SPIN.com has another great feature on the coverage from last night’s Hot Topic New Moon Mall Tour in Los Angeles.  From the performances by Anya Marina, Death Cab for Cutie, Band of Skulls, and Sea Wolf to the appearances by the New Moon Cast, it sounded like an unforgettable night.

The scene was electric outside of Los Angeles’ Hollywood & Highland open-air mall on Friday evening. A huge line snaked out into the streets, and much of the crowd looked strikingly similar: gaggles of teenage girls (plus guys, moms, dads, and little ones) in black T-shirts emblazoned with five key words: The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

Awaiting them inside? Autographs and a Q&A with the film’s supporting cast, plus courtyard performances from four bands who contributed to New Moon’s excellent soundtrack: Band Of Skulls, Sea Wolf, Anya Marina and, to close it out, Death Cab For Cutie.

In other words, this was the Hot Topic-sponsored New Moon mall tour.  

I wish I was there!  All the great performances, plus the New Moon eye candy all together!!!  Check out the rest of the feature with the music set list and some more pictures here!

[Source: SPIN.com  Thanks Julie at SPIN!]

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The New Moon musical score track listing has been unveiled, reported by Books on Film Examiner

The movie starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner and is based on the second novel of  Stephenie Meyer’s popular vampire series. The music is by Alexandre Desplat. New Moon debuts in theaters on November 20, and the score will be available on CD on November 24. You can pre-order it now!

Tracks include:

1. “New Moon”
2. “Bella Dreams”
3. “Romeo & Juliet”
4. “Volturi Waltz”
5. “Blood Sample”
6. “Edward Leaves”
7. “Werewolves”
8. “I Need You”
9. “Break Up”
10. “Memories of Edward”
11. “Wolves v. Vampire”
12. “Victoria”
13. “Almost a Kiss”
14. “Adrenaline”
15. “Dreamcatcher”
16. “To Volterra”
17. “You are Alive”
18. “The Volturi”
19. “The Cullens”
20. “Marry Me, Bella”
21. “Full Moon”

[Thanks, Melanie, Sophie, and Aleksandra!]

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SPIN.com has a great interview with the New Moon soundtrack music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas.  Patsavas previous work includes Gossip Girl, Grey’s Anatomy, Mad Men, and Twilight.  The New Moon soundtrack is currently No. 1 album in the country! 

How you go about something like New Moon, which features original songs from so many artists who don’t often appear in projects this high-profile?
The work starts as soon as the script is finished and distributed. Chris Weitz, the director, had a very specific point of view about how he wanted the music to feel. There’s a lot of separation and longing and loss in the movie; the bands and lyrics and sound and arrangements had to reflect that. Some folks, like Lykke Li, the Killers, Grizzly Bear, OK Go, and Anya Marina all came into the cutting room and sat with Chris to watch the movie and talk about their contributions. Other tracks were submitted with the movie in mind. I think it’s very difficult to succeed without any context.

A lot of people were surprised by Thom Yorke’s inclusion. How did that come about?
A Radiohead song ["15 Step"] played over the end titles of Twilight, so we had a relationship. I believe this is the first soundtrack he’s been on in a long time, so that’s exciting. A lot of bands were interested in submitting great material, which helps a lot.

It does seem like music that the characters would actually listen to, which is certainly not always the case in soundtrack tie-ins.
I think the music has to be inspired by the characters’ lives, but it’s not always just used as source material—it’s used to score as well. Chris used the Bon Iver/St. Vincent track ["Rosyln"] and Thom Yorke track ["Hearing Damage"] in spots that would have traditionally been scored. I grew up in Chicago in the ‘70s and ‘80s, so those John Hughes movies were important to me. He created a world but also cleverly introduced mainstream kids to non-mainstream kids.

Check out the rest of the interview with Alexsandra Patsavas here!

[Source: SPIN.com Thank you Julie at SPIN!]

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This is the official music video for Anya Marina’s ‘Satellite Heart’ off the New Moon Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. The music video includes clips from New Moon.

Looks great and love the song!  Perfect song for Bella and Edward’s break up.  No Jacob in the video though.  They could have shown a glimpse of his 8 pack, right?  LOL!

[Source: MySpace . Thanks,Tia and Breesmom!]

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We previously reported that Moon from Letters2Twilight served as our amazingly awesome guest reporter  to bring you this incredible information from the conference.

Moon was able to sit in on the Anatomy of a Soundtrack: Twilight, New Moon panel. Here is her report -

Anatomy of a Soundtrack: Twilight, New Moon

• Making the Twilight soundtracks were easier because Stephenie is an author that already had a clear vision and sound for her books from what she provided and talked about on her website. Music is a centerpiece to her stories. They wanted the soundtrack to be a musical manifestation of the movie and Stephenie’s story

• Chris had a clear point of view about the music he wanted in New Moon: somber
  (and appropriate for denim cut-offs and sleep number beds)

• Chop Shop/Alexandra began working on New Moon last December and were approached by countless bands and managers who wanted to be on the soundtrack. They picked artists who wanted to be part of the team , provide solely exclusive material and weren’t afraid to talk about the movie. It was all about cohesion and the artists they ended up choosing, in their minds, could all play a festival bill together.

(a festival of wrist slashing music! my favorite! bandaids not included)

• New Moon is the first movie Alex has worked on that was a sequel

• They had what Alex called an “embarrassment of riches” when it came to options and artists to choose from for the NM Soundtrack. So many more than they could include. Almost 20 cd’s worth of material

• Chris invited 6-7 potentials artists into the cutting room to show them cuts of the movie, spend time with the artists talking about tone and feeling from the scenes and what he was looking for musically. He took the time because he wanted the right songs. That is why everything fits so well according to Alexandra, the Atlantic VP and Paul Katz (Summit)

Check out the rest of her awesome account of the event after the break! Including Alexandra  Patsavas (Chop Shop Music) stating that they are going to ask Robert Pattinson to contribute to the Third and Fourth movie soundtrack!

