various artists - Tromeo & Juliet (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

When I saw the other day that James Gunn had yet another movie open #1 at the box office, I was reminded, yet again, that he made his bones writing "Tromeo & Juliet", Troma's beloved take on Shakespeare. So it led me to bust out this shiny slab of aluminum. I bought it b/c Troma and Unsane, I kept it b/c Motörhead and Superchunk and Meatmen and Wesley Willis. Hell, they even managed to wedge a song from Gunn's band, the Icons, on here.

This is not going to show up on a listical of iconic 90s soundtracks. But I'd suggest that it should be recognized as part of the canon. While there's little here that is exclusive to the soundtrack, it does offer a wide swath of "alternative" rock from the late 90s, from a deep cut from Sublime to music from the Ass Ponys and Supernova. Plus: Brujeria!

Discogs

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various artists - Hairspray (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

It's dawned on me that I probably underrate "Hairspray" as a movie, almost certainly on account of what it became. I still can't believe that there was a successful musical adaptation of a John Waters movie, yet here we are. I think my niece auditioned for Traci Trunblad last year. It's a weird world. Thankfully.

The musical makes me mad because there isn't nearly enough Toussaint McCall or Gene Pitney or Barbara Lynn. There are a bunch of theatre kids singing about acceptance, I guess. Which is all well and good, but nothing equivalent to "The Bug".

John Waters soundtracks are the shit, is what I'm saying. I like this one so much, I own copies on vinyl, CD, and cassette. And I'd probably buy it on 8-track if it'd come out in that format.

Discogs

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various artists - Good Vibrations: A Record Shop, A Label, A Film Soundtrack

It's a quiet Sunday, the first weekend of April, here in the PNW, a bit rainy and grey. A wonderful day for laundry, the Criterion Channel, and a bit of light blogging. We're back in the saddle again, picking up where we left off with this, the soundtrack to a documentary about one of the all-time great shops/labels/institutions, Belfast's Good Vibrations. And while I've not seen the doc, this is one I couldn't leave behind on the Central Coast last winter when it crossed my path at $7.

Is it nitpicky to ask why Protex isn't here? Yeah, it is, but "Don't Ring Me Up" was G.V.'s sixth release. Its absence seems a bit pointed. But I can't find any fault with what was compiled here. A mix of Good Vibrations releases ("Teenage Kicks", "Big Time", "Just Another Teenage Rebel"), inspirations (Bert Jansch, Bowie, Niney The Observer, the Shangri-Las), and contemporaries (S.L.F., the Saints, Suicide) make for a really great record of what made the shop so special in its relatively short life.

Discogs

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various artists - Screwed (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

I'll never quite wrap my head around Atlantic distributing Amphetamine Reptile back in the mid-90s, and this record is evidence I'll present to support my argument. Sure, Helmet made some serious inroads with the kids of 1995, but I'm not sure who thought Hammerhead or Cows were a fit alongside Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin, and Foreigner. It's so perverse; I kind of love it.

And speaking of perversity: here's the soundtrack to a documentary on New York publisher and pornographer Al Goldstein entitled "Screwed". It makes sense to have a bunch of AmRep luminaries provide the score to such a downer of a movie. Halo of Kitten (a collaboration between Halo of Flies and Free Kitten) and the Melvins offer alternate views on porn: one likes it, the other hates it. There's tracks from Guv'ner and Big Chief and Boss Hog and the almighty Mudhoney, all XXX-themed and just rightly written to play behind a view of a porn king's crumbling empire.

Discogs

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various artists - A Dirty Shame (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

I'd had this idea once that I would gather all the soundtracks from John Waters' filmography, and post them here, along with my thoughts on the film and sounds. Clearly, I've not followed through until now, and I don't think I'm going to do it, but better to disclose, I suppose.

