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I like “Happy” more.
Both of these are a natural continuation of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers/Ninch Inch Nails-type sound that defined their last album in ’94 (the children’s chorus in “Sorry” brings the children’s chorus in “Insanity” to mind). Only darker. Personally, I wish he went back to his funkier and cleaner New Wave roots a bit more, rather than being all grungey and metally and fussy, but I’m just thankful we’re getting new rock songs from him. Would be awesome if these singles amounted to a whole allbum at some point.
Yes, I saw that earlier. What a wonderfully bizarre and maximalistic house!
To be fair, they aren’t outright leaving LA. They plan to have a small house there for some time yet untill Oliver graduates, according to the article. And Santa Barbara is pretty close to LA, anyway.
An embarassing error in the article, though – Elfman is pictured with his daughter Mali, but the text reads “Elfman with his wife Ms. Fonda”.
I love it! It’s great mish-mash of Elfmanisms – a little bit of NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, a little bit of Philip Glass-ian minimalism and a little bit of punkish New Wave, Boingo-style.
Hope there’s more to come, whether a whole studio album or something else.
I like the percussive bits that he posted on Instagram, but less enthused with the grungey fuss guitars in the last couple of clips. Needs more synths!
I like it. Down-to-earth Americana stylings. I vastly prefer this over something like the vacous DOLITTLE or whatever.
Or ALIENS; CLOWNS AND GEEKS; as it was eventually called. I’m a friend of Richard’s on Facebook, but I’ve been out of the loop for a while. Any news about a soundtrack release of this?
Thanks, Ryan. Better sound than the previous video, but still with those annoying sound effects. But it’s the best we got at the moment.
Yes, boingomusic, that is indeed bizarre. Lots of bands have internal strife and intrigue, but I always got the impression that Boingo was a well-knit group. I wonder why he’s keeping the other band members out of it? Perhaps things will change between now and when Coachella finally happens next year.
For the most part, I’ve quite disliked his work for the big blockbuster/action stuff. That’s not where his strength lies these days, IMO. Whimiscal, noisy and bereft of a thematic soul.
On the other hand, I’ve been really impressed with his smaller scores and concert works. If it had been up to me, he would JUST nurture that, but as we all know, he likes to do different projects for variety’s sake.
Favourite score would be THE UNKNOWN KNOWN, even if it’s drenched in Glass like much of his work post-Serenada Schizophrana. I also really like THE NEXT THREE DAYS, RESTLESS, PROMISED LAND, THE CIRCLE and the violin concerto.
Yes, saw his update on Insta and Face. Obviously wish I could have gone; mostly curious about what Boingo songs he will perform. And what kind of film music he’ll play, and with what ensemble (he says “From Boing to Batman and Beyond”, whatever that means). It’s a shame if he appears without the old Boingo crew; would be a unique chance for a reunion of sorts.
Not gonna put down any money for this, but a friend of mine — who is a composer — has subscribed to the masterclass. There are apparently lots of expletives and a brutal honesty, as one would expect from Elfman.
That’s awesome, sajrocks! I’ll have a look at it at next available moment.
Not to tout my own horn, but I think my elaborate buyer’s guide for FSM (in two parts — first in last print issue, second in first online issue — and then some subsequent FSM articles to fill it out) covers his work up to and including 2005, for anyone looking for reference. Of course, a lot has happened since then, so in the absence of a “vol. 3”, any updates from 2005-2019 are very welcome.
Yes, once. I interviewed him on the red carpet during an event in Vienna in 2017. You can hear the result here:
Celluloid Tunes # 52: Danny Elfman in Vienna (16th International Edition)
He is nice and forthcoming, but weary of too much public attention.
This is probably the oldest thing that has attached itself to Elfman’s career, although it’s fortunately started to loosen over the last couple of decades.
The argument that Elfman didn’t know how to orchestra or write for orchestra when he did his first films, is false. He doesn’t have a formal education in composition or orchestration, but is self-taught. He practiced by orchestrating Prokofiev, Duke Ellington and other composers long before he did any film scores.
But he obviously needed some help with his first few scores, from PEE-WEE onward, so people like Bartek (who IS formally educated) and Shirley Walker were among his collaborators. As years have gone by, his grasp of orchestral composition and orchestration has obviously improved, to the extent that nobody (or very few) question that he actually writes his own material anymore.
In case people are downloading the Serafini music to their iTunes collections or whatever (I have!), it’s perhaps worth nothing that the exhibition itself is called IL TEATRO DELLA PITTURA and is from 1998 (rather than the more vague ‘mid 90s’ that Elfman says). FYI.
Yes, the “wacky tracks” sections is particularly intriguing. I had never even heard of that Serafini Gallery thing before, and here we suddenly get 22 minutes worth! I hope many more tracks and rarities will be added there eventually.
I was never a big fan of the MIB scores in the first place (outside the fantastic main theme), and I’m sorry to say this wasn’t much of an improvement. It seems more generic, somehow, less of the acerbic wit that characterized the first three.
MIB2 will always be my favourite MIB score and album, I think.
Unlike DUMBO, this album I quite like. I was not as ‘wowed’ by the violin concerto on album, as I was when I saw the Youtube video of the performance, but plenty to decipher and devour here. The piano quartet is also very good; Elfman’s most ‘contemporary classical’ work (far more than “Serenada Schizophrana” ever was).
As I said over on FSM:
I saw the movie earlier today, and while there were a couple of really good, classically burtonesque scenes, it was overall very disappointing. So LOUD and NOISY all the time (not helped by the fact that the projectionist turned the volume all the way up)! And — as with most “big” Hollywood scores from Elfman in the last decade and a half — just a couple of highlights (like the opening train cue, the waltz for the acrobat woman and the ‘pink elephant’ circus number), but the rest was all over the place; noisy, whimsical and grating, really.
As a massive Elfman fan, I really want to be the bearer of better news, but I can’t. I’ll continue to look forward to his next indie project instead, where he’s really at his best right now.
