Have you ever wondered what a Music Supervisor actually does? Finally someone brave enough to ask the question … and listen to the answer! Meet Scopophilia podcast host Becky Teller, she interviewed me for a 2-part podcast and along with explaining my job, she got me to divulge my Music Supervising influences and dreams for the future. Click on the photo or find “Scopophilia” wherever you get your podcasts.
Rivers Cuomo and Kelsey Grammar Bridge The Space Between
If you have a few hours and a steady supply of martinis I will tell you the story of this film that I have been working on for three years. Short version, I fell head over heels for the script when director Rachel Winter sent it to me, love at first read you might say. The movie features a young guy discovering songs written and recorded 20 years ago by a revered musician who is now off-the-grid. Rivers Cuomo (of Weezer) wrote the songs, Minibar and Kelsey Grammar recorded them in Elliott Smith’s old studio (now New Monkey) with Nick Luca from Calexico. #DreamProject
PS To access the soundtrack, click on the photo. The film is available wherever you rent or buy your digital movies, Amazon, iTunes, etc.
New Amsterdam Admits Luke Sital-Singh
Did you catch the Season 3 finale? Steamy, right? As you can imagine there was quite a bit of discussion about which song would accompany the momentous closing event. Some songs were too emotional, some were not emotional enough. Some were too slow, some were too fast. It was kind of like Goldilocks in the cabin of the three bears. But you know what song was just right? Luke Sital-Singh’s “Honest Man”. Swoon. I highly recommend pursuing all his music, like immediately. I made it easy, just click on the photo below and you’ll be there. He’s the real deal.
Dead To Me Lives
Dead To Me SEASON THREE has started filming. I may or may not have the inside scoop on the season from devouring all of the scripts like the crazy fan music supervisor that I am … I’ll just say … it’s JUICY! No word on Season Three airdates yet, hang in there super-fans.
Sound Of Freedom
This was such a compelling project, I think you’ll understand when you watch the Official Preview released today in conjunction with World Day Against Trafficking in Persons (https://www.un.org/en/observances/end-human-trafficking-day). Watch this spot for release news, no official release date has been set yet: http://www.soundoffreedommovie.com
One Last Thing debuts on Netflix
This sweet film I worked on turned up on Netflix, add it to your watch list!
Indiewire: ‘Casual’ Had the Best Soundtrack of Any Show on TV
I was thrilled that IndieWire wanted to interview me about the music on Casual, and, true confessions, I was EXTREMELY nervous for the interview! I wish the reporter had removed all my ‘ums’ and ‘uhs’. I really try not to talk like that! That said, it was fun to discuss the four wonderful years of working on this show, it was truly a collaborative effort with the producers, directors, writers, and editors, all of whom had amazing musical taste. Like attracts like! Read it here: Indiewire: ‘Casual’ Had the Best Soundtrack of Any Show on TV
Tully Soundtrack Avail
Yes, the gorgeous score AND songs from Tully are released on a soundtrack, digital and vinyl. Liner notes from Jason Reitman!
Read about it on Film Music Reporter
Own/Listen via the links below:
Mr Mercedes Has Launched! Ep 3 Tonight.
This series truly has it all - incredible scripts, Emmy-worthy acting performances, killer directing, oh yeah, awesome music too :) Tonight's episode is mesmerizing, you can find it on the app DirecTV NOW, or on your DirecTV cable Ch. 239, more details here: http://start.att.net/exclusive/audience/mr-mercedes/
New TV Series: Mr Mercedes
Am feeling like luckiest girl in world! Thrilled to be on "Mr. Mercedes", a TV adaptation of a Stephen King detective trilogy, with Jack Bender and David Kelley. "People will come to Mr. Mercedes for the thrills that Stephen King so readily offers and they will stay for the richness and characters,” says Kelley (Big Little Lies), the show’s executive producer.” Full rundown on the show here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2017/06/02/exclusive-sneak-peek-stephen-king-mr-mercedes-series/102393064/
and trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8SM18XrqjQ
Available August 9 to DirecTV subscribers on the AT&T Audience network!
