Sat 2/9 Midnite: Morricone Youth Playing Rubulad

Little Annie on Morricone Youth, Sun 2/3 @ 2p ET

Little Annie, also known as Annie Anxiety, is a singer, writer, composer, and against all odds, survivor. She is a raconteur and bon vivant. Annie was the resident dub chanteuse for Adrian Sherwood's On-U Label and has collaborated with everyone from Crass to Coil to Antony and the Johnsons. Join Gray Dolores on Morricone Youth this Sunday at 2pm ET for an afternoon of sonic wit and glamour, as Annie will be playing some of her favorite soundtracks - ranging from Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra to music for the films of Spike Lee.

 

 

For more on Little Annie, check her out here.  LISTEN LIVE HERE!

Feb 2/3: Morricone Youth and Django Country Brunchin' Pre-Show

 COUNTRY BRUNCHIN’ with DJANGO and MORRICONE YOUTH.

Country Brunchin’ gets down to our Spaghetti Western roots with the original DJANGO and a live Pre-show all Spaghetti Western music performance by MORRICONE YOUTH!

Mosey on over to Nitehawk the first weekend of every month to get your Southern-style music, movie, and food fix with Country Brunchin’! Each Country Brunchin’ event begins with a thirty-minute set of the sweet live sound of local country bands and is then followed by the most high octane, emotionally moving, six shootin’, car chasin’, down and dirty movies all set below the Mason Dixon line. And did we mention the food? We’ll be serving up a heart-breaker of a Southern menu with items like Chicken Fried Steak every week so tasty you’ll think you died and went to Publix.

Band starts playing at 11:30am, 30-40 minutes before film begins.

DJANGO

Feb 2 at 11:30 am
Feb 3 at 11:30 am
Rating: NR/R
Length: 87 minutes
Director: Sergio Corbucci
Year: 1966
Language: Italian with English Subtitles
Age Policy: 18 and up

Considered one of the most violent films of its time, Sergio Corbucci’s Django is all about revenge and being the ultimate bad-ass. Django, played by the striking Franco Nero, ominously carries a coffin behind his horse as he saves a woman named Maria from bandits, seeks revenge for his wife’s murder, and steals gold from a Mexican fort. The film is worth seeing alone for the cemetery gunfight scene involving Django using the cross of a deceased friend as a trigger substitute for his totally smashed hands.

Thanks to Rocket Rob Patton for the flyerage.

Buy advance tickets here:
http://www.nitehawkcinema.com/series/country-brunchin/

 

TimeOut NewYork's "A Perfect Sunday" Critic's Pick: 

http://www.timeout.com/newyork/things-to-do/country-brunchin

Jan 27: Legendary Songwriter Paul Williams on Morricone Youth [ARCHIVE]

Paul Williams is still alive and guesting on Morricone Youth this weekend!

Listen to the special ARCHIVE on Sunday, January 27 as host Devon E. Levins welcomes triple-threat Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe Award-winning singer, songwriter, soundtrack composer, actor, Tonight Show favorite and squid connoisseur Paul Williams for an exclusive interview and in-depth listen to the legendary lyricist’s storied career in film, television and music.

If you don't know the name, you likely know the face and definitely know the music. Paul Williams is synonymous with the 70's and perhaps best known for Three Dog Night's Old Fashioned Love Song, Helen Reddy's You and Me Against The World, David Bowie's Fill Your Heart and the Carpenters' We've Only Just Begun and Rainy Days and Mondays. His songs have been recorded by such diverse musical icons as Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Willie Nelson, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Curtis Mayfield, R.E.M., Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughn, Johnny Mathis, Luther Vandross, Weezer, My Morning Jacket and Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies.


So why is he guesting on East Village Radio's premier film soundtrack program? Well, for starters, Mr. Williams is is the subject of the entertaining and illuminating new documentary Paul Williams: Still Alive and is being honored this weekend with a concentrated retrospective film series at the prestigious Museum of the Moving Image with some of his most exciting scored films, including the Brian De Palma cult favorite Phantom of the Paradise, Jim Henson's The Muppet Movie, Elaine May's Ishtar and, of course, his new documentary. Williams will be present at all screenings (except the Saturday, January 26 screening of Ishtar).


