Jerry Fielding (1922-1980) was one of cinema's most distinctive voices in the 1960s and especially '70s, the perfect musical complement to the films of Sam Peckinpah*, Michael Winner, Clint Eastwood and others. His scores are marked by modernism and intricate orchestrations but also a poetic beauty and intensity—an appropriate accompaniment to the decade's strange and often sad (but never sentimental) criminals and antiheroes, be they in westerns (The Wild Bunch) or crime films. He was, however, capable of numerous styles (he was a former Vegas bandleader), and wrote a great number of scores (from sticoms to dramas to sci-fi) for television. - Film Score Monthly [more inside]
posted by Joe Beese on Nov 13, 2009 - 2 comments

USA ♥'s Antigua ∴ Zookz
posted by bigmusic on Jul 16, 2009 - 10 comments

You've probably seen (and heard) his version of Alice in Wonderland, but have you seen The King and I, Harry Potter, The Sword in the Stone, or Mary Poppins?
posted by flatluigi on May 26, 2009 - 32 comments

One Hundred Years, One Hundred Scores. The Hollywood Reporter and a jury of film music experts select the 100 greatest film scores of all time. One of the jury is Dan Goldwasser, editor of Soundtrack.net, which publishers interviews with composers, reviews of soundtracks and keeps a valuable list of trailer music - for when a new trailer uses old film music and you can't quite remember where it's from. [more inside]
posted by crossoverman on Apr 30, 2009 - 60 comments

Comedy Musicians Paul and Storm have started "25 Days of Newman" where they are offering a free brand new Randy Newman-inspired movie theme song every day until Christmas.
posted by Del Far on Dec 2, 2008 - 26 comments

Trying To Get Good: The Jazz Odyssey of Jack Sheldon Who is Jack Sheldon? You may remember him as Merv Griffin's comedic trumpet-wielding sidekick, or the indelible voice on School House Rock (etc.), but musicians know him as a jazz giant. Unlike his close friend and collaborator, Chet Baker, Jack Sheldon survived the demons of drugs, alcohol and unspeakable personal tragedy...
A documentary film by Penny Peyser and Doug McIntyre. (multiple YT clips in description; official site contains Flash audio)
posted by LinusMines on Jun 25, 2008 - 6 comments

Rare Kishore Kumar Songs is a website dedicated to the music of legendary Bollywood playback singer and comic actor Kishore Kumar. There are hundreds of songs, many with other Bollywood legends, such as Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar. There are also songs by Kishore's son Amit. All songs and videos are in Real Player format and in low quality.
posted by Kattullus on Jun 16, 2008 - 9 comments

Shaft was so cool that he had his own theme song. Shaft walked across the street whenever he wanted to. Shaft was a complicated man. But not all Blaxploitation heros were Private Dicks. They could be a Pimp, a Power-Hungry Criminal, a Coke Dealer, or a Male Prostitute. One was a Former Green Beret, one was a Bounty Hunter, and one was a Prize Fighter. Some were Foxy Ladies, such as Vigilante Nurses, US Special Agents, or Escaped Convicts. They might even be a Karate Master or a Vampire. [more inside]
posted by burnmp3s on May 24, 2008 - 23 comments

Leroy Shield was a composer from the Hal Roach era of comedies who composed soundtracks for Laurel and Hardy and the Little Rascals, he has one cover, er, orchestra, the Beau Hunks and no less of a fan than Robert Crumb. Check the main website for more sounds and movies.
via WFMU, bonus YouTubery inside [more inside]
posted by 1f2frfbf on Mar 20, 2008 - 12 comments

Ernest sings. [more inside]
posted by Mblue on Feb 8, 2008 - 21 comments

Edward Samuel's Illustrated History of Copyright A fascinating illustrated historical tour, looking at how different technologies have shaped how we think about copyright and intellectual property.
posted by carter on Jan 31, 2008 - 4 comments

Great Training Montages throughout history And a few of my own choosing to inspire you all to keep to your New Year's resolution-mandated training regimens: Rocky, Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV, Footloose, Team America: World Police, Karate Kid, the Breakfast Club, Flashdance, and arguably the best of all time, Turkish Star Wars
posted by psmealey on Jan 2, 2008 - 41 comments

The Beatles in film: A Hard Day's Night (1964), Help! (1965), Magical Mystery Tour (1967), Yellow Submarine (1968) and, finally, Let It Be [Apple rooftop concert only] (1970)
posted by Poolio on Sep 6, 2007 - 57 comments

