Film Music by Jad Fair

Along with his sprawling recent collection 100 Songs, indie/punk legend Jad Fair unleashes yet another 150 songs, this time all brief instruments (recorded in 2021, 2023), with the express purpose of each becoming potential celluloid scores, like Brian Eno’s Music For Films. Though there seems to be 75 tracks here, they’re actually each paired up to accommodate CD players' 100 song limit. And though the titles include bands he loves (“Kinks,” “Stooges,” “Beatles”), he mischievously made the songs sound nothing like the groups themselves.

Once again showing his expertise with composing in GarageBand, Fair crafts a dizzying variety of styles and moods that let your mind imagine what scenes they could accompany. You could see the wide ranging snippets conjuring up scenarios like an alien invasion via doomy synths (“Fish”), a desert scene happening with twangy guitars (“Black”), danger approaching tied in with eerie percussion (“Cat”), ghostly moans of a haunted house (“Elephant”), screechy voices of a crazed man (“Afternoon”), a deadly confrontation accompanied by thunderous drums (“Gain”), lovers romping to a playful piano (“Cinnamon Toast”), a formal dinner backed by music box tinkling (“Island”), a circus scene with polka accordion (“Popcorn”), dizziness imagined with a drunken trombone (“Shaggs”), a morning scene invoked by peaceful chimes (“February”), slide whistles used for silly antics (“Saturday”) and frightening strings for a horror movie title scene (“Roll”). Of course, each song could suggest hundreds of other scenes, leaving you, the listener, to decide what they may be.

Founding member of Half Japanese.
Jad has released over 180 albums and recorded with Daniel Johnston, Yo La Tengo, Teenage Fanclub, Kramer, Moe Tucker, R. Stevie Moore, Mosquito, Strobe Talbot, Samuel Locke Ward, Norman Blake, Tenniscoats, The Pastels, God Is My Co-Pilot, Jason Willett, Naofumi Ishimaru, The Tinklers, Danielson, Lovely Eggs, Boister, Brave Combo, Dim Stars, David Fair,
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