This is, at this late date, the final feature from the Baltimore auteur, a development that makes me sadder every single day. While a lot of folks don't think highly of "A Dirty Shame", I like it just fine. I love the ongoing images of Tracy Ullman manning the register at a High's Dairy Store, Johnny Knoxville hanging out on Harford Road, Selma Blair flouncing about northeast Baltimore. By the time this came out, I had a few friends who'd bought houses out where this was shot. I still lived downtown, so I took joy in calling them neutersm teasing them for finding housing outside the Beltway.

"He who fucks nuns/will later join the church," the saying goes. And the author types it up in a comfy suburban apartment, overlooking a pool turning green in the fall's light.

The soundtrack reflects Mssr. Waters' taste to a T; a mix of rockabilly, jump blues, rhythm & blues, novelty cuts, and early rock 'n' roll. James Intveld's score gets represented with "Let's Go Sexin'"; fine advice, if I've ever heard it. It's all enough to make a Balmer boy miss home, to lust for a RoFo 2-piece and a roll, a trip to Sherri's Showbar, some late night hangs Holiday House.

Discogs

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various artists - Slaves Of New York (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

What do you think it was that lead to pay a penny (plus $1.75 S&H!) to bring this home? I've never seen the Merchant-Ivory film to which this provides the soundtrack. The only artist here I love is Iggy, and I didn't need to snag this to have "Fall In Love With Me". I don't stan P.I.L. or Boy George, and Maxi Priest & Ziggy Marley are low on my list of reggae artists I'm interested in.

That leaves a weird mix of songs that made for a nice surprise. "Buffalo Stance" broughr back memories of my first Walkman, playing the hell out of Neneh Cherry and Public Enemy and DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince before I needed to use deodorant regularly. "Good Life"? Only one of the all-timer house cuts, from one of the Belleville Three. There's a pair of Arto Lindsay tracks here, both derived from the second Ambitious Lovers record. With guest spots from Vernon Reid and John Zorn, these are a duo of pretty awesome mid-80s downtown tracks, the sort of which you'd NEVER see on a major label release these days. The whole thing wraps up with a cut from French new wavers Les Rita Mitsouko, a curiousity the likes of which I found most welcome.

That Dalmatian on the cover looks like it aims to misbehave. What a naughty dog.

Discogs

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various artists - Amateur Soundtrack - A Film By Hal Hartley

"I am a star / A Hal Hartley movie / I read my lines / Straight faced in the mirror"

 Kind Of Like Spitting, "Your Favorite Actor"

Here's another Matador soundtrack from the mid 90s, this time from Hal Hartley''s fifth film, 1994's Amateur.

Does it feature Martin Donovan? You bet it does.

Is Parker Posey in it? She is not.

It does star Isabelle Huppert, a secret crush of mine, as an ex-nun named "Isabelle" who gets wrapped up in criminal hijinks spining out of her new career as a pornographer.

Did you get all that? I was told recently I had a way with log lines, but I dunno.

This is one of the places where Liz Phair, My Bloody Valentine, and the Jesus Lizard could comfortably rub elbows back in those days. And I find the Ned Rifle/Jeffrey Taylor score to be a pretty great appendix to what would have otherwise been a decent Lollapalooza 1995 sampler.

8/10. Now go watch the movie. You're going to have to find a physical copy, tho; it's ain't on streaming here in the States.

Discogs

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various artists - Kids In The Hall: Brain Candy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Matador put out more than a few soundtracks over the years, and even though I loved this movie and have made a fuckton of references to Death Lurks and "I'm Gay", I hadn't owned this one until this year. It makes sense; I'm pretty sure there are only four original songs from the film here, a few of the Kids' Canadian buds, along with a layer of contemporary Matador sounds from their Atlantic days.

I feel like this should have come out on, I dunno, Sudden Death or Arts & Crafts or Attic? Some established Canadian label, replacing Liz Phair with Sarah McLachlan and GbV with...Cub? Really lean into the Canuckness.

Discogs

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various artists - You've Just HEARD The Movie, Now Hear This...Hype!

