Jonah Hex: Revenge Gets Ugly EP
Encyclopedia
Jonah Hex: Revenge Gets Ugly EP is the official score
for the 2010 film Jonah Hex
directed by Jimmy Hayward
and starring Josh Brolin
. The score was composed by American sludge metal
band Mastodon
and film composer
Marco Beltrami
. It was released digitally on June 29, 2010 through Reprise Records
.
Jonah Hex: Revenge Gets Ugly EP received some minor charting success, peaking at number 15 on Billboard
's Top Soundtracks, and at number 22 on Billboard' s Hard Rock Albums.
. While writing the film script, director Jimmy Hayward
(Horton Hears a Who!
, Finding Nemo
, Toy Story
) was heavily inspired and influenced by the band's 2006 studio album, Blood Mountain
. Hayward personally called Mastodon and asked them to contribute their music to the soundtrack. The film was on a tight budget and most of the cast and crew had agreed to take pay cuts. Mastodon were no exception as they agreed to record the album for, "basically nothing."
Mastodon had just returned from a European tour with Metallica
, and immediately flew out to Los Angeles, California
to begin work on the score. The group was shown various clips of the film and asked to write music that matched the scenes emotionally. According to bassist Troy Sanders
, they were given "100% creative control in this movie." Writing the soundtrack to a film came natural for Mastodon, as many of their albums are concept albums. Sanders commented that since the start of the band, "we've always written albums thinking the music was the score of a movie. Then we'll create the lyrics or story line on top of that, as if we're writing the dialogue to match the movie's cinematography." In two weeks they created about an hour of instrumental music, with five full songs and "many smaller musical themes adapted throughout." The soundtrack was then handed over to composer John Powell
(Bourne series
, Jumper
, Hancock
) to add the music into the film.
After the soundtrack had been recorded, the Jonah Hex film endured lengthy reshoots and reediting sessions. Prior to signing onto Jonah Hex, Powell was already arranged to compose the soundtracks for Knight and Day and Fair Game
. Due to his previously arranged agreements, and filming for Jonah Hex still incomplete, Powell had to leave the project and was subsequently replaced with composer Marco Beltrami
(The Hurt Locker
, 3:10 to Yuma
, Scream series
). The first soundtrack Mastodon recorded was written for scenes that were later scrapped during the reshoots, so Beltrami had the band write an entirely new score. The new soundtrack was taken in a "more restrained, subtle" musical direction—contrasting the original version which had been described as "pretty heavy" with "vigorous shredding."
While Mastodon had originally described the process of composing a soundtrack in October 2009 as "very pure, it was real creative and totally spur of the moment" and expected "nothing in return but satisfaction in being a part of something incredible," the band found it frustrating to have to rewrite a new score and start from scratch. According to guitarist Brent Hinds
, who was disappointed about having to start over, "It was some of the best shit I've ever written in my life. Now I'm just trying to finish with as much patience as possible." The band was also facing time constraints both from the approaching release date of the film and also being on a world tour at the time. In May 2010, Mastodon announced they had about an hour's worth of newly recorded material for the score.
Jonah Hex: Revenge Gets Ugly EP was digitally
released as a six-song EP
on June 29, 2010 through Reprise Records
, two weeks after the Jonah Hex film's debut. The album features four new songs and two alternate versions.
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
for the 2010 film Jonah Hex
Jonah Hex (film)
Jonah Hex is a 2010 post-Civil War antihero Western film loosely based on the DC Comics character of the same name. Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, the film is directed by Jimmy Hayward and stars Josh Brolin as the title character, Jonah Hex, and also stars John Malkovich, Michael Fassbender,...
directed by Jimmy Hayward
Jimmy Hayward
James "Jimmy" Hayward is a Canadian film director, screenwriter and animator.-Life and career:Hayward was born in Kingston, Ontario. At a young age, Hayward began his career at Mainframe Entertainment animating and directing commercials, he was one of the original animators of the television...
and starring Josh Brolin
Josh Brolin
Josh James Brolin is an American actor. He has acted in theater, film and television roles since 1985, and won acting awards for his roles in the films W., No Country for Old Men, Milk and True Grit.-Early life:...
. The score was composed by American sludge metal
Sludge metal
Sludge metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that melds elements of doom metal and hardcore punk, and sometimes incorporates influences from southern rock, stoner rock and grunge. Sludge metal is typically abrasive; often featuring shouted vocals, heavily distorted instruments and sharply contrasting...
band Mastodon
Mastodon (band)
Mastodon is an American heavy metal band from Atlanta, Georgia, formed in 1999. The band is composed of bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders, guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds, guitarist Bill Kelliher and drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor...
and film composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
Marco Beltrami
Marco Beltrami
Marco Beltrami is an American film composer.-Life and career:Beltrami was born in Long Island, New York of Italian and Greek descent...