Casual Season 3 Has Launched
Casual Season 3 is under way! We've been working on it since February so am excited that it is finally out in the world (on Hulu). I think you'll find some surprising music choices this season! I love working with Helen Estabrook, Zander Lehman and Jason Reitman on this series because as well as being funny and nice, they always make smart decisions, like hiring my idol Carrie Brownstein (Portlandia, Sleater-Kinney) as one of many stellar directors this season. Oh and what else is Helen up to? Just this: http://variety.com/2017/film/news/portlandia-carrie-brownstein-directing-fairy-godmother-movie-mgm-1202434898/
New Film: TULLY
Jason Reitman + Diablo Cody + Charlize Theron working together again! Not Young Adult 2 but a new story about life told from this trio’s unique, compelling and charming point of view. And lots of killer music because, Jason. Working on this film was a highwire balancing act of creative desire, budget and schedule but I’m happy to say we pulled it off. Can’t wait for you to see it, but I will have to be patient until the Focus Films release date of April 20, 2018!
New Film: Krystal
No word on distribution yet, but summer 2016 was enjoyably spent working with William H. Macy on a film titled “Krystal” that he directed and co-stars in. This is a gem of a film with quirky characters in a small southern town. I adore it and it was fun to work on something primarily score-driven — the score is its own character in a way, representing the south with a special palette of sounds and instruments created by Dan Romer. The film is a bit of a wild ride and the score anchors it in a way that allows the audience to enjoy it but still feel grounded. Yay Dan! More on the film at this link from the Bentonville Film Festival, co-founded by Geena Davis. (testing push to facebook) http://bentonvillefilmfestival.com/artists/krystal-2/
My 15 Seconds of Fame on Mashable
X-Files
The only thing more fun than working on The X-Files? Being interviewed about it by Mashable! Get a little behind-the-scenes on music supervision, including how Chris Carter and Glen Morgan picked music for The X-Files, here.
The X-Files Revival
It's slightly embarrassing that I have not written a post in one year plus two weeks. I have three very good excuses though: X-Files, Casual, Second Chance. These three excellent TV shows took up the bulk of my year, even though two of them are only airing as of January 2016. I won't deny I was thrilled like a giddy schoolgirl when I got the call to work on The X-Files, since I was a fan long before I ever worked in TV. To have been able to work on this series reboot was literally a dream come true, and an honor. I love all the new episodes (although my favorites are definitely "Founder's Mutation" and "Babylon"), I think the writing/directing/acting was all phenomenal and nobody has lost a step in the missing years. Here is hoping for Season Eleven!
Starting this year, I will be sharing all my show playlists at Tunefind.com, I love their interface and being able to interact and answer audience questions. We did not use a lot of music on The X-Files (except in "Babylon", when we went crazy!) but I hope you will go here if you have any questions: X-Files Tunefind page.
(PS in case you've been living under a rock, The X-Files airs Mondays at 8p on Fox until Feb 22.)
