas has an ear for passionate, angsty music that really speaks to the preoccupations of youth, so she was a great catch for Director Catherine Hardwicke. However you feel about the whole Twilight phenomenenon, a Patsavas soundtrack is always worth a listen.

11. Twilight, directed by Catherine Hardwicke. Music supervision by the talented Alexandra Patsavas (The O.C., Chuck). Used some score by Carter Burwell, but also a multi-artist soundtrack including "Supermassive Black Hole" by Muse and "Leave Out All The Rest" Linkin Park, both bands that the author Stephenie Meyer says she listened to while writing the books. It was Patsavas though who brought in the real highlights of the soundtrack with "Full Moon" by Black Ghosts,  and "Flightless Bird, American Mouth" by Iron and Wine. Other tracks include "Let Me Sign" by Robert Pattinson, "15 Step" by Radiohead, "Spotlight (Twilight Mix)" by Mutemath, "Decode" and "I Caught Myself" by Paramore, "Go All The Way (Into the Twilight)" by Perry Ferrell, "Tremble for my Beloved" by Collective Soul, "Eyes on Fire" by Blue Foundation, "Bella's Lullaby" by Carter Burwell, "La Traviata" by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and "Claire de Lune" by Claude Debussy.

12. Mamma Mia!, directed by Phyllida Lloyd. Score by ABBA's Benny Andersson and music book by Catherine Johnson. A fully non-score soundtrack if ever there was one, Mamma Mia! features the music of pop band ABBA, as sung by an ebullient Meryl Streep, who looked like she was having the time of her life making this film.

13. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, directed by Andrew Adamson. Used primarily score by Harry Gregson-Williams, but also a few non-score tracks like "The Call," sung by Regina Spektor, "A Dance Round the Memory Tree" by Oren Lavie, "This is Home" by Switchfoot, and "Lucy" by Hanne Hukkelberg.

14. The Incredible Hulk, directed by Louis Leterrier. Music supervision by Dave Jordan. Used score by Craig Armstrong  and non-score tracks including: "Over Under Around and Through," by Joe Raposo,"Danto" by French pop band Kaoma, and the ultra-high energy "Soundtrack" by Balkan hip hopper Frenkie. 

15. Wanted, directed by Timur Bekmambetov. Music supervison by Kathy Nelson. Score by Danny Elfman, but also featured licensed tracks including "Every Day is Exactly the Same" by Nine Inch Nails and  "Time to Say Goodbye" by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman.

16. Get Smart, directed by Peter Segal. Used primarily score by Trevor Rabin, plus a few licensed tracks like "Take a Chance on Me" by ABBA, "Ain't No Other Man" by Christine Aguilera, Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" from Dead Poet's Society), "Anna (El Negro Zumbon)" by Les Brown and the Band of Renown, and "Hey Come Over" by Ella Rouge.

17. Tropic Thunder, directed by Ben Stiller. Music Supervisor George Drakoulias. Used some score by Theordore Shapiro (The Devil Wears Prada, Blades of Glory), but primarily featured a multi-artist soundtrack including "Sadeness" by Enigma, "Name of the Game" by the Crystal Method, "Run Through the Jungle" by Creedance Clearwater Revival, "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield, "Sympathy for the Devil" by the Rolling Stones, "The Pusher" by Steppenwolfe, "Frankenstein" by Edgar Winter, "Ball of Confusion" by The Temptations, "War" by Edwin Starr, "Get Back" by Ludacris, "Cum on Feel the Noize" by Quiet Riot, and "Low" by T-Pain. And let's not forget hip hop parody "I Love That Pu**y" by Brandon T. Jackson (as Alpa Chino).

18. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, directed by Rob Cohen. Used score by Randy Edelman.

19. Journey to the Center of the Earth, directed by Eric Brevig. Used score by Andrew Lockington.

Five Days of Film-Music: Day One, The Blockbusters

 

As a special, extra-OCD ramp-up to the Oscars, Boombox Serenade will spend the next five days looking back at the music that filled the films of 2008, kicking things off today with the top ten grossing films of the year. These juggernauts tend to favor score (especially those by Hans Zimmer and John Powell) but still harbor some memorable non-score moments, most notably Pixar's WALL-E, which aptly and artfully reappropriated music from another film, the screen adaptation of Hello Dolly! 

Another truly memorable film-music moment this year took place in Quantum of Solace, which early in the film featured a stylized opera house sequence set to "Tre Sbirri, Una Carrozza" from Puccini's Tosca (also used prominently in Gus Van Sant's Milk this year). This scene hinged on a real production that took place at the Bregenz Festival in Austria and it benefited hugely from the authenticity of this choice as well as the enormous blue eye that served as the set's centerpiece. It was, of course, a reference to the source of Tosca's insane jealousy, but also a handy allusion to Daniel Craig's piercing gaze and Bond's single-mindedness in this chapter. 

