Thursday, September 08, 2005
 
EVERYDAY
Rogue Wave

TEARS ON MY PILLOW
Clem Snide

IF I ONLY HAD A BRAIN
The Flaming Lips

THERE GOES MY BABY
The Walkmen

----SONGS REMOVED AT THE REQUEST OF SHOUT! FACTORY----

Stubbs the Zombie Soundtrack
Shout! Factory : October 2005
[Pre-order]

Today's music comes from the companion soundtrack to "Stubbs the Zombie", a tongue-in-cheek video game set for October release. The game lets you take control of zombies roaming a 1950s America, and the songs are mostly covers of classics from that era. I fully expected these numbers to possess a generally undead quality of their own. Not just because they are covers - which often behave wildly like the songs they possess but have no real soul - but also because in the fifties, people could write a melody, and could really sing. Not 'really sing' like in American Idol; with that pained vibrato and the cross-eyed, mouth-agape look Kelly Clarkson gets when she really goes for it - like wasps have paralyzed her body and their larvae are slowly eating her from the inside out. You know what I mean.

But I am happy to report that most of work here is pretty inspired, and much of it pleasingly lo-fi. And I can finally enjoy great songs from the 50s without thinking of David Lynch or that Richard Dreyfuss voiceover in "Stand By Me":

"I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anybody?"

Oh f**k you Mr Holland.

- - - - - - -

The fancy lineup:

01 Ben Kweller: "Lollipop"
02 The Raveonettes: "My Boyfriend's Back"
03 Death Cab for Cutie: "Earth Angel"
04 Rogue Wave: "Every Day"
05 Cake: "Strangers in the Night"
06 The Walkmen: "There Goes My Baby"
07 Dandy Warhols: "All I Have to Do Is Dream" (like this one)
08 Oranger: "Mr. Sandman"
09 The Flaming Lips: "If I Only Had a Brain"
10 Clem Snide: "Tears On My Pillow"
11 Rose Hill Drive: "Shakin' All Over"
12 Milton Mapes: "Lonesome Town"
13 Phantom Planet: "The Living Dead" (non-cover, but zombie-themed song)


An article in Popmatters about "The OC Effect" of indie soundtracks in TV and film.


also...

Moistworks readers in Melbourne OZ, the band "Screenings" that I posted a few weeks ago, is opening for Spoon tonight (Sept 9) at the Corner Hotel. Everyone go. Show info here


also also...
Anyone else in New York finding those "Kathy Bates: AMBULANCE GIRL" posters unsettling?


posted by James
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