2014 Brave Songs: Tricia's Top 35
It was, after all, a wonderful year for music. Which you wouldn't know from the hundreds of discarded CDs littering my office right now. But when they were good, they were very, very good. I was in a radio kind of mood this year so I did a top songs list instead of top albums, but rest assured there is an outstanding album behind each and every one of these songs. I'm even pretty confident in the forthcoming Sleater-Kinney album, and so pleased that picking songs instead of albums allowed me to include their single and say how excited I am about their reunion, album, and upcoming tour. Which brings me to the point that it was a very good year for the ladies. Last year I struggled to include five female singers in my Top 35, but this year no less than eleven gals made my list, easily. Go, girls! Anyway, enough talk, start clicking, and listening, the best way is on Spotify, in order just like a radio show, right here:
2014 Brave Songs: Tricia's Top 35 on Spotify. Or you can look them up on your music player of choice, here they are in alphabetical order by artist
[table colwidth="200|200|200"]Artist,Track,Album, Beautiful Small Machines,Paper Planes,The DJ Stayed Home Aloe Blacc,Chasing,Lift Your Spirit Bishop Allen,Start Again,Lights Out Black English,Leave The Door Wide Open,El Prado BØRNS,10000 Emerald Pools,Candy Rosanne Cash,A Feather's Not A Bird,The River & The Thread Deerhoof,Last Fad,La Isla Bonita Embrace,Follow You Home,Embrace Ex Hex,Waterfall,Rips Fink,Green and the Blue,Hard Believer Flip Grater,Diggin for the Devil,Pigalle Glass Animals,Gooey,Gooey Greyhounds,Whats On Your Mind,Accumulator Jolie Holland,The Love You Save,Wine Dark Sea In-Flight Safety,Blue Flares,Conversation La Sera,Kiss This Town Away,Hour Of The Dawn Hamilton Leithauser,Alexandra,Black Hours Luluc,Small Window,Passerby Stephen Malkmus,Lariat,Wig Out At Jagbags Steve Mason,A Lot of Love,Monkey Minds in the Devils Time The New Pornographers,Brill Bruisers,Brill Bruisers Patrick Park,My Holding Hand Is Empty,Love Like Swords Protomartyr,Ain't So Simple,Under Color of Official Right Sea Wolf,The Waters Wide,Song Spells No.1:C Sleater-Kinney,Bury Our Friends,Bury Our Friends single Spoon,New York Kiss,They Want My Soul Chris Staples,Hold Onto Something,American Soft Strand of Oaks,Goshen '97,HEAL The Sugar Stems,Baby Teeth,Only Come out at Night Tacocat,Alien Girl,NVM Tobacco,Eruption,Ultima II Massage tUnE-yArDs,Wait for a Minute,niki nack TV On The Radio,Right Now,Seeds Tweedy,High As Hello,Sukierae The War On Drugs,Lost In The Dream,Lost In The Dream [/table]
What Streaming Music Left Behind
From NY Times / Dan Brooks: "It's hard to imagine now, but there once was a time when you could not play any song ever recorded, instantly, from your phone. I call this period adolescence. It lasted approximately 30 years, and it was galvanized by conflict. At that time, music had to be melted onto plastic discs and shipped across the country in trucks ... " Full NY Times piece here, "Streaming Music Has Left Me Adrift". And this is why I peruse the NY Times music section from time to time folks - a lovely piece of prose that puts into words what we indie kids of the nineties have lost with the digital music revolution. A must read. Thank you Dan Brooks. And perfectly illustrated by the genius cartoonist Tom Gauld. Now go caress some vinyl.
PS After I wrote this I noticed that there is a lot of criticism about this piece on the internet. I think his critics are missing the point - it's just an amusing take on some things the author misses about the pre-digital music era. I'm not sure why everyone is taking it so personally and/or seriously. Lighten up, people!
U2's Latest Charity: You
from CNET / Joan E. Solsman & Share Tibken: "Apple's iTunes scores U2's new album. You score it free. Every iTunes customer -- more than 500 million people, but who's counting? -- get the band's new album free in what CEO Cook calls the largest record release in music history."Full CNET article here.U2 "Songs Of Innocence"iTunes | Artist Site
This is too big of a story to ignore -- U2 and iTunes are literally giving the entire new U2 album away free to anyone with an iTunes account. Not just a single, no email list signup required, no messy zip file downloading from a band site, no recursive bandcamp authorization emails. I completely see the benefit from U2's side - they can launch a massive tour later this year for their fans that didn't have to think twice about obtaining the new album. Also, they're getting press in publications like Forbes, CNET & WSJ that normally wouldn't cover a new U2 release. For iTunes, I guess its just a huge loss leader to get people to the store. Or maybe U2 even paid out some version of the profit that Apple would otherwise collect on such a huge release. Maybe Apple thinks this will bring in those remaining few holdouts that don't yet have an iTunes account, or maybe they just did it so Amazon wouldn't do it. Hmm that last one seems the most likely!
