Daily Jam - Mussolini's Exit

I'm lounging at a hill country resort with my family for the next couple of days before my work schedule gets crazy.  Sip a cocktail with me and toast to the death of a fascist with Alvarius B's cover of Ennio Morricone's "Mussolini's Exit."  Check it out below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - The Endless Game

I could seriously listen to Ennio Morricone's film scores all day everyday.  It's all just so good.  Anyway, here's the Maestro's moody theme to the 1989 TV serial "The Endless Game."  Check it out below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam (October Edition) - Bambole

Here's some music from the Maestro Ennio Morricone from the 1974 giallo "Spasmo."  Listen to the haunting and melancholy "Bambole" below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Orca Main Theme (Vocal Version)

It's going to be a long day.  It's already been a long day.  I've been up and working since 4am, and will probably continue to do so until late into the night.  But for the next few moments, i'm going to listen to the somber sounds of Ennio Morricone's vocal version of the main theme from the film "Orca."  Check it out below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - L'uccello dalle Piume di Cristallo

This column was originally published right before Halloween in 2018.

I’m going to be out of the office next week, right during my most favorite time of the year, and so it seems like today is the day for a Halloween-themed entry into the annals of songs I ceaselessly entertain myself with. Halloween has long been my favorite holiday, the combination of autumn weather, horror movies, ghosts and ghouls, pumpkin ales, and adolescent debauchery being things I would take in full time if it were so possible. And I used to pride myself on my costume effort before the boys came along and the focus shifted to them instead. Some of my past disguises include:

    - Kurt Cobain

    - Hunter S. Thompson

    - Token Goth Guy

    - Shaggy from Scooby-Doo

    - Edgar Frog (Corey Feldman from The Lost Boys)

    - A Mad Scientist

    - A Bear

    - A Werewolf

    - Courtney Love

And for my sons:

    - Chewbacca

    - Freddy Krueger

    - Ash (from Evil Dead)*

    - A White Tiger

    - A Vampire

    - A Skunk

This year, it’s looking like I’ll be repeating the werewolf, my wife as a witch, and my boys as ninja and some cartoon character named Catboy respectively.

Anyway, what I’m getting at here is that I love, love, love Halloween and everything that comes with it. But let’s get to the music.

From a man who really needs no introduction and whose catalog of work has been inspiring me for years and years and years, Italian Maestro Ennio Morricone’s score for Dario Argento’s directorial debut, 1970’s The Bird with The Crystal Plumage, ranks as one of my all time favorites. Though he’s most well known for scoring spaghetti westerns, Morricone actually provided the soundtrack to quite a few giallos as well, utilizing his usual penchant for combining and mixing styles into something uniquely his own. The Bird with The Crystal Plumage is no different, shades of psychedelia and choral harmonies crafting a surreal and unnerving tapestry of sound, and very notably so on the haunting “L'uccello dalle Piume Di Cristallo.”

So let’s all enjoy some wonderfully eerie music from a master of the craft and take in these last few days of the Halloween season before we have to wait all over again. Watch a scary movie. Eat some candy. Carry out that murder you were thinking about. And have a Happy Halloween (even if it's still June).

*That one is quite possibly my masterpiece.

Daily Jam - Chi Mai

Way back in the olden times, when I was still in film school, my favorite classes were the screenwriting ones. More than courses on the business side, or the production side, or the technical side of the industry, my heart and soul fell in with taking the movie in your head and putting it down on paper. These classes really piqued my interest in writing in general, and I am forever grateful for that. This was probably the point in time where my writing habits became completely and utterly ingrained in my brain. To be clear, I’m not saying they’re good habits, but they’re my habits, and I’m just going to go with them: getting lost in my own headspace while staring at a screen, waiting for everything to click and spew forth in an unending stream, music forever blasting in the background. That last one is probably the biggest one. I listen to music on the regular for most of the day, everyday, but especially when I get into writing mode. And that music inevitably affects what I leave on the page. Many a fictional scene has been scored to whatever is on my stereo at the time…and a couple of them are actually good.

Italian film score composer Ennio Morricone’s “Chi Mai,” taken from the soundtrack to 1971’s Maddalena, served as the background to one of my favorites. I won’t bore you with the particular setup details, but the film scene I envisioned involved two old friends fighting to the death, our protagonist finally getting the upper hand and choking the life out of his former comrade, all while the beautiful strings of “Chi Mai” float in the air around the two.

I have done this a hundred times with all kinds of music and songs, pop or otherwise, but the cinematic nature of The Maestro’s compositions just lends itself to writing movie scenes. They were all intended to be used in films after all.

Morricone’s music has made a pretty big impact on me going back about fifteen years or so. I had always been aware of him, being as the man is responsible for some of the most iconic film scores ever put to tape, but I didn’t really appreciate his art, or later become somewhat obsessed with it, until I listened to two albums. One of those albums is the score to Sergio Leone’s 1968 masterpiece Once Upon a Time in the West, a record so haunting and beautiful and perfect as to be one of my favorites of all time. The other is saxophonist and experimental jazz composer John Zorn’s 1986 Morricone cover/tribute album, The Big Gundown: John Zorn Plays the Music of Ennio Morricone, a quirky record of stripped, warped, and/or frenetic versions of classics by The Maestro. These two records began my Morricone fanaticism, an obsession that continues to endure, whether it be by procuring old records, influencing the songs I write and record, or serving as the unofficial soundtrack to so much of what comes out of my head. “Chi Mai” is just one example.

So, put a little bit of Morricone in your life. You deserve it.