In terms of soundtracks as a whole, one of the most informed releases this year was Hancock due, no doubt, to the presence of rock star Music Supervisor George Drakoulias, who always finds room for interesting artists like Louisville avant-chamber trio Rachel's, reggae gem Doctor Alimantado, and underground party rapper The 45 King. Certain trends did, understandably, prove too powerful to resist of course. No one including Team Berg/Drakoulias seemed able to turn down "Paper Planes" by M.I.A. in their films this year, making her 2008's undisputed homecoming queen of non-score film music. 

Last but certainly not least, of the strongest overall soundtracks this year was the multi-artist Sex and the City release. Whether you embrace the values espoused by this franchise or not, the music was an unapologetic exploration of those values and lived up to its ethos of a fun yet sophisticated take on girl-power. Tracks like the dreamy and glamorous "Click Flash" by Ciara perfectly embody the flirty, cosmopolitan image of Sex, as does a lighter-than-air number called "Kissing" by Bliss, and a champagne bubble of a song called "Look at You Now" by Katie Herzig. The soundtrack isn't all MAC and Manolos though. An achingly soulful cover of Don Henley's "Heart of the Matter" by India Arie gets at one of the supposed underlying themes of the movie, as does the exquisitely dejected "Fool's Gold" by Amy Winehouse. This soundtrack debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, the highest debut for a multi-artist film soundtrack since 2005's Get Rich or Die Tryin'.

And now, the top ten grossing films of 2008:

1. Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan. Music supervision by Hothouse Music. Used mostly score by Hans Zimmer, but also featured two tracks by an innovative Tokyo electronica duo called Boom Boom Satellites: "Scatterin' Monkey" and "4 A Moment of Silence." For the big funeral scene, it also featured a traditional Scottish ballad called "Balmoral," played by The Pipes and Drums of the Chicago Police Department. Hear a version of "Balmoral" here.

2. Iron Man, directed by Jon Favreau. Music supervision by Dave Jordan. Used mostly score by Ramin Djawadi (Blade: Trinity), but also featured a number of non-score tracks including: "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath (trailer), "Back in Black" by AC/DC, "Damn Kid" by DJ Boborobo, "Institutionalized" by Suicidal Tendencies, and "Slept on Tony with Dirt" by Ghostface Killah.

3. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, directed by Steven Spielberg. Used mostly score by John Williams, but also featured tracks like "Hound Dog" by Elvis Presley, "Wake Up Little Susie" by the Everly Brothers, "Little Bitty Pretty One" by Thurston Harris, and "Shake Rattle and Roll" by Bill Haley and the Comets. (For further thoughts on how music was used in this film, read this post.)

4. Hancock, directed by Peter Berg. Music supervison by George Drakoulias. Used a combination of score by John Powell (Shrek, Happy Feet) and licensed tracks including: "Whammer Jammer" by J. Geils Band, "The 900 #" by 45 King, "Move Bitch" by Ludacris (and later another version by DJ No Name), "Tippi Toes" by The Meters, "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights" by Freddy Fender, "Water From the Same Source" by avant-chamber trio Rachel's, "Best Dressed Chicken in Town" by Doctor Alimantado, "Colors" by Ice-T, "Paper Planes" by M.I.A., "Two" by Ryan Adams, and "Llego Cachaito" by Roberta Fonseca.

5. WALL-E, directed by Andrew Stanton. Music supervison by Tom MacDougall. Used mostly score by Thomas Newman, but also featured licensed tracks including "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" and "It Only Takes a Moment" (both from the Hello Dolly! soundtrack), "La Vie En Rose" as performed by Louie Armstrong, "Down to Earth" by Peter Gabriel, and "Also Sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss. 

6. Kung-Fu Panda, directed by Mark Osborne and John Stevenson. Used primarily score by Hans Zimmer and John Powell, plus the licensed track "Kung Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas, plus a reprise of it for the credits, this time a cover by Cee Lo and Jack Black.

7. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, directed by Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath. Used primarily score by Hans Zimmer, plus the very Academy friendly original non-score track "The Traveling Song" by will.i.am plus "More Than a Feeling" by Boston and "Copacobana (At The Copa)" by Barry Manilow.

8. Quantum of Solace, directed by Mark Forster. Used primarily score by David Arnold (Venus, Casino Royale), plus the opening credits showpiece, "Another Way to Die" by the White Stripes. This film also had an interesting sequence set to the Puccini's Tosca (an opera that was also featured in Gus Van Sant's Milk this year). This particular production apparently took place during the Bregenz Festival in Austria and the giant eye is Tosca herself (played by Nadja Michael). The section heard most prominently is "Tre Sbirri, Una Carrozza" from the end of the first act.

9. Horton Hears a Who, directed by Jimmy Hayward. Used primarily score by John Powell, plus the REO Speedwagon tune "Can't Fight This Feeling," performed by the characters in the movie.

