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

By now you're surely aware of Tron Legacy, the sequel to 1982's Tron. Tron Legacy will have a soundtrack by Daft Punk as counterpoint the score in the original composed by Wendy Carlos. But what of the Trons that Never Were? Listen to the soundtrack to Tron 1.5: Rise of the Virals and find out a little about the process behind the sequel that didn't make it. [more inside]
posted by lekvar on Oct 30, 2009 - 22 comments

One Fast Move or I'm Gone : a documentary of Kerouac's Big Sur features a soundtrack by Ben Gibbard & Jay Farrar.
posted by grapefruitmoon on Oct 12, 2009 - 8 comments

The Cloud Photographers : "an artificial Wes Anderson soundtrack" by Nicholas Gurewitch, of Perry Bible Fellowship fame (previously). Also has an interview with Gurewitch about the soundtrack and the story of The Cloud Photgraphers. More recently, Gurewitch is featured in Marvel Strange Tales. Two scans (scans about as NSFW as the median PBF comic) on the Truth and Beauty Bombs comics forum (via Dinosaur Comics).
posted by skynxnex on Sep 21, 2009 - 18 comments

Baraka (previously) alternate soundtracks on youtube: Clint Mansell, Omni Trio, the Beatles, Chris Clark, and Buraka Som Sistema (warning: contains M.I.A., nudity). [more inside]
posted by plant on May 31, 2009 - 14 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

Episode 4 - Problems "Okay, sometimes I almost want to give up everything." A fascinating insight into the Large Hadron Collider (loving the soundtracks too). YTL
posted by tellurian on Apr 25, 2009 - 22 comments

Maurice Jarre (September 13, 1924 – March 29, 2009) was a French composer and conductor. Although he composed several concert works, he is best known for his film scores for motion pictures, particularly those of David Lean: Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965), and A Passage to India (1984). All three of these scores won Academy Awards. - Wikipedia
posted by Joe Beese on Mar 30, 2009 - 21 comments

Tennessee Williams said it was the best film version of any of his plays. Roger Ebert called it "awkward and hopeless on its most fundamental level". John Waters calls it a major influence on the development of his taste. [more inside]
posted by Joe Beese on Feb 18, 2009 - 14 comments

Spy music! Whether it's Lalo Schifrin's theme for Mission Impossible, or Jerry Goldsmith's theme for Man from U.N.C.L.E., or the greatest of them all, John Barry's iconic James Bond theme, you know it when you hear it. Now, for my money, the best spy music in recent years wasn't from a spy movie at all, but an animated superhero film: the action-packed theme and soundtrack for The Incredibles, in which the very talented Michael Giacchino was clearly (and brilliantly) channeling John Barry. And of course, you'll all want to head over here and see what your fellow MeFiers have lately been doing with the genre. [note: see hoverovers for link descriptions] [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite on Aug 1, 2008 - 54 comments

Bebe Barron, 82, Pioneer of Electronic Scores, Is Dead. Best known for the soundtrack to the 1956 sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet -- the first full-length feature to use only electronic music -- she and her husband Louis Barron recorded the film's pre-synthesizer "electronic tonalities" with electronic circuits of their own invention. She never scored another feature film, but remained active in the avant-garde music scene.
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot on May 8, 2008 - 17 comments

First, and foremost, here is La Caíta - El Pájaro Negro. Could there be singing anymore heartfelt than this ? I wonder. And here she is, in an ancillary role, with the Amaya family. Also, from Spain, here is Tchavolo Schmitt, Dorado Schmitt & Hono Winterstein - Kali Sara & Tchavolo swing. From Romania, here are Taraf de Haïdouks and, from them, here is Taraf de Haïdouks and of them, here is Balada Conducatorolui - Nicolae Neacsu. From the Thar of Rajasthan, here is the very charismatic Talab Khan Barna, and here, from Egypt, is Bambi Saidi. And let the etymological connection between Egypt and gypsy be noted here and now, by the way.

