Master of Fear
December 17, 2014 8:21 AM Subscribe
Although he has already created several notable soundtracks for his films John Carpenter has just released his debut album Lost Themes. Interview.
Oh man, I wish he'd just released it! It's coming out Feb 3rd. Got that pre-order on LOCKDOWN!!! Vortex is quite a nice track. Very excited for the whole thing.
And yeah, fullerine, you are definitely not alone.
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 8:45 AM on December 17, 2014
And yeah, fullerine, you are definitely not alone.
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 8:45 AM on December 17, 2014
Let's also not forget his amazing contribution to the genre of Dystopian Future Broadway Show Tunes with his 'updated' version of Everyone's Coming to New York. (@ 29:46 if the direct link fails)
posted by chambers at 8:57 AM on December 17, 2014
posted by chambers at 8:57 AM on December 17, 2014
John Carpenter has just released his debut album
His debut solo album. How could we forget The Coupe De Villes' Waiting Out the Eighties? You know, the one that all of America was dancing to in 1985?
posted by doctornecessiter at 8:59 AM on December 17, 2014 [4 favorites]
His debut solo album. How could we forget The Coupe De Villes' Waiting Out the Eighties? You know, the one that all of America was dancing to in 1985?
posted by doctornecessiter at 8:59 AM on December 17, 2014 [4 favorites]
I just gave the single, "Vortex", a listen. JC's certainly not shy about re-using his old riffs and old voices. It's like music made at Taco Bell: you've got this set of ingredients, and "oh, gimme a wheat tortilla, and now some refried beans, and some cheese and onions, and okay, here we're gonna top it with some Doritos and BBQed Fritos - I call it: the Frito Dorito Burrito Bandito!".
But the truth is that I can be as snarky as I wanna be and it doesn't change the fact that John Carpenter Fucking Rocks. Come here, little pre-order form ... don't be scared ...
I'd love to see the Glitch Mob do some remixes of JC's work. I swear they use samples from Prince of Darkness in their Remix of Prodigy's Breathe. It's good. I want more.
posted by doctor tough love at 12:26 PM on December 17, 2014
But the truth is that I can be as snarky as I wanna be and it doesn't change the fact that John Carpenter Fucking Rocks. Come here, little pre-order form ... don't be scared ...
I'd love to see the Glitch Mob do some remixes of JC's work. I swear they use samples from Prince of Darkness in their Remix of Prodigy's Breathe. It's good. I want more.
posted by doctor tough love at 12:26 PM on December 17, 2014
Ridiculously, for several minutes I read "John Carpenter's 'Lost Themes'" to mean that John Carpenter was a fan of LOST, but, regretting its lack of theme music, made an album of his own LOST theme songs. I need more coffee.
This is fantastic. Carpenter is still enamored with that 80s synth, 80s rawk guitar, 80s anything. And it's great. It's like Bon Jovi meets Phillip Glass.
posted by zardoz at 12:43 PM on December 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
This is fantastic. Carpenter is still enamored with that 80s synth, 80s rawk guitar, 80s anything. And it's great. It's like Bon Jovi meets Phillip Glass.
posted by zardoz at 12:43 PM on December 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
Carpenter is still enamored with that 80s synth, 80s rawk guitar, 80s anything.
John Carpenter is not enamored with the 80's sound - the 80's sound is enamored with John Carpenter!
(in communist Russia)
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 1:16 PM on December 17, 2014
John Carpenter is not enamored with the 80's sound - the 80's sound is enamored with John Carpenter!
(in communist Russia)
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 1:16 PM on December 17, 2014
John Carpenter occasionally achieved greatness - The Thing, I feel - but sometimes I think his true legacy is his music. This is great news, partly because it is so surprising.
posted by specialbrew at 2:57 PM on December 17, 2014
posted by specialbrew at 2:57 PM on December 17, 2014
But the truth is that I can be as snarky as I wanna be and it doesn't change the fact that John Carpenter Fucking Rocks.
Perhaps your analogy has a bit of bite to it, but you're bringing up a very good point about Carpenter. I could see the people who casually say 'but these songs all sound the same..." would probably say the same thing about AC/DC, The Cure, or even Leonard Cohen for that matter. It's like saying every desert in the world is exactly the same because there's sand, it's hot, and it's always very sunny. At the risk of creating a rather pretentious analogy, artists like these do have their own default environment they mostly work in, but what changes is the terrain and what happens there during that particular piece. I use the word 'terrain' because especially in films like Escape from New York and The Thing, having the music be almost part of the surroundings, and subtly influencing how you see a scene feels better to me than the earnest John Williams-style, jumping about and ordering you to 'feel this way now, everybody!' that's far too common in films IMO.
Carpenter's soundtracks were one of the things in my formative years as a musician that showed me the value of pauses, pacing, and empty spaces and making it work for you, at a time when nearly everything else on the radio, MTV, and in the stores were songs with 48+ tracks full of overdubs and rampant overproduction.
posted by chambers at 6:45 PM on December 17, 2014
Perhaps your analogy has a bit of bite to it, but you're bringing up a very good point about Carpenter. I could see the people who casually say 'but these songs all sound the same..." would probably say the same thing about AC/DC, The Cure, or even Leonard Cohen for that matter. It's like saying every desert in the world is exactly the same because there's sand, it's hot, and it's always very sunny. At the risk of creating a rather pretentious analogy, artists like these do have their own default environment they mostly work in, but what changes is the terrain and what happens there during that particular piece. I use the word 'terrain' because especially in films like Escape from New York and The Thing, having the music be almost part of the surroundings, and subtly influencing how you see a scene feels better to me than the earnest John Williams-style, jumping about and ordering you to 'feel this way now, everybody!' that's far too common in films IMO.
Carpenter's soundtracks were one of the things in my formative years as a musician that showed me the value of pauses, pacing, and empty spaces and making it work for you, at a time when nearly everything else on the radio, MTV, and in the stores were songs with 48+ tracks full of overdubs and rampant overproduction.
posted by chambers at 6:45 PM on December 17, 2014
Now that I read that a day later, I've decided that "Bon Jovi meets Phillip Glass" is inaccurate. The Bon Jovi part, anyway. Phillip Glass meets...who? It'll come to me.
posted by zardoz at 4:02 PM on December 18, 2014
posted by zardoz at 4:02 PM on December 18, 2014
Director John Carpenter On The Sound Of A Terrifying Film
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:47 PM on December 30, 2014
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:47 PM on December 30, 2014
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posted by fullerine at 8:36 AM on December 17, 2014 [1 favorite]