10. Sex and the City, written and directed by Michael Patrick King. Soundtrack produced by Salaam Remi, who took an "inspired by" approach with "Labels or Love" by Fergie serving as the theme music and "All Dressed Up in Love" by Jennifer Hudson for the closing credits. Other soundtrack highlights include hyper stylized "New York Girls" by Morningwood, a gorgeous and heartfelt cover of Don Henley's "The Heart of the Matter" by India Arie, the floatingly lovely "Kissing" by an "international chill out music pop collective" called Bliss. A second volume of tracks released in September had some good stuff too, especially the dreamy and glamorous "Click Flash" by Ciara, the carbonated sounding "Look at You Now" by Katie Herzig, bluesy and downcast "Fool's Gold" by Amy Winehouse, and the slow dance sweetheart "You Look So Good Tonight," by Owen Brady.

Note for Note: Gus Van Sant's Musical Sense of Cinema

In Milk there's a moment so subtle that it could easily be missed if you're not paying close attention. It features a nighttime shot of the Eureka Valley (as it was then called) and during this shot the score dwindles down to six distinct notes, intoned very softly on piano. If you watch carefully, you can see off in the distance, as each note sounds, a different letter on the sign of the Castro Theater is lighting up, one by one:

C, A, S, T, R, O.

That sign is, to me, the ultimate symbol of San Francisco, so Van Sant may as well have been plucking each one of my heart strings when he did this. He did so again many times throughout Milk, but most memorably at the end when Sean Penn is speaking some of Harvey Milk's most well known words:

"I know that you cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living. And you... and you... and you... Gotta give em hope."

For a fleeting second, just as that last "and you" is uttered, Van Sant abruptly repeats a tiny snippet of film we've just seen, like a skip in a record. The reprised footage is of San Francisco's City Hall, where Milk was assassinated by his colleague, Dan White. I think that by introducing this deliberate flaw at precisely this moment, Van Sant is breaking the fourth wall and applying that final "and you" to the viewer. It took me out of the film and made me feel the personal implications of Harvey Milk's message in a way that I hadn't before.

As meaningful as such moments are, I mention them also as examples of Van Sant's subtly brilliant arrangements of image and sound. The music in Milk (mostly comprised of the Danny Elfman score) is more conventional than most Van Sant soundtracks and yet he treats certain moments in his film almost as if they were, themselves, phrases in a score. Images can attain rhythm from individual notes and/or words in his work--a level of detail with which most filmmakers never bother. It's one of the reasons why even a biopic by Van Sant is more artful than the most wildly estoteric attempts of other directors.

When I got home, Mike Huckabee was on The Daily Show talking about Proposition 8 and why institution of marriage should not include same sex couples. I'm sure Huckabee doesn't understand how directly his views are connected to the kind of violence that ended Harvey Milk's life, and yet I'm equally sure that Milk wouldn't have wasted too much time wringing his hands over such a man and his ilk:

"I have tasted freedom. I will not give up that which I have tasted. I have a lot more to drink. For that reason, the political numbers game will be played. I know the rules of their game now and how to play it."

More than thirty years later, Milks' statement is still sharply relevant. For some further insight on this, read Rob Epstein's Huffington Post piece, What Harvey Milk Tells Us About Proposition 8 and if you haven't seen Milk yet, run don't walk. 

Soundtrack of the Day: The Wickedly Subversive Music of Danny Boyles' "Shallow Grave"

Warning!  Here be spoilers!

It's Throwback Thursday here at Boombox Serenade, and I'm still on a Danny Boyle kick, so today I'm unearthing his first-ever feature, Shallow Grave. The film debuted in 1994 at the Cannes Film Festival where three extra screenings had to be added to meet viewer demand.

Anyway, seeing this film again confirms my suspicion that Boyle loves him some montage. There's a particularly great one in Shallow Grave just after three Edinburgh flatmates discover their new roommate dead in his room with a suitcase full of money.  They're remarkably unphased by this and in the ensuing montage—set to Nina Simone's rendition of "My Baby Just Cares for Me"—Boyle shows just how merrily life continues to roll along for them despite the corpse in the spare room.

Liz Taylor is not his style
And even Lana Turners' smile
Is somethin' he can't see
My baby don't care who knows it
My baby just cares for me

The song is all warmth and lilt, and in the beginning, it seems the montage will be perfectly aligned with that tone. The flat is shown looking neat as a pin. The mail continues to arrive on time. Then, Boyle cuts to a medium closeup of the suitcase full of money gleaming conspicuously on the kitchen table and then to a closeup of the dead guy, looking ever more sunken among some red satin sheets. The montage ushers us from the realm of normalcy to that of creeping anxiety about what's happened and because "My Baby Just Cares for Me" is a congenial, mid-tempo jazz tune of the exact sort you'd hear at Starbucks, it becomes an increasingly subversive choice as the sequence continues.

It's a style Boyle reprises in the film's big finish, in which Alex (played by Ewan McGregor) is pinned to the floor by a knife to the shoulder as Andy Williams belts out his exuberant 1968 single, "Happy Heart."

It's my happy heart you hear
Singing loud and singing clear
And it's all because you're near me, my love

So hooray for Danny Boyle and his sophisticated ways with music. I think Slumdog Millionaire is great of course, but I hope he digs up his dark side again soon.  