. It was released digitally on June 29, 2010 through Reprise Records
Reprise Records
Reprise Records is an American record label, founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operated through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:...
.
Jonah Hex: Revenge Gets Ugly EP received some minor charting success, peaking at number 15 on Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
's Top Soundtracks, and at number 22 on Billboard
History
In September 2009 it was announced that Mastodon were working on the film score to the DC comic adaption of Jonah HexJonah Hex
Jonah Woodson Hex is a Western comic book antihero created by writer John Albano and artist Tony DeZuniga and published by DC Comics. Hex is a surly and cynical bounty hunter whose face is horribly scarred on the right side. Despite his poor reputation and personality, Hex is bound by a personal...
. While writing the film script, director Jimmy Hayward
Jimmy Hayward
James "Jimmy" Hayward is a Canadian film director, screenwriter and animator.-Life and career:Hayward was born in Kingston, Ontario. At a young age, Hayward began his career at Mainframe Entertainment animating and directing commercials, he was one of the original animators of the television...
(Horton Hears a Who!
Horton Hears a Who! (film)
Horton Hears a Who!, also known as Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!, is a 2008 American CGI-animated comedy feature film based on the Dr. Seuss book of the same name. It is the fourth feature film from Blue Sky Studios, and the third feature film based on a Dr. Seuss book, following How the Grinch...
, Finding Nemo
Finding Nemo
Finding Nemo is a 2003 American comi-drama animated film written by Andrew Stanton, directed by Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich and produced by Pixar. It tells the story of the overly protective clownfish Marlin who, along with a regal tang called Dory , searches for his abducted son Nemo...
, Toy Story
Toy Story
Toy Story is a 1995 American computer-animated film released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is Pixar's first feature film as well as the first ever feature film to be made entirely with CGI. The film was directed by John Lasseter and featuring the voices of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen...
) was heavily inspired and influenced by the band's 2006 studio album, Blood Mountain
Blood Mountain (album)
-Story notes:* The main character is in search of the Crystal Skull which he hopes to place at the top of Blood Mountain. In the making of DVD, the Crystal Skull is supposed to remove "the reptile brain" causing its owner the ability to achieve the next step of human evolution.* In an interview...
. Hayward personally called Mastodon and asked them to contribute their music to the soundtrack. The film was on a tight budget and most of the cast and crew had agreed to take pay cuts. Mastodon were no exception as they agreed to record the album for, "basically nothing."
Mastodon had just returned from a European tour with Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
, and immediately flew out to Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
to begin work on the score. The group was shown various clips of the film and asked to write music that matched the scenes emotionally. According to bassist Troy Sanders
Troy Sanders
Troy Sanders is an American bassist/singer best known as a member of the Atlanta, Georgia metal band Mastodon, in which he shares vocal duties with guitarist Brent Hinds and drummer Brann Dailor.-Background:...
, they were given "100% creative control in this movie." Writing the soundtrack to a film came natural for Mastodon, as many of their albums are concept albums. Sanders commented that since the start of the band, "we've always written albums thinking the music was the score of a movie. Then we'll create the lyrics or story line on top of that, as if we're writing the dialogue to match the movie's cinematography." In two weeks they created about an hour of instrumental music, with five full songs and "many smaller musical themes adapted throughout." The soundtrack was then handed over to composer John Powell
John Powell
John Powell is a British composer, best known for his scores to motion pictures. He has been based in the United States since 1997 and has composed the scores to over fifty feature films. He rose to fame in the late 1990s and 2000s, scoring numerous animated films, and collaborating with...
(Bourne series
Bourne (film series)
The Bourne films are a series of dramatic films based on the character Jason Bourne, a former CIA assassin suffering from extreme memory loss, created by author Robert Ludlum. All three of Ludlum's novels were adapted for the screen, featuring Matt Damon as the titular character in each...
, Jumper
Jumper (film)
Jumper is a 2008 American science fiction film, loosely based on the 1992 science fiction novel of the same name by Steven Gould. The film is directed by Doug Liman and stars Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, Jamie Bell, Rachel Bilson, Max Thieriot, AnnaSophia Robb, and Diane Lane...
, Hancock
Hancock (film)
Hancock is a 2008 American action-comedy superhero film directed by Peter Berg and starring Will Smith, Jason Bateman, and Charlize Theron. It tells the story of a vigilante superhero, John Hancock from Los Angeles whose reckless actions routinely cost the city millions of dollars...
) to add the music into the film.
