Sweet! Great background on that song. Sounds like a really cool dream, too. Aquarium with liquid pictures…

I’m not very musically literate, but yeah, I can sense some odd time signatures on that song. And I like the intro, and how it then slows down once the vocals come in.

This blog is mostly about hardcore punk, actually, not surf flicks. Over the last couple years I’ve transferred a bunch of vinyl-only punk records to mp3, and shared them here. But I’m also way into surfing, so I shared some surf stuff, too. I don’t own Totally Committed, and I haven’t seen it – but now I’m on a quest!! I NEED to see him film. (Most of the surf flicks I own are from the ’90s.)

Agatha was an artist and in the dream, we lived in houseboats along a river bank near a city. We had aquariums but instead of housing fish there were liquid pictures that floated on the surface of the water. That’s why I sing ‘she could paint a picture on the standing water’. Much of this song’s lyrics are a creative but literal description of things in the dream. I think the line ‘back at the boats, we all discuss her and make believe we don’t care why she left us.’ pertains to the human tendency to defend our ignorant words rather than accept responsibility for its damage to others.

Musically, this was another excercise in writing in odd tempos. A lot of my writing is in odd meters, very little 4/4. Back in those days I was into making things as complicated as possible to play without the listener knowing. There are 15/16 bars and 5/8, 13/16 going on all over the place. Can’t dance to it but its interesting.

Since your website is about surf films I’m surprised you haven’t covered ‘Totally Commited’ in your discussions. This was the second project I did for Steve Spaulding and Isomer Productions a few years later. I think its actually a better film and score. If you ever get around to reviewing it I’ll tell you about ‘Dexterd the Sex Squirt’!

This is an amazing comment. I’m stoked to hear all this detail about the soundtrack. I think it’s great that people have been digging this post and spreading the word – since, yeah, your soundtrack is an exceptional one. I’d been hoping more people would be checking it out – and they have!

And it’s really cool to see it get your attention (and, of course, I’m thankful that you don’t mind that I’ve shared it here).

Man, I was convinced that there were a number of different bands on this soundtrack. I know it just says your name in the credits, but I was like, “naw, that can’t be accurate.” You did a fantastic job setting various moods.

One question: There’s one song – past the halfway mark – that’s about a girl who commits suicide. What is her name? Agatha Tram… something like that? That’s a great song – I’d just like to be able to sing is accurately

I’m still trying to upload the entire video to the web, but the site I’m using is having lame problems with it. It will work one of these days, I hope. Then people will be able to scope both the sound and the sights!

Definitely keep me posted about Kauai Unveiled. I’d love to check that out when it comes out.

What’s interesting about writing scores (I still do) is that there is really no feedback from the viewing audience. One sends it out there and it either gets aired or not but the royalty checks (if there are any) don’t reflect how the audience likes or doesn’t like one’s music. In fact, the only feedback I ever got on BH was when Titus Kinikmaka confronted me in a parking lot to ask me why I wrote such diabolic music under his session. I told him that I was trying to imitate ‘No Spill Blood’ by Oingo Boingo. We’re friends so he just let me off with a scowl, no dirty lickens.

My awesome and beloved studio was destroyed by hurricane Iniki on Sept. 11, 1992. A month later, I made the decision to move to the mainland for a couple of years to study composition at UCLA with the intent of returning home when the island came back. Well, even after five years, the island economy was in a terrible state and I had built a commercial studio in LA. I have been here since but lately have started making plans to move back to Kauai. I still write scores but also produce videos, one of which will be released this year on DVD, Kauai Unveiled. It’s an adventure trip around Kauai, part of which I shot in HiDef from an ultralight at 7000′ above Kauai and Niihau, our neighbor island. It features, once again, a mashup of different styles all sounding like its several bands, but its just me, still tripping on the amazing beauty of nature through music. If anyone would like a copy of BH I can get you one copied from the only existing version that I have, a cassette. Sadly, the masters were destroyed in the hurricane.

I’m thinking of attempting to upload some surf vid, including this one, to youtube (and will have to break them up into 10min sections). When I’ve done clips in the past (like this http://www.youtube.com/blueskiesaboveus#p/a/u/0/FYBqt8ev_KY ) the quality is pretty low. So I’ll try to figure out how to do it better quality. But it’s hard to relive these vids these days, unless you still have a VHS player.

I’ve got some rad ones. Have you seen Gripping Stuff? It’s an australian one from the mid-80s. Focused on “hi-performance” surfing – aka a lot of Tommy Carroll and other rippers. I think people will dig it, and it’s got a rad soundtrack, too. Lots of unknown (to me) aussie bands.

there is a song on the begining of the movie

start from the minut

3:20 until the 7:18 minut

kind of jazzy funky-great song

and i am looking for the name of the song and the name of the band

thanks
please e-mail me

mangelbalitour@windowslive.com

there is a song on the begining of the movie

start from the minut

3:20 until the 7:18 minut

kind of jazzy funky-great song

and i am looking for the name of the song and the name of the band

thanks