Yes, this is the guy who wrote Barbara Streisand's Evergreen (Love Theme for 1976's A Star Is Born), Kermit The Frog's Rainbow Connection from 1979's The Muppet Movie (both gracing American Film Institute’s list of the top 100 movie songs of all times) as well as host E. Levins' all time favorite Somebody Super Like You (Beef Construction Song) from 1974's Phantom of the Paradise let alone co-wrote with film composer legends John Williams, John Barry and Jerry Goldsmith. And let's not forget his high profile acting roles such as Little Enos Burdette in 1977's Smokey and the Bandit, the villainous Swan in Phantom of the Paradise, Virgil the genius orangutan in 1973's Battle for the Planet of the Apes and his unforgettable guest appearances on Hawaii Five-O, Police Woman, B.J. and the Bear, Baretta, Odd Couple, The Muppet Show, The Fall Guy, Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show (48 times!), The Gong Show and The Love Boat (oh yeah, he wrote the lyrics to that unforgettable theme song as well).


In 2009, Paul Williams was elected President and Chairman of ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) representing 450,000 current songwriters in collecting their performance rights royalties and has been currently working with Guillermo del Toro to adapt Pan's Labyrinth into a stage musical and collaborating with an undisclosed international dance music sensation on a new album set for release this year (which once revealed, will strangely make sense if one thinks back to the Phantom of the Paradise soundtrack). So yes...Paul Williams is still alive...and is as busy as ever!

Check out the playlist HERE and Mr. Williams' web site HERE.

Jan 20: Listen to Soundtrack Composer Bobby Johnston on Morricone Youth [ARCHIVE]

On Morricone Youth this weekend, host Devon E. Levins welcomed film and television soundtrack composer Bobby Johnston for an exclusive interview and in-depth listen to his music. Listen back to the on-demand archive HERE.

LA-based/NYS-born composer and multi-instrumentalist Bobby Johnston has composed over 25 original film and television scores, including those for Wristcutters: A Love Story, Spooner, No Impact Man: The Documentary, horror director Stuart Gordon's King of the Ants, Edmond and Stuck, and "Splat Pack" director Darren Lynn Bousman's The Barrens and Mother's Day. Emerging in the indie film scoring scene in 2001, Johnston is known for an unconventional approach to film composition using only acoustic instruments and usually performing every instrument himself, with the exception of an occasional instrumental soloist such as Ozomatli trumpet player Asdru Sierra, Big Sir vocalist Lisa Papineau or percussionist Greg Ellis. Johnston has been hailed as "a new voice in film" by Film Score Monthly and his scores have been featured extensively on the radio program This American Life as well as on two of the show's greatest hits CDs. Many of Johnston's scores have been commercially released by La-La Land, Lionsgate, Citadel and Lakeshore Records. 2012 was a busy year scoring four films, including Larry Clark's most recent Marfa Girl which won the Marcus Aurelius award for Best Film at the Rome International Film Festival, while Lakeshore released three of his soundtracks on CD and digitally (No Impact Man: The Documentary, Crazy Eyes and Mother's Day). Learn more by visiting Mr. Johnston's website.

...and the playlist can be found HERE.

Morricone Youth Plays Dances of Vice NYE 2013

Carter Burwell Guests on Morricone Youth, Dec 9 Sunday @ 2-4p ET on EVR

Host Devon E. Levins is excited to welcome one of his favorite film soundtrack composers working today, the acclaimed Carter Burwell live in the studio for an exclusive interview and in-depth listen to his music on Morricone Youth this Sunday at 2pm ET HERE.

With over 80 feature film and television credits, composer Carter Burwell is best known for his longstanding relationship with the Coen Brothers, scoring every film to date (with the exception of O Brother, Where Art Thou?, of course).  His identifiably haunting and brooding style has graced films in nearly every genre, using the occasional big-studio project to finance his work on groundbreaking independent films.  New York City born and bred, Burwell never really considered music as a career while studying animation at Harvard with Mary Beams and George Griffin, electronic music with Ivan Tcherepnin, and independent study at the MIT Media Lab (then known as the Architecture Machine Group).  Upon graduation in 1977, he became a teaching assistant in the Harvard Electronic Music Studio, animated the film Help, I'm Being Crushed to Death by a Black Rectangle, which won first place at the Jacksonville Film Festival and second at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, and worked as Chief Computer Scientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Long Island, where he wrote software for image processing, lab automation and protein analysis.  Simultaneously, he moonlighted in punk and no wave bands for fun including The Same, Radiante and Thick Pigeon with Stanton Miranda (Factory Records) while writing music for dance (RAB, which premiered at the Avignon Festival in 1984) and theater (The Myth Project at Naked Angels in 1989).