After the soundtrack had been recorded, the Jonah Hex film endured lengthy reshoots and reediting sessions. Prior to signing onto Jonah Hex, Powell was already arranged to compose the soundtracks for Knight and Day and Fair Game
Fair Game (2010 film)
Fair Game is a 2010 biographical film drama directed by Doug Liman and starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. It is based on Valerie Plame's memoir, Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House which details the scandalous events that took place in mid 2003, implicating senior White...
. Due to his previously arranged agreements, and filming for Jonah Hex still incomplete, Powell had to leave the project and was subsequently replaced with composer Marco Beltrami
Marco Beltrami
Marco Beltrami is an American film composer.-Life and career:Beltrami was born in Long Island, New York of Italian and Greek descent...
(The Hurt Locker
The Hurt Locker
The Hurt Locker is a 2009 American war film about a three-man United States Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team during the Iraq War. The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow and the screenplay was written by Mark Boal, a freelance writer who was embedded as a journalist in 2004 with a US bomb...
, 3:10 to Yuma
3:10 to Yuma (2007 film)
3:10 to Yuma is the 2007 remake of the 1957 film of the same name, making it the second adaptation of Elmore Leonard's short story Three-Ten to Yuma. It is directed by James Mangold and produced by Cathy Konrad, and stars Academy Award winners Russell Crowe and Christian Bale in the lead roles. ...
, Scream series
Scream (film series)
Scream is a series of American horror slasher films created by Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven. The films star Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette. The series has grossed over $600 million in worldwide box-office receipts and consists, to date, of four motion pictures...
). The first soundtrack Mastodon recorded was written for scenes that were later scrapped during the reshoots, so Beltrami had the band write an entirely new score. The new soundtrack was taken in a "more restrained, subtle" musical direction—contrasting the original version which had been described as "pretty heavy" with "vigorous shredding."
While Mastodon had originally described the process of composing a soundtrack in October 2009 as "very pure, it was real creative and totally spur of the moment" and expected "nothing in return but satisfaction in being a part of something incredible," the band found it frustrating to have to rewrite a new score and start from scratch. According to guitarist Brent Hinds
Brent Hinds
Brent Hinds is an American guitarist/singer best known as a member of the Atlanta, Georgia metal band Mastodon, in which he shares guitar duties with Bill Kelliher and vocal duties with Troy Sanders and Brann Dailor....
, who was disappointed about having to start over, "It was some of the best shit I've ever written in my life. Now I'm just trying to finish with as much patience as possible." The band was also facing time constraints both from the approaching release date of the film and also being on a world tour at the time. In May 2010, Mastodon announced they had about an hour's worth of newly recorded material for the score.
Jonah Hex: Revenge Gets Ugly EP was digitally
Music download
A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
released as a six-song EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
on June 29, 2010 through Reprise Records
Reprise Records
Reprise Records is an American record label, founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operated through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:...
, two weeks after the Jonah Hex film's debut. The album features four new songs and two alternate versions.
Track listing
- "Death March" – 8:52
- "Clayton Boys" – 3:12
- "Indian Theme" – 4:10
- "Train Assault" – 4:13
- "Death March" (alternate version) – 9:07
- "Clayton Boys" (alternate version) – 3:12
Personnel
- Marco BeltramiMarco BeltramiMarco Beltrami is an American film composer.-Life and career:Beltrami was born in Long Island, New York of Italian and Greek descent...
– composerComposerA composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media... - Brann DailorBrann DailorBrann Dailor is a drummer, best known as a member of Mastodon, a progressive metal band based in Atlanta, Georgia. Dailor was also a founding member of mathcore band Lethargy, and played with grindcore bands Discordance Axis and Today is the Day.-Personal life:Dailor was born into a musical family...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person .... - Brent HindsBrent HindsBrent Hinds is an American guitarist/singer best known as a member of the Atlanta, Georgia metal band Mastodon, in which he shares guitar duties with Bill Kelliher and vocal duties with Troy Sanders and Brann Dailor....
– guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker... - Bill KelliherBill KelliherBill Kelliher is a guitarist in the Atlanta heavy metal band Mastodon. He is a native of Victor, New York. He shares guitar duties with Brent Hinds, playing mainly complex rhythm parts. Kelliher is married, with two young sons—the eldest one named Harrison, after Harrison Ford of Star Wars fame...
– guitar - Troy SandersTroy SandersTroy Sanders is an American bassist/singer best known as a member of the Atlanta, Georgia metal band Mastodon, in which he shares vocal duties with guitarist Brent Hinds and drummer Brann Dailor.-Background:...
– bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
External links
- Jonah Hex: Revenge Gets Ugly EP stream at Myspace Music
- EP review on Lebmetal.com