From The LEGO Movie: Everything is Awesome

Posted on February 10, 2014 at 3:59 pm

Tegan and Sara’s adorable song is pure delight — did you know that the rap section is from Andy Samberg and his Lonely Island group?

And be sure to take a look at this great post from Deadline Hollywood about the film’s talented composer, Mark Mothersbaugh. Does that name sound familiar? Yes, he’s this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIEVqFB4WUo

Mothersbaugh has now become a very successful composer for wildly diverse movie genres, including “21 Jump Street,” “Rugrats,” and “The Royal Tenenbaums.” Creating the sounds for “The LEGO Movie” was a challenge.

e reached back to his past to compose the score. “I used old retro synthesizers that I used from the days of DEVO and then used circuit bending.” What is circuit bending? “If you go on YouTube you can see these people who pull out all these crazy, electronic Speak and Spells to Elmo dolls and Casio keyboards and combine the sounds. It’s circuit bending. These people even have their own circuit bent instruments. They are the vocabulary of modern music. So I looked at a lot of that gear, and I created this palate of electronic sounds….He initially scored the whole thing in electronics and then went back and layered in an entire orchestration underneath. The result is bright, popping, almost frenetic music with an underpinning of emotional swells. “Because it’s the world of animation, you really need an orchestral sounds. Even the most cutting edge animation needs help to look and feel like the real world. When you have a little square peg with a face painted on it you need to feel the heart and know that there’s a brain there. I had to ground it and give it its unique place that it was also meaningful emotionally.”

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Half a Century of The Beatles!

Posted on February 8, 2014 at 3:57 pm

As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ first performances in the United States — and the half century of great music — be sure to watch the CBS Grammy tribute tomorrow night, featuring Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. And you might want to take a look at this special issue of Smithsonian Magazine, produced with the Grammy Museum, with tributes from Smokey Robinson, Pat Benatar, Brian Wilson, Lester Bangs, and many more, plus never-before-seen photos and recollections by Ringo Starr.

Back in 1964, the Beatles looked like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqrauzHPpwE

Their career in music is unmatched. And they made some great movies, too.

By any standard, A Hard Day’s Night is a brilliant film, directed by Richard Lester in an intimate, improvisational style that still seems very fresh today. Because it seems like a documentary, people often forget that it was fully scripted by the talented Alun Owen, who was nominated for an Oscar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIqi9zY4V-A

Their next movie is the silly spoof Help!. It is still fun to watch.

Magical Mystery Tour is an incoherent mess, but the music is still great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjW8Rv5bp7Q

Yellow Submarine is one of the all-time greats of animation, with a charming story and wildly innovative visuals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7lRMw6f3EY

Let It Be is a documentary about what would turn out to be the last days of the Beatles, featuring an exhilarating rooftop concert.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhHRaleljHE

Faith-Based Oscar Disqualified Song Creates Controversy

Posted on January 31, 2014 at 3:59 pm

For the first time ever, the Motion Picture Academy has disqualified a nominee for ethical reasons. The nomination of “Alone Yet Not Alone” as best song came as a surprise. Most people had not heard of the song or the movie it came from, a small, faith-based film of the same name.

The song was disqualified because its composer, Bruce Broughton, sent out an email to his friends in the Academy asking them to consider it for an award. While “for your consideration” lobbying is widespread, what concerned the Academy was that in this case it was coming from a former official of the Academy and was therefore seen as implicitly and improperly endorsed.

Now, according to the LA Times, there is a backlash, accusing the Academy of applying a different standard to small, independent films than it does to big studio movies.

Broughton has cried foul, saying he was simply trying to draw attention to his independent movie, as many in Hollywood do during awards season.

“They had previews and parties and huge promotion,” Broughton said of the studio campaigns for Oscar-nominated songs from other films, which include box-office hits such as Disney’s “Frozen” and Universal Pictures’ “Despicable Me 2.””We had no budget. There’s no Oscar campaign. All there is is this really stupid email that went out to about 70 people saying, ‘Please look at my song.'”

After sending out its statement Wednesday, the academy offered no further comment on Thursday. But already the story had gained traction, with “CBS This Morning” bringing Broughton on the air and conservative-leaning outlets such as the Drudge Report and the Washington Times setting up a Hollywood vs. Middle America battle.

“Christian Film Stripped of Oscar Nomination,” a headline blared on Drudge.

Even some in Hollywood thought that Broughton, a music personality, longtime head of the music branch and a USC professor, had been given a raw deal.

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Tribute: Pete Seeger

Posted on January 28, 2014 at 8:31 am

We bid a sad farewell to activist/musician Pete Seeger today. He has died at age 94. His songs provided the soundtrack for protest movements over decades, pushing for peace, justice, protection of the environment, equality, and economic opportunity. His songs have been sung and recorded by Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul and Mary, and hundreds of others, including “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)” and “If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song).” He also popularized the songs of legendary performers like Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” and the folk songs of nameless working people who shared their stories and their sorrows in music. Our family used to listen to his albums like Children’s Concert At Town Hall, Folk Songs for Young People and Birds, Beasts, Bugs & Fishes Little & Big: Animal Folk Songs when we drove to school. He was always ready to lend a hand, a voice, and a song to the cause of justice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5G4YPNGnVE

NPR paid tribute to Seeger on his 90th birthday with an outstanding appreciation that is well worth a listen. You can find out more about Seeger’s life, music, and work here, which includes this wonderful exchange from an interview.

AMY GOODMAN: And for someone who isn’t so hopeful, who is listening to this right now, trying to find their way, what would you say?

PETE SEEGER: Realize that little things lead to bigger things. That’s what Seeds is all about. And this wonderful parable in the New Testament: the sower scatters seeds. Some seeds fall in the pathway and get stamped on, and they don’t grow. Some fall on the rocks, and they don’t grow. But some seeds fall on fallow ground, and they grow and multiply a thousand fold. Who knows where some good little thing that you’ve done may bring results years later that you never dreamed of?

May his memory be a blessing and an inspiration and may his songs be sung forever.

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More on Paul Williams

Posted on January 27, 2014 at 9:01 am

If you saw Paul Williams on the Grammys last night and want to know more, take a look at the superb documentary Paul Williams Still Alive. Williams was ubiquitous in the 70’s, both on the music charts and the party scene.

He won Grammys and an Academy Award; wrote many #1 songs; starred in a Brian DePalma movie; put out his own hit records and albums; was a guest on The Tonight Show fifty times; and is the president of ASCAP… and you might not have heard of him. In the 1970’s, Paul Williams was the singer / actor / songwriter that emotional, alienated teenage boys all over the world wanted to be, a sex symbol before MTV, when sex symbols could be 5″2 and sing songs about loneliness with the Muppets.

And then…

Good to have him back.

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