Nikolai Fraiture (Strokes) of Nickel Eye
MP3: Nickel Eye – Another Sunny Afternoon

Rodriguez

The Best Of The Rest:
MP3: Alessandro Nivola – Someday I Will Treat You Good
MP3: The John Henrys – Lost In The Canyon
MP3: The Shaky Hands – World’s Gone Mad
MP3: Malakai – Only for You
MP3: White Denim – Mess Your Hair Up
MP3: Fort Knox Five – Funk 4 Peace

Fort Knox Five

Download From iTunes:
Lafayette Afro Rock Band – Soul Makossa
Sparklehorse – Dreamt for Light Years In the Belly of a Mountain
Rodriguez – Cold Fact
The John Henrys – Sweet As The Grain
The Silt – Cat's Peak
Ben Kweller – Changing Horses (iTunes)
The Shaky Hands – Lunglight
Fort Knox Five – Radio Free DC
Malakai – Ugly Side of Love
Nickel Eye – The Time of the Assassins
White Denim – Let's Talk About It – EP
Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
Damon & Naomi – Within These Walls

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Download (Right-Click Save As)
MP3: White Denim – Darksided Computer Mouth

Bon Iver
Rock And Roll Hotel
February 19th, 2008
Washington, D.C.

Download:
MP3: Bon Iver – Flume [Live]
MP3: Bon Iver – Lump Sum [Live]
MP3: Bon Iver – Skinny Love [Live]
MP3: Bon Iver – Wolves (Act I and II) [Live]
MP3: Bon Iver – Blindsided [Live]
MP3: Bon Iver – Creature Fear [Live]
MP3: Bon Iver – For Emma

Download/Buy:
Bon Iver – Blood Bank EP [Pre-Order]
Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago (iTunes)

“Paid the cost to be the boss, Look at me
You know what you see, You see a bad Mutha”

Sly And The Family Stone – Thankful N’ Thoughtful
Rufus Thomas – Funky Penguin
James Brown – The Boss
Funkadelic – Red Hot Mama

Buy
Cat Power: Dark End of the Street EP (Vinyl) (Amazon)
Pavement – Brighten the Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition (Remastered) Amazon)

A plus D present Bootie LA @ the ECHOPLEX on December 6th
1154 Glendale Blvd. (Back Entrance)
Echo Park, Los Angeles
9 pm–2am . 21+
$5 before 10 PM, $10 cover

I haven’t seen Guy Ritchie’s new movie RocknRolla yet. The film received mixed reviews and then the A-Rod divorce scandal hit. However, the soundtrack is phenomenal. The Clash, The Subways, The Beat, The Hives, The Sonics, 20-20’s, War and Lou Reed are some of the artists that contribute tracks. It’s by far his heaviest soundtrack to date.

Download the Rocknrolla Soundtrack from iTunes (Click Here)

Download:
MP3: RocknRolla – No School Like The Old School
MP3: DJ Shadow – Fixed Income (Remix)
MP3: Peaches – I’m The Kinda
MP3: Let’s Go Sailing – Sideways (Remix)
MP3: Amplive from Zion I – Critical (Drum ‘n’ Bass Remix)
MP3: Le Tigre – Deceptacon
MP3: Garage A Trois – Hard Headed Rio Aka Rio Cuca Dura

I’ve left my apartment once today to walk my dog. I’m not into bargain shopping sprees; I order everything from Amazon.com and ship it back East. I feel sorry for the guys that had to go to the mall with their girlfriends or wives. It’s almost as fun as seeing ‘Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Pt. 2′.

Herman Blume: You guys have it real easy. I never had it like this where I grew up. But I send my kids here because the fact is you go to one of the best schools in the country: Rushmore. Now, for some of you it doesn’t matter. You were born rich and you’re going to stay rich. But here’s my advice to the rest of you: Take dead aim on the rich boys. Get them in the crosshairs and take them down. Just remember, they can buy anything but they can’t buy backbone. Don’t let them forget it. Thank you.