A mutual friend referred Burwell to Joel and Ethan Coen for their debut feature, Blood Simple (1984), leading to the kidnapping caper Raising Arizona (1987), his first fully orchestrated work for gangster film Miller's Crossing (1990), groundbreaking Barton Fink (1991), seven-time academy award nominated Fargo (1996) and through to the ten-time academy award nominated western remake of True Grit (2010).  Burwell's workload increased steadily in the '90s as he took on more mainstream projects: Doc Hollywood (1991), Wayne's World 2 (1993), and Airheads (1994), and winning wide acclaim for Rob Roy (1995), kicking off his most prolific period of over 35 films in the next five years including Conspiracy Theory (1997), The Jackal (1997), Gods and Monsters (1998), glam rock chronicle Velvet Goldmine (1998), Spike Jonze's debut Being John Malkovich (1999), and Gulf War epic Three Kings (1999).  Burwell remained in-demand through the 2000's, reteaming with Spike Jonze for Adaptation and Where The Wild Things Are, Julian Schnabel's Before Night Falls (2000) and several installments of the Twilight Saga movie series, while teaching and continuing to compose for dance (The Return of Lot's Wife) and theatre (Cara Lucia, Theater of the New Ear).

Carter Burwell's most recent score was for Seven Psychopaths, a British comedy written, co-produced and directed by Martin McDonagh starring Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Tom Waits and Christopher Walken released in the United States on October 12, 2012.  The film marks the second collaboration between McDonagh and Burwell, following In Bruges (2008).  It's a tale about a struggling writer who dreams of finishing his screenplay, "Seven Psychopaths," only requiring a little focus and inspiration.  His best friend, an unemployed actor and part-time dog thief, wants to help by any means necessary along with a partner in crime, a religious man with a violent past.  For some reason the writer has failed to notice that he is a character in a film of the same name, and that nearly every other character in the film and his life is a psychopath.  Lakeshore Records released the soundtrack digitally on October 23, 2012 via iTunes, with a physical release November 20, 2012. For more information on Carter Burwell, visit his website.

Morricone Youth Live Scores The Adventures of Prince Achmed @ Nitehawk 12/7 and 12/8

Lotte Reiniger • 1926 • 65 Mins. • Germany • English & German Subtitles • Digital

This is a LIVE + SOUND + CINEMA event!
MORRICONE YOUTH play live music & soundscape to the film.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed is boldly innovative in its approach to animation and charmingly in its adaptation of the ancient “Arabian Nights” tales. The rarely-seen animated feature was produced and directed by Lotte Reiniger, one of the very few women animators to achieve international recognition. The film brilliantly invents a variety of remarkable characters, frightening creatures, exotic locations and challenging topographies using silhouettes, providing a unique monochromatic experience which, in its bold simplicity, puts today’s complicated digital animation to shame. The story is rich with wildly imaginative scene. The film also serves up a wonderfully old-fashioned sense of exotica with glorious Arabesque architecture and set designs, and even the characters’ costumes. The film’s artwork is fluid and graceful, spiced with humor. "The Adventures of Prince Achmed" is not only the oldest surviving animated movie, it's a beautifully innovative and enchanting masterpiece.

The last live scoring screenings sold out so buy tickets in advance HERE!

