….And That, Darling, Is What Really Happened

I’ve recently rediscovered my love for the animated dark satirical comedy series Monkey Dust. It aired on the BBC for 2 years and 3 seasons from February 2003 until February 2005. I have the first season on DVD (it’s the only one available to buy) and i downloaded season 2 and 3 a few years back. Sadly, the death of co-creator Harry Thompson in November 2005 meant that no further seasons would be made. But we’ve been left with enough dark and crude comedy to keep us laughing away disturbedly at our screens for many years to come.

Obviously, the main reason i love Monkey Dust is it’s ability to make me laugh at some of the more sinister sides of society but it’s not just the comedy side of things. No, it’s the music too. The songs that feature across all 3 seasons range from a variety of different artists and sounds but they all seem to connect and fit perfectly to the scenes they’re chosen for. The music, at times, can come across as a bit bleak and gelid. I suppose that’s the point though…

The intro track however has that little bit of zest.

MP3: Eels – That’s Not Really Funny

Here’s some of my favourites to feature in the show….

MP3: Sneaker Pimps – Six Underground

MP3: Lambchop – Up With People

MP3: Boards of Canada – Melissa Juice

MP3: Air – Sex Born Poison

MP3: Robin Guthrie – Freefall

MP3: Pulp – Sunrise

One of the catchiest songs and one that features in practically every episode spanning the 3 seasons is…

 

MP3; Goldfrapp – Lovely Head

S.I.T Wolf  X

Beautifully Tragic

Last week i watched a film that had been recommended to me by my friend Chris. You may have heard of it, i hadn’t. It’s a black comedy starring Robin Williams called “The Worlds Greatest Dad”. And when i say black comedy i mean very black. It has moments of almost heartbreaking bleakness but most scenes are almost always complimented with a sense of humour that are enough to lighten up the dark side of the story. It deals with a lot of issues, some quite taboo, with a comedic element yet still manages to get it’s point across every time. As for the characters, everyone of them was played to perfection and after watching it i couldn’t imagine any other actors or actresses in any of the roles. They all seemed to fit. That in itself played a big part in how impressive the film was.

All in all it was genuinely one of the best films i’ve seen in a long time. It got an 87% fresh rating on the notoriously hard to please Rotten Tomatoes so that’s good enough for me!

The main point of this post though was to get some tracks up from the soundtrack. The songs match the film and the story to the point of sounding like they were pretty much written for the script. It’s very rarely that happens in my opinion so i got a bit excited when i heard the tracks and searched and downloaded them almost immediately.  One of the most heartbreaking scenes in the film (maybe ever) is the moment Lance (Williams) finds his son………

MP3: Akron/Family Band – Don’t Be Afraid, You’re Already Dead

MP3: The Deadly Syndrome – I Hope I Become A Ghost

MP3: Brendan Benson – Tiny Spark

And as a wee bonus song here’s a song that has nothing to do with the film but fits the concept…..

MP3: My Vitriol – Oh Father

S.I.T Wolf  X

On The Playground Is Where I Spent Most Of My Days

I’m not one for TV theme songs, i don’t watch a lot of programmes never mind listen to the theme songs, my attention span for TV is very short. Basically i bore very easily. There are however a handful of theme songs that i like. Curb Your Enthusiasm being my favourite, closely followed by the chirpyness of Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Then there’s the classic Baywatch one, extra cheese on that.

But this morning a friend informed me of a very unique videos that includes some classic theme songs….

Step forward the talented Fredrik Larsson. A one man theme tune machine.

Here’s the order:-

0:01 Two and a Half Men
0:22 The Simpsons
0:36 O.C
1:00 Naruto
1:11 Family Guy
1:41 Married with Children
1:57 Cheers
2:16 That 70’s Show
2:41 Big Love
2:58 Freaks and Geeks
3:18 Malcolm in the Middle
3:35 X-Files
3:55 Firefly
4:09 The Office
4:24 The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
4:44 Scrubs
4:54 True Blood
5:27 Charles in Charge
5:38 The Big Bang Theory
5:55 How I Met Your Mother
6:05 Mission Impossible
6:14 Friends

Disappointingly though for me he’s missed out doing Baywatch so i’m going to be forced to post the original version myself…….any excuse really.

MP3: Jimi Jamison – I’ll Be There (Baywatch Theme Song)

Also, this is probably a better video than half the Baywatch compilations on YouTube

Hmmm......extra strong cheese? What a song though.

S.I.T Wolf  X

Meet Me In Montauk

Have you ever listened to a song and thought that it totally encapsulates and sums up a film?

I don’t mean a song from a soundtrack though, that’s too obvious. So for example, “Eye of the Tiger” and the Rocky franchise is a no go!  I mean a song that is totally unrelated to a film, one that isn’t on the soundtrack, one that seems to capture that hour and a half or two hours and pour it into 4 or 5 minutes of music.

