2 official soundtracks to HBO's The Wire out in January

it's gonna say alex in baltimore?

does your driver's license say "cutty"?

i wish

i finally got that old hamsterdam mixtape from a friend, some it's pretty good.

so can i post here about the show once s5 starts, since i'm banned on ILE

THAT’S DA SOUND - Dirty Hartz feat. Verb 3:56

i think i have this but it has mullyman on it? lol @ ayyuurrrrrrp

I want these so bad.

haha you're banned from ILE? i must've missed your last showdown with Tombot or whatever.

"That's Da Sound" does have Mullyman on it, he's on the version on the soundtrack but for some reason the liner notes on this aren't billing him on it (and are "featuring" Verb, who's just one of the members of Dirty Hartz that's on the song).

season 4 is on demand now

I can't wait for Season 5.

It's also interesting that the show itself actually has no direct soundtrack besides incidental music and the theme songs. Also, besides the first episode there are no flashbacks in the series.

yeah, the show is super-sparing when it comes to music -- there have been occasional moments of direct soundtrack though ... the third season ends with an amazing montage -- can't remember the song... The Staples Singers? The music supervisor has a blog that occasionally touches on the show (and has included music from the show). tenthousand.org. Interesting (if not very frequently updated) stuff.

"It's also interesting that the show itself actually has no direct soundtrack besides incidental music and the theme songs."

Um hasn't every season ended with a music montage? That seems like a pretty direct soundtrack to me.

Yeah, every season finale has had a music montage (plus I think there was another in S3). But pretty much all other music is atmospheric, coming out of boomboxes, etc. And they did a good job of picking a few local songs that you actually might hear on 92Q blasting out of a passing car, along with a few more obscure or previously unreleased tracks.

i need season 4 down in the hold bad

'atmospheric' probably isn't the right word. but music that's actually heard by the characters, not just scored in the background. (xpost)

WHAT A GREAT SHOW. (Had to be said).

S4 is totally my least favorite "Way Down In The Hole." Curious to hear Steve Earle's for S5.

From wikipedia: "The first season montage is played over “Step by Step” by Jesse Winchester, the second “Feel Alright” by Steve Earle, the third “Fast Train” by Solomon Burke, and the fourth uses “I Walk on Gilded Splinters” by Paul Weller."

And they did a good job of picking a few local songs that you actually might hear on 92Q blasting out of a passing car

i remember the first episode i ever saw had some of the dealers (or maybe it was kima & co. undercover, can't remember) bumping talib kweli out of their car :>

S4 is totally the bestest down in the hole evar

no wai

waaaaay everyone way

haha yeah i was referring to the Baltimore music in seasons 4 and 5. IIRC, that episode actually has a Black Star song AND a Mos Def song in it, and I remember being like "wtf, I don't remember everyone in Baltimore bumping Mos Def in 2002." (xpost)

ludacris "stand up" coming out of marlo's truck in s3

very first episode has wee-bey and d playing h to the izzo in the escalade

hurtin' em in the home of the terrapins

'atmospheric' probably isn't the right word. but music that's actually heard by the characters, not just scored in the background. (xpost)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diegesis#Film_sound_and_music

Thank you, I wasn't familiar with that exact term, very useful.

hey good on you, Alex in Baltimore!! :-)

Best show, like, ever?!

(last season was a bit disappointing but the new one sounds like a cool setup the way it has been described in the advance press).

ive only started watching the wire but they do have quite a bit of music - like in season 1, i hear bill withers' use me and aaliyah's remake of got to give it up. they also have a lot of generic mid 90s sounding hip hop instrumentals, which i found odd, as i thought dealers would be blasting more up to date stuff.

"It's also interesting that the show itself actually has no direct soundtrack besides incidental music and the theme songs."

Except...

Last season down in the hole was great! Maybe there needs to be a poll on this..