All of these are. of course, excerpts from Latcho Drom. [more inside]
posted by y2karl on Mar 20, 2008 - 7 comments

"Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream is an OverClocked ReMix Album featuring free fan arrangements from the soundtrack to Square's legendary Final Fantasy VII for the Sony Playstation."
posted by nthdegx on Sep 15, 2007 - 18 comments

Moving an 100 year old church - via the power of rock (YouTube page) Watching a show about buildings being moved by truck, my attention drifted towards the captivating music, from composer Daniel Pemberton. One of the gems on his MySpace page is this clip in which a 40-strong choir leads an 100-year old church as it is moved down a road, to a soundtrack akin to the Beatles or Polyphonic Spree. It's bizarre and certainly not your normal documentary fare.
posted by skylar on Jan 30, 2007 - 14 comments

The Room: The Movie. Triple-threat (actor/writer/director) Tommy Wiseau made his cinematic debut in 2003 with the The Room (see trailer and various scenes), "a blend between a softcore porn flick and a Tennessee Williams stageplay." Wiseau ("who's not just one of the most unusual looking and sounding-with an unidentifiable Eastern European accent-leading men ever to grace the screen, but a narcissist nonpareil whose movie makes Vincent Gallo's "The Brown Bunny" seem the apotheosis of cinematic self-restraint...may be something of a first: A movie that prompts most of its viewers to ask for their money back-before even 30 minutes have passed." - Variety), allegedly raised $6 million outside Hollywood to cover production and marketing costs of the self-described "black comedy about love, passion, betrayal and lies" (see various rough dress rehersals). Audience members, including comedian David Cross, have been "marveling at the bizarre editing, bad bluescreen, uncomfortably explicit sex scenes and, of course, the enigma of Wiseau himself" as the film played monthly for years in Los Angeles. Available on DVD, diehard "roomies" swear by the theatrical experience, shout out their own commentary, hurl spoons at the screen and singalong to the soundtrack. Some call it "The Rocky Horror of the New Millenium" and stage "Room" parties. If you look at the marketing campaign or survived a screening you might see The Room as "a seminar on how NOT to make a movie." [Inspired by Boing Boing]
posted by boost ventilator on Jun 1, 2006 - 28 comments

Speaking, as we were, of F1 drivers, fans should take note that Live Fast, Die Young, a documentary about Swiss driver Jo Siffert has recently been released overseas. Siffert died in a crash in 1971, and fifty thousand people turned out for his funeral. Can't see the film (and if you're in the U.S., chances are you can't)? Check out the soundtrack, by the always fantastic (though apparently website-less) Stereophonic Space Sound Unlimited. Samples here.
posted by schoolgirl report on Nov 10, 2005 - 11 comments

Video Games Live, a game-music-with-orchestra concert tour, has gotten lots of press; videogame music's gettting new attention.
posted by Tlogmer on Aug 14, 2005 - 10 comments

A huge, comprehensive collection of Italian soundtrack covers. With print runs as small as 300, some of these soundtracks are impossible to find nowadays. Some of the cover art is really fantastic. There's a pretty extensive collection of French, German, American, English and Japanese soundtracks too.
posted by tellurian on Aug 8, 2005 - 4 comments

8 bit goes a capella A Madison Wisconsin a cappella group (Redefined) sings (and acts out) the greatest Nintendo backing tracks in this video of a live performance. The Zelda and Tetris ones are priceless. There's a Windows Media version as well.
posted by eljuanbobo on Apr 15, 2005 - 33 comments

Bollywood Record Covers Crazy Bollywood soundtrack LP covers. My likes? This one and this one. No, I have no idea what they say either.
posted by Bdave on Jan 20, 2005 - 11 comments

John Debney fought with Satan to score "The Passion of the Christ." Literally: "I had all these computers and synthesizers in my studio and the hard drives would go down and the digital picture that lives on the computer with the music would just freeze on his [Satan's] face... and I was verbalizing and saying to Satan, 'Manifest yourself right now...'"
posted by squirrel on Mar 5, 2004 - 54 comments

'Mais Non, Mais Non?'... Well, there goes the neighbourhood. You go for nigh on a quarter of a century crediting The Muppets with an all time classic, when you find out that it was someone elses - Italian soundtrack composer Piero Umiliani. Not only that, but used as part of the score for an oh-so-dodgy a Swedish porn film!?!?. But no, that's not the end of it, as it transpires (see bottom of page) that 'Mahna Mahna' was originally performed by a Frenchman, Henri Salvador, and was called 'Mais Non Mais Non'. Still, in any of these forms, it's one of the few songs that still makes me smile every time I hear it, especially so when accompanied by the visuals.
posted by boneybaloney on Oct 7, 2002 - 19 comments

Let's Rock Get a real live musician to write a theme song for your blog. Of course you have to somehow return the favor. "I'm calling it the rockin' blogroll," notes Philip Clark, the multiple band guy that is willingly offering up his own service against silence.
posted by boost ventilator on Jul 9, 2002 - 3 comments

A verbal day at the racetrack. (Requires Flash. Have your headphones on.)
posted by mrbula on Jan 10, 2002 - 8 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