Category: Music

Stage & Screen Online has posted the first two parts of an interview with David Arnold, film score composer (the last four James Bond movies, among others).

The first part (43 minutes) is about his early work — Stargate, Independence Day, Godzilla — and the second part (29 minutes) concentrates on his James Bond output, including his “Shaken & Stirred” side project (songs from which have featured on Friday Music).

The interviews are available as MP3s.

Here we go again….

Last weekend, I watched Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who on VH1 — Very cool documentary covering the 40 year history of the band. During it, there was a shot of a very new-wave-looking Pete Townsend, singing the band’s 1982 single, “Eminence Front,” which I had completely forgotten about. It, along with Yes’ “90125” and Genesis’ “Genesis” are all great examples of classic bands changing slightly with the times — changes that often weren’t embraced by their longtime fans, but that little geeks like me ate up, as we sat around and rolled up characters for our RPG sessions. The Who – “Eminence Front.”

Speaking of fans — there’s been a hullaballoo between Prince and his fans. Apparently, he’s threatened to sue fan sites for posting images of him, etc. As a result a group of the larger sites have gotten together under the banner “Prince Fans United”, and are fighting the legal battle. Oddly, Prince has released a song for the fans, referencing PFU. So, on the one hand, his legal teams are trying to shut down fan sites, while on the other, he’s recording songs for the fans, and giving them to the fans. Strange duck, that Purple one. The song is great — blisteringly funky — although he uses the altered higher-register voice on it, which I’ve always found strange. Prince – “PFUnk.”

Speaking of funk (or rather it’s precursor, soul), here’s one of my favorite tracks from the genre. Donny Hathaway – “The Ghetto.”

I picked up a new album this week, from the electronic act Scandy. The album, “13 Ways to Masturbate” is really excellent, bass-heavy dancefloor stuff. I had a hard time picking which track to post, since they were all brilliant. I decided, finally, on this one: Scandy – “Just Human.”

Here’s an interesting bit of fan work — one of the moderators over at the CommanderBond.net site does a podcast about all things Bond, and came up with his own version of the Bond theme, which I like quite a bit. He posted the link to the forums on the site, so I’m posting it here: Dunphy – “James Bond Theme (Harmsway’s Octogenarian Mix).”

And lastly, because on a day like today, there’s nothing better than some bouncy classic 90s Britpop: The Charlatans – “The Only One I Know.”

Enjoy.

Not as many tracks this week, I’m afraid. Busy Busy.

Last month, I gave you a look at a track from the new Duran Duran album which is out in November. Well, the geniuses at the record label didn’t pick “Nite Runner” as the lead single — they picked this track, which, although not bad, is….well….kinda boring in comparison. Duran Duran – “Falling Down (Single Edit).” Yeah, why go with the track produced by Timbaland, one of the hottest producers in the business right now, when you can lead with that? I’m reminded of the early 90s, when the label sunk the brilliant album “Liberty” by making the worst track on the album (“The Violence of Summer”) the lead (and only) single. Dumbasses.

Speaking of producers — that’s who’s getting the praise for Britney Spears’ new album. The funny thing is, they did the smartest thing they could with her — made her fade into the background on her own album. She’s just another instrument to be manipulated by the brilliant producers that actually crafted the songs. As a result, the album is getting fairly good reviews, and all praising the work of the producers. Bloodshy & Avant, the Swedish producers who did her “Toxic” single, were responsible for this track, for example, which has some interesting things to say about the price of fame, the media, and the sexualization of music, all at the same time as it manages to be a slamming club track: Britney Spears – “Piece of Me.”

A lot of folks enjoyed the RJD2 track that I posted last week (the theme from “Mad Men”), and I realized that a lot of folks aren’t that familiar with this work, so here’s another of his creations, grabbing sounds from dozens of sources and sculpting them together: RJD2 – “Ghostwriter.”

The music from the Dell laptop commercial wormed its way into my head, so I went on a quest to track it down and slay it in its lair. Here’s the beast: The Flaming Lips – “The W.A.N.D.”

New band from the UK, whose debut EP is coming out this month from Erased Tapes. I really like the sound — kinda shoe-gazey, but a beautiful mix of instrumentation, electronics and harmonies. British Expeditionary Force – “All Those Demons.”

Lastly, I used to be a big fan of Yes. Specifically, I got into the band during the early 80s with “90125”, which led me backward to the classic releases. But unlike many Yes fans, I prefered the 80s output — I think because it coincided with my high school and early college years, and the memories that resuslt. The follow up to “90125”, “Big Generator”, was nowhere near as popular an album, but contained several tracks which remain some of my favorites. For example: Yes – “Almost Like Love.”

There you go. Now, back to writing.