Soundtrack of the Day: Slumdog Millionaire

"I never brag about anything, except the music in my films. I love the music in the films. I’m so proud of it. It means so much to me." Danny Boyle [Trainspotting, Sunshine, 28 Days Later]

David Gordon Green and Seth Rogan may have sold a bunch of records for M.I.A. this summer when they put her "Paper Planes" in the trailer for Pineapple Express, but it was Danny Boyle who lived up to the song artistically with Slumdog Millionaire—a big, vibrant story about two brothers from the Dharavi slums of Mumbai.

At one point in the film, the newly orphaned boys find themselves living as stowaways on a passenger train, and in the montage Boyle creates to describe this part of their lives, "Paper Planes" sounds so good, so resonant that it's hard to imagine any other music for this sequence. It's playful with a gritty, desperate edge, and when Boyle shows the two brothers sitting atop a moving train car, their heads dipping down with exhaustion, Ms. Maya Arulpragasam is singing the song only for them.

Sometimes I think sitting on trains
Every stop I get to I'm clocking that game
Everyone's a winner now we're making that fame
Bonafide hustler making my name

Boyle specifically asked M.I.A. for “Paper Planes”, but when she heard that Bollywood composer A.R. Rahman was attached to the film she ended up collaborating with him as well. Together they wrote “O… Saya," the music that plays during a crucial chase scene in the beginning of the film.

“She’s a real powerhouse," Rahman said of M.I.A. "Somebody played me her CD and I thought, ‘Who is this girl? She came here and knew all my work, had followed my work for ages. I said, ‘Cut the crap, this “my idol” crap. You have to teach me.’”

The "O...Saya" track, along with the rest of the score, has been released on M.I.A.'s new Interscope imprint N.E.E.T, and is available on iTunes.

Midnight Snack: Another Taste of the True Blood Soundtrack

A few days ago I wrote about the True Blood soundtrack, but failed to mention the great theme song, "Bad Things" by Jace Everett, a Hoosier by birth and Texan by nature (he moved there with his family at the age of six and describes himself as a "born-again Texan.") He's not foolin'. You can hear a lot of the Lone Star state in his work; Everett has a big, cavernous voice and lists encouraging influences like Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and gospel music. His music is a little rowdier and earthier than these though, as well as the artist to which he is probably most often compared--Chris Isaak. Everett manages to be kinda swaggery and sincere at the same time, so he's a perfect fit for our favorite seriocomedy about the bloodsucking bedfellows of Bon Temps.

When you came in, the air went out.
And every shadow filled up with doubt.
I don't know who you think you are,
But before the night is through,
I wanna do bad things with you.

"Bad Things" by Jace Everett is available on iTunes and Amazon, and I just found this excellent guide to True Blood contains every known piece of music used in the series.

The editing on the opening credits is, of course, brilliant. I'm sure many others have gone on and on about that, so I won't, except to say that it contains all the sinning of a Saturday in Louisiana, and all the saving of a Sunday morning too. These credits are also a testament to how powerful visual sequences can be when they're edited specifically to fit the music, something I wish happened a lot more than it does.

What I will go on and on about is True Blood's soundtrack most interesting soundtrack quirk: the vampires' taste for far-flung world music, which gives Alan Ball's team license to create all sorts of deliciously unpredictable moments, like the perfect affinity they found between the saturated sound of Tuvan throat singing and a hot summer night in Louisiana. It makes sense that the longer you were around, the more rarefied your tastes would become, so I think this is a detail about the vampires' nature that rings true. In tonight's episode, "The Fourth Man in the Fire, " Bill Compton walks into his bathroom to find the vampire Eric Northman in his bathtub listening to some incredibly strange Swedish folk music...a reminder of home, he explains. 

On another TB topic, how excited are we that the wonderful Stephen Root has joined the show? He wants to do bad things with Lafayette.

Rachel Getting Married

Having just gotten married myself, I was wondering how Rachel Getting Married would strike me, and it packed quite a wallop. Standout performances include Anne Hathaway, who plays a difficult, often unlikeable person with fierceness and fearlessness, and the beaming Bill Irwin, who bursts off the screen with fatherly love and concern and made me love my own father all the more, in fact, for being so recognizable in his unvarnished devotion. Debra Winger's performance too...just...wow. She manages to be secretly icy and a million miles away, even as she offers up all the outward signifiers of maternal warmth. As an actress, it's a trick she seems to pull off effortlessly.

The music in this film is like an English garden: abundant, and not so much about individual sights and sounds as it is the ecstasy of profusion. Music is an overflowing presence in the lives of these characters, and a balm to the still-open wounds of a family haunted by old tragedy.

Embodying this sweetness of music is Tunde Adebimpe (of the band TV on the Radio), who plays the groom. He doesn't have many lines yet he projects a benevolence and a certain abiding quality that is almost antagonistically nice, in fact: it works on the pain of his still-grieving in-laws despite their desire to dig in their heels and remain clenched in grief. But weddings, like funerals, rearrange peoples' relationships to one another and Adebimpe's sweetness (and that of his family) is a transformative force in the film; it helps to change—credibly—the entire event from something catastrophic into something wonderful. True to life, his character is a musician.

