INTRADA Announces:
MEET THE APPLEGATES
Composed and Conducted by DAVID NEWMAN
INTRADA Special Collection Volume 123
Meet the Applegates was so funny and crazy...everything’s on hyper-speed with a lot of notes, and a lot of surface textures. And I was like a kid in a candy store with all of that kooky Latin stuff to play around with.
-- David Newman
In this volume of the Intrada Special Collection, Intrada presents the premiere release of composer David Newman's hyper-kinetic score to the 1989 film Meet the Applegates. Having already scored such satiric monster films as Critters and The Runestone, Newman responded to Michael Lehmann’s B-movie allusions with aplomb. Many of the themes and instrumental approaches heard in Newman’s Applegates score would spring from its “Main Title” sequence, which uses a two-part melody to get across both the “crazy insect” and Latin approaches, topped with a rampaging, yet playful orchestra. But in this cue the monster is man: machinery is ripping apart the Amazon, as the Samba rhythms of the Cuica and Ratchet mix with subtle electronics, conveying animal-like hoots.
The subversive, one-of-a-kind premise for Meet the Applegates was written by Michael Lehmann and Redbeard Simmons and concerns the nefarious plans of the Applegates—actually giant preying mantises from the deepest Amazon— who decide to strike a blow against the humans destroying the rain forest. Taking a page from the children’s social primer “Dick and Jane,” the Applegates infiltrate the Ohio suburbs. It isn’t long before the Applegates fall prey to such warm-blooded vices as adultery, pot smoking and credit card addiction. Embodying the Applegates in human form are Ed Begley Jr., Stockard Channing, Bobby Jacoby, Cami Cooper, and a cross-dressing Dabney Coleman. The cast’s comic abilities were augmented by David Newman’s score, bridging the story’s outrageous and subtle humor. Of all of The Applegates’ odd ball characters, Newman took a particular shine to their gruff, cross-dressing master. "The crazier my music for Meet the Applegates was, the better it worked,” Newman concludes. “Of all the scores I’ve done, this remains one of the most enjoyable listening experiences for me. Every time I think of Dabney Coleman in woman’s clothing, I crack up.”
INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 123
Retail Price: $19.99
AVAILABLE 2/16/2010
For track listing and sound samples, please visit
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.6486/.f