This one had been sitting in a box for about 22 years before I finally whipped it out and ripped it. A promo-only sampler, timed to release in alongside the VHS of Doug Prey's "Hype!", it's five recent cuts from Sub Pop artists. I probably snagged it for the Murder City Devils track; I held onto it for the cover, the simplicity of which still really appeals to me. Not being able to say much about the other four artists on this 5" disc, I guess I should throw this onto my phone and give it a spin in the car.

The sale of this piece is prohibited.

Discogs

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various artists - The Sound Gallery Volume Two

Remember back when I said I was going to post all the Scamp reissues I owned? And then I did no such thing? And I became what is known affectionately the world around as "a liar"?

That was a good time.

Clearly, Rome was not built in a day, and lies cannot be rewound, only countered. Here's my piddling effort, a swing to make things right for your Monday. This is Volume Two of the two-volume Scamp series "The Sound Gallery". Why not Volume One first, you might ask? Well, Volume One lives on a hard drive that I cannot currently find. So Volume Two is what you get.

What you get here is a wealth of late 60s through mid 70s film scoring/library music/lounge music/songs for the swapping set. Were you born too young to throw your keys into a bowl at a party? Does the word "Eurosleaze" evoke clear images for you? Do you crash YouTube looking for four-episode ITV adventure series? Then this here is your soundtrack.

Discogs

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various artists - Ren & Stimpy: You Eediot!

I told them I would shoot, but they didn't believe me.

Why didn't they believe me?

Discogs

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Yusuke Homma - Fushigi Yûgi・ Original Soundtrack

Not a compilation, per se, but it's a pretty cool find, features multiple performers of Yusuke Homma's score, and this is my blog, not yours. So it's allowed.

Mrs. Ape, the Mummy Mommy, has been revisiting a lot of anime in recent months. And I manage to turn up a lot of Taiwanese grey-market soundtracks out in this part of the country. Put it all together, and she's thrilled whenever I show up with the music from one of her childhood favs. Yusuke Homma's anison for Fushigi Yugi, featuring vocals from Akemi Satou and Yukari Konno, hits that sweet spot for both of us. For her, it evokes adolescent weekdays after school in a small town on the Central Coast, slotted beside the likes of Sailor Moon. For me, it's some of that sweet, sweet J-pop, reminding me it's a-ok to still get stoked on anime, even as I'm nearer to 50 than 15.

Discogs

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various artists - Extraits Des Bandes Originales Des Films De Jacques Tati

The missus is now almost a year deep into daily French lessons, which means I've been watching a fair amount more French cinema than is usual. Which was already a sizable amount.

So we've been revisiting Jacques Tati's six films again. I snagged her Criterion's The Complete Jacques Tati a few years back; no need to figure out where or if they're being streamed. And I found this lil gem in a stack of cruddy easy listening and modern jazz CDs at an estate sale a few months ago. It's all music scored for Tati's first four films, from composers including Alain Romans, Francis Lemarque, and Franck Barcellini.

Slap this on, revel in the caperin' and clownin'. It is all very, how you say, French.

Discogs

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various artists - Blood On The Flat Track: Soundtrack From The Documentary

I was futzing about immediately following an interview (the first in-person one I've had in eight years) when two things happened. I got an e-mail from a prospective employer, telling me that I would not be hired for a gig I've interviewed for three times. It really bummed me out. I got out of the car and strolled into the chain thrift store, hoping to take my mind off the disappointment of a small rejection. And then the second thing happened.

I stumbled across a small vein of WA state indie CD and weird hip-hop on the shelf. Any time I do so is guaranteed to cheer me up immensely. The hip-hop was a bust; none of the CDs had the right discs in them, so I wouldn't be bringing home those Rhymesayers or Rawkus releases. But there was a bit of gold sitting up there, in the form of the soundtrack to "Blood on The Flat Track". I didn't even know a soundtrack had been released, but there it was, in all its physical glory. It looked to be a CD Baby pressing; a CDr with a barcode, a basic layout, some artwork...just a step up from what you could do with a home computer.

