Category: Music

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Enter the Rushmore Academy Webicon contest (updated)

Make Wes Anderson-inspired art at Paste Magazine’s Webicon.me! Then, Tweet (@rushmoreacademy) or e-mail (edwardappleby @ yankeeracers.org) us your image. We will post your entries here at the Rushmore Academy, and the best one will win of copy of Derek Hill’s fantastic Charlie Kaufman and Hollywood’s Merry Band of Pranksters, Fabulists and Dreamers: An Excursion Into the American New Wave (available for purchase on Amazon.com).

adopted

Contest is on-going. We will add new prizes if we extend it beyond April 1, 2009.

Check out the entries so far after the break! Please digg our contest!

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Interview with Mark Mothersbaugh and the commercial muse

USA Today has a new interview with Mark Mothersbaugh:

I was already scoring movies at that point, and I got a call from somebody at Sony who said, “We’ve got this interesting film with a difficult director, and you’re the only person he wants to talk to about scoring his movie.” And I thought, “Oh, no.” I went to see his movie, and when I was watching Bottle Rocket, I think they set a record for more people walking out than any other film this focus group had ever worked on. But I thought, “This guy has a really interesting take on our culture right now.” So I really wanted to meet him, and we just really hit it off. We ended up doing four films.

And, Ted Hamilton muses over the commercialization of the muse:

But where do these ideal artists exist? Even outside of visual art, it’s hard to find truly anti-establishment creators. I remember the sinking feeling in my chest when Wes Anderson debuted an ad for the American Express’ “My Life. My Card” campaign, and the sense of bewilderment and betrayal when Bob Dylan signed up for an Apple ad two years later. Everyone, it seems, is on the gravy train. And those who aren’t — well, they’re invisible.

Thoughts?

Keep the Webicon.me art coming, and check out the entries so far!

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Mailbag

(Just a reminder: Owen Wilson will be presenting tonight’s Top Ten List on the Late Show with David Letterman.)

  • From Sean, a Rushmore-inspired music video from Company of Thieves:

The debut music video from Company of Thieves, is inspired by Wes Anderson’s Rushmore. The video for the song “Oscar Wilde” was filmed at Sycamore Elementary School in Kokomo, Indiana, over the course of just one day in December 2008. It includes over 60 props which were mostly bought from flea markets and vintage stores. The video was shot on Kodak Vision3 500T 16mm film using an Eclair ACL camera with 12mm and 14mm lenses, with 23 lighting setups. The footage was digitally transferred to uncompressed 10 bit format and edited in Final Cut. If you like the song, it’s available for free download.

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RA talks to Nick Flora about his new album, Great Escape

available on iTunes and Amazon
Download it on Amazon and support the site!

We first met the singer-songwriter Nick Flora last September with his cover of the Faces’ “Ooh La La” and his own song “Edward Appleby.” We were and remain impressed by his carefully crafted — and catchy — tunes. He has a new album Great Escape, now available on Amazon.com and iTunes. We caught up with Nick to ask some questions about his new album. You can follow him on MySpace.

Q. We first encountered you a few months ago. You are officially a friend of the site. How does that feel?

A. It feels great. I’ve actually been a frequent visitor to RA.com for awhile now, so it feels like home.
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“A Little Love: The Art of Bill Melendez”

All about the “Peanuts” animator, his collaboration with Charles Schulz, the modernist flavor of his work, and his influence on the films of Wes Anderson…

A great little video. Thanks to Matt for the link.

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Bill Murray talks the Fox

From ComingSoon.net:

Q: What is your role in Wes Anderson’s upcoming animated “Fantastic Mr. Fox”?

Murray: I’ll be playing the badger.

Q: What is your badger voice?