Chess Music For The Moving Image 11/30/12 Philadelphia Museum of Art

Chess Music for the Moving Image: The Queen Stripped Bare By Her Pawns, Even 
November 30, 2012  Performed by: Morricone Youth

"Chess Music for the Moving Image: The Queen Stripped Bare By Her Pawns, Even" is an interactive multimedia performance  of chance in the spirit of composer John Cage and dance choreographer Merce Cunningham performed by MORRICONE YOUTH, a New York City collective dedicated to the music of  film and other visual medias.  Audience members will be invited
to participate in a game of chess that determines the musical progression of reinterpreted iconic French composed soundtracks interwoven with dance performances and video projections based on the movements of the chess pieces.  The performance is inspired by Marcel Duchamp's painted works leading up to and including The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even (1915-1923).  In 1912, Duchamp began to depict  motion and introduce concepts such as "the moving image" into his two-dimensional painted works, influenced by the then emerging new art form known as "cinema."  In 1918, Duchamp took leave from the The Bride Stripped Bare and the art world in general to focus on studying the game of chess before returning to the work in 1920.  In the live and projected chess match, the Bride will be represented by the Queen and the Bachelors by her  Pawns, Knight and Bishop.  

The intersecting work of John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Marcel Duchamp explored the collision between chance, collaboration, and often the game of chess.  The chess game will determine the musical progression of the concert and the movements of the dancers. Matthew Caron and Rebecca Gaffney will create spontaneous visual juxtapositions for each move on the chess board using an array of live cameras, prepared video clips and "ready made" objects curated in the spirit of Marcel Duchamp. This program is offered in conjunction with the exhibition Dancing around the Bride: Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg, and Duchamp, on view October 30, 2012–January 21, 2013. Two time American Women’s Chess Champion Jennifer Shahade emcees.  

_______________________________________________________________

The Bride (Queen) 

 "Un Homme et Une Femme" from Un Homme et Une Femme (1966) 
composed by Francis Lai 

Station Master (Rook) 
"(Where Do I Begin?) Love Story" from Love Story (1970) 
composed by Francis Lai 

Servant/Flunky (Pawn) 

"Ballade of Melody Nelson/L'Hotel Particulière" from Histoire de Melody Nelson (1971)  
composed by Serge Gainsbourg 

Gendarme (Knight)

 "Where Did Our Summers Go/I Don't Know Why" from La Leçon Particulière (1969) 
 composed by Francis Lai 

The Priest (Bishop) 

"Hello Goodbye" from Hello Goodbye (1970) 
composed by Francis Lai 

Delivery Boy (Pawn)

 "La Valse d'Amélie/L'Autre Valse d'Amélie" from Amelie (2001) 
composed by Yann Tierson 

Cavalryman (Pawn)

 "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg" from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) 
 composed by Michel Legrand 

Undertaker (Pawn)

 "Windmills of Your Mind" from The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) 
composed by Michel Legrand 

Busboy (Pawn)

 "Yesterday Yes A Day/First Class Ticket" from Madame Claude (1977) 
composed by Serge Gainsbourg 

Policeman (Pawn)

 "Strip-Tease" from Strip-Tease (1963) composed by Serge Gainsbourg

------------

MORRICONE YOUTH
www.morriconeyouth.com
info@morriconeyouth.com  

Guitar    Devon E. Levins
Bass/Vocals    John Castro 
Keyboards   Dan Kessler 
Tenor/Soprano Saxophone    Fraser Campbell 
Drums/Percussion    Timur Yusef 
Vocals/Accordion    Magda Giannikou 
Live Video Projections    Matthew Caron    Rebecca Gaffney 
Dancers     Medianoche    Ariel Rios 

The Copycat Tribute to Serge Gainsbourg 11/28/12

November 28, 2012
TrashyTravel.com presents
The Copycat Tribute to Serge Gainsbourg
Bands play sets of originals and covers in the back room
DJ Xerox spins all covers up front.
Tonights Bands
Les Sans Culottes-10
Morricone Youth-9
NO COVER
$5 Intoxicated Man Cocktails all night at 

Ottos Shrunken Head

538 East 14 Street, Near avenue B
9 pm to 4 am
L Train to First Avenue

11/18/12 Archive: Lalo Schifrin on Morricone Youth

Photo Credit: Greg Gorman

Listen back to the on-demand archive HERE or via the free EVR Mobile App.