Well, Thursday, on the way home form work a song came on in shuffle mode on my iPod that just hit me. I’d heard it a thousand times before but this time it just said “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”. So i went home, had a shower, had my dinner (by this time it was 10:30pm) and crawled into my bed and put on my “Eternal Sunshine…..” DVD. I was right. The song IS the film. I’d found the perfect musical version of “Eternal Sunshine”. How did i not realise this before?

The song in question is “The Rudiments of a Spiritual Life” by The American Dollar.

Below i’ve posted MP3’s of the original version and also one that i decided to edit a little. All i’ve done is take a few segments from the film and play them over the intro and the kinda bridge-y part of the song. I think it fits perfectly.

MP3: The American Dollar – Rudiments Of A Spiritual Life

MP3: The Rudiments of a Spotless Mind (S.I.T Wolf Edit)

How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot?
The world forgetting, by the world forget
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Each prayer accepted, each wish resigned

This video montage is worth posting just for Becks cover of “Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime”

I’m interested to know if anybody else has any ideas for songs that you think perfectly captures a film so let me know.

S.I.T Wolf X

Lost Highway

Who shot what? Who killed whom? What time is it?

This is just a collection of songs from one of my favourite films. I watched it for the first time in ages tonight and forgot how good the soundtrack actually is.

Angelo Badalamenti and Barry Adamson where the main contributors to the atmospheric and sometimes disturbing sounds and backgrounds in most scenes but there were more than a few big names from the world of music willing to help out David Lynch when it came to the soundtrack. None more so than Trent Reznor who didn’t just write the short piece “Videodrones: Questions” for the movie but actually went and wrote a brand new Nine Inch Nails song specifically for the film, the song in question being the now legendary cult classic “The Perfect Drug”. I say “cult” classic because even though the song is a fan favourite and was released as a single it’s never been played live by Reznor or the band, hence it’s cult status and unfortunate resignment to being played in nightclubs, rooms and headphones the world over. Oh and Lost Higway obviously.

Other bands/artists who added songs to the soundtrack were Smashing Pumpkins, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Rammstein and Marilyn Manson. I would seriously recommend looking up and buying the OST for Lost Highway, a great collection of tense and eerie music that will take you back into the mood, atmospherics and flashbacks of the film itself. Which is quite ironic given the “reality?/dream?” and flashback themes throughout the film.

MP3: Nine Inch Nails – The Perfect Drug

MP3: Smashing Pumpkins – Eye

MP3: David Bowie – I’m Deranged [Edit]

MP3: Lou Reed – This Magic Moment

MP3: Marilyn Manson – I Put A Spell On You

S.I.T Wolf  X

…lo conoscete, non sono il tipo da andare cercare la difficoltà

I randomly found this overdubbed Trainspotting video on Youtube and it had my sides splitting. I just think its absolutely hilarious to see Begbie going mental in Italian.

MP3s
————–

Iggy Pop – Lust For Life

Heaven 17 – Temptation

Underworld – Born Slippy (Nuxx Version)

Lou Reed – Perfect Day

S.I.T Wolf X

Soundtrack Special

Not much time tonight so just a small post featuring tracks from 5 random films that i enjoy.

Pulp Fiction
MP3: Dick Dale – Misirlou

The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys
MP3: Josh Homme – All The Same

Hackers
MP3: Leftfield (feat John Lydon) – Open Up

The Lost Boys
MP3: Tim Cappello – I Still Believe

28 Days Later
MP3: Grandaddy – Am 180

S.I.T Wolf  X

Legal Aliens

Ok first things first, Jukebox Cinema is a new section were i’m going to be putting up posts about films. It could be a new upcoming release, it could be an old favourite of mine, it could be an absolutely devastatingly bad film that me and my friends have vocally torn to shreds over and over (Cradle of Fear springs to mind) yet still find ourselves somehow drawn to watching it or last but not least it could be just any old film i fancy writing about. So why the jukebox part in the title? Well all the films will be accompanied by mp3’s that are somehow related to them either through subject matter or title so thats where the “jukebox” comes in….

DISTRICT 9

District 9 is an alien/sci-fi film set in a pre-millenium Johannesburg. It’s directed by Neill Blomkamp, you may recognise the name. He was apparently due to make the movie adaption of Halo before the project fell on its arse, so to speak. Its also produced by Peter Jackson (he of LotR fame).

The storyline is pretty simple so i won’t go into to much detail. Aliens land in South Africa, the military and government find them, house them in a Government refugee camp and keep them quarantined from human society in an area called District 9. Then the fun begins….

It’s released over here on the 4th September (next Friday), i can’t wait to go see it.

Mp3’s
1. Blink 182 – Alien’s Exist
2. Monster Magnet – Space Lord
3. Prodigy – Out Of Space
4. Radiohead – Subterranean Homesick Alien
5. Unicorn Kid – Wee Monsters
6. Mogwai – Angels Versus Aliens
7. Spacemen3 – Take Me to the Other Side
8. Muse – Space Dementia
9. Suicide – Spaceship
10. Babylon Zoo – Spaceman

BONUS VIDEO

Postal Service – The District Sleeps Alone Tonight

I was the one worth leaving………

S.I.T Wolf  X