"Rock Box" Track of the Day: The Motherhood, "Soul Town"

Song: "Soul Town" by The Motherhood
Released: 1969
Why's it part of the "Rock Box" playlist?: It's featured in Ocean's Thirteen.
Which moment in Ocean's Thirteen does it appear?: The closing credits (right after my favorite ending in the three Ocean's films: Brad Pitt's way of apologizing to David Paymer for what he and the crew had to put him through as part of their revenge plot against Al Pacino).

Of the three Ocean's soundtracks, my favorite has to be the third and final one, because of how much music supervisor David Holmes' score music had evolved since Eleven, as well as his taste for obscure tracks like Puccio Roelens' cover of "Caravan" and the breezy and badass "Soul Town" instrumental by the Krautrock band The Motherhood. (Plus, Thirteen opens with future "Rock Box" Track of the Day "The Riviera Affair" during the studio logos, and it doesn't contain a certain Elvis track I grew sick of hearing after it got overplayed and horribly remixed by Junkie XL).

The Motherhood was a fusion band led by German saxophonist Klaus Doldinger, the composer of the scores to Das Boot and The NeverEnding Story. I can hardly find any info about this phase of Doldinger's career or "Soul Town." I like how the tune kicks off with a slightly out-of-place piano solo straight out of Ramsey Lewis' "The 'In' Crowd."

"Soul Town"'s a comin'. Hear it at my SwiftFM site.

"Rock Box" Track of the Day: Puccio Roelens, "Caravan"

Last Monday, I started a series of weekday posts about each of the existing songs that are streamed during the "Rock Box" block on A Fistful of Soundtracks (4-6am, 9-11am and 3-5pm on Mondays and 5-7am, 9-11am and 3-5pm on Fridays). Each post provides info on a different track from the "Rock Box" playlist and points out the movie or TV series moment where the track shows up and is utilized to great effect.

Song: "Caravan" by Puccio Roelens
Released: 1971
Why's it part of the "Rock Box" playlist?: It's featured in Ocean's Thirteen.
Which moment in Ocean's Thirteen does it appear?: The sequence where George Clooney and Brad Pitt sabotage David Paymer's hotel room so that Paymer can give Al Pacino's hotel a bad review (the above photo is from this sequence).

I love this little-known cover of the 1936 jazz standard that was unearthed by Ocean's Thirteen music supervisor and score composer David Holmes. It sounds like a source cue straight out of Diamonds Are Forever--another Vegas movie. Ocean's Thirteen's inclusion of "Caravan" is a callback to the use of Arthur Lyman's version of "Caravan" in Ocean's Eleven.

Hotel room vandalism never sounded so chill and slick. Hear the 1971-style "Caravan" at my SwiftFM site.

New Year's Day means changes to AFOS programming

I'm renaming one of the AFOS programming blocks. Starting January 3, "The F Zone," which focuses on "needle drops" (non-original songs during films like High Fidelity and the Harold & Kumar series and shows like Breaking Bad and Community), becomes "Rock Box." The time slots for "Rock Box" are 4-6am, 9-11am and 3-5pm on Mondays and 5-7am, 9-11am and 3-5pm on Fridays.

In November, I created a block called "New Cue Revue," which streams selections from new releases (or albums that aren't exactly new but are new to the "Assorted Fistful" playlist). It moves to Wednesdays at 10-11am and 4-5pm and Fridays at 11am-noon.

A new block called "The Street" will focus on my favorite kind of film or TV score album: the funky-sounding kind, the kind that gets frequently sampled by beatmakers. Curtis Mayfield, Isaac Hayes, David Holmes and newcomer Adrian Younge will get tons of airplay here. "The Street" airs on Mondays at 6-9am and noon-3pm, Tuesdays through Thursdays at 6-9am and 1-4pm and Fridays at 7-9am and 1-3pm.

The listeners who evaluate my playlists' tracks on Live365.com tend to give low star ratings to the funkier or more soulful-sounding ones. Live365 has listeners rate tracks because the site thinks this helps its station programmers decide which tracks to keep and which ones to get rid of. Well, it doesn't help this station programmer because I don't care about those listeners' ratings anyway. Every time someone on Live365 gives a track one and a half stars, it makes me want to find ways to stream it more often.

Whenever I upload a new track to one of my playlists, I always have to block my eyes from the ratings to keep myself from getting pissed off at a negative one. What the hell are those listeners doing hanging around AFOS anyway? I bet they want another StreamingSoundtracks or another Permanent Waves. AFOS is a little different from them. It streams certain subgenres of film or TV score music that those stations tend to ignore.

"The Street" is my three-hour middle finger to those people who give one and a half stars to classic tracks like "Pusherman." On Fridays, the block is two hours because my middle finger will get tired by the end of the week.

AFOS: "Bad Things Come in Threes (Alright, Maybe Not Always)" playlist

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the release of one of my favorite films, Do the Right Thing, so I'm busy putting together something Do the Right Thing-related for the blog. In the meantime, airing tomorrow at 10am and 3pm on the Fistful of Soundtracks channel is the Fistful of Soundtracks: The Series episode "Bad Things Come in Threes (Alright, Maybe Not Always)" (WEB88) from June 18-24, 2007. Every track during WEB88 comes from a threequel like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly or Ocean's Thirteen.


1. Hans Zimmer, "Hoist the Colours," Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Walt Disney
2. Ennio Morricone, "Il Buono Il Brutto Il Cattivo (titoli)," Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo, GDM
3. David Holmes, "Not Their Fight," Ocean's Thirteen, Warner Sunset/Warner Bros.
4. David Holmes, "11, 12 & 13," Ocean's Thirteen, Warner Sunset/Warner Bros.
5. Michael Giacchino, "Mission: Impossible Theme," Mission: Impossible III, Varèse Sarabande
6. The Four Tops, "Are You Man Enough?" (from Shaft in Africa), The Best of Shaft, Hip-O
7. Survivor, "Eye of the Tiger" (from Rocky III), Ultimate Survivor, Volcano Heritage
8. Jerry Fielding, "Prologue/Main Title," The Enforcer, Aleph
9. John Williams, "The Pit of Carkoon/Sail Barge Assault," Return of the Jedi, RCA Victor
10. Howard Shore, "The White Tree," The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Reprise/WMG Soundtracks
11. David Holmes, "Snake Eyes," Ocean's Thirteen, Warner Sunset/Warner Bros.
12. John Williams, "Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra," Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Warner Bros.
13. Danny Elfman, "March of the Dead," Army of Darkness, Varèse Sarabande
14. Ennio Morricone, "Il Triello," Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo, GDM
15. Alan Silvestri, "End Titles" (from Back to the Future Part III), Varèse Sarabande: A 25th Anniversary Celebration, Varèse Sarabande

Repeats of A Fistful of Soundtracks: The Series air Wednesdays at 10am and 3pm.