If you are a fan of Morricone Youth, you are a fan of Lalo Schifrin. On this Sunday's special episode, host Devon E. Levins welcomed the acclaimed film and television soundtrack composer, pianist, conductor and arranger for an exclusive interview and in-depth listen to Lalo Schifrin: My Life In Music, the new four-CD boxed set released this week by Aleph Records of music from the legendary composer’s storied career in film, jazz, and classical music.

The boxed-set features music from three-dozen films, jazz and symphonic pieces composed by Schifrin, and unreleased music from films including Charley Varrick, The Beguiled, Joe Kidd and Coogan’s Bluff. Along with over five hours worth of music, a forty-eight page book is included with archival photos and notes.  This release spans music from all aspects of Mr. Schifrin’s career, from the early beginnings of his film music to the big hits that include Mission Impossible, Dirty Harry, Enter The Dragon, Amityville Horror, Bullitt! and Cool Hand Luke.  Also represented is music from his jazz and classical compositions including work commissioned by Dizzy Gillespie, as well as the Grammy-nominated Jazz Meets The Symphony series. The release corresponds with Mr. Schifrin's 80th birthday this year as he continues to work in all three idioms.

Schifrin has written over 100 film and television scores and has been the recipient of five Grammys® (twenty-two nominations), one Cable ACE Award, six Academy Award® nominations and the prestigious Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award as well as a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  Earlier in his career, Schifrin played piano, composed and/or arranged for Argentine tango bandoneón master Astor Piazzolla, jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and bandleader Xavier Cugat's Latin dance orchestra. Beginning In the late 1960s and through 1980s, he maintained a long working relationship with Clint Eastwood, particularly the Dirty Harry films. In the classical composition field, Schifrin has composed over 60 works.  His music is a synthesis of traditional and twentieth-century techniques, and his early love for jazz and rhythm are strong attributes of his style with a tendency to juxtapose universal thoughts with a kind of elaborated primitivism.

Happy 84th Ennio Show 11/11/12 2-4p ET

Tune into your source for all things soundtrack, Morricone Youth, on East Village Radio this Sunday, November 11, 2012 from 2-4p ET, for Morricone Youth's sixth annual tribute to the namesake of the show, Ennio Morricone. Considered as one of the most influential film composers of all time, composing for over 500 films and selling over 40 million records worldwide, Morricone wrote the film scores to such classics as Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns including "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" (1966), John Carpenter's remake of "The Thing" (1982), Brian De Palma's "The Untouchables" (1987) and Guiseppe Tornarore's "Cinema Paradiso" (1988).


Il Maestro turned 84 yesterday on Saturday, November 10. Host Devon E. Levins will be dedicating an entire two hours to his music in his honor.
Listen live or to the archive HERE!

MORRICONE YOUTH Lives Scores "Nosferatu" 10/27 and 10/31

F.W. Murnau • 1922 • 94 Mins. • Germany • Silent/English Intertitles • Digital This is a LIVE + SOUND + CINEMA event! MORRICONE YOUTH play live music & soundscape for NOSFERATU: A Symphony of Horror Our special Halloween presentation of Nosferatu includes a live pre-show where Morricone Youth performs classic horror movie scores to a curated montage of our favorite scary flicks and a costume contest hosted by Nitehawk’s own Kris King - prizes and candy!

Watching Nosferatu is like standing in the same room as death itself. It's a brooding chamber piece of gothic ruminations, occult imagery, and of the flickering light of the world waging a losing battle against the overwhelming darkness. Tod Browning's Dracula may be the more immediately recognized of the two earliest vampire features but it is Murnau's silent masterpiece to which the entire genre—and then some—owes its existence. Count Orlock, as played by the inimitable Max Schreck (literal translation: "maximum terror"), seems to embody death as it exists for all of mankind, simultaneously bringing in his wake a plague that knows not the limits of gender, class, or beauty. That he requires blood to sustain his torturous existence and that people will fall prey to his thirst are givens here. Orlock, more rat than human, only beckons to his bloodthirsty cravings out of primal, instinctive need, like a junkie looking for the next fix, regardless of how much it prolongs their suffering. Truly, there are things worse than death. Morricone Youth is a New York City music collective formed in 1999 dedicated to performing and recording old film and television soundtrack and library production music. In addition reworking soundtrack covers, the band composes original music much in the same vein for the "imaginary film" as well as for live settings to accompany moving pictures. Thanks to Rocket Rob Patton for the flyerage. We recommend buying tickets in advance online HERE as past live score screenings have been selling out.