"But the sounds, man, tell me about the sounds!", I hear you hollerin'. There's five Dirtbombs tracks here, compiled from a wide range of sources. That, right there, is worth the price of admission, especially when that price is just a buck ninety-nine. The Kent 3, Bellingham garage rockers of some renown from 20+ years ago, also a quartet of tracks from their catalog. A Frames did a record from Sub Pop about 15 years ago that I remember digging; they contribute a pair of cuts. All in all, there's 18 tracks here, all of which are pretty great, standing proudly alongside any comp of PNW punk rock that Estrus, Dirtnap, Super Electro, or Empty released in the past 20 years.

Whoever put this together provided a pretty great soundtrack to an equally great documentary about roller derby. And whoever dropped this off at the Everett Value Village has my thanks, because it's what I've been listening to for the past few days.

Discogs

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Dan The Automator Presents 2K7

As soundtracks go, this one's fairly ridiculous. Production by Dan The Automator, rhymes from the likes of Ghostface Killah, Mos Def, A Tribe Called Quest, E-40. All in the service of the Shaquille O'Neal-fronted NBA 2K7.

Did I buy this on CD when it came out? I know I had a copy of the game that I played the ever-loving shit out of in 2006, but it seems unlikely I would have chosen a CD over the double LP, considering how much I loved Dan The Automator back then. C'mon...the man helped create the Dr. Octagon & Deltron 3030 records.

I'm far too lazy to fact check and see how many of these got issued elsewhere. Let's pretend they're all exclusive to this, shall we?

Discogs

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various artists - Pump Up The Volume (Complete Soundtrack & Score)

I'll own up, on this Day of our Lord, Saturday, January 16, 2021, that I wanted to grow up to be Hard Harry.

What right minded pre-teen/post-adolescent wouldn't be drawn to Christian Slater in the 1990 cult film "Pump Up The Volume"? By day, a meek, withdrawn student; by night, a foul-mouthed, truth slinging, chronically masturbating pirate radio DJ. AND he ends up getting with Samantha Mathis. Hey, when you're 14 and you've switched schools three times in as many years, there's not much about Mark Hunter's life that you can't relate to. All that pent up frustration and hormonal imbalance gets filtered into music fandom and diving into Beat poetry and maybe, just maybe, you'll meet a girl who doesn't find you repellent and will drive around town listening to They Might Be Giants and the Clash and actually be into it.

But I digress.

I haven't the faintest remembrance where I initially downloaded this version, but I've owned, in some form, the official soundtrack to "Pump Up The Volume" since I saw it on VHS sometime in early 1991. I definitely remember it being part of the first purchase I made at Record & Tape Traders in Roanoke, along with a Pink Floyd CD and Soundgarden's "Ultramega OK". I was always bummed that there was no Leonard Cohen on that tape. Nor were the Beastie Boys or Descendents present, or that "Hi, dad, I'm in jail" jam. What the shit, MCA Records? BUT it was my first exposure to the Pixies (via a superior version of "Wave of Mutilation"), Henry Rollins, Bad Brains, and the MC5 (a still fun cover of "Kick Out The Jams"). I even got to sneak some Dr. Dre beats into the house; the likes of NWA wasn't exactly allowed at home at that point.

I found this expanded version, which has never been officially released, on the internet sometime around 2009. As I stated above, I can't recall the website I initially downloaded it from, but [sgm] did their own writeup a few years back. So I'm in fine company, I suppose. This includes every song that appeared in the film and on the soundtrack, as well as the entirety of Cliff Martinez's excellent score, which never got a release of its own. This, along with his score to "Sex, Lies, And Videotape", are an amazing first and second recordings for the former Weirdo/Dickie turned film composer.