Download:
MP3: Rushmore – Sharp
MP3: Rushmore – Bag Of Cocaine
MP3: Rushmore – Kill You
MP3: Rushmore – Kemo Sabe
MP3: Rushmore – Is That Latin
MP3: Rushmore It Was The Hand Job
MP3: Rushmore – Pop A Cap In His Ass
MP3: Rushmore – Dear Max
MP3: Rushmore – Hand Jobs
MP3: Rushmore – Safety Is Harvard
MP3: Rushmore – OR Scrubs
MP3: Rushmore – Advice

Download:
John Lennon – Imagine (Remastered) (iTunes)
Rushmore Soundtrack (Amazon)
Rushmore (Rent NetFlix)

“Scrapple” features what I think is one of the greatest soundtracks ever produced. In their directorial debut, brothers Chris and Geoff Hanson scored a major break when they landed veteran blues legend Taj Mahal, who produced the soundtrack, rerecorded versions of his favorite songs and added some originals. The soundtrack is really the underlying narrative of the movie and also features JJ Cale, John Martyn, Cymande and Widespread Panic.

“Scrapple” follows a summer in the life of ski bums in the fictional town of Ajax, Colorado in the late ’70’s. Geoff Hanson stars as the low-level drug dealer Al Dean. Another star was a pig called Scrapple, named after the pork delicacy, which led The New York Times to coin the film “Babe on Acid.” Geoff and Chris also directed and produced “The Earth Will Swallow You”, which documents the summer 2000 tour of Widespread Panic.

R&G: Congratulations on the ten-year anniversary of “Scrapple.” How much do you think the soundtrack contributed to the longevity of the film?

Geoff: We hear all the time from people it’s the best soundtrack they’ve ever heard. I think the movie kind of circulates as much as a CD, and I think a lot of people come to the movie for the music. We’re just happy that people still watch it ten years later.

R&G: Keller Williams recently recorded a song called “Nepalese Temple Balls” based on a scene from the movie. How did that come about?

Geoff: The lyrics from the song are pulled from the movie pretty much verbatim. It’s the scene in the movie where Al Dean, the character I play, tells his friends about this drug, this thing that he’s got coming in. It starts off, “If you like this stuff, you’re not going to believe what I got coming in”. They are these Nepalese Temple Balls, these crazy things from the shadows of Mount Everest made by monks.

In 2007, I was DJ’ing at a radio station in Wilmington called 106.7. The Penguin and Keller Williams came into my studio and played some songs. I knew Keller would like “Scrapple.” He loved the Grateful Dead, and he’s kind of a hippie at heart. That’s what our movie’s about, and those are our fans, so I gave Keller a copy of the DVD; we were always trying to turn musicians on to our movie. About ten days later I got a call from his manager, and he said Keller really loves the movie.

In May of 2008 his manager emailed me a MP3 file that said “Nepalese Temple Balls.” I was surprised and touched that Keller liked our movie enough to write a song using our lines as lyrics. I’m actually getting a writing credit on the record, which is cool for me because now I get to say I’m a songwriter.

R&G: Any royalties involved?

Geoff: Who knows? I’ll tell you in a year. Maybe I’ll get a check for $80 bucks or something [Laughs].

R&G: [Laughs] You and your brother Chris were first-time independent directors, producers, writers and actors. How did you get Taj Mahal on board to score the movie?

Geoff: I was living in Telluride, Colorado and I was writing a music column for the newspaper Sound Advice. In 1991 they announced that Bill Graham was going to do the Midsummer Music Festival, and that’s what really made me decide to stay in Telluride. The paper asked me to be the editor of the magazine that we were going to do for the Festival. I was just a 22-year-old kid. The artists on the line-up were Joe Cocker, the Allman Brothers, Widespread Panic, Blues Traveler, Jackson Brown and Taj Mahal.