Despite the fact that the soundtrack isn't really about specific music moments, I do want to give a shout out to reggae artist Sister Carol's moment in this film, because it's fantastic. One of many performers at the wedding reception (including Robyn Hitchcock!), she's no typical wedding singer: she has stage presence to burn, and exactly the kind of grounded, dignified presence that the film's pivotal characters most desperately need in their lives (and one most strongly represented in the film by Anna Deveare Smith's character). Demme cuts in and out of Sister Carol's performance abruptly, as he does many others in the film, as if he was just the wedding videographer.

Perhaps Demme's most brilliant musical strategy, however, is the ever-present, ever-rehearsing acoustic ensemble in this film. They serve as the Greek chorus of Rachel Getting Married, and their tentative rehearsal of the Wedding March is the very first thing you hear in this film. The melody, in fact, is still very much in mind when a short while later Kym (played by Hathaway) walks into her long-deceased brother's bedroom and the ensemble, still practicing in the living room downstairs, shifts to an uncharacteristically eerie piece. The effect is layered and points out that our most potent sorrows are mysteriously connected to our greatest joys, each informing the other as mutually pivotal, heightened experiences.

Another great film-music moment comes later, when beyond-tense Kym suddenly snaps "Are they going to play all weekend?!" At this point the ensemble is politely asked by the mother of the bride (played by Anna Deveare Smith) to "give it a rest."

Of the people Demme thanks in the credits, I do believe that Robert Altman would have most appreciated the subtle genius and self-parody of Demme's approach. Rachel Getting Married owes a lot to Altman's A Wedding, in fact, including brilliant diagetic music, sophisticated portrayals of race, and a kind of intense individuality that is allowed to shine forth from each and every character in the entire ensemble. Really nice work.

Jesus Is Calling: The Delicious Draw of the True Blood Soundtrack

HBO's new series, True Blood, shows a lot of promise so far, and not just because of the white-hot chemistry between Anna Paquin and her vampire boyfriend, played by Stephen Moyer. For one thing, the soundtrack is absolutely fantastic thanks to music supervisor Gary Calamar (Dexter, Varsity Blues, Brothers and Sisters). Nathan Barr, too, deserves a lot of credit for his moody score work on cello; it's somber and strong and heavy, like the old black walnut tree at the end of the road.

(Ok, so there's no old black walnut tree at the end of the road, but it's nice imagery, right?)

This baleful score also serves as the perfect counterpoint to numerous licensed tracks, which favor a wickedly playful strain of Southern rock but also frequently draw from a rich tradition of Southern female vocalists along the lines of Cat Power, Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams as well as Christian hymns.

The result is a hugely dimensional soundtrack, one that reflects both the rich cultural heritage and the complex present of the region and also helps to make the show so evocative and real.The last episode, "Cold Ground," contained a particularly graceful chain of selections, beginning with the strains of the Dixie Chicks' gorgeous "Lullaby" spilling out over a wrap-around porch at night, where it linked seamlessly in the next scene to an acapella rendition of "Softly and Tenderly, Jesus is Calling," during a funeral.

It's shortly after that one of the series' most beautiful music moments comes: the show's main character, Sookie (played by Paquin) is sitting alone at the kitchen table, carefully eating her grandmother's last pecan pie, and as she does, she begins to cry for the first time over her grandmother's death, after days of shock and numbness. In the ballad that plays while she does this, the Irish roots of bluegrass music are unmistakable.

In the sweet light of the valley
When the sun falls on the vine
I shall lay down all of my troubles
I'll lay down this heart of mine

Sookie doesn't stop seeking comfort there though. In the next scene she literally runs into the arms of the vampire to whom she's been drawn for months, and it's such a credible pay-off to a long, and relatively chaste courtship between the two of them, one that would have culminated in sex anyway, but which practically explodes with passion for Sookie's want of reassurance in that moment--a relief from grief that easily overtakes her fear and virginity both.

It's a scene that precisely captures the relationship between death and sex, and no finer music could have been chosen than "Half of You" by Cat Power, a song containing all the languid sensuality of Louisiana itself. You can practically smell the Jack Daniels on Chan Marshall's breath as she sings it, and it's though it represents the near-oblivion she nearly achieved a couple years back, it is the sound of the desire for absence of self, so it's perfect. 

Way to be truly dark True Blood. We're hooked.

---

Ed. note: Intrepid reader John W. did some research and found the following info about the pecan pie song:

...it was composed for the show, by Nathan Barr and Lisbeth Scott (who seem to have worked together on a few films in the past). And the single is available as an mp3 download for a dollar on CD Baby, which is splendid: http://cdbaby.com/cd/lisbethscott7

There's also, apparently, an acoustic version on Kosmic music, but the site is a terrifying clutter of new age nonsense that doesn't accept Paypal or Google. So I gave up on that.

I'm really stunned by the job they did with the song. I'd easily believe it was decades old. And thank goodness, a new episode tonight!