It's worth downloading because you get "Everybody Knows", "Love Comes In Spurts", and "The Scenario" all in one place. Respect to Kathy Nelson, who served as music supervisor here, and whose credits include "Repo Man", "Pulp Fiction", "Grosse Point Blank", and approximately 200 more movies whose soundtracks you bought at the mall in the 90s and 00s.

Click here to download.

Sailor Moon & The Scouts - Lunarock

Here's another shameless grab at clicks and downloads, featuring the late-90s voice talent from the English language "Sailor Moon". It should not surprise you in the least that this is a North American-only release; no Japanese company would record and release something like this.

I'm no great expert on anime soundtracks or video game music, but I come across a fair amount of it in discount bins and thrift stores around these parts, so I guess I have a greater than average familiarity, because I'll be damned if I can pass it up. I think it's great that the best in that industry have gained worldwide recognition in the past two decades, thus negating the need for a market specific release like this. It never ceases to amaze me how content providers will underestimate the tastes of their audience, dumbing it down while localizing while neglecting what makes an IP interesting in the first place.

Anyhow, here's the second North American market Sailor Moon release. It's a far cry from the Takanori Arisawa composed and arranged from the original Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn series, but it worth remembering, I suppose. But it does combine English language music recorded for DIC's localization with Japanese songs from idol group DALI and vocalist Yoko Ishida. It gives it this weird mix of second-rate Stan Bush vibes with the occasional Harajuku outburst.

Hell of a week to misplace my main hard drive, is really what I'm getting at.

Discogs

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Shout! Factory in January

From "They Live" (John Carpenter, 1988)

Like December, January is a light month for Shout! Factory releases. A mere five films/shows arrive on 5" discs in the first month of 2021. HOWEVAH! Two of these are must haves for the Ultra High-Definition collector. What, you didn't get a 4K TV and UHD Blu-ray player from Santa this Christmas? Well, maybe yours is on backorder with mine, sure to arrive within the next 12 to 24 months. Never mind that: let's look at what's coming.

January 12

I know I'm not the only person confused or intimidated by all the various "Lupin the Third" manga and anime releases over the years. No less a master than Hayao Miyazaki made his directorial debut on the second "Lupin" feature film, 1979s "The Castle of Caligostro". There have been a total of six anime series and six theatrical releases over the years, the newest of which, 2019s "Lupin III: The First" gets its home release via GKids today. It's the first 3D and first CGI release in the series and, frankly, looks like a good place to jump in for yours truly. There's options for fidelity and packaging: you can choose from the DVD, the Blu-ray/DVD combo pack, or the steelbook Blu-ray/DVD combo pack. The steelbook features that attractive cover to the left; all three versions come with a lithograph if you order them direct from Shout! Factory. As for bonuses, look for Blu-ray-only interviews with director Takashi Yamazaki and the Japanese cast, as well as animation breakdowns, a CG model gallery, Japanese- and English-language trailers, and a featurette on the "yellow" carpet premiere. No need to steal this one.

January 19

Everything else is coming this week, with a couple of real bangers leading the pack. I'll get to those shortly, after I dispatch with the direct to Blu-ray and DVD release of "Dead Reckoning". Andrzej Bartkowiak is a long way from directing "DOOM" and "Exit Wounds", now helming this action thriller starring K.J. Apa from "Riverdale" and India Eisley from "The Secret Life of the American Teenager". It was originally shot back in 2016, and finally came to VOD in November. The most interesting parts of this to me are Scott Adkins as the lead antagonist, and James Remar serving as what I assume is some sort of law enforcement officer, preferably grizzled. I do love a meaty role for a favorite character actor, and Scott Adkins is always threatening. Light pass from your favorite Ape.

