"Rome, Italian Style" Track of the Day: Goldfrapp, "Lovely Head"

Song: "Lovely Head" by Goldfrapp
Released: 2000
Why's it part of the "Rome, Italian Style" playlist?: Trouser Press came up with a good shorthand description for "Lovely Head," the first single off the duo Goldfrapp's debut album Felt Mountain: "If Lee Van Cleef had ever romanced Shirley Bassey, 'Lovely Head,' which sounds like a score in search of a Sergio Leone film, would have been their song."

Ennio Morricone's influence on Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory, which they acknowledged in the Felt Mountain liner notes with their shout-outs to Morricone and Leone, is most evident in "Lovely Head." There's whistling, harpsichords, percussion reminiscent of Il Maestro's Sicilian Clan main title theme and a vocal effect that's as bizarre as the coyote howls in the Good, the Bad and the Ugly score, but it's more of a Goldfrapp touch than a Morricone touch. Goldfrapp, who provides the whistling during "Lovely Head," makes her voice sound remarkably like a theremin(*), with the help of a synthesizer that distorts her vocals (her theremin-like howls also turn up during another Felt Mountain cut and "Rome, Italian Style" Track of the Day, "Pilots").

(*) In his intro for the TCM Essentials Jr. broadcast of the theremin-filled Thing from Another World a couple of days ago, host Bill Hader said, "Transformers would be so much better with a theremin." True that.

"Lovely Head" also channels the grandiose sound of the secondary themes John Barry composed for either 007's love interests or the foreign destinations where 007 would shag those love interests. The Bondian strings and drums of "Lovely Head" inspired a YouTuber to replace "All Time High," one of Barry's weakest Bond ballads, with "Lovely Head" in the Octopussy opening titles.

The big alley

So it's San Diego Comic-Con time again, huh? Screw the overcrowded and stress-inducing Comic-Con. Here at A Fistful of Soundtracks: The Blog is an Artists' Alley where, like the Artists' Alley down at SDCC, you can find lots of stunning-looking art, but the alley here is a little nicer. It's not crowded, it doesn't smell as strange and there aren't any guys wearing those stupid-looking mandals because they think America wants to see their ugly toes on national TV. (For Christ's sake, you're a grown-ass man. Dress like one. They're called shower shoes for a reason: they're meant only for the shower. The only people who should be wearing open-toed shoes are ladies and Spartacus extras.)

During the week of last year's Comic-Con, the AFOS blog posted several great examples of TV show-inspired artwork. Here's some more standout TV-related art.

30 Rock/League of Extraordinary Gentlemen mash-up by Alex Ross. I'm looking forward to the inevitable mash-up of Warren Ellis' Ministry of Space and Astronaut Jones.

Return of the Jedi/Community "For a Few Paintballs More" episode mash-up by Victor Perfecto.

Daria by Ming Doyle.

Fozzie Bear stops by Marc Maron's garage, by Skottie Young. I enjoyed Maron's controversial exchange with Dan Savage about Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum on Real Time with Bill Maher last week.

Detective Nick Yemana from Barney Miller by Pete Emslie.

The Wire as a Hanna-Barbera cartoon by Paul Sizer.

Omar from The Wire by Steve Lieber, illustrator of one of my favorite Greg Rucka creations, the Whiteout comic.

McNulty and Bunk in a Wire/Simpsons mash-up by Lieber.

D'Angelo Barksdale's classic chess lesson scene in another Wire/Simpsons mash-up by Lieber.

Boondocks/Simpsons mash-up by Nattalia Alonso.

The 11th Doctor and Amy Pond from Doctor Who by H. Caldwell Tanner.

Doctor Who/Calvin and Hobbes mash-up by James Hance.

Doctor Who/Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! mash-up by Bob Canada.

Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends by Bill Walko. The Amazing Friends cartoon didn't have the greatest animation. But it was lots of fun, whereas director Marc Webb's Amazing Spider-Man reboot, which dropped its teaser trailer this week, appears to be the opposite of that.

