Documentary: Brian Eno 1971-1977: The Man Who Fell to Earth

 

A long doc at 2 hours and 37 minutes, this goes through the early career of music legend Brian Eno. A non-musician at the start, he used flamboyance and technical skill to get attention and was lauded as a ground breaker. As time went on he shied away from the limelight more and more as a performer and worked on collaborative projects, famously a few with David Bowie and David Byrne, and moved into his own category of music he called "ambient". Its a fascinating study of a true artist. 

See it free on Tubi

Movie Wrench is now covering music as well!

Mike Luce has expanded his Movie Wrench blog to cover music too, so is basically just the Wrench now. Check it out, comment sand tell him wha you think!

What happened to Theme Music and Soundtracks?

Having started my serious film going in the 70s I was spoiled by the amazing music being produced for films… big films had theme music that invaded popular culture, something that rarely happens anymore. 

Think about it, John Williams alone created the music for Jaws, Close Encounters, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, the Fury while Gerry Goldsmith did the Omen, Star trek the Motion Picture, Alien… even reading the names I bet you are hearing the themes to those movies in your head. (Well maybe not the Fury, not exactly a cultural touchstone but believe me the music was great.)

What has happened since then? When was the last time a new movie came out that had you humming the theme music when exiting the theatre? When did directors and executives in Hollywood decide that generic music was good enough for even the biggest budgeted movies? Sorry theme songs don’t count, it’s too easy for them to seep into the popular culture. I am talking about instrumental compositions that helped bring the experience to a new level, that stood on its own as music in it’s own right. 

I miss it. Television still seems to know the value of a good theme and the power of recurring music throughout a series. There must be composers out there that can step up as Williams and the rest step down, no? At this point, I would even welcome the disco versions of popular movie themes coming back! who can forget the MECO version of Jaws 2? 

Bowie and Faithfull

In the spirit of Rachel and Tom...

Funeral Fun

From the delightfully dreadful Confessions From a Holiday Camp

Trippy Ginger Rogers Pig Latin

First time I really got into these types of movies was when I was just out of high school and discovering herb (not Edelman, him I was already familiar with). While watching them my old man who had finally been forced to buy a 25" color portable TV (his conditions/reasons for putting it off) would come in and yell, "What the hell are you watching THIS for?!?!?! We finally got a COLOR TV and THIS is what you watch?!!?" I was watching color *wink. Either way it was quite an overwhelming spectacle for the newly stoned Lex10, what with the shopping mall sized sets, the Busby Berkeley imagery, and whatnot. These particular few seconds are well and truly classic.

A couple of observations of these few seconds: The focus pulling going in and out bespeaks (?!) a time before cinematic technological perfection - there's humans at work, and it's poetically beautiful to me. Secondly, that Ginger Rogers is a real sexual response producer and at the time, I was in love with her . Third, trippy, innit?

Enjoy.

A Movie 4 U

Atonement for being occasionally tone deaf, according to my detractors....

Did I mention she has a really nice ass?

Nerdcore Rising (2008)

It's a newbie, but since we're all a bit nerdy in here I thought I'd share.

Nerdcore is a relatively new music phenomenon that attempts to usurp the style of hip-hop and infuse it with the substance of nerdiness. Songs about mathematics, video games, internet porn addiction, role-playing games, etc. are the standard.

Nerdcore Rising documents the first American tour of Damian Hess (AKA MC Frontalot) and his band. Damian is widely acknowledged as the father of the Nerdcore movement and considering the fact that he is credited with legitimizing a brand of music that started as a joke he takes the practice pretty seriously. His band is something of a combination of Devo, De La Sol, The Minutemen and Kraftwerk. The road footage of the tour is not your typical get-drunk-and-party-like-a-rock-star fare. These guys give it their all on stage and then head back to the Motel 6 to complain about road fatigue and lower-back pain. After all, they are a bunch of nonathletic nerds, not rap stars.

Things come to a head when some members of the crowd cry racism in the face of Frontalot's efforts to bridge the culture gap. Interestingly enough he has seasoned supporters that rise to his defense including: Al Yankovic, Jello Biafra and even famed Hip-Hop producer Prince Paul (Who claims that Frontalot's efforts are more creative and honest than most modern mainstream rappers). Either way, Frontalot is a web sensation and his fans seem to adore the fact that he speaks their language.

If you're a nerd (and if you just stopped to consider the idea then you know you are) it might give you a kick.

Sex Bombs Away!

Ooh!

Via Robert Mrazik

Toothbrush

Toothbrushing with "Baby" Jane Holzer. If you dig this, check out the 13 most beautiful Songs for Andy Warhol

Alain Bashung est mort de cancer

Alain Bashung est mort
Actor. Musician and singer Alain Bashung has died of lung cancer at the age of 61. Starting out as lounge singer mostly in American venues he eventually made a name for himself in music. His CD « Fantasie Militaire » is one of my favoutite albums. It's wonderfully dark and moody with ambiguous lyrics... what could be better?
His acting career begain in 1981 in the film « Ma soeur chinoise » by Alain Mazars.
He often played here in Montréal, even giving a free concert at Les Francofolies one year.

Yipe! - I Mean, Mamma Mia!

From It Started in Naples -

Whatchu talkin' about, (Wesley) Willis?

I know we tend to wax nostalgic over the hidden gems of yesteryear while doing time in the Slammer, but I'd like to break out briefly and share some brighter,newer gems that I recently got to view at a local film fest. First up:

Part 2:


Wesley is a genius superstar artist and musician!

Psychedelic Bing

robertwmartens has uploaded this interesting video from his late Grandpa's collection. It's particularly mysterious due to the fact that nothing is known about who made the video (so far). Check out Robert's website, where he has thoughtfully shared the collection of Gustave A. Martens videos, over at Grandpa's Picture Party

Les Filles C'est Fait

(music by Charlotte Leslie)

Video footage from 'L'amante del Vampiro'.Now that I've been banned from YouTube I've got to put my videos somewhere. And to think, it wasn't because of filth!

Gramps, Why the Hand Cream and Tissues?

Musical interlude re showering from Meet the Baron starring Jack Pearl, Jimmy Durante (who I met when I was 11), Zazu Pitts and Ted Healy and his Three Stooges. None of them are in this scene, actually, as it is reservee' pour Gateau de Fromage.
Et quelle fromage!!

Dream

This item is a little different than my usual posts about strippers and zombies, but I think it's a piece of unknown film history that should be shared. A couple of years ago, Oscar nominated actor Terrence Howard was in Wilmington, NC shooting Idlewild and some friends of mine shot a music video for him. For whatever reason, this music video was never released and has never been seen by the public. Now, though the magic of the intertubes this music video can have it's world premeire on the Celluloid Slammer. I present to you DREAM by Terrence Howard.


Since that song is so pretty, and I have a reputation to uphold, I've decided to end this blog with Motley Crue's LIVE WIRE. Party on!