Anime Limited is the latest label to join the Shout! family. This Scottish distributor is already pretty well established in the UK and EU, spinning out of the Scotland Loves Anime convention 9 years ago. They hit my radar back in May when they announced they'd be releasing "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and the two films from the series on Blu-ray for the first time ever. They'll be releasing Masaki Watanabe's adaptation of Araki JOH's manga "Bartender" ("バーテンダー") on Blu-ray on the 19th. Originally airing in Japan in 2006 on BS Fuji, "Bartender" centers around Ryu, a genius barman with a kind ear and a golden arm. It was only available on DVD in Japan, along with some unsubbed, undubbed bootlegs, so the announcement back in September that this would be appearing in Region A & B was welcomed. It's a cool looking set: along with all 11 episodes on two discs, purchasers will get nine recipe cards featuring Ryu's best cocktails, and four bar coasters. It's rare that anime inspires me to drink, so bottom's up to "Bartender" coming to Blu-ray.

Finally, a pair of John Carpenter classics come to UHD for the first time. I already own the Collector's Editions of "They Live" and "Prince Of Darkness" that came out in 2012 and 2013, respectively. And, as I alluded to above, I still don't have the 4K TV or UHD player that would require copping these immediately. But there's enough bonus material available as part of the preorder that I'm considering snagging them. Both films now come as a UHD/Blu-ray combo pack, with Dolby Atmos 7.1 soundtracks available on both for the first time ever. It appears that the Blu-ray portion of each release more or less the same of as their earlier releases; the most obvious changes being the 7.1 mixes being upgrades over the earlier versions. "Prince Of Darkness" is available as two different pre-order SKUs: the standard combo pack with poster, or a package including the combo pack, poster, and exclusive colorway of the new Sacred Bones 7" featuring Carpenter's re-recording of the film's theme. As has been the case with other Scream/Bones collabs, this 7" gets its own pretty rad slipcase illustrated by Chris Bilheimer.

As for "They Live", still my all-time favorite John Carpenter film (don't @ me), there are a lot of options. There's the UHD/Blu-ray combo pack, which, at one point, had a poster as a bonus, which is now gone. This is the one you'll see on the shelves of finer video retailers around the world. As with "Prince Of Darkness", there's also a package containing the combo pack, a poster, and an exclusive colorway of Carpenter's 2017 re-recording with his son Cody of the title theme. This also gets a dope Chris Bilheimer cover and slipcase. NECA has also recreated Keith David's Frank in their Mego-style 8" action figure line. The figure, limited to just 4,000 pieces, is sold out as a separate SKU, but is still available as part of a movie/poster/figure package AND/or movie/poster/7"/figure package. If Santa brought you a bit more holiday dosh, or you've got nothing better to spend your Trump bonus on, well...congratulations. You're in better waters than the most of us. Enjoy your giant stack of "They Live" gear!

From "Lupin III The First" (Takashi Yamazaki, 2019)

Things get back to normal in February, with a full slate of new releases, Steelbook reissues, another NECA action figure, and even a Shout! exclusive color of vinyl headed our way. I'll get back to normal by writing and posting this before the first of the month. Hooray! Be there...aloha.

Paul Williams - Phantom Of The Paradise

Bup bup bup bup bup bup bup. That's the trenchant insight that comes at quarter til one in the morning. I have the first John Mulaney special streaming in the background; no necessarily the inspiration I was looking for, although I appreciate the chuckles that are sure to come.

I re-watched "Phantom Of The Paradise" the other night and remembered, "Hey! I own a copy of that! Let's write about that!" Paul Williams was always Little Enos from "Smokey and the Bandit II" to me, the guy who wrote all the good Muppets songs and stood about four foot nothing. It wouldn't be until Scream Factory released their Collector's Edition in 2014 that I would even recognize it as a thing; maybe I confused it with "KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park" and Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom Of The Opera", both of which I was both overexposed to and underwhelmed by in my youth.