Excited about the new season (and these cds).

in my bldg lobby mail that gets sorted wrong or needs to be returned to sender gets stuck outside the mailboxes. the other day there was one addressed to the name "Mully Man"

s4 theme has grown on me!

haha are you near Bentalou and Riggs? Mully's living in Atlanta right now but I've still seen him around town a couple times lately. (xpost)

the weirded out rhythms and loose harmonies of s4 are creepy hoodoo awz

fuck a tom waits

i mostly like the call & response part.

the tom waits version is good too.

no i'm downtown. is bentalou over in that sandtown/winchester area? i don't think i'd want to live there. this is kind of funny though http://www.sndtwn.org/dogfight.htm

more like Greenlawn, a little west of Sandtown, but yeah, around that area.

got my promos of the soundtracks in the mail the other day! haven't given 'em a listen yet, but i'm excited.

what are the booklets like?

no liner notes w/ my promos, just the discs. but the official release will include, according to Blake Leyh's e-mail blast, "a gigantic deluxe booklet stuffed with photographs, and liner notes by David Simon, George Pelecanos and Jeff Chang."

oh awesome

any bode vs garrison keeler clips?

'beyond hamsterdam' leaked. not sure about the other one

it ain't my fault!

and yeah there is some Prairie Home Companion in the “Why would anyone ever wanna leave Baltimore?” interlude.

i don't get the similarity of tracklistings for these two cds. like the one cd contains the other except with shorter track times and some extra material?

well, they're 2 seperate releases (not one 2-disc set), one's the proper soundtrack w/ the themes and dialogue clips with a few Baltimore artists peppered in, the other is all the Baltimore tracks in full and unedited w/ 3 not on the other CD. I agree it's a little awkward, if it was my call I would've either done one release (as a single or double CD) or the 2nd release would've been all exclusive material. but i still think it's pretty awesome that something like Beyond Hamsterdam is going to be a national release at all. supposedly they're both getting the same sized initial pressing, it's not like one is the main release and the other's an afterthought.

WAY DOWN IN THE HOLE – The Blind Boys of Alabama 2:54
WAY DOWN IN THE HOLE – The Neville Brothers 1:36
WAY DOWN IN THE HOLE - Domaje 1:43
WAY DOWN IN THE HOLE – Tom Waits 1:45

this is kind of odd -- i guess the domaje one was specially recorded for the show, so is 1.43; but the waits and the blind boys are edits. only the blind boys one is not the length used on the show?

not a big steve earle guy usually but the closing montage of s02 is maybe the greatest bit of audio-visual art this decade so am def innarested in the nu credits.

so can i post here about the show once s5 starts, since i'm banned on ILE

-- am0n, Wednesday, December 5, 2007 7:37 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Link

How the hell did you manage that?

Trying to post Nabisco's real name after Tombot warned against it. ILX moderating has gotten stricter, I think.

the music played in the wire is pretty bad in general.

yeah all the themes on the sdtk are the lengths of the credit sequence (and include the wooshy sound fx at the very end just like in the credits), except the Blind Boys one I guess because it opens the album.

the music played in the wire is pretty bad in general.

-- titchyschneiderMk2, Monday, December 31, 2007 11:35 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Link

no.

there's one key non-diegetic bit of music: 'walk the line' at the start of an ep of s02, which ends up with prez saying "fuckin' a".

another key track: 'pull up to the bumper'.

the music played in the wire is pretty bad in general.

