Comments on: ID some This American Life songs?

Question: ID some This American Life songs?

waldo — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 15:19:58 -0800

This American Life has at least a dozen instrumentals that they use over and over as background music. The Happy Flute Song, the Things Are Kind of Tense Song, and so on. I've really grown to like many of them, but I cannot identify any of them. Can TAL fans identify any of the standard music beds?

By: heresiarch

heresiarch — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 15:26:18 -0800

They often use tracks off the Amélie soundtrack by Yann Tiersen. I took a quick scan through the album, and I can recall uses of tracks: 1, 2, 4, 7, 17, 18, 19(?). The music kind of blends together so I might be wrong about the specific tracks, but the album definitely gets used quite a bit.

By: gramcracker

gramcracker — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 15:46:01 -0800

Amelie is very common; also The Royal Tenenbaums and Rushmore soundtracks.

By: mbrubeck

mbrubeck — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 15:49:06 -0800

This page lists the songs they use most often (with clips for identification purposes).

The one I recognize most is from the score to Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control.

By: mbrubeck

mbrubeck — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 15:51:04 -0800

Also, from their current FAQ:

...some of the music on the show comes from movie soundtracks: Donnie Darko, Amelie, The Royal Tennenbaums, The Virgin Suicides, and others. We also use a lot of Calexico and Bexar Bexar, all of which you can find online.

By: googly

googly — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 15:51:39 -0800

From their website's FAQ: "...some of the music on the show comes from movie soundtracks: Donnie Darko, Amelie, The Royal Tennenbaums, The Virgin Suicides, and others. We also use a lot of Calexico and Bexar Bexar, all of which you can find online."

Also, if you got to their website and search for the phrase "music heard on the show," you will be directed to a page that has a long list of pieces they use during the show. (Sorry, I can't get a direct link).

Finally, if you look through their archives, it lists many of the songs that play in between stories.

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 15:57:46 -0800

I noticed "The Beast" from the Mulholland Drive soundtrack.

By: onepapertiger

onepapertiger — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 16:25:13 -0800

They use "Canary" from Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville all of the time.

By: np312

np312 — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 16:28:05 -0800

They use Yo La Tengo's older albums all the time.

By: dog food sugar

dog food sugar — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 16:31:43 -0800

I've heard stuff from Orbitones, Spoon Harps & Bellowphones and also this combustible edison album.

I always wonder who the lucky person is that has this job - they must have the most diverse collection of music available to them.

By: rossination

rossination — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 16:33:48 -0800

They use a lot of Miles Davis, specifically the fabulous album "Kind of Blue". There are a couple of acts where the opening story has the Paul Chambers bass line at the beginning of "So What", and then as something exciting happens, Miles comes in on his solo. They do the same thing in Pleasantville, IIRC.

Hopefully this makes sense to at least one person.

By: dong_resin

dong_resin — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 17:03:44 -0800

I hear "Nights Interlude" by Nightmares On Wax all the time

By: waldo

waldo — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 17:31:22 -0800

Wow, I'd never found the Music Heard on the Show page though, admittedly, it's probably been a year (!) since I scoured their site for it. Thanks for that, and particular thanks to those IDing songs that are a) not listed there or b) played really, really often, since those are the ones that I'm really looking for.

By: chimmyc

chimmyc — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 18:18:36 -0800

I hear DJ Shadow's Midnight In A Perfect World used with some frequency, although as I remember it sounds like they have some sort of extended version that drags out the beginning part before the drums kick in.

By: viewofdelft

viewofdelft — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 18:39:52 -0800

They often play the opening bassline from Mogwai's "Xmas Steps" during the sadder "what it all means" moments.

By: kaseijin

kaseijin — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 19:33:40 -0800

An old friend of mine who goes by the monicker Bexar Bexar does a fair bit of the instrumental on TAL. You can check out his music at Western Vinyl.

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 20:08:14 -0800

I have noticed the score to "I Heart Huckabees" by Jon Brion being used very often.

By: rsanheim

rsanheim — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 20:37:15 -0800

I know they've played quite a bit of post-rock instrumental stuff like Dianogah and possibly Tristeza and the like. Maybe some Tarentel or Do Make Say Think, also, at times....

By: clarkie666

clarkie666 — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 23:27:22 -0800

Just looking for this very thing the other day. Here is the link from the TAL site that googly referred to - it is a pretty good list, together with samples, so you know what the plinkedy plink music is called...

By: judith

judith — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 01:04:40 -0800

In the first few seasons they used a lot of Penguin Cafe Orchestra.

By: Slarty Bartfast

Slarty Bartfast — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 08:32:31 -0800

Groove Holmes by the Beastie Boys.

By: Alt F4

Alt F4 — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 09:04:40 -0800

There was a "whistle-y" song from Airling & Cameron they played a bunch.

By: joshuaconner

joshuaconner — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 16:07:43 -0800

I hear the intro to "Catalog and Classify" (embedded WM audio) from Mark Robinson's Tiger Banana a lot.

By: gbinal

gbinal — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 22:13:44 -0800

Clem Snide's Evil vs. Good and Brian Eno's ambient stuff in Music for Airports has stuck out in my mind. Beautiful, indeed.

Peace,