Murray: Unfortunately, my badger… I worked really, really hard on a Wisconsin accent, ’cause I thought that would be an appropriate badger voice. And for the first couple scenes I did this Wisconsin badger voice that I thought was so funny. I did the first couple scenes and then Wes goes, “Nah, I don’t think so. I would think it’s kind of a Savile Row badger.” Who here has seen a badger walkin’ down Savile Row? Anybody? (Laughter) Yeah. That’s what I said. But these are these new directors. You know, you just gotta give ’em their… you know, let ’em hang themselves. I’ve seen some pictures of it. I think it’s old-fashioned ’cause it’s taking ’em a very long time to get it done, but they’re very excited (complete interview).

Other articles of interest:

“Nico: the return of the rock’n’roll star” from The Independent (U.K.)

“After divorce, Bill Murray looks for renewal” from Associated Press

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Great Wes-inspired music by Coin Laundry Loser

We’re fans! (link)

Coin Laundry Loser – Ooh La La (Faces)

Coin Laundry Loser – Edward Appleby

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A few tidbits…

An interview with Life Aquatic animator Henry Selick (no mention of Wes or TLA, sadly).

Selick’s new film Coraline debuts in December. He was scheduled to work with Wes on The Fantastic Mr. Fox, but scheduling conflicts with Coraline prevented a second collaboration.

Wes was mentioned in a recent article in The Guardian (U.K.):

Soundtracks and musical scores fit a specific purpose. However, what I find interesting are scores that go beyond their specific purpose and take on multiple lives.

Film soundtracks have always had the power to impact culturally. From the obvious: Ennio Morricone’s theme to the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, or dialogue from Scarface – to the less obvious: Wes Anderson reusing Sven Libaek’s Shark Theme in the Life Aquatic (a score that in turn found itself on a Volvo Advert).

Using a film sample or being under the influence of a score will almost always result in the adjective “cinematic” being used to describe a band’s sound. It’s a rich tradition in hip-hop, rock and dance, and I enjoy the approximation and interpolation of movies and music (link).

Friend of the site and contributor Derek Hill discussed the musicology of Wes Anderson in a recent guest blog post.

In the September issue, Paste Magazine choses Dr. Nelson Guggenheim (Brian Cox, Rushmore) as their third favorite cinematic high school principal (vote for Dr. G in their poll!).

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Guest Blogger: Derek Hill on the Musicology of Wes Anderson

Derek Hill is the author of the new book Charlie Kaufman and Hollywood’s Merry Band of Pranksters, Fabulists and Dreamers, now available in the U.K. (Amazon | Waterstone’s | Blackwell ) and the U.S. ( Amazon ). He has agreed to write several pieces for the Academy.

Wes Anderson’s skillful use of music in his films has no doubt come up on this site before, so I’ll refrain from proselytizing. Along with Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, PT Anderson, and Sofia Coppola, Anderson—working with his longtime musical composer Mark Mothersbaugh (at least up until The Darjeeling Limited) and any of his respective editors—is one of the best practitioners at integrating pop/rock songs into a scene in a way that is memorable and emotionally satisfying. It’s easier said than done, of course. Utilizing songs in lieu of an original score (or in tandem) can be precarious. It can bring out the most wasteful and unimaginative characteristics in a clumsy filmmaker. I’m sure we all have our own list of nefarious culprits who exemplify the worst that the medium can offer up, those lazy directors/composers who send us into catatonia as they slather on yet another saccharine note or bludgeon us into the next theater with their bullying bombastic chords. I’m talking about… well, you know who they are. We all bear the sonic scars.

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Possible Faces reunion?

From Paste (URL):

Shocking news hot off the wire this morning: five bands that broke up before 1980 have not reunited. Oh yeah, and the Faces want to get back together again.

Keyboardist Ian McLagan spilled his hopes and dreams for the planned revival to BBC 6 Music, including the possibility of brand new material from the 60-something group.

“We’re hoping to get together later this year, just to get together, to play and then we may have some news – but I want it to happen, badly,” McLagan said to BBC 6. “It’s gonna be great if it does happen.”

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