Mad Men/X-Men mash-up by Ray Ocampo.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine by Ocampo.

Futurama/Transformers mash-up by spacecoyote.

One of two covers for a Honey West/Kolchak: The Night Stalker crossover in Moonstone Books' Phases of the Moon miniseries, by Thad Rhodes. Private eye Honey West first appeared in a series of pulp novels by G.G. Fickling (a pseudonym for the husband-and-wife duo of Skip and Gloria Fickling) and was played by the late Anne Francis in the '60s detective show of the same name.

Sanford & Son by Dan Zettwoch.

My favorite Ron Swanson expression from "The Bubble" (the Parks and Recreation episode where Chris Traeger makes some changes to Ron's office and Ron is clearly thrilled about them), by Phil Noto.

Thundarr the Barbarian by Noto. This cartoon destroyed Earth in its opening titles. I saw the world get torn apart by Ruby-Spears every Saturday morning when I was four years old, and I've been fucked up ever since. Thanks, Ruby-Spears!

Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi's Rome preview is neck-and-neck with the extended Green Lantern trailer for the week's juiciest-looking new trailer

I first read about Rome, Gnarls Barkley and Broken Bells producer Danger Mouse's homage to '60s and '70s Italian film scores, back in November and couldn't wait to hear the results of the project. Rome has Danger Mouse collaborating on new material with Italian composer Daniele Luppi (whose 2004 album An Italian Story is a nifty homage to the '60s Italian sound that's similar to Rome), as well as several of the veteran musicians who performed on many of those terrific '60s and '70s scores.

"It was really the dream to reunite the Cantori Moderni 40 years later. It was a choir put together by Alessandro Alessandroni--think about the Sergio Leone movies, the Morricone soundtracks with those beautiful soprano melodies," said Luppi to the Guardian. "Alessandroni was not only the choirmaster, but his whistle is all over those movies."

The concept album, which finds Danger Mouse and Luppi paying tribute to not just Morricone, but also to the likes of Piero Umiliani, Bruno Nicolai and Piero Piccioni, took about five years to make and will finally drop on May 17. Parlophone Records recently posted a lengthy trailer featuring interviews with Danger Mouse, Luppi and lead Rome singers Jack White and Norah Jones.



Judging from White's Sergio Corbucci-esque, spaghetti western imagery-filled "Two Against One" and the lush and loungy Jones/Cantori Moderni tune "Black," which were also posted by Parlophone and will debut together as a 7-inch vinyl single on Record Store Day on April 16, Rome sounds promising and is far from kitschy or overly cutesy like many homages to the '60s Italian sound have been.





I would love to stream some of the tracks from Rome on my station, but because AFOS focuses only on original score material or existing songs featured in film and TV, I can't find an appropriate block for the Rome tracks. I'll think of something.

Speaking of Danger Mouse (whose love for '60s and '70s Italian scores first emerged in 2004 when he sampled the Viva Django score in the Gnarls hit "Crazy"), here's one of my favorite Danger Mouse-produced joints from last year, amusingly mashed up with a fixture of early '80s MTV:

Simp-Bionic Titan

Here's some artwork I did for my forthcoming print compilation of posts from this blog.

Not since the demise of Terriers a few months ago have I been so pissed about a new and non-sucky TV show getting cancelled. Sym-Bionic Titan, a giant-robot cartoon filled with nods to '80s teen movies like Say Anything... and The Breakfast Club, has been my favorite Genndy Tartakovsky-created animated series. I also liked seeing Brian Posehn in a role that's the complete opposite of the moron he played on Just Shoot Me: Octus the super-competent robot and unexpected babe magnet.

I guess Cartoon Network needs more dumb game shows to put on its daytime schedule.

