SW Musique

Apr. 25th, 2006 06:56 pm
lazypadawan: (Default)
[personal profile] lazypadawan
On Sunday, I dropped by a used CD store to look for an album I didn't have on CD but wasn’t available in the iTunes music store.  They didn't have what I was looking for, but finally picked up Depeche Mode Singles 81-85 and while browsing the "Various T--$1.99" bin, I came across a CD I long gave up finding…Twin Sister's eponymous album.

You see, I have all 6 SW original soundtracks in various incarnations and I also have a quirky collection of strange covers of SW music as well as music about SW.  There's the Cocktails in the Cantina CD I bought in 1999, featuring "lounge style" reinditions of John Williams's classics.  There's the jazz CD I got in 1997, which features the sexiest version ever of "Han Solo and the Princess."  I have Meco's stuff.  I have two different dance remix singles of "Duel of the Fates."  Weird Al Yankovic's "Yoda" and "The Saga Begins" are on my iPod.  Someone recorded on tape for me "Star Wars Cantina," a takeoff on Barry Manilow's "Copacabana," which I haven't been able to get in digital form since.  There's the metal-style version of "The Imperial March" from a video game that turned into an urban legend about Rage Against The Machine or Metallica covering the song.  I found on mp3.com several years back a knockoff of Smashmouth's "Hey Now" called "Amidala" that contains the classic line "Hey now, Amidala/marry Ani, get laid."  Unfortunately I lost it in the Great Hard Drive Crash of 2004.  Last year I downloaded "Jedi Is A Hottie," which was recorded in 2002, but was rediscovered by Anakin fangirls.  It's a parody of Christina Aguilera's "Genie In A Bottle" ("I know Star Wars isn't real/How I wish that wasn't true/Because this Jedi is a hottie/All my friends think so too").  A friend recently forwarded a track called "The Jedi Drinking Song" by Celtic group Brobdingnagian Bards, about the dangers of trying to outdrink Yoda.  You haven't lived until you've heard The Main Theme played on a tin whistle.

I first heard about Twin Sister in '97 from an article in my old fanzine.  They were originally called Boba Phett until Lucasfilm's legal department sent them a little note, and interestingly enough, the band started out in the Christian rock scene.  They were one of many bands kicking around the 1990s with SW inspired names:  Nerf Herder, Red Five, etc..  (I didn't know until recently that Maroon 5 was sort of inspired by SW…I guess since someone already took the name Red Five, they had to go with a different color.)  Twin Sister put out a CD of songs in 1997 (which was reissued in 1999) that were all about SW and try as I might, I couldn't find it anywhere.  So imagine my joy finding at last, for a buck 99 to boot.  I gave it a listen and their sound was sort of rock/funk.  While they were never in danger of making the Red Hot Chili Peppers lose any sleep, you can't help but smile at songs titled "Ben" or "Scoundrel" or "He's No Good To Me Dead."  Twin Sister must have broken up since they haven't put out anything in almost 10 years.

No one has written about this stuff recently, but Jon Bradley Snyder had two excellent articles about SW-inspired music that appeared in the SW Insider in 1998 and in 2000. 

Date: 2006-04-26 03:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mythicdove.livejournal.com
Not sure if you have this one by Aphex Twin, has our Vader in it... that's why I like it:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/vm9kid

Date: 2006-04-26 05:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ayajedi.livejournal.com
Thanks for the link, I'd not heard it before, it was fun.

Date: 2006-04-27 03:07 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lazypadawan.livejournal.com
Cool! Thanks!

Date: 2006-04-26 08:57 am (UTC)
nic: (Default)
From: [personal profile] nic
What an awesome find! I have now added that CD to my list of 'I hope I find one day....'

BTW I read your list of SW albums and noticed that I have them all too. SW-music collecting is a lifestyle. ;) Do you have the soundtrack to 'Shadows of the Empire'? That's got one of my all-time favourite 'Leia' pieces on it.

Date: 2006-04-27 03:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lazypadawan.livejournal.com
Yes, I have it. I was just about to do a post about the tenth anniversary of the whole SOTE blitz, by the way.

Date: 2006-04-26 09:15 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hvaharu.livejournal.com
You opened a new universe to me... I've just listened to samples from Star Wars: Cocktails In The Cantina at amazon.com and LOL, I have to get that one way or the other. :)

Thanks!

Date: 2006-04-27 03:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lazypadawan.livejournal.com
It's weird, but a lot of fun.

Date: 2006-04-27 12:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hvaharu.livejournal.com
I can see that. :D

Date: 2006-04-26 02:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sreya.livejournal.com
Hey, I've got the "Star Wars Cantina" spoof in an MP3 if you'd like a digital copy of it!

Date: 2006-04-27 03:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lazypadawan.livejournal.com
Sure! (You're the first of three people to offer it.)

Date: 2006-04-26 04:32 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jawajames.livejournal.com
i think i got the Star Wars Cantina song on digital somewhere too...

a long time ago, i got this Laserlight CD of Science Fiction movie themes which has pretty sad versions of some of the trilogy music.

Date: 2006-04-27 03:09 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lazypadawan.livejournal.com
One of my friends even has the Moog Synthesizer covers of ANH's "greatest hits."

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