Thanks so much John!

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: The Pathos-Laden Eggs of "Mister Lonely"

Fittingly, it was during a weekend of solitude that I watched Harmony Korine's Mister Lonely. Camping wasn't in the cards due to weather and my man-friend was rapidly entering the psychotically grouchy state that accompanies his periodic attempts to quit smoking, so I volunteered to take over a house/dog sitting gig a friend had started way back on the 11th of May. She was homesick, and I was sick of home, so it worked out well. Last night found me on a kidney bean colored couch somewhere in the Inner Sunset, one mutt curled into the crook of my legs, one into the "C" of my chest, and a flag-sized flat screen in front of me.

I've always said that I wish I could un-see Kids, not because it wasn't brilliant (it was), but because it was so graphic that it left stains on my soul. Right from the noisy make-out session at the beginning, it felt like that film was leaving a trail of slime on me that would never fully wash away, and I was right--it hasn't--so I've studiously been avoiding Gummo and Julien, Donkey Boy for many-a-year. Sure, it's significant that Korine wrote a film that has stayed with me so powerfully for so long, but still, I never would have watched Mister Lonely if I'd known it was his work. There are some people I just don't want to let into my psyche, and he's one of 'em.

Or so I thought. What I've learned in the interim is that Harmony Korine is still capable of creating indelible scenes, but his gifts have matured since his early work, resulting in more delicately shaded stories. He's still interested in tragic worldliness, but he perceives the lightness in things now too. Mister Lonely is downright ethereal at times, in fact. It floats and flutters like the skydiving nuns of the inscrutable sub-plot (a metaphor for filmmaking?). Korine's visual acuity has only grown sharper over the years too. Mister Lonely is full of canary yellows, cornflower blues, fire engine reds. And while the impersonator theme is partly a referendum on our celebrity obsessed culture, it's also an exploration of what makes an icon iconic, so you get all these beautifully impossible snapshots throughout the film: Little Red Riding Hood playing chess with Abraham Lincoln, The Queen of England in bed with the Pope...Michael Jackson in a motor boat with Marilyn Monroe.

In Mister Lonely there's some quirky score work by Sun City Girls and J. Spaceman of Spiritualized, but the film's most memorable music moments come from a boldly textured various artists soundtrack crafted with help from music supervisor, Liz Gallacher (Disco Pigs, Snow Cake, 24 Hour Party People). The opening sequence is pure genius, and shows how the past several years of directing music videos mean that Korine now approaches soundtrack more fearlessly than ever. It features the Michael Jackson impersonator riding a miniature motorcycle in slow motion to Bobby Vinton's 1964 hit "Mister Lonely." Vinton's voice has that lilting, unintentionally androgynous sound of the early sixties. It was the last American recorded song to go to number one before the Beatles captured the charts, and it perfectly sets up the untenable fairy tale of this film--an innocence so innocent that it could never have been real, it's the bubble that these celebrity impersonators are trying desperately to preserve and just as desperately, to escape.

As poetic as that sequence is though, it doesn't hold a candle to the final bookend of the film, the heart breaking and gorgeous "My Life," sung by the incredible Iris Dement.

My life, it don't count for nothing.
When I look at this world, I feel so small.
My life, it's only a season:
A passing September that no one will recall.

The song is played during a slow, panning shot of the egg portraits Michael has done of his fellow celebrity impersonators. Yes, that's right. I said egg portraits, as in the portraits of them he's painted on eggs. The scene is both powerful and more than a little silly, but somehow absolutely brimming with pathos. The fragility of the eggs, of identity, it just all comes together in this one shot, and it shows off yet another of Korine's gifts: his ability to examine the glories and imperfections of humanity both, and still walk away clutching something lovely...protecting it even.

But I gave joy to my mother.
And I made my lover smile.
And I can give comfort to my friends when they're hurting.
And I can make it seem better for a while.

It was a happy mistake to have watched Mister Lonely last night. Harmony Korine is just as unconventional as ever, but he's outgrown the gratuitous confrontationalism of youth, and if Mister Lonely is any indication, is heading into some seriously rich territory. I look forward to future work.

Soundtrack of the Day: Paper Moon

Well, it's Throwback Thursday here at Boombox Serenade, and today it's all about Paper Moon, Peter Bogdanovich's beloved 1973 adaptation of Joe David Brown's novel Addie Pray, a story set in Depression-era Midwest about a small time con artist who one day discovers he has a daughter.

Before the advent of cable, Paper Moon used to be one of those "evergreen" films that the networks would show once a year, and though that practice has seemingly gone the way of the dodo, the film itself is standing the test of time beautifully with the help of an absolutely golden soundtrack, a hand-picked assortment of top-notch mid-1930's cheerfulness. If you should ever see a vinyl copy of it anywhere, snag that sucker because it's rare and valuable.

