Intrada Soundtrack Forum

1/2/09

Happy New Year to soundtrack fans everywhere! The same goes for non-soundtrack fans, of course, but if you're one of those you're missing out on a really good thing.

The first of our new CDs for 2009 arrived ahead of schedule so we'll go ahead and hit the ground running. It'll be posted here this coming Monday afternoon around 5:15 pm and will start shipping Tuesday morning, January the 6th. It's a Special Collection release from the 1970's. Though I don't think the score's really a grail for most fans, I raced out to see the movie at my local theater on opening day simply because of the composer listed in the credits. And he - my fellow fans - was a legend indeed!

For the out-of-print CD collector, here's good news... maybe! We've just taken in a massive library of rare stuff, assembled over the years by a true hardcore fan and dating back to the start of the CD era. We're talking thousands of CDs. This includes a lot of the genuine all-time rare birds, too! Import collectors will find especially vast riches to choose from. Naturally, the library also includes every one of the limited edition releases from all the various clubs and whatnot. I admit it'll be fun listing some of our own early sell-outs right along with the other gems. Anyway, while we usually don't go eBay on people and milk every dollar possible on used CDs, look for lots of pricey things to appear as we check stuff in.

(I'm even grabbing a few assorted things myself that I skipped back in the days before I started "completing" everybody.)

But back to new releases. After this Tuesday's title, we should be sounding out our usual rhythm of new stuff every two weeks. So the next one will be available on (and probably overshadowed by) Inauguration Day, which will usher in Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. Good news for soundtrack fans and non-fans alike!

1/13/09

I've been reading lots of "top ten" lists. Top movies, top scores, top books, top gadgets, top events changing the world, you name it.

Relevant to movie music, I herewith offer... well, pretty much nothing. I've thought about ten best scores of 2008 but admit I don't readily have ten best scores to mention.

I'm a figure of nostalgia when it comes to lists like this. Everyone will have decades when they made their first big movie music discoveries. I'm no different. To me, that's our first real plunge from being a kid to being a grownup. Discovering movie music! Anyway, my big leap happened during the sixties into the seventies. If you had asked me to name off the best film scores of... say 1966... I'd be telling you about CAST A GIANT SHADOW and THE BLUE MAX and THE SAND PEBBLES and THE CHASE and IS PARIS BURNING and NEVADA SMITH and whatever. You know the drill. Old time collector stuff. Old scores are so much better than new scores and all that stuff.

But maybe it's true. I just can't name a whole lot of scores this last year that truly excited me. Not like "back in '66." I was okay with the new INDIANA JONES music and THE DARK KNIGHT and FROST/NIXON and random others but... it's just not like "back in '66."

But there's always hope. One score really stays with me from this last year. Well, it's one theme actually. "Fon's Theme" from BANGKOK DANGEROUS, by Brian Tyler. I can't put my finger on it but somehow that little theme for piano and strings (with tiny wisps of Thomas Newman and Christopher Young wrapped up in it) felt perfect for the movie. Not the best movie I've ever seen but a watchable one as far as action movies go. But Tyler wrote a beautiful theme for a touching character. I guess it's my top choice for 2008. I don't see it getting any Oscar attention. But some score will, of course. And someone no doubt will make that wonderful leap from kid to grownup because of it.

1/16/09

It gets neglected sometimes but we never forget about the Anything Goes store category. With so many out-of-print CDs having just arrived, we're tossing a bunch of stuff into Anything Goes to make our lives easier. Imports from Japan, Italy, oddball titles, you name it. It's all fair game. There's not a lot of reason or rhyme as to what we're tossing. We just have a lot of CDs in this particular collection and need room for our own stuff.

Speaking of our own stuff, be sure to drop by on Monday at about 5:15 our time. We'll have our newest Special Collection CD posted for ordering: Volume 89 with 2000 copies available. It's beautiful music and comes complete from the original multi-track session masters. Don't miss it!

1/28/09

Mark your calenders. Our next Special Collection release (Volume 90) goes on sale this coming Tuesday, February 3. Staying in rhythm, we'll have Volume 91 out two weeks later, on February 17. After this, we'll probably continue with two releases at a time. We know you have lots of music to choose from these days and we're happy to add our stuff to the menu. Bon appetit!

1/30/09

Here's news you can lose. I'm at it again, writing another film score. Director Scott Birmingham has filmed a cool remake of the classic TWILIGHT ZONE episode called "A Game Of Pool". Intrada's own Jeff Johnson stars as the pool shark, a part originally played by Jack Klugman. On board as well is two-time Academy Award-winning sound wizard Michael Semanick, up for two more Oscars this year with WALL-E and CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON. LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING, KING KONG and THERE WILL BE BLOOD highlight his dossier. For reasons unknown to man or beast, they've asked me to do the score. One thing's for sure. It's great company to be working with! It's a creepy show, of course, so the music will go in that direction.

It'll be a pretty short score. I can't swear we'll release a CD (to the four people who'd want one outside of my family!) since it's so short, but maybe we can re-master HOLLY VS. HOLLYWOOD, add the two cues we left off of that one and throw in this new score as a bonus. We might even be able to make the expanded album actually worth the 2.99 we're currrently asking for it. But I won't swear to that, either!