THE BLANK GENERATION

...blech.

My only fascination with The Oscars is in the get-together that my friends host in which we do an Oscars pool. This year's pot was only $60 for the winner, with $5 going to the last-place finisher. And, for the second year in a row, I finished last. (I didn't take home the money this year, though, as Tim and M both tied me and Tim then beat me on the tiebreaker. Wah-wah.)

Anyway, The Oscars suck. I mean, did anyone listen to those live musical performances and think that any of those songs deserved anything more than a flush down the toilet? I voted for the song from Motorcycle Diaries--which surprisingly won--because I enjoyed the music from that film. But Antonio Fucking Banderas and Carlos Santana went and murdered it dead on stage, holding the actual song hostage for the sake of their vein performance. (On a side note, I thought that the movie's theme, which is used in the film's trailer, was a far more deserving selection. Of course, it's an instrumental song and we all know that folks love them vocals!)

Anyway, my selections for MP3s of the week are taken from soundtracks that I enjoy. I chose songs that are exclusive to the soundtracks themselves. In doing so, I didn't really put much thought into what to select. I passed over Ennio Morricone, who is the Messiah of soundtracks, for the simple fact that you're probably already familiar with his work. Likewise, I passed on childhood favorite Cyndi Lauper and her contribution to The Goonies, "Goonies 'R' Good Enough". (C'mon, it's a great fucking song!)


The sexy Soledad Miranda, star of Vampyros Lesbos.

I selected a variety from the Vampyros Lesbos soundtrack. If that title leaves you scratching your head, it's essentially an erotic thriller, a "A Psycho-Sexadelic Horror Freakout!" if you will. Really, it's an absurd German B-movie from 1971 that's really not worth seeking out. But, the soundtrack is pretty cool. See for yourself. The music was composed by Manfred Hubler and Siegfried Schwab, and it's sort of a mixture of acid-jazz, psychedelic pop and space-age funk. (Note: the record itself features works from Vampyros Lesbos and two other films, and I can't remember if the specific songs that I pulled are actually from VL.)

I'm also featuring two songs from one of my favorite movies of all time, Midnight Cowboy. You're probably already familiar with Harry Nilsson's "Everybody's Talkin'," a cover of a Fred Neil song. But, the remainder of the soundtrack is good, too, including several songs from scorer John Barry.

Finally, here's a couple Brian Eno songs from his album Music for Films, released in 1978. The record is not among Eno's best, as it collects abstract fragments that he used in various (most likely bizarre, homo-erotic) films during the '70s. Unfortunately, the liner notes are worthless in identifying which films the songs were actually used in. But, the songs themselves are the usual instrumental curiosities that we've come to expect from Eno's mid-'70s body of work.

The songs are located in the sidebar to the right.

N/P--Suburban Kids with Biblical Names, #1 EP

This entry was posted on Monday, February 28 at 7:22 PM.

5 Comments:

Ah, I am so glad you chose Vampyros Lesbos cuts for your MP3s of the week - I've wanted to buy the record since it came into my college radio station ten years ago, but once I started looking I found that it is pretty expensive. Or maybe I just got lazy. Anyway, thanks, this is great.

By  Unknown, at 11:32 AM  

This just reminded me that there used to be a weekly party called Vampyros Lesbos in NYC ... also, I love Midnight Cowboy and had been thinking of posting "Everybody's Talkin' at Me" myself.

By  Anonymous, at 11:58 AM  

I'm obsessed with Fred Neil lately. I've bought two of his records in the last month. Hopefully I'll be posting some of his shit this week.

By  Jonathan Wright, at 11:59 AM  

all great choices, even if fred neil's version of everybody's talkin' is actually better (maybe not so atmospheric, though).

By  Phil, at 2:56 PM  

I concur re: Neil. Unfortunately, my vinyl version of his song skips. =(

By  thenoiseboy, at 8:24 AM  

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