(Sidebar: when I was a kid, I lived near Virginia Tech in southwestern Virginia. All of my extended family lived in the metro Atlanta area. So I'd end up in the back of my mom's 1982 Mazda 626 an awful lot, heading down I-81 with three tapes in the center console: Basia's "Time and Tide", Barbra Streisand's "Memories", and "Michael Crawford Performs Andrew Lloyd Webber". You want to know why I glommed onto noise? There are exhibits A, B, and C. Cruising through the Appalachians, hearing the same Broadway shit over and over and over again. Merzbow was a fucking relief.)

(Second sidebar: I have mixed feelings about KISS. Gene Simmons can go screw, and everything they did, the Ramones did better. But "Detroit Rock City" is a jam, and "I Was Made For Loving You" is a great disco cut.)

Back to "Paradise". It's a horror/musical, a black comedy without any of the theatre kid campiness that comes along with "Rocky Horror". It was independently funded by Edward Pressman, the heir to the Pressman Toy Company, and directed by Brian De Palma in his follow up to "Sisters". The songs were written by Paul Williams and performed by the cast: long-time De Palma collaborator William Finlay, Jessica Harper (in her debut role), longtime L.A. jazzman Raymond Louis Kennedy, and Williams himself. These songs totally slap. It's a mix of mid-70s pop, glam/shock rock, Beach Boys homage, and doo wop. It was nominated for Best Original Score at the 1974 Academy Awards, and rightfully so. It's a really cool soundtrack. The closest thing I can think of to compare it to is Ben Folds' Fear Of Pop project. Williams would move on create the music for "Bugsy Malone", another outstanding 70s cult film that's due for rediscovery.

This rip comes from a copy of the 2001 Japanese CD reissue that I found for $10 in a store north of me. I would have gladly paid twice as much. There also exists an extended version of the soundtrack and score, released in 2015 on bootleg cassette by a Canadian label. If you're sitting on a copy you're willing to part with, holler at your boy. Because that's the only way I'll be able to cop one until I get to start making my own reissues.

Discogs

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Deep Throat Anthology, Parts I & II

Linda Lovelace and Harry Reems in Deep Throat (Gerard Diamano, 1972)

I've always been drawn to the feature-length pornography of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, aka The Golden Age of Porn. It's not necessarily because of a prurient interest (although I'm not just reading Playboy for the articles, if you know what I mean). I'm interested in it for the same reasons I like watching American International movies from the same period, or listening to lo-fi, limited edition cassettes, or finding yellowing paperbacks at the bottom of a box. It's all low culture shaping high culture; in this case, it's the start of a sex-positive culture.

Also, the music slaps.

I mean, when you're describing makin' LUV to your honored partner, doesn't "BOW WOW CHICKA WOW WOW" come to mind, if not get verbalized? Even if you don't engage with hardcore pornography, the soundtracks are part of our cultural language. They were made by under-recognized composers, who often filled the role as performer. AND they were made under less-than-optimal circumstances: sometimes written and recorded within the space of one or two days.

The soundtracks to Deep Throat and Deep Throat Part II are infinitely interesting to me, and should intrigue you as well. There is little to no background available on the recordings from Deep Throat, due in great part to the U.S. government having seized the master tapes during their 1976 Memphis obscenity prosecution. So no one is quite sure who recorded what, who wrote the score...nothing. It was also a press-only giveaway, so the original pressing is worth a pretty penny.

The soundtrack for Deep Throat Part II, the R-rated sequel released in 1974, is more documented. Kenny Vance, working under the pseudonym T.J. Stone, put together an outstanding slab of sleaze soul. The two tracks featuring vocals from Laura Greene are particularly good. The soundtrack, along with lead single "She's Got To Have It", were the lead releases from Bryan Records, the label wing of noted mob-owned film distributor Bryanston Distributing Company. Bryanston, as we all know, was the short-lived distributor of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Dark Star, The Way of the Dragon, and the Andy Warhol/Paul Morrissey films Blood for Dracula and Flesh for Frankenstein.

Look, this isn't my favorite porno soundtrack (that would be Patrick Cowley's Fox Movies work...duh), but it's more than just a curiosity. Give it a listen.

Discogs

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