Film Critic and writer, Lex Briscuso joins Nicole and Ryan to talk about the 2006 Sophia Coppola film, Marie Antoinette and it's iconic soundtrack. The soundtrack pulls from the 80s, 90s, and aughts with tracks from Gang of Four, Siouxie and the Banshees, The Strokes, Aphex Twin and more! Coppola put the soundtrack together with soundtrack supervisor, Brian Reitzell, who had worked with Coppola on her previous films, Lost in Translation and The Virgin Suicides. We previously talked about Reitzell in our Stranger than Fiction episode.

We talk about how important of a role the soundtrack plays in the film and we share some of our favorite needle drops. We also talk about how Aphex Twin's song, Avril 14th, found a weird 2nd life after appearing in the film.

For More Information about Lex Briscuso:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/nikonamerica

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/nikonamerica

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Composer and pipa virtuoso, Ms. Min Xiao-Fen is our guest this week to talk about her recently released album Metta, which features the scores of 2 Chinese silent films, The Romance of the Fruits Peddler and Romance of the Western Chamber. These scores were commissioned by the Smithsonian Institute in 2023.

We also discuss:

• Growing up in a musical family
• Going from a classical background to collaborating with jazz greats like John Zorn, Derek Bailey and Wadada Leo Smith
• Collaborating with Bjork on "I See Who You Are" from the album Volta
• Learning to improvise and learning the Chinese connection to jazz

For More Information about Min Xiao-Fen:

Website: http://minbluepipa.com/news

IG: https://www.instagram.com/minxiaofen

FB: https://www.facebook.com/min.xiaofen/

An NPR interview with Ms. Min from 2021:

https://www.npr.org/2021/07/03/1012832047/the-traditional-chinese-pipa-meets-guitar-in-min-xiao-fens-white-lotus

If you'd like to support Soundtrack Your Life, we have a Patreon, where you'll get bonus episodes and more!

Writer, Stephen Lee Naish joins Nicole and Ryan to talk about 4 soundtracks from films that Dennis Hopper directed: Easy Rider, The Last Movie, Out of the Blue, and Colors. Stephen just recently released a book on Dennis Hopper and these soundtracks called Music and Sound in the films of Dennis Hopper, which can be found here:

https://www.routledge.com/Music-and-Sound-in-the-Films-of-Dennis-Hopper/Naish/p/book/9781032737690

We talk to Stephen about how Hopper was one of the first directors to use songtracks, aka using previously released music to soundtrack a film. While best known for the iconic soundtrack to Easy Rider, Hopper continued to use music in interesting ways in all of his films. Stephen created a Hopper soundtrack mixtape that you can access here:

https://www.dmovies.org/2024/02/26/the-dennis-hopper-songs-that-will-get-you-moving/

For More Information about Steph Lee Naish:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiffsandMeaning

If you'd like to support Soundtrack Your Life, we have a Patreon, where you'll get bonus episodes and more!