Michael Caine is to release chill-out album. Apparantly, it's a compilation of chilled out music that he has been collating for over 40 years. This seems to convenient to be real. But it is discussed on his (rather crappy) website and appears to be real. What next? Danny de Vito's Death Metal Mix?
posted by domdom on Aug 2, 2007 - 100 comments

The Brain That Wouldn't Die is the best public domain movie I've seen all week. Abe Baker's spooky original jazz score is a staple in sci-fi B movies. The monster is played by Eddie Carmel, subject of Diane Arbus' A Jewish giant at home with his parents in the Bronx, N.Y. 1970, in his first screen appearance. And I can't overlook the feminist take on this postwar gorefest. See for yourself.
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot on Jun 28, 2007 - 23 comments

"I sometimes wonder if anyone still reads this stuff." Here's an unique perspective for the self-styled brash, anarchist, punkrocker turned maturing, computer-geeky, old git in all of us, or at least those of us who remember John Coltrane's version of My Favorite Things. WrecklessEric dot com contains the words of a man filled with faux passion and finite jest, whose composed some good music and written some good lyrics to go with them. For those of you not that old, Wreckless Eric wrote the song Whole Wide World which is what Will Ferrell sings to Maggie Gyllenhaal in that movie before she jumps his bones. It was just last year. You might have seen it. Eric's done some other things too. I bring this to the blue cuz I happen to be fascinated by the wry, personable, unapologetic, self-referential, egotistical and occasionally self-loathing way the guy writes in his website, and cuz I'm a sucker for the history of punk, cuz I'm a geeky old git who used to fancy himself a shoegazing punk enthusiast. ...and cuz I'm bored.
posted by ZachsMind on May 13, 2007 - 10 comments

It seems apropos today to post about Bollywood and its style of romance and love. Songs are often the equivalent of a bedroom scene, a fact I didn't believe until it was pointed out to me that there were numerous instances of extremely suggestive songs followed by pregnancy. Bollywood also uses songs to arouse patriotic fervour, a trait that master music director A.R. Rahman takes to new heights with his release of the classics Vande Mataram [Motherland, I salute thee] and Jana Gana Mana [India's national anthem]. But even before him, there were classics of public service advertising such as "Mile sur tera hamara..." a fuzzy video but inspiring nonetheless of the myriads of voices and languages spoken in India. Other loves that hindi cinema celebrates through its songs is that of a mother for a child, god, love across cultural boundaries and what is politely termed as "conjugal love".
posted by infini on Feb 14, 2007 - 31 comments

Did Somebody Drop His Mouse? is an unreleased documentary that tracks Harry Nilsson during the recording sessions for Son of Schmilsson. It is currently available on YouTube in (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) parts.
posted by StopMakingSense on Feb 5, 2007 - 18 comments

Film and TV composers with online portfolios for your cinematic listening pleasure.
posted by OverlappingElvis on Jan 31, 2007 - 3 comments

"Ten Favorite Offbeat Musicals" by Jonathan Rosenbaum
posted by matteo on Apr 4, 2006 - 30 comments

Mysterious Skin. After years of offending the mainstream, director Gregg Araki's controversial new film (trailer) is getting a surprising degree of critical acclaim, with an 8.3 rating on IMDB, and a 90% rating amongst Rotten Tomatoes "Cream of the Crop" reviewers. It also features a soundtrack that will delight Cocteau Twins fans, as it features a shimmering score by Robin Guthrie (who apparently has a blog) and Harold Budd, reminiscent of their work on The Moon and The Melodies.
posted by insomnia_lj on Jul 28, 2005 - 50 comments

Big Fun in the Big Town Incredible German-produced documentary on hip hop and NY street culture from 1986. Features interviews and performances from Grandmaster Flash, Doug E Fresh, Run DMC, Roxanne Shante & Biz Markie, Schoolly D, and more.
posted by svidrigailov23 on Feb 26, 2005 - 18 comments

Squeal Like a Pig dot com - Online home of actor Bill McKinney, best known as the villain from Deliverance. There's not much on the site but there is Real versions of three tracks from Bill's album, Love Songs From Antri.
posted by dobbs on Dec 1, 2004 - 9 comments

"First, look up the most popular and critically-acclaimed books, movies, and music on Amazon. Click on 'Customer Reviews,' and sort them by 'Lowest Rating First'..." The Amazon.com Knee-Jerk Contrarian Game.
posted by reklaw on Jul 2, 2004 - 48 comments

Gen Art.
posted by hama7 on Jul 2, 2004 - 3 comments

The American Film Institute (a.k.a. "The Listmakers Who Just Won't Quit") have announced their long-awaited ground-breaking top 100 movie songs of all time.
posted by ChrisTN on Jun 24, 2004 - 20 comments

Movies for Music
From the press release: "Movies for Music" (moviesformusic.org) is an online film contest with a simple aim: to give the public a clear and honest look at the music industry. As more people learn how the music business works, major label CD sales will plummet faster. The contest launches Monday.