[click to continue…]

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Yesterday in Los Angeles, the Billboard Film and TV Music Conference featured a huge presence of New Moon heavy hitters in relation to the score and soundtrack of the movie.

Moon from Letters to Twilight graciously served as our guest reporter to bring you this amazing information from the conference–including a very brief exclusive interview with New Moon director Chris Weitz himself!

The conference featured two Twilight New Moon themed panels. One discussing the soundtrack success featuring New Moon soundtrack music supervisor Alex Patsavas, a VP from Atlantic Records and Paul Katz, music consultant and uppity up at Summit Entertainment.

The other New Moon themed panel was “A Conversation with a Director and Composer” featuring Chris Weitz and Alexandre Desplat who discussed New Moon and its score and music for a hour. Now, this was some hardcore discussion regarding the composition of the score, influences how they began the process, etc. It was NOT a panel where they discussed Robsten or anything about the actors other than what pertained to the topic of the New Moon score.

I’ll be writing a more in depth post in the next few days reviewing both panels in more depth but for today I’ll give you a quick overview of some juicy tidbits from Chris’s panel and what WE, yes WE I met the man himself talked about after the panel. Hang on kiddies, we’ll get there but first some of what Chris and Alexandre discussed:

• There were themes (musical) created for for each character. IE one for Bella, one for Bella and Edward, one for Jacob
• To reflect the confusion in Bella’s mind after Edward leaves, at times the “Edward” and “Jacob” themes are “blurred” together to help created “subliminal confusion” in her mind
• Jacob’s “theme” features electric guitar. Alexandre used a guitar that sounded very similar to an Indian sitar and Chris jokingly reminded him that Jacob is Native (Indian) American not Indian from India
• The score will not featuring any of Carter Burwell’s score. (I’ll expound more on this decision in a later post)
• And the most important info: Chris wore a lot of olive and tan. He was in full on DILF mode with cargo pants, striped socks (i love a good sock!), some sort of olive sweater and a leather man purse. Work it Chris, WORK IT!

Also, Moon had the chance to meet Chris Weitz face-to-face for a few brief moments, where she reveals:

After I explained who I was I thanked him for being part of the panel and proceeded to tell him that we as a fandom wanted to thank him for doing such an outstanding job with New Moon and that from the looks of things on November 2oth we were going to love the final film. Then I asked what he was most excited for fans to see in the movie. He answered that he wanted us to hear the rest of the score (yea, yea panel’s over pal, give us the real answers!) since we hadn’t gotten to hear much and I said that we heard “The Meadow” and that I thought Alexandre’s song “The Meadow” was beautiful and that some of the fans had expressed that they thought “Bella’s Lullaby” should have been more like “The Meadow” that the song was that great. His eyes lit up and pretty much said “really!? I’ve heard some good things from the fans” and I asked him if he went online and read what the fans were saying or if he watched any reaction videos and he said that he did and that everything he’d heard was positive and that he was really excited about our reactions and then went on to say most of all he really couldn’t wait for us to see the ENTIRE movie and not just clips and leaks. I jumped in and asked him what he thought about all the leaks and spoiler clips that people were seeing online and on TV shows and if he liked them. Chris told me that “Ya know what, I really believe less is more” and that he wished there weren’t so many clips out for people to see until the big day. I told him I felt the same way and couldn’t wait to enjoy the full film.

For Moon’s full report, be sure to visit Letters to Twilight for the rest of today’s report, and stay tuned as we both bring you more detailed info in the days to come!

Also, be sure to read Billboard’s own cover story on the New Moon phenomenom!

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Tomorow, October 29th in LA there will be an exciting conference featuring panel discussions with several New Moon luminaries from both the soundtrack and score sides of the musical equation of the film.

The soundtrack session will feature Alexandra Patasavas, who was the music supervisor for the incredible New Moon soundtrack we’ve all been enjoying, Also in attendance will be Paul Katz, music consultant for Summit and Livia Tortella from Atlantic Records. They will be talking about the anatomy of the incredible New Moon soundtrack and how it came to fruitition.

Also at the event will be a panel with director Chris Weitz and New Moon composer Alexandre Desplat to talk about the score of New Moon!

If you’d like to attend, space is very limited but a special rate of $199 just for New Moon fans is available by using the code MOON when registering. Act now!

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The New Moon soundtrack is now available! I just purchased the mp3 version from Amazon (for just $4.99!), and it’s a stellar collection of tracks.

iTunes also has it available for $14.99 with bonus material.

So, the big question is: what do you think of the soundtrack?

In the words of OK Go, who contribute a track:

“It’s a really amazing set of bands. It’s a huge deal,” Damien said. “We grew up listening to the ‘Pretty in Pink’ soundtrack, and I sort of feel like this ‘New Moon’ soundtrack is like ‘Pretty in Pink’ for the new generation….”

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If you haven’t noticed, Hot Topic is chock full of new New Moon merchandise, including these awesome Jacob and Edward posters, as well as a makeup case and various shirts including one for Jane.

You can check out all the new schwag over at Hot Topic.

In addition, tomorrow at 7pm all the Hot Topic stores will have listening parties for the soundtrack, and the first fans to buy the soundtrack will receive a “special gift” which is limited in quantity. Hmm…..”special gift”…Edward…Jacob…I need to get my mind out of the gutter.

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