We worked with some amazing artists to create the soundtrack, which included John Legend’s cover of U2’s hit song inspired by MLK, “Pride (In The Name Of Love)” as well as some beautiful spirituals recorded by Grammy-nominated artist Ryan Shaw and acclaimed singer/performer Elisabeth Withers.

Ryan Shaw’s 3 tracks for the special have been made available for purchase through Amazon, soon to be available on iTunes. You can also check out some behind the scenes footage from the recording sessions for both John Legend and Ryan Shaw on The History Channel website.

IMDB
Sony Pictures Website

Theatre info:

LA
tickets: http://snurl.com/248l8
MANN’s CRITERION THEATRE
1313 Third Street Promenade
Santa Monica, CA 90401
310-395-1599

NY
tickets: http://snurl.com/248lj
CLEARVIEW CINEMA on 62nd & Broadway
1871 Broadway
New York, NY 10023
212-777-FILM- #864
Theatre Office Number:
212-265-7655

XO,
Stephen & Megan

Three brothers and a cousin traveled from Cairo to Cape town, through 12 African countries exploring the role western aid to the continent. It took them 6 months & they shot over 300 hours of footage. The film is appearing at the Atlanta Film Festival, so go check it out if you’re in the area. It’s a fascinating and emotional look at highly controversial discussion.

Click here for to view as quicktime. 

Symbolic Sound, makers of Kyma.

Handmade in Philadelphia, produced in limited quantities.

Monome.org

on WNYC’s Radio Lab:

What is music? How does it work? Why does it move us? Why are some people better at it than others? In this hour, we examine the line between language and music, how the brain processes sound, and we meet a composer who uses computers to capture the musical DNA of dead composers in order to create new work. We also re-imagine the disastrous 1913 debut of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring…through the lens of modern neurology.

Listen to the episode here.

Chaim and Billy both lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, just blocks away from each other, in worlds that almost never collided. Chaim was a Hasidic Jew — he’d never heard pop music or watched MTV. Billy Campion, known as the rocker Vic Thrill, was the star of an underground band. Billy put Chaim, who took on the name Curly Oxide, into the band, and in just one year, he leapt from the 19th century into the 21st. David Segal, rock critic for the Washington Post, reports. (39 minutes)

Listen to Act One.
Originally aired on This American Life 06.17.2005.

Megan and I took a crack at record our own version of the Weeds title sequence “Little Boxes”, written by Malvina Reynolds. The song has also been recorded by Elvis Costello, Regina Spektor, & Death Cab for Cutie. Them’s big shoes (to fill).

As part of Nine Inch Nails’ remix extravaganza, we decided to form an entirely new base of “Survivalism”, leaving only the melody.

Nine Inch Nails remix source files here.

My favorite excerpt:

PLAYBOY: While you may strive for musical crudity, lyrically you’re quite sophisticated~interior rhymes, classical allusions and your hallmark, a great ear for the vernacular. In a sense, you’re the William Safire of street patois, rescuing such phrases as walking Spanish–inebriated saunter–and even coining some pretty good lingo of your own, such as rain dogs: stray people who, like animals after a shower, can’t find their markings and wander aimlessly. What are some of your other favorite bits of slang, phrases you’d like to see get more everyday use?

WAITS: For starters, I’d like to see the term wooden kimono return to the lexicon. Means coffin. Think it originated in New Orleans, but I’m not certain. Another one I like is wolf tickets, which means bad news, as in someone who is bad news or generally insubordinate. In a sentence, you’d say, “Don’t fuck with me, I’m passing out wolf tickets.” Think it’s either Baltimore Negro or turn-of-the-century railroadese. There’s one more. Don’t know where it came from, but I like it: Saturdaynightitis. Now, it’s what happens to your arm when you hang it around a chair all night at the movies or in some bar, trying to make points with a pretty girl. When your arm goes dead from that sort of action, you’ve got Saturdaynightitis.

Read the rest of the interview.