Dances of Vice: Experiment in Terror, A Classic Horror Film Music Retrospective (1954-1981) 10/26/12 10:30p

Morricone Youth's 50 Years of James Bond Film Music [ARCHIVE]

This month mark's James Bond's 50th anniversary on screen spanning from the release of Dr. No on October 5, 1962 to next week's Skyfall, on October 23, 2012, now the longest running movie franchise in history.  Tune into your source for all things soundtrack Morricone Youth HERE, when host Devon E. Levins spun his favorite Bond scores and theme songs of the past 50 years including rejected scores and a special sneak peak of the forthcoming soundtrack to be released on Sony Classical for Skyfall on November 6, 2012, consisting of original music written by leading film composer Thomas Newman.  And check out the PLAYLIST. 

From Albert R. Broccoli’s EON Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment, Skyfallmarks the debut of distinguished director Sam Mendes in the James Bond franchise.  Daniel Craig is back as Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007, the 23rd adventure in the longest-running film franchise of all time.  In Skyfall, Bond’s loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her.  As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost. The film is produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli and written by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and John Logan.

 

Composer Thomas Newman’s uniquely expressive musical style fits perfectly with the humor and slickness of a Bond movie.  His expressive range goes from thunderous and dramatic for the many action sequences to broodingly atmospheric for scenes in which the dark side of the story, marked by mistrust and fear of betrayal, is at the forefront. With its big orchestral effects, this music is equal to the spectacular events that the movie portrays.  Starting with American Beauty in 1999, Thomas Newman has collaborated on all but one of Mendes’ films.  One of the most respected composers in the film business, he has scored more than fifty feature films and has been nominated for ten Academy Awards®, nine times in the category Best Original Score and once for Best Original Song. He has won a BAFTA, two Grammys and an Emmy, and has also been nominated for a Golden Globe.  Born in Los Angeles, he comes from a prominent Hollywood musical dynasty: his father Alfred Newman, brother David Newman, sister Maria Newman and uncle Lionel Newman all composed music for the movies, and his cousin is the noted singer-songwriter and film composer Randy Newman.

 

Newman’s first major work in movies was in 1984 for Reckless and quickly followed by Revenge of the Nerds.  He composed the scores for Erin Brockovich and The Good German for director Steven Soderbergh, as well as for such acclaimed films as Finding Nemo, The Player, The Shawshank Redemption, Wall-E, The Help and The Horse Whisperer.  Newman has composed for television, including the HBO Miniseries "Angels In America," and the theme for "Six Feet Under," which won him Grammys for Best Instrumental Composition and Best Instrumental Arrangement. 

 

Newman joins the exclusive club of Bond composers, notably John Barry (of course! He composed the 007 Theme no less!), George Martin, Bill Conti, Marvin Hamlisch, Michael Kamen, Eric Serra and David Arnold.  The series has produced a considerable number of classic pieces of cinematic music and signature theme songs such as Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger," "Diamond's Are Forever," and "Moonraker," Nancy Sinatra's "You Only Live Once," Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die," Carly Simon's Noboy Does It Better," Duran Duran's "A View To A Kill," Sheena Easton's "For Your Eyes Only," Tina Turner's "GoldenEye," a-ha's "The Living Daylights," Madonna's "Die Another Day" and, next month, Adele's "Skyfall."

Beasts of the Southern Wild Composer Dan Romer on Morricone Youth, Sunday 2pm ET

On Morricone Youth this weekend, host Devon E. Levins welcomes soundtrack composer, songwriter and producer Dan Romer for an exclusive interview and in-depth listen to his recent score for Beasts of the Southern Wild.  Listen live Sun 2-4p ET or to the archive HERE!

Beasts of the Southern Wild earned the Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic) at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and earned director/co-composer Benh Zeitlin the Caméra D’Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.  Six-year-old Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis) exists on the brink of orphanhood, in a forgotten but defiant bayou community cut off from the rest of the world by a sprawling levee.  Buoyed by her childish optimism and extraordinary imagination, she believes that the natural order is in balance with the universe until a fierce storm changes her reality.  Desperate to repair the structure of her world in order to save her ailing father, Wink (Dwight Henry), and sinking home, this tiny hero must learn to survive unstoppable catastrophes of epic proportions.