Catchin' Rec

Last March, the Parks and Recreation opening titles got Return of the Jedi-ized by a Parks and Rec fan. Now someone else has redone the titles in a big way. As part of promoting tonight's return of the much-missed Parks and Rec (it feels like it's been gone for ages--the extended absence was mostly due to star Amy Poehler's pregnancy), cast member Aziz Ansari has dropped an amusing remix.



The music in the Parks and Rec cast's CollegeHumor video is an actual hip-hop track from last March that sampled Gaby Moreno and Vincent Jones' great little Parks and Rec opening title theme ("Hampden Parks" by e-dubble).

TV arty

Screw the overcrowded and stress-inducing San Diego Comic-Con (which begins today). Here at A Fistful of Soundtracks: The Blog is an Artists' Alley that's far less crowded or funny-smelling than the one down there. It consists of the niftiest TV show-inspired artwork I've found on the Web.


Treme by illustrator and Fistful of Soundtracks listener Owen Freeman (for a WaPo article about the show).


Phil Dunphy from Modern Family, Leslie Knope from Parks and Recreation and Michael Scott from The Office by Freeman (for a WaPo critique of mockumentary sitcoms).


Dr. Girlfriend from The Venture Bros. by Darwyn Cooke. [Via Almost Darwyn Cooke's Blog]


Futurama/X-Men mash-up by gottabecarl.


The Simpsons by Lelpel.


Spaced/Scott Pilgrim vs. the World mash-up (made through the Scott Pilgrim movie site's avatar creator) by Dark Bunny Tees.


"Sushi Off a Friend," an A-Team/Greatest American Hero mash-up by Scott Campbell.


Leverage by Kweli.


The 11th Doctor and Amy Pond from Doctor Who by Blair D. Shedd, one of the illustrators of IDW's Doctor Who comics.


Twilight Zone by Ken Garduno.


Twilight Zone's "To Serve Man" ep by Garduno.


The Colbert Report by Sean Pryor, with Colbert surrounded by Douglas Rushkoff (far left), Jon Stewart and the recently deceased Harvey Pekar (from Pekar's SMITH Magazine comic "Kibbitzin' About How Life Got Incorporated").

The Office theme goes electro

Jay Ferguson's theme from The Office has recently been mashed up with the likes of Drake and Lil Wayne. Now it gets a bumpin' electro cover that belongs on the "Cafe Disco" playlist. [Via Kevin Pereira]



From a few months ago, here's the aforementioned "Office Party," which mashes together the Office theme, Drake's "Best I Ever Had" and a certain Miley Cyrus song that's intolerable by itself but becomes tolerable within the context of this sweet mash-up.

Coming Soon to a Theater in an Alternate Reality Near You

This was originally going to be a regular feature on my blog. Two April Fools Days ago, I posted some fake movie posters I made in Photoshop and was going to create some more, but I forgot that I suck at Photoshop, so Coming Soon to a Theater in an Alternate Reality Near You never became a regular thing.

Lately online, I've spotted some amusing posters for movies that don't exist, including a You Offend Me You Offend My Family poster of a whitewashed version of Better Luck Tomorrow, so I'm bringing back Coming Soon to a Theater in an Alternate Reality Near You to compile the cleverest or funniest examples of fake poster art.


I'd enjoy this John Boorman-directed Bruce Lee version of The Matrix way more than the actual Matrix. Poster by Sean Hartter.


Mister Miracle by Hartter.


Black Panther by Hartter.


Coming soon to a TV in an alternate reality near you: the Lost spinoff Reyes and Straume (also by Hartter).


From the Vulture blog's "Date Night–Inspired NBC Team-Ups We'd Like to See on the Big Screen" slideshow.


From a 2004 Television Without Pity Pixel Challenge.


From Fark.com's "movies that never existed but should have" forum.


From Cracked.com's "If Hollywood Decided to Give Everything a Gritty Reboot" contest.


Another Cracked gritty reboot: Edward Norton's Cheers.


Another fake Cheers movie poster, this time from Worth1000.com.

The next three are from Cracked's "Worst Possible Casting Decisions" contest.