For most people, the film's most memorable music moment is probably when Addie Pray (played by Tatum O'Neal) sings "Sunnyside Up" to her fool of a father played by her real life dad, Ryan O'Neal. For me, however, it's really all about the Enric Madriguera version of the Irving Berlin song, "Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee, Let's Have Another Slice of Pie," a little number so rosy and at ease with itself that it seemed to make me permanently seven percent happier, just for having heard it. There's nothing special about how it's introduced in the film. Like all of the other music, it's played as simple source music, but it still somehow inspired me to imagine the 1930's more vividly than I ever had. Upon hearing it in Paper Moon, I suddenly pictured myself sitting at one of those chrome lined kitchen tables, sipping coffee from a lemon yellow Fiestaware cup, chatting with my neighbor, Madge. A crumble-top apple pie sat cooling on the windowsill.

Bogdanovich even reprises Coffe/Pie later in Paper Moon, which makes me think that this particular track was special for him too. The whole soundtrack is upbeat and fetching, but there's something particularly poignant about this song, which was originally written for a scene in the Irving Berlin musical, Face The Music. That scene is set in a self-service restaurant modeled on the Horn and Hardart Automat, and is sung by a group of once-wealthy citizens who are now awaiting better times:

"Just around the corner, there's a rainbow in the sky, So let's have another cup of coffee, and let's have another piece of pie."

In Paper Moon, this song and all the other music in the film is played diagetically, coming the omnipresent radios throughout, which makes for a really nice counterpoint to all the stark, dustbowl-ish visuals. I don't think I'd ever considered the music of that era in relation to its economic hardships, but it makes perfect sense that no one would want to listen to depressing music during financially harsh times. Maybe that's another reason why this soundtrack is popping for me so completely right now. All the news about the current recession has me spooked like everyone else, and like everyone else, I want to believe that the coming election will have a positive effect on the situation. In the meantime, another cup of coffee and another slice of pie sounds just right.

Unfortunately, the soundtrack isn't available digitally just yet, but Amazon announced last week that it's going to make "long tail music" available soon (meaning music that's currently out of print) so one can hope. Until then, we have adorable You Tube versions of it, which simply feature vinyl recordings spinning on record players. There is something so wonderfully absurd about using YouTube to watch an old record play. (Note, this isn't the Enric Madriguera version. For that you'll have to watch the film)

By the way, for all you Gen-Xers out there, consider that in 1973 when this movie was made, depression-era music was to our parents as 1970's music is to us now. Weird, huh?

Before There Was Iron Man, There Was...Der Golem!

Friday night was big fun at the Castro Theater, where sitting in the nose-bleedingest part of the balcony for Carl Boese's 1920's horror classic Der Golem turned out to be an unexpected pleasure because my pal Rachael and I could spy all sorts of weird architectural detail that we'd never seen before, including the crazy circus tent effect of the chandelier's medallion and the ruddy, art deco mitochondria on the balcony ceiling.

Black Francis and his band, on the other hand, remained just out of view, but his weird and wonderful keening reached us just fine while he played his brand new anti-score to Der Golem, and in particular the song "Meet Me at the Ghetto Gates," made us giggle wildly throughout because of its refrain, "What can I do? I'm just an evil Jew." Yes, this film has a few questionable depictions of Semitic peoples here and there, and Black Francis made sure to riff on them with dark glee and tongue firmly in cheek.

(This whole event and its tone, in fact, forces me to consider the possibility that maybe not everyone at the San Francisco Film Society is chronically stuck up after all.)

Always a fan of religious mysticism and the supernatural, Francis was clearly delighted with Der Golem's old world cosmology, lacing his new songs with references to Astaroth, the Maharal of Prague, and the "Makanujo." He's always liked doing this...putting arcane sounding words and names in his songs, knowing the strange pleasure that can be had in saying such rarely-said things. Great too how he delivers such portentous phrases in the most nonchalant style possible... as if casually mentioning that some guy named Astaroth had stopped by the club that afternoon. One of the songs is titled "Custom All The Way," and in a film with a rabbi protagonist we can probably assume that Francis is referring to Judaic custom, but he manages to make it sound like the slogan for an L.A. auto body shop.

I say that the music was an "anti-score" because it was a series of distinct songs, many with vocals, that neither tracked directly to the action of the film nor tried to amplify the mood or emotional resonance of any given scene, which I really appreciated this because I can generally figure out how to feel about something without being instructed by the music. This was more a single-artist soundtrack approach a la Magnolia or The Graduate, and it sounded fantastic. Many were mid-tempo and had the Black boppiness of "Here Comes Your Man," and several instrumental numbers captured the odd mix of pathos and bemusement with which a modern audience views this poetic but stereotype-inflected film. The poppiest, most radio friendly of the new tracks was "The Obedient Servant," in which Black Francis playfully suggests, "You be the master, I'll be the servant," and later vice versa, rhyming the word "servant" with "observant" and "fervent."

For this shindig Black Francis assembled a sterling band  including Erick Drew Feldmen (Pere Ubu, Captain Beefheart) on keys/synth, Ralph Carney (Tom Waits, Galaxie 500) on horns, Joseph Pope (Angst) on bass, Duane Jarvis (Lucinda Williams, John Prine) on guitar, Jason Carter (Guards of Metropolis) on drums.