 
The soundtrack, heralded “a treasure” by Wall Street Journal, the “year’s best score” by Vulture.com and “major contender for soundtrack of the year” by Indiewire.com/ThePlaylist, was composed by Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin and is currently available via iTunes with a CD release planned for later this year.  Together Romer and Zeitlin created what Variety calls a “resonant score” that “lends real dignity to her [Hushpuppy’s] oddysey.”  “The score was built from the idea that the Bathtub [the fictional setting of Beasts] had its own ‘Auld Lang Syne’ or ‘America the Beautiful’ or ‘We Are the Champions,’” said Zeitlin.  We needed an anthem to express the ferocious, resilient, triumphant mentality necessary to hold out at the end of the world.”  The composers also wanted the film’s score to reflect the point of view of its imaginative young heroine.  Zeitlin continues, "When we made the score, we just thought, What is Hushpuppy thinking about this situation? Let's make music that would reflect what she thinks about what's happening," he said. "If we tried to score it from anybody else's point of view other than Hushpuppy's, it fell flat."  In addition to the original score, the composers searched for a Cajun band that could evoke the particular sound of the Bathtub, full of both verve and tradition. They found that in the Lost Bayou Ramblers, a Grammy®-nominated local group from Pilette, Louisiana.  The legendary band combines the heritage music of their native Southern Louisiana with contemporary twists of rockabilly, punk and swing. 

Working towards a shared vision is not new to Zeitlin and Romer, who have a history of collaboration.  Queens-born and raised Zeitlin was working on his short film Egg when he first met Romer, who engineered the film score for the short.  The next year the two collaborated to co-compose the music for Ray Tintori’s award winning short Death to the Tin Man.  The two also wrote the score for Zeitlin’s short epic Glory at Sea.  “I think Benh intentionally leaves parts of the film for music to fill in,” described Romer.  “And that’s a great way to work – to think that a piece of art isn’t complete until every single creative part is there.  If the film made sense without the music, then the music would be superfluous.”
   

 
In his Brooklyn studio, Dan Romer has produced albums for an array of artists such as Ingrid Michaelson, Jenny Owen Youngs, Ian Axel, He Is We, April Smith, Lelia Broussard, Cara Salimando and Jukebox The Ghost. Listen live starting at 2pm ET on Sunday through this link or via the free EVR Mobile App for iPhone and Droid.

NYC Comic Con Party @ Le Poisson Rouge Tonite

Dances of Vice will be celebrating the golden age of pulp scifi at this New York Comic Con afterparty featuring live music by Morricone Youth, gogo dancers from Mars, and giveaways by Singularity & Co Books! All this followed by a special Disko Nouveaux set from 1-4AM with DJ PUREVILE!

Dress Code: Cosmobabe Realness, Spider from Mars, Retro-future Glamour, Time Travel Chic, etc.

The Gallery at LPR, 158 Bleecker St NYC, 21+

Tickets:$8 in advance, $10 doors
Disko Nouveaux FREE after 1AM!

http://pulpscifi.eventbee.com/

Soundtrack Composer Nathan Johnson Guests on Morricone Youth [ARCHIVE]

Check out this edition of Morricone Youth ARCHIVED HERE where host Devon E. Levins welcomed film soundtrack composer and The Cinematic Underground frontman Nathan Johnson to the program for an exclusive interview and in-depth listen to his music.

As a composer, producer, art director, and songwriter, Nathan Johnson's innovative film scores and hybrid media performances have consistently blurred the lines between stage, screen, music, and narrative. Best known for his unconventional work in film and music, Nathan favors modified, organic instrumentation combined with unique approaches to recording and performing. Nathan Johnson’s creative partnership with writer/director (and cousin) Rian Johnson started when the two were children and has continued throughout their professional lives. Beginning with the critically acclaimed score for their first feature collaboration, Brick, Nathan and his team used and abused a variety of household implements including dinner settings, filing cabinets, cheese graters, and radiators. Any real instruments that were included in the soundtrack were horribly misused: pianos were bolted and tacked, double basses were beaten with mallets, and tuned wine glasses were re-purposed in place of a string section. After developing this "junkyard orchestra", Nathan went on to produce and compose the scores for Rian Johnson's second film, The Brother’s Bloom, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Morgan M. Morgansen series, and the forthcoming Melanie Laurent feature Et Soudain, Tout Le Monde Me Manque, among others.