Listen below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam (October Edition) - Desolation (Main Theme)

It's October 1st, which means the countdown is on for Halloween...goblin time.  To kick things off, here's Ennio Morricone's main theme from John Carpenter's "The Thing," "Desolation," our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Ninna Nanna Per Adulteri

Ennio Morricone's body of work is so vast that there are a significant amount of films i've never seen (and most likely will never get a chance to see) that he provided the scores to.  So i don't know the original context in which the beautiful and dreamlike "Ninna Nanna Per Adulteri" played, what kind of scene it underscored.  But i think that's okay because it's a wonderful piece of music all on its own.  Listen below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Un Amico

Every now and then, i'll be watching some '70s Italian crime flick, and i'll hear a segment of the film's score and know that i've heard it somewhere before.  Generally, it's either because it's Ennio Morricone or it was used by Tarantino in one of his films.  In the case of "Un Amico" from the 1973 film "Revolver," it was because of both.  Anyway, it's a great piece of film music.  Listen below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - The Endless Game

I really could sit around and listen to Ennio Morricone all day long.  I could, but i've got stuff i have to do, so let's at least just get a little fix with the Maestro's theme from the British TV movie "The Endless Game."  Check it out below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Main Theme from Macchie Solari

Anytime is a good time for some music from The Maestro, work or play.  Morricone scored all manner of movie during his long career, and some of his most beautiful pieces ended up in some very violent and weird films.  Here's his "Main Theme from Macchie Solari," also known as "Autopsy," our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - La Califfa

Feeling some Morricone this morning, so here's the Maestro's theme from "La Califfa," our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam (October Edition) - Regan's Theme

"Exorcist II" is...not very good.  It's actually kind of fascinating though because it's so bugshit crazy.  But one thing that works for it is the score from Ennio Morricone.  Here's the haunting and beautiful "Regan's Theme," our Daily Jam.

Noveller Covers Ennio Morricone

LA experimental artist Noveller just released a cover of Ennio Morricone's theme from "The Thing," a tribute to the late Maestro.  Check it out, in all its ominous, paranoid glory, below and get it here.

RIP Ennio Morricone

Legendary Italian film score composer Ennio Morricone passed away this morning at the age of 91.  Over the course of his long career, The Maestro provided soundtracks to over 500 films.  The body of work is immense and all worth listening to.  He pretty much invented the modern film score and defines genres like the Spaghetti Western and Giallo.  There's a lot of stuff to listen to today.  I'll probably start with my proper introduction of "Once Upon a Time in the West."  RIP Ennio Morricone.  RIP Maestro.

Daily Jam - The Sicilian Clan

If anything is going to help get me through all this, it's Morricone.  Here's the theme from "The Sicilian Clan," our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Giu La Testa Main Theme

I probably listen to something by Ennio Morricone everyday, the Maestro's immense body of film score work being one of my very favorite things.  Today is no different.  So let's listen to the Main Theme from Sergio Leone's "Giu La Testa," AKA "Duck, You Sucker," AKA "A Fistful of Dynamite," your Daily Jam.

Some Record Store Day Recommendations

So, this Saturday is the day.  And while i don't get nearly as stupid as i used to, i still take the day off of work so i can go wait in line outside of a record store at the ass crack of dawn.  So i guess i'm still kind of stupid.  That being said, here are 5 releases slated for this year's Record Store Day that are on my "must procure" list, that should be on yours too.

1. Lulu - "Heaven and Earth and the Star" LP
This cool reissue of the Scottish singer's 1976 album features her "Man with the Golden Gun" Bond theme and a couple of David Bowie covers, of which Bowie himself produced and appeared on as instrumentalist and backing vocalist.

2 Demon Fuzz - "I Put a Spell on You" 7"
British afro-rock band Demon Fuzz only released a couple of albums and a single in the '70s, all of which are amazing and expensive, so i'm pretty stoked to be able to finally afford one, and it's a Screamin' Jay Hawkins cover to boot.

3. Ennio Morricone - "Autopsy" OST LP
So, the fantastic Arrow Films also releases records, and this one is for a weirdo horror movie scored by the legendary Ennio Morricone.  Sold.

4. King Black Acid - "Sunlit" 2LP
Originally released in 1996, Portland artist King Black Acid's second album features 3 epic tracks of sprawling, psychedelic '90s space rock, and this is its vinyl debut.  Hooray!

5. The Black Lips and The Khan Family - "Play Safe" 12"
Some collaborative garage rock from The Black Lips and The Khan Family, so you know King Khan will be there, and his daughter Saba Lou too.  This record should be killer.



So there you go.  Be sure to check out releases from The Flaming Lips, Brian Eno and Kevin Shields, Tom Waits, S U R V I V E, and more, more, more...

Arthur Vint & Associates

If we're all honest, there's really nothing much better than Ennio Morricone's film scores.  I could listen to the Maestro all day, everyday, and still be consistently blown away by his body of work.  That being said, it's also pretty cool to hear other artists' take on the great composer.  Brooklyn based drummer Arthur Vint gives us a groovy country-jazz collection of Morricone jams on his latest album "Death Rides a Horse," taking on songs from "The Man with No Name" trilogy as well as "Once Upon a Time in the West."  Listen to "For A Few Dollars More" below and pre-order the album here via Ropeadope.

Ennio Morricone - The Hateful Eight

Film music nerds everywhere had their heads explode (mine included) a few months ago when it was announced that the legendary composer Ennio Morricone would be supplying new music for Quentin Tarantino's upcoming western "The Hateful Eight."  And now we have our first taste.  Listen to "L'Ultima Diligenza di Red Rock" below and pre-order the album from Third Man.