The songs that were performed, in order:

1. I Am The Maharal
2. The Conjuring
3. Makanujo
4. Meet Me At The Ghetto Gates
5. Stars
6. The Obedient Servant
7. Miriam and Florian
8. (Oh I Wish I Could) Stay
9. The Flower Song
10. Custom All The Way
11. Bad News
12. Astaroth
13. The Word
14. You're Going to Pay

The rumor on Frank Black Forum is that there are plans to release the music in album form at some point. Fingers crossed.

Update: My friend Ezra Gale (who wrote this nice little piece on music's role in SFIFF this year) said that one of the event organizers told him that Black Francis and his band did indeed record this album a week prior to playing it live, so it should be released at some point.

 

Soundtrack of the Day: Lucy Walker's "Blindsight"

I love it when Mother Nature gives Charles Darwin the big ol' middle finger by not only permitting an unlikely thing to succeed, but by championing it. If that sounds good to you too, or if you're feeling unmotivated or lackluster about life lately, I strongly recommend that you see Blindsight, a documentary about six blind Tibetan teenagers who climb the 23,000 foot Lhakpa Ri mountain on the north side of Mount Everest. It was directed by Lucy Walker [Devil's Playground], and it's the most freakin' heartwarming film I've seen since Little Miss Freakin' Sunshine. The verve and determination of these six teenagers will make you feel not only like you have the power to climb mountains, but move them.

The soundtrack is full of pretty if full of somewhat predictable Tibetan selections and New Age variations thereof. One notable exception, however, is when one kid starts singing "Happy Together" by The Turtles while climbing up the mountain. Whatever combination of grace and cash came together to allow this moment to stay in the documentary, I want to applaud the music supervisors, label reps, and lawyers involved, not only because it perfectly captures the real purpose of the trek these kids have undertaken, but because it culminates in an unexpected reprise of the song during the credits that is as powerfully heartwarming as the entire film. That, in and of itself, is an accomplishment to rival that of Erik Weihenmayer—the man who spearheaded this expidition and the only blind person ever to have climbed the tallest peak on every continent, including Everest.

I won't reveal the details of how the song is reprised; just see this documentary, and keep watching through the credits. Lucy Walker is to be commended for directing Blindsight, and for capturing so much nuance in what must have been an incredibly challenging journey. I also want to say briefly how much I admire the kids' teacher and most passionate advocate—Sabriye Tenberken—for embodying the true spirit of the expedition and for prizing joy and solidarity over an impressive but ultimately abstract goal. 

Throwback Thursday: Jake Kasdan's "Zero Effect" (1998)

Can you believe that 1998 was ten years ago? A decade. Yet Ben Stiller still looks exactly the same as he did when he appeared in Zero Effect, an offbeat, Portland-based crime story featuring a modern day Sherlock Holmes/Inspector Watson pairing (Bill Pullman and Stiller respectively), written and directed by Jake Kasdan. Kasdan is better and more recently known for Orange County (2002), which he directed, and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007), which he both directed and co-wrote with Judd Apatow...script and songs alike, for better or worse.

Fortunately for us, other people wrote the music in Zero Effect. It has a great VA soundtrack thanks to two top notch music supervisors—Happy Walters (The Big Lebowski) and Manish Raval (Donnie Darko). The soundtrack, in fact, is somewhat of a find, featuring lots of forgotten little near-gems from the late 1990's—an era music journalist Vincent Jeffries once described as "the high point of alternative pointlessness."

The fun side of such pointlessness permeates the soundtrack, yet music doesn't have much of a presence in the film itself and as so many directors do, Kasdan plays it safe by giving the two most prominent film-music moments to long since established artists like Nick Cave and Elvis Costello. We're not at all sure where the fabulous "Some Jingle Jangle Morning" by Mary Lou Lord got used in this film, but we're grateful for being reminded of her in any case.

Zero Effect isn't one for the ages necessarily, but it's a fun ride.

Soundtrack Listing:
"Mystery Dance" by Elvis Costello
"One Dance" by Dan Bern
"Starbucked" by Bond
"Into My Arms" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
"Some Jingle Jangle Morning" by Mary Lou Lord  (Editor's Pick)
"Emma J" by Brendon Benson
"Drifting Along" by Jamiroquai
"Til You Die" by Candy Butchers
"Lounge" by Esthero
"Three Days" by Thermodore
"Rest My Head Against the Wall" by Heatmiser (Editor's Pick)

 

Soundtrack of the Day: Margaret Brown's "Order of Myths" (2008)

I just have a quick moment to mention this documentary about the United States' oldest Mardi Gras celebration in Mobile, Alabama, so I'll just say this: see it. The soundtrack is just as great as every other aspect of the film, including a highly visual approach that nevertheless remains very attuned to its subjects--both their personalities and complex cultural affiliations. It also falls into that rare class of documentary in which unexpected and historic things happen as it's being filmed. Brown's gifted. See it.