 Rian Johnson's third film, Looper starring Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt, is perhaps Nathan's most unique score to date, featuring a host of indecipherable instruments along with intertwining rhythms and textures. In preparation for the project, Nathan began gathering a wide range of field recordings and then he and his team created a sort of playable, hybrid found-sound orchestra using those original recordings. The results were combined with live strings and horns to produce deep textures featuring pitched industrial fans, tuned treadmills, and a wide range of intricate rhythmic elements — all looping and cycling on themselves at various speeds.

Nathan continues to compose and produce while fronting The Cinematic Underground, a sprawling artistic collective known for mixing visual art with performance and found-sounds. He is part of the atmospheric pop band Faux Fix, and has produced a variety of independent artists while acting as a concert developer and live show consultant for a number of bands. When he is not creating music, he works as an art director with The Made Shop, a boutique design firm that specializes in graphic and architectural projects. Learn more by visiting www.nathanj.com.

Morricone Youth Live Scores The Adventures of Prince Achmed @ Nitehawk 9/28 and 9/30

 

Lotte Reiniger • 1926 • 65 Mins. • Germany • English & German Subtitles • Digital

This is a LIVE + SOUND + CINEMA event!
MORRICONE YOUTH play live music & soundscape to the film.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed is boldly innovative in its approach to animation and charmingly in its adaptation of the ancient “Arabian Nights” tales. The rarely-seen animated feature was produced and directed by Lotte Reiniger, one of the very few women animators to achieve international recognition. The film brilliantly invents a variety of remarkable characters, frightening creatures, exotic locations and challenging topographies using silhouettes, providing a unique monochromatic experience which, in its bold simplicity, puts today’s complicated digital animation to shame. The story is rich with wildly imaginative scene. The film also serves up a wonderfully old-fashioned sense of exotica with glorious Arabesque architecture and set designs, and even the characters’ costumes. The film’s artwork is fluid and graceful, spiced with humor. "The Adventures of Prince Achmed" is not only the oldest surviving animated movie, it's a beautifully innovative and enchanting masterpiece.

The last live scoring screenings sold out so buy tickets in advance HERE!

The Lounge Lizards' Evan Lurie Guests on Morricone Youth [ARCHIVE]

On the September 16, 2012 edition of Morricone Youth, Devon E. Levins welcomed film and television soundtrack composer and founding member of The Lounge Lizards Evan Lurie for an exclusive interview and in-depth listen to his music. In addition to his twenty year tenure in The The Lounge Lizards and releasing three solo albums, Evan Lurie has composed music for over 30 films and television programs including Steve Buscemi's Trees Lounge, Interview and Lonesome Jim, Cindy Sherman's Office Killer, Roberto Benigni's Johnny Stecchino and Il Mostro, Stanley Tucci's Joe Gould's Secret, Philip Seymour Hoffman's directorial debut Jack Goes Boating and four seasons of Nickelodeon's The Backyardigans. Notably each of the 77 episodes of The Backyardigans introduced children to a completely different musical genre.

Evan Lurie previously gained renown as the pianist of The Lounge Lizards formed in the 1970's in the Lower East Side recording nine albums and performing internationally through the late 1990's. Lurie composed some of the band's most memorable songs. His second solo album, Pieces of Bandoneon (1987) was commissioned as the soundtrack to Japanese yakuza film Chochin and his third, Selling Water by the Side of the River (1990), included tracks originally composed for Benigni's Il Piccolo Diavolo soundtrack. His subsequent album on John Zorn's Tzadik label, How I Spent My Vacation (1998), consists of pieces Lurie wrote for many smaller budget films such as Trees Lounge and Danny Leiner's Layin Low, and performances by many of his Lounge Lizard cohort from various incarnations.

The ARCHIVE can be heard HERE and the playlist viewed HERE!