-- titchyschneiderMk2, Monday, 31 December 2007 11:35 (7 hours ago) Link

god u really are the worst

there's one key non-diegetic bit of music: 'walk the line' at the start of an ep of s02, which ends up with prez saying "fuckin' a".

there's also the song on cutty's walkman when he goes jogging that continues over a montage of election scenes

'move on up' right?

yeah

ps - stop snitchyschneiderMk2

i already kinda hate the s5 theme. it reminds me of the theme to 'hunter' or some other late 80s cop show

I pretty much like every season's theme less than the one before it, so I'm kinda prepared to dislike the new one without having heard it or really having any opinion about Steve Earle.

trying to keep the tooting my own horn to a minimum on this thread, but this is relevent, so toot toot

Saw the first episode of season 5 last night--it's up on HBO On Demand. I will be so forlorn when this series is over. It's been said upthread a few times but I will join those who believe this is the best television program there's ever been.

not sdtrk related but good article here: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200801/bowden-wire

http://bp3.blogger.com/_zD-zh2jtvZU/R3uwBWMhYrI/AAAAAAAAAUw/3fjRA60sGI4/s400/WIREcdrelease.gif

semi-official release party for the soundtrack in New York this Friday, put together by L@cr@te (who i guess i called a truce with? or vice versa?) and featuring lots of my hometown bros that are on the CD. i'm still debating whether to go on a road trip up to NYC for this or what.

lol what does the truce entail

a civil e-mail exchange, hoping ethan stops making constant Dr. Yacub jokes about him on ILX

bump for these being OUT TODAY GO TO THE STORE AND BUY ONE WHY DONCHA

got the full package and read through the liner notes last night, great essays by Chang, Simon and Pelecanos, dotted with lots of stills and quotes from the show.

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/09/what-do-real-thugs-think-of-the-wire/

pretty funny, possible spoilers maybe for no-cable no-torrent loozers

Breihan reviewed the soundtracks on Pitchfork today and I more or less agree with his take aside from a few things:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/47853-and-all-the-pieces-matter-five-years-of-music-from-the-wire-beyond-hamsterdam-baltimore-tracks-from-the-wire

fav. track might be bossman's

I was really hoping they'd put his other recent single "So Fresh" (which is also apparently gonna be used in Season 5) on the soundtrack, but that one's good too.

haven't paid enough attention to the music in s5 so far but there's eric b & rakim in one marlo scene

michael franti should be banned from music

the new theme might be growing on me

haha isn't spearhead like perpetually on the festival circuit

Wayne does a remix of the theme on his blog's January 6th posting "What Chew Know about Down in the Hole" and writes about the show and the music

http://wayneandwax.com/

really don't get the point of including the swooshes and edits from the show.

i tried to physically buy 'beyond hamsterdam' last week, but the record store had sold all of their copies that day!

Haha weird, as far as I know All The Pieces Matter is selling more overall (or at least has a much higher sales rank on Amazon and other sites), but Beyond Hamsterdam seems to be getting better reviews. I'm very curious to see whether either charts when Billboard's numbers for last week come out tomorrow.

beyond hamsterdam is awesome

I'm having this girl on our newspaper staff review Beyond Hamsterdam. She actually liked it!

sales figures are real :(

just got back from a silent auction for some Wire memorabilia, Rod Lee dj'd and Diablo performed, as did Slim Charles's go-go band.

'The Wire' Cast Comes Together

To commemorate the finale of the series, cast members Jamie Hector (Marlo Stanfield), Corey Parker Robinson (Detective Leander Sydnor), Gbenga Akinnagbe (Chris Partlow)* will be at the HBO Shop to sign the new deluxe soundtrack celebrating five years of music from The Wire.

When: Jan 31st, 2008 at 11:30am
Where: HBO Shop at 42nd and 6th Ave (NYC)

*Cast members subject to change.

marlo, chris and omar were on some mtv show and i was waiting for them to plug the soundtracks but they never did.

nothing to do with the wire but pretty cool

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-to.hiphop19may19,0,5215656.story

http://www.baltimoresun.com/media/photo/2008-05/39028658.jpg

ok i lied

"A confident and commanding Emmanuel "Tu-Khindz" Johnson faces a hesitant challenger in Sterling "Lil Geezy Hot" Barksdale. As cameras roll, Johnson unleashes a steady stream of barbs and ego-boosters."