The first time I ever met Taj was backstage at the Festival. I was instantly blown away by the guy. I was in a room with him and four other writers, but nobody else knew anything about him. They were just going off what the press release said. I was talking to him about rerecording “Giant Step,” so he got that I was hip to what he was all about and we ended up talking for about 45 minutes. That was the beginning. I was so into him and at that point began collecting all of his music. I was an aspiring filmmaker even then and decided that, wow, wouldn’t it be cool to make a movie with Taj. I had a concert promoting business on the side, and in 1992 I got Taj to come to Telluride and play. I got to know him even better and also got to know his manager at the time, Carey Williams. I asked Carey if I make a movie would Taj do the music for it, and he said, “Sure, if you ever get it done, we’ll do the music.”

R&G: When did you finish writing the script?

Geoff: We finished it in ’95. Afterwards, Chris and I went to work at the Sundance Film Festival as volunteers because we were trying to absorb as much of the whole independent film thing as we could. We sent the first draft of the “Scrapple” script, which was at the time called “Spam,” to Carey and he gave it to Taj. It didn’t take them long to say they would do the music. The first scene of the script is a guy riding down the highway on a motorcycle with a pig in a sidecar with Taj Mahal singing “Further On Down The Road.” They thought that was cool so we were on. He was critical to the whole thing and we recorded the music with him after we shot the movie, in January of 1997; it was one of the coolest things about the whole project.

R&G: Were you intimidated working with Taj?

Geoff: I don’t think it was intimidating working with him, it was just really exciting. We had just finished our movie and we were doing the music with Taj Mahal. It was a dream come true.

R&G: Tell me something interesting that the general public doesn’t know about him?

Geoff: Well, here’s my favorite thing about Taj. When I first interviewed him in 1991, he said something that is one of the favorite things I’ve ever heard. He said that people are always so preoccupied with other people and what they do and their jobs. Taj said, “I am a job.” I just love that. He’s also a musicologist. He knows more about music than anyone I’ve ever met, and all kinds of music: polyrhythmic, Caribbean and Hawaiian. He’s just a great guy and agreed to do the music for our movie on a handshake.

R&G: Music played an integral role in the film, and you had a diverse range of musicians from Sam Bush to Toots Hibbert.

Geoff: The music in the movie is the narrator. It’s either commenting directly on what’s happening or it’s hitting on a subtext of what’s going on.

R&G: Were there other movies that inspired you to use music as the narrator?

Geoff: “Fandango” used music in the same way. Quentin Tarantino uses music very dramatically, as well. “Scrapple” was right on the heels of “Reservoir Dogs” and “Pulp Fiction.” Our biggest influence was “Easy Rider.” Men’s Journal paid us a huge compliment when they called our movie “the ski bum’s Easy Rider.”

R&G: Do you have any advice for young filmmakers who are trying to score low-budget films with well-known musicians?

Geoff: The first thing would be to go after the deep cuts. Stay away from the really popular stuff because it’s too expensive. But, if you’ve got tastes that are a little bit offbeat, then go for your favorite stuff because most of these people are approachable. The thing is not to come in the front door. Try to figure out a way in the back door. We never would have been able to work with Taj Mahal if we went through the label.

Download/Buy
Scrapple – Soundtrack (Buy)
Scrapple – The Movie (Buy) or (Rent)
Widespread Panic – The Earth Will Swallow You (Buy) or (Rent)
Taj Mahal – Maestro (iTunes)
Keller Williams – Laugh (iTunes)
Cymande – Renegades of Funk (iTunes)
The Black Crowes – Warpaint (iTunes)

Los Angeles Concerts:
Taj Mahal & The Phantom Blues Band @ House of Blues Sunset Strip on 10/23 (BUY TIX)
Keller Williams with Mosley, Droll & Sipe @ El Rey Theatre on 11/7 (BUY TIX)