Here's a Wall Street Journal article that reveals some more of the machinations behind this free release. U2, Apple and the Deal Behind Getting ‘Songs of Innocence’ Free of Charge They mention U2's major label, Universal, but not the publisher, I'm curious what deal was struck there to pay the publisher for the mechanical licenses. Is this a new model for album releases? Only a few bands have the market power to pull this off, and persuade their major label, their publisher and an online distributor to go along with it. Regardless of how much money/benefit all parties made off of the deal (per the WSJ article), I'm impressed that these entities so entrenched in the standard music business model were brave enough to try it. I do think this model can work for baby bands, especially those that are unsigned and retain the rights to their publishing, and many smaller bands do give their music away free on their sites or bandcamp, hoping that translates to fans that will buy tickets and merch when they come to town.
A few last thoughts/notes:
I downloaded the album with surprisingly little hassle--from the front page of the iTunes store, click on the link that says 'Purchased' under the QUICK LINKS menu on the far right side. Then you'll see the album with a little cloud symbol in its top right corner. When you click on that the album will download into your iTunes library. I'm listening to it right now and it's good --better than their last few by a long shot.
The album liner notes have a nice dedication to Paul McGuinness, their long, longtime manager who they parted ways with last year. That's sweet.
Anybody else find it ironic that the liner notes are formatted and typed as though they were done on an old-fashioned typewriter font? That's so dissonant with the most high-tech album release of all time that I've got to think its on purpose.
Since U2 engineered such an impressive feat, can the next thing on their to-do list be to make Tim Cook fix iTunes so that album digital booklets can be viewed within the app? It's so awkward to look at it in a separate Acrobat window. Should be child's play to Apple after pulling this release off.
Remastered Sleater-Kinney Discography, YUM!
From www.sleater-kinney.com: On October 21st, Sub Pop Records will release 'Start Together,' a 3,000-copy limited edition deluxe vinyl box set comprised of remastered editions of Sleater-Kinney's seven studio albums spanning 1995 to 2005. The set will include all seven albums pressed on colored vinyl and is accompanied by a 44-page hardcover book featuring never-before-seen photos of the band, as well as a limited edition print. The remastered albums will be released individually on CD and black vinyl on the same day. All are available digitally today as of September 2nd. Full announcement on the remastered releases here.
This is one of my all-time favorite bands and any fan would want this box set I'm sure! The combination of these three musicians was magical, and the fact that they were women that rocked just like the men made it that much more satisfying. I think I might want the vinyl ... although the CDs would be great too ... cannot wait to browse the photo book!
Sleater-Kinney "Start Together"iTunes | Sub Pop Mega Mart (Fans who pre-order the box set from Sub Pop will receive immediate access to download high-quality remastered files of all the albums.)
Hamilton Leithauser = The Walkmen
Excerpted from NPR's First Listen: Hamilton Leithauser, "Black Hours" by Stephen Thompson: "The singer largely tones down the briskly jangled rush of The Walkmen's sound throughout Black Hours, as he steers many of its songs toward a slow-burning seethe that suits him well. But there's still a looseness to the record that allows Leithauser to play around on new terrain ...". Read the rest of NPR's review here.
I've said before in this very space, don't get too bummed out when your favorite band breaks up because it might lead to something delicious. After seven fine albums with the Walkmen and 10+ years, I don't blame Mr. Leithauser for wanting to try something different. Much of what I loved about The Walkmen is still found in his new work, but its also more intimate and allows for a more profound listen if you give it a chance.
Dig in! Hamilton Leithauser "Black Hours"Amazon | iTunes | Artist Site