Monday, September 7, 2009

Heist music.



A couple weeks ago Oceans 12 was on tv. I was a big fan of the first one and when 12 came out in theaters I went opening night, then promptly decided to never watch it again. It was bad. Julia Roberts playing a character who just happens to look like Julia Roberts? I guess they didn't realize that Brad Pitt looks like Brad Pitt, not to mention George Clooney, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle and Bernie Mac. Now, I was pretty resolute in my decision, but I had some friends tell me that it was a lot better the second time around. That didn't convince me to ever rent it but when it was on tv I thought that maybe I'd give it a second chance and after having watched it for the second time I now know that it is still just as bad as before and I really don't ever have to watch it again, but I didn't leave the movie empty-handed. While the movie seemed like nothing more than an excuse for these celebrities to make a couple bucks off us, the soundtrack was great. I immediately went to my computer and added the soundtracks to my already extensive Amazon Wish List. And then I came across Brian Gossett.

Those of you who know me well know how I'm a sucker for anything free. You know all those commercials that tell you to go to such-and-such a website for a free granola bar/stick of gum/individual box of cereal? I do all of them. Every one. iTunes free single of the week? I download all of them with very few exceptions. I don't know how many times I hear about a group from a friend, go home and find out that a month earlier I downloaded one of their songs--for free. Months ago I found out that Urban Outfitters periodically releases downloadable compilations with their project LSTN. So far there are six. Then very recently I found out that Amazon does a new free single every day (today's is great. It's Sondre Lerche who scored Dan in Real Life. Just check out Amazon's MP3 Downloads section).

A couple days after watching Ocean's 12 I saw some of Brian Gossett's compilation album covers on ffffound and, following the link, came to his website where I found out you could download the albums--for free. He's done 20 of them, each with beautifully designed album covers and each inspired by heist movies, the people who scored them, and exotic locations (Detroit's exotic, right?). Quite a few include David Holmes who did the scores for the Oceans movies and I'd also check out any of the Shawn Lee comps. Anywho, ever since then I've been listening to the music pretty much nonstop, wanting to drink (virgin) martinis and cruise around European mountain paths in an old Aston Martin. Can you blame me?