The short film contest launched today, and first place is a ZVue handheld video player.
posted by bob sarabia on Jun 14, 2004 - 3 comments

List of bests permits you to keep track of how much you've read, seen, or heard according to all of those fun "X Greatest X's" of all time. A recommendation feature may be soon to follow.
posted by Ufez Jones on May 14, 2003 - 12 comments

In 1924 George Antheil caused a riot with his ballet score for 'percussion orchestra, two pianists, seven electric bells, 3 airplane propellors, a siren, and 16 synchronized player pianos'. In 1933, Hedy Lamarr caused a sensation by appearing nude on film. In 1942, Antheil and Lamarr jointly filed a patent for a secret communications system, having thought up 'an interesting scheme to control armed torpedoes over long distances without the enemy detecting them or jamming their transmissions' over dinner.
posted by misteraitch on Oct 15, 2002 - 12 comments

French politicians polish cultural credentials. France's presidential hopefuls have begun pledging to defend the country's cherished culture, hoping to drum up support from artists worried that American films and music will steamroll finer French productions. This rhetoric makes it sound like American films are picking up guns to massacre poor defenseless French culture. Maybe American films are so successful because they give people something that the "finer French productions" don't, and if so, then is that such a horrible thing? After all, we are just giving the people what they want, right? And if that takes money away from more artsy productions, then whose fault is that anyway?
posted by epimorph on Apr 8, 2002 - 15 comments

You may have heard of the Dark Side of the Rainbow, the synching of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon with The Wizard of Oz. But this isn't the only mystery that surrounds the band. The Publius Enigma is the story of an anonymous Usenet poster connected to the band in some way that claimed that The Division Bell album held a very tangible and real prize. Was it a cosmic mystery of an esoteric nature or just a gimmick to sell records?
posted by euphorb on Mar 28, 2002 - 26 comments

Is President Bush Gay? (Answer: No, but he says "fabulous" a lot.) Is Billy Joel washed up? (NYT required) (Answer: Sounds like it.) Is Star Wars Episode Two any good? (Answer: Yes, beyond your wildest dreams.)
posted by adrober on Mar 18, 2002 - 36 comments

The new Chemical Brothers video by Michel Gondry is absolutely brilliant. At first sight, it appears to be a 4 minute clip of a train ride. On closer inspection though, you might notice the objects flying past are far from random.....
Sorry dial up MeFites, you'll almost certainly need a fast connection to see why this video is so amazing.
posted by davehat on Jan 22, 2002 - 36 comments

Despite what Joey Fatone says ...InSync not out of Attack of the Clones just yet. Sorry to rehash this topic, but there seems to be a lot of anymosity between the famous boyband and wookie fans everywhere. (via theforce.net)
posted by schlaager on Jan 11, 2002 - 8 comments

The Rocklopedia Fakebandica is an exhaustive compendium of non-existent musical acts from television and film. Need to know the complete lineup of Evar Orbus and His Galactic Jizz-Wailers? It's here (via Grouse!).
posted by MrBaliHai on Dec 21, 2001 - 17 comments

Finding What You Are Looking For in a Music/Video Store
Sing to us if you want, but know that this method has a less than 50% success rate. Typically, we stand there and go, "Uhh... I dunno." And from my past experience, the people that work in music stores do not generally enjoy the majority of mainstream crap music.
posted by riley370 on Nov 29, 2001 - 74 comments

You don't need Metacritic to know that Driven blows. But you might need it to learn that Dolly Parton's new album is a gorgeous return to her bluegrass roots, Rififi is a classic french thriller, and You Can Count On Me is getting more 10's than Mary Lou Retton.
posted by geronimo_rex on May 3, 2001 - 11 comments

Pink Floyd and the Wizard of Oz? "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." While no one involved with Pink Floyd has ever admitted to any link between the band's seminal 1973 album "Dark Side of the Moon" and the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz," urban legend purports that the album was conceived as an alternate soundtrack to the film.
posted by 